In this publication10 photos
Back from my RYA course, I was full of energy. To use some up, I decided to take the yacht from Lübeck to Kiel.
First, finding a berth. I wrote:
Then emailed it to marinas:
• laboe.de — no reply
• gwh.sh — no reply
• schiffswerftlaboe.de — asked me to wait, then said the next day that nothing was available
• sporthafen-kiel.de — asked which of nine marinas I wanted, then ignored ‘any of them’
• wvm-online.de — replied that they’d reserved four weeks for €200
On 26 July 2024, I arrived in Lübeck, prepared the yacht and set off at ten that night. A fair distance. Losing one knot would add three or four hours. I realised how much even a quarter-knot mattered. I tried to get the sail configuration perfect, eyes fixed on the log. When wind was lacking, the engine helped.
Then fatigue. I switched to interval sleep: an alarm every twenty minutes. Wake, check other vessels, fishing nets, depth, course, wind and sails; reset for another twenty minutes. Cold despite three layers, I sat wrapped in a sleeping bag. That was most of the night.
At five, I approached Fehmarn. The hardest section: darkness, narrow fairway, unlit buoys and… current! About 1–1.5 knots against us. Unexpected in the Baltic. I helmed by hand until 7.30, when the island was astern.
Kiel greeted me with busy traffic. After two, I berthed in an extraordinarily beautiful marina. Eighty-five miles in sixteen hours. Track here.
#passage
First, finding a berth. I wrote:
Dear sir or madam,
I'm going to arrive in Kiel on the weekend and would like to have a berth place for the next 2–4 weeks. My sailing boat is 8.8 m length, 2.7 m width, 1.6 m draught, 12 m mast. Would it be possible to book a place for the period from 27th of July to 9th of August or 23rd of August?
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Andrei Iatsuk
Then emailed it to marinas:
• laboe.de — no reply
• gwh.sh — no reply
• schiffswerftlaboe.de — asked me to wait, then said the next day that nothing was available
• sporthafen-kiel.de — asked which of nine marinas I wanted, then ignored ‘any of them’
• wvm-online.de — replied that they’d reserved four weeks for €200
On 26 July 2024, I arrived in Lübeck, prepared the yacht and set off at ten that night. A fair distance. Losing one knot would add three or four hours. I realised how much even a quarter-knot mattered. I tried to get the sail configuration perfect, eyes fixed on the log. When wind was lacking, the engine helped.
Then fatigue. I switched to interval sleep: an alarm every twenty minutes. Wake, check other vessels, fishing nets, depth, course, wind and sails; reset for another twenty minutes. Cold despite three layers, I sat wrapped in a sleeping bag. That was most of the night.
At five, I approached Fehmarn. The hardest section: darkness, narrow fairway, unlit buoys and… current! About 1–1.5 knots against us. Unexpected in the Baltic. I helmed by hand until 7.30, when the island was astern.
Kiel greeted me with busy traffic. After two, I berthed in an extraordinarily beautiful marina. Eighty-five miles in sixteen hours. Track here.
#passage
Original and discussionOpen post in Telegram ↗
