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At noon on 10 July we were finally turfed out of Göteborg. After a week of remote work we'd barely gone anywhere, and at last we had a weekend ahead of us. I wanted some proper sailing rather than moving the boat another 15 miles.
I spent a long time studying the chart and forecast, and even wrote to friends who'd sailed along Sweden's south-west coast. In the end I decided to go straight to Helsingør.
115 nautical miles.
The weather allowed it, the town was conveniently on our onward route to Copenhagen, and above all I simply wanted to spend another full day at sea.
We divided the passage into four-hour watches and set off.
Almost immediately, Nastya discovered that we had only four litres of drinking water left, and was quite rightly annoyed. I declared that it would be more than enough for a day. In truth, I just didn't want an intermediate stop. In the end we did use only one of the two bottles.
The green flash
That evening I watched the setting sun particularly closely.
There's an atmospheric phenomenon called the green flash. In the final seconds of sunset, the upper edge of the sun can briefly turn bright green. More rarely, you can even see a short green ray above the horizon. It needs a clear, distant horizon and the right atmospheric conditions.
Grisha said he'd seen it twice already. I never had.
So whenever an overnight passage coincides with a clear sunset, I spend those last few minutes practically hypnotising the sun. This time it once again slipped quietly below the horizon without showing me anything.
The morning watch
In the morning I came up for my watch, clipped on and sat in the cockpit for a while.
Small clouds covered the sky, lit by the rising sun. The sea had almost flattened out and reflected it all so well that at times the boundary between water and sky disappeared.
There was no urge to hurry. The boat was sailing, the previous watch was asleep, and we still had a few hours to go.
It was for hours like these that I'd wanted to sail a little further.
A day after setting off, we arrived in Helsingør.
Helsingør
The marina was large and convenient. Red and green signs on the berths made it immediately clear where visitors could go, and also gave each berth's width. The mooring arrangement was familiar: bow to the pontoon, stern between piles.
Helsingør itself was an excellent place for a couple of days off. A beach, the Øresund Aquarium with its touch pools, the maritime museum and the enormous Kronborg Castle were all a few minutes' walk away. The aquarium, incidentally, belongs to the University of Copenhagen and focuses on local marine life.
Kronborg stands at the narrowest part of the sound and once made it possible to control shipping through the Øresund. Later it became a royal castle and, thanks to Shakespeare, the Elsinore of Hamlet.
An enormous Holger Danske sits in its casemates. According to legend, he sleeps until Denmark is in real danger. Then he'll wake and defend the country.
About ten kilometres to the south is Louisiana, one of the best modern art museums in these parts. The easiest way there from Helsingør is by train to Humlebæk.
After a day at sea, I didn't feel like moving anywhere.
We'll rest here for a couple of days, then head for Copenhagen.
#passage
I spent a long time studying the chart and forecast, and even wrote to friends who'd sailed along Sweden's south-west coast. In the end I decided to go straight to Helsingør.
115 nautical miles.
The weather allowed it, the town was conveniently on our onward route to Copenhagen, and above all I simply wanted to spend another full day at sea.
We divided the passage into four-hour watches and set off.
Almost immediately, Nastya discovered that we had only four litres of drinking water left, and was quite rightly annoyed. I declared that it would be more than enough for a day. In truth, I just didn't want an intermediate stop. In the end we did use only one of the two bottles.
The green flash
That evening I watched the setting sun particularly closely.
There's an atmospheric phenomenon called the green flash. In the final seconds of sunset, the upper edge of the sun can briefly turn bright green. More rarely, you can even see a short green ray above the horizon. It needs a clear, distant horizon and the right atmospheric conditions.
Grisha said he'd seen it twice already. I never had.
So whenever an overnight passage coincides with a clear sunset, I spend those last few minutes practically hypnotising the sun. This time it once again slipped quietly below the horizon without showing me anything.
The morning watch
In the morning I came up for my watch, clipped on and sat in the cockpit for a while.
Small clouds covered the sky, lit by the rising sun. The sea had almost flattened out and reflected it all so well that at times the boundary between water and sky disappeared.
There was no urge to hurry. The boat was sailing, the previous watch was asleep, and we still had a few hours to go.
It was for hours like these that I'd wanted to sail a little further.
A day after setting off, we arrived in Helsingør.
Helsingør
The marina was large and convenient. Red and green signs on the berths made it immediately clear where visitors could go, and also gave each berth's width. The mooring arrangement was familiar: bow to the pontoon, stern between piles.
Helsingør itself was an excellent place for a couple of days off. A beach, the Øresund Aquarium with its touch pools, the maritime museum and the enormous Kronborg Castle were all a few minutes' walk away. The aquarium, incidentally, belongs to the University of Copenhagen and focuses on local marine life.
Kronborg stands at the narrowest part of the sound and once made it possible to control shipping through the Øresund. Later it became a royal castle and, thanks to Shakespeare, the Elsinore of Hamlet.
An enormous Holger Danske sits in its casemates. According to legend, he sleeps until Denmark is in real danger. Then he'll wake and defend the country.
About ten kilometres to the south is Louisiana, one of the best modern art museums in these parts. The easiest way there from Helsingør is by train to Humlebæk.
After a day at sea, I didn't feel like moving anywhere.
We'll rest here for a couple of days, then head for Copenhagen.
#passage
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