After writing the last blog we stayed a further day in Marstal before setting off for Rudkobing on the island of Langeland - a distance of about 10 miles. We spent that day getting better acquainted with Marstal itself; including the museum and the beach.
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| Probably the poshest beach hut in the world - with its own gnome (where's the fishing rod?) |
Huts aside, the beach wasn't anything special but the maritime museum was remarkable. Housed inside a couple of 'ordinary' old town buildings was a warren that contained a vast amount of information, memorabilia and artifacts. There were a huge number of incredibly detailed model ships that had been painstakingly created by hand - far too many to be given the attention they deserved. Perhaps most remarkable of all though were the interiors of boats that had been recreated inside the old town buildings - see pictures below:
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| The bridge... |
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| ... and down a ships corridor and some stairs was a cabin..... |
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| ..... and lounge area. |
And so to Rudkobing.
Rudkobing's claim to fame is a bloke called Orsted who, amongst other things, gets the credit for the discovery of electromagnetism. That's him in the picture below.
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| Hans Christian Orsted |
Before we could explore the town though, we had to negotiate our first 'Harbourmoney' machine. We knew we had to do this because a very stern message on the electricity supply board informed us that we must pay up immediately - and before connecting up to electricity - or face being charged double!
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| The Harbourmoney automat. Fortunately instructions were available in English |
Having discharged our duty we went for a walk about town. The pictures below give a good idea of what it was like. More of the same really; pretty, in good repair, litter free and with an immaculate church!
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| A Rudkobing street... |
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| ... town centre..... |
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| .... and windmill |
Langeland is connected to the island of Tasinge by a bridge and Tasinge, in turn, is connected to the island of Fyn by another. To avoid cutting off the harbours, some of these bridges are build pretty high. The one from Langelande to Fyn has a clearance of 26m over the water - so no problem for us getting under there then!
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| Langeland bridge, taken from the marina |
Being so high, they also provide spectacular views over the area. It's hard to give an appreciation of the beauty of a place when taking pictures from a moving boat, but I think the one below - taken from the bridge - illustrates it well.
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| Tasinge with Fyn in the distance |
The 21st May saw us making a bit of effort to cover some ground and we set off for Kerteminde, some 40 miles away.
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| Explorer pose! |
That meant either taking a short cut under part of a bridge linking Fyn with Sjaelland that is 18m high or opting to take the longer route (that the ships take) under a section that is 65m high.
Now the original brochure for Cyclone says that the top of her mast is 13.9m above the waterline. We have a VHF aerial, windex and anemometer mounted on the mast, so that adds maybe another 0.5m. So we should have at least 3m clearance under the bridge. No problem then.
But what if it was a misprint in the brochure? And what if the water level is higher than normal? Strong southerly winds can do that and we'd had some of them.
So I measured a photograph of Cyclone (yes, really!) - length and then mast height. I knew the length, so could work out the mast height. It came out at 13.7m, so pretty close to the brochure really. And I googled it, but could only find the brochure quoted as a source.
Oh it'll be alright!
And then the bridge approaches. We furled the headsail to get a better view but were still making 6 knots towards it under main alone... It went very quiet. Very, very quiet......
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| What do you reckon |
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| Will it? |
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| Too late to change our minds now! |
And so to Kerteminde.
Kerteminde, like those on Aero and Langeland, is another pretty town. That's the free museum in the picture below, but there are plenty more attractive buildings in the town,
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| Kerteminde museum |
What makes the place special though is the Viking museum at nearby Ladby. This is based around a Viking ship grave where, in the early 900s, a king was sent off on his last journey in a "Death Ship".
He was buried in his ship, which is 21.5m long and 3m wide, with all his fine possessions, 11 horses and 3 or 4 dogs. Whilst all the wood has gone the bones can still be seen, along with the rivets, shroud rings, anchor and chain. Having been carefully excavated, it's all preserved in a concrete bunker in its original location.
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| Entrance to Viking Ship Grave |
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| The ship |
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| Some of the bones |
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| The original anchor and chain |
They are building a replica of the ship, using original methods where possible, which is due to be launched next year. It might then be sailed to England for a little rape and pillaging - according to the guy selling the tickets in any case!
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| An authentic replica under construction |
Cycling the 5km back to Kerteminde we came across the Jampot rally - so called, I'm told, because of the look of the rear shock absorbers fitted to certain Matchless and AJS motorbikes. I didn't know there were so many still around - many of which had made the long trip from England.
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| Jampot rallyists |
If you look carefully under the bikes you'll see a little square of cardboard that was issued to each attendee to keep the oil from staining the cobbles!
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| Not the world's fastest Indian, but was it the model that Munro's bike was based on? |
So why is this entry caption the perfect sail? Because it very nearly was! Pleasant winds, sunshine, beautiful scenery, the mast didn't get knocked down(!) and the ride was Rolls Royce smooth in the flat water. To cap it all, we were joined by 2 porpoises on one occasion and a single one a little later on.
If we could just get those damned box moorings right!
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