Wednesday 22 – Friday 24 August
Still with a long distance in front of us to reach Copenhagen, it was decided to make the most of the tail end of a strong wind that blew through during the day, and lines were slipped at 2200 on Wednesday evening, by which time it had already been dark for an hour. Having familiarised himself thoroughly with the challenging navigation of the channel immediately South of Kalmar, Skipper took the helm to motor into a headwind for the first hour, giving Mate a chance to acclimatise to the short, choppy sea.
The wind remained light overnight, and it was very dark after the moon and Venus both set around 0200 on Thursday morning. Mate took the first watch and made a couple of sail changes and tacks, as the sky began to lighten around 0330. Skipper took over the watch at 0600, resetting the staysail and noting “slow progress”. Thursday became pleasant and sunny, but at noon we’d sailed 51M, but were still only 26M from Kalmar. The wind backed towards the East, but remained stubbornly light.
During the evening there were several large windshifts, but Mate enjoyed a soft sunset and the moon rising at 2030. Skipper decided to run the engine to charge the batteries when he commenced his evening watch, but the wind dropped almost to nothing and the engine became our primary motivation. At 0300 the decision was made to change course for Simrishamn and rest until the wind filled in again. By 0630 we were tied up alongside, and caught up on some much-needed sleep.