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The way to Bornholm. Part 8. Heiligenhafen — Kiel
Planning
29 April 2024. Thick morning fog, visibility about five hundred metres. Fresh roll and coffee from Junge bakery, then the forecast.
Windy showed up to eleven knots before noon, then five. The fog stayed. I might wait all day, so decided to leave.
Navigating in fog
Out at nine. Anxious: visibility left little time to manoeuvre if something appeared. However long I travelled, the view never changed. AIS alone was my eyes.
I’d planned to motor, but seventeen knots and waves met me outside. Sails up instead. A couple of hours later, clear of the island. Ahead lay the Todendorf military exercise area between Fehmarn and Kiel Bay. A patrol vessel on AIS. Exercises underway.
Wind ahead, so tacking west, north, west again. Approaching the exercise boundary, the radio said: "Rassvet .... sechs". I tensed. Not sure it was me, but sat by the radio. Minutes later, the voice repeated: ‘Rassvet, Rassvet, [German phrase], null null sechs’, and my heart accelerated. I understood: steer zero-zero-six degrees, north away from the area. Turned immediately.
Returning
Fog still over the water. Yacht silhouettes appeared in the milky haze, without AIS. I can’t understand going out like this without something to make yourself visible.
After one, fog began lifting and wind died. Sails furled, engine on. Slowly, clear sky and bright sunshine.
Around five, Laboe’s naval memorial appeared on the horizon. A warm, almost home-like feeling. These two weeks felt an eternity: events, emotions, decisions, solitude, beauty. Now familiar land. I was back.
By seven, berthed in my new Dietrichsdorf spot. Packed and went home. A wonderful voyage I’ll remember all my life.
Covered forty-seven miles in nine and a half hours.
#passage
Planning
29 April 2024. Thick morning fog, visibility about five hundred metres. Fresh roll and coffee from Junge bakery, then the forecast.
Shipping Forecast
, 29.04.2025, 10.51 UTC
No warnings
Western Baltic: westerly winds 3 to 4, western part for a time light and variable winds, at times misty with fog patches, sea 0,5 meter.
Windy showed up to eleven knots before noon, then five. The fog stayed. I might wait all day, so decided to leave.
Navigating in fog
Out at nine. Anxious: visibility left little time to manoeuvre if something appeared. However long I travelled, the view never changed. AIS alone was my eyes.
I’d planned to motor, but seventeen knots and waves met me outside. Sails up instead. A couple of hours later, clear of the island. Ahead lay the Todendorf military exercise area between Fehmarn and Kiel Bay. A patrol vessel on AIS. Exercises underway.
Wind ahead, so tacking west, north, west again. Approaching the exercise boundary, the radio said: "Rassvet .... sechs". I tensed. Not sure it was me, but sat by the radio. Minutes later, the voice repeated: ‘Rassvet, Rassvet, [German phrase], null null sechs’, and my heart accelerated. I understood: steer zero-zero-six degrees, north away from the area. Turned immediately.
Returning
Fog still over the water. Yacht silhouettes appeared in the milky haze, without AIS. I can’t understand going out like this without something to make yourself visible.
After one, fog began lifting and wind died. Sails furled, engine on. Slowly, clear sky and bright sunshine.
Around five, Laboe’s naval memorial appeared on the horizon. A warm, almost home-like feeling. These two weeks felt an eternity: events, emotions, decisions, solitude, beauty. Now familiar land. I was back.
By seven, berthed in my new Dietrichsdorf spot. Packed and went home. A wonderful voyage I’ll remember all my life.
Covered forty-seven miles in nine and a half hours.
#passage
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