Thursday 19 April
A beautiful dawn at 0530, followed by early morning mist that soon burned off to leave another glassy calm sea. Off we motored once again, until the wind filled in enough for a lovely run under my beautiful red gennaker, straight through a German warship’s manoeuvres area, slowly drawing ever closer to the huge tower block at the head of Traveműnde harbour. The pilot says it’s easy to spot the entrance, because the tower can be seen from miles out to sea, and in the event of poor visibility, follow one of the many ferries or freight vessels. Our experience was that most of the big ships’ movements occur through the night…
With welcome help from a very patient neighbouring German sailor, we found a comfortable berth in a large enough box in the Fischereihaven, which proved a pleasant and interesting compromise between an anchorage and a characterless, expensive marina. Another lady harbourmaster welcomed us with all the necessary information, before we found the German equivalent of a Friday fish’n’chips supper on the warm, sunny quayside. Our last errand of the day was a brief and unfulfilling visit to the very local REWE supermarket.