Freshening Fall Winds
We had a turbulent time in the US bouncing between three different states and marked by rapid shifts in our circumstances; from unexpected grief and sorrow to planned celebration and joy. After 7+ weeks we have now returned to Meraki just outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lugging our duffel bags aboard and opening her up again is comforting. Peculiarly, my floating home offers a sense of groundedness. A place of tranquility and a nurturing refuge.
We took a couple of days to unpack, start up the systems, reprovision with food and supplies and attempted to clear off the spider invasion that had seized our home in our absence. (In case your’e wondering - spider poop requires a LOT of elbow grease to remove). We had a quick visit with our Danish children who joined us for an evening aboard, as well as a lovely dinner at the home of our local friends who took such good care of Meraki while we were away.
The weather forecast for the coming week predicted high winds and rough seas, though there was one day of calm, flat water expected. We decided to capitalize on this so we set sail at daybreak, heading south after just four days of transition time.
The Baltic is a relatively shallow body of water. An arm of the Atlantic Ocean, connecting with the North Sea, it has an average depth of only 180 ft (55 meters) whereas the average ocean depth on earth is over 67 times that deep (12,080 feet or 3,682 meters). The shallow depth of this semi-enclosed sea contributes to generally calmer conditions compared to open oceans, though sudden strong thunderstorms can create rough seas in the shallow water where waves tend to break more often making them unpredictable. Baltic waters, interestingly, contain only about one-fourth as much salt as the average in the oceans. The low salinity leads to the northern parts of the Baltic Sea freezing readily.
In the southern Baltic around Denmark, the coastline is fringed primarily by sedimentary material leftover from glaciers. The seafloor is mainly sand and provides good holding for anchoring but given the expected stormy conditions in the days to come, we headed directly into a marina.
We found ourselves in the newly constructed (opened October 2024) island harbor in Prerow, Germany. This island harbor is at the end of the 720-meter-long seabridge (~2400 ft) in the Western Pomerania Lagoon National Park. It provides space for boats belonging to the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS), local commercial fishermen, a passenger ship jetty, and has 33 berths for pleasure boats. We had made a reservation while underway that morning and the harbor master met us on the pier when we arrived. We were permitted to layover an extra day (the marina has a 24-hour maximum stay) while we waited for the wind to die down, which allowed us time to explore the village, beach and National Park.
The German Baltic coast is relatively unknown in tourist circles. In Prerow the beautiful, long sandy beach is protected by rolling sand dunes and is sprinkled with ‘strandkorb’ or beach chairs. The beach is divided for various activities; the dog beach, an area for water sports, a nudist section and of course the regular beach. The area offers access to serene wooded trails for hiking and biking, and excellent bird watching. In the little seaside resort town we meandered past cafes and restaurants, did a little window shopping and stopped in the grocery store to check for any German specialties.
Due west of the park across a broad bay is the Fehmarn Belt, an 18 km wide (11 miles) strait between Denmark and Germany. Currently under construction beneath the strait is an underground tunnel designed to create a fixed road and rail connection between Scandinavia and mainland Europe. Known as the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, construction began on the Danish side in 2020 and on the German side in 2021. The €7 billion project, expected to be completed by 2029, will be the worlds largest immersed tunnel.
We left the island marina in Prerow at dawn the next morning and headed southwest following along the coast to avoid the rough seas out in the bay. We would need to correct our course more northerly to reach Fehmarn Island where we would anchor in a sheltered bay, but the longer we could stay in the lee of land the more comfortable the ride would be. After 7 hours following the shoreline we turned northwest towards the Fehmarn Sound Bridge which connects the island to the mainland. It was a rough couple of hours across the bay - at one point my beautiful bouquet of flowers flew across the salon soaking the couch cushions and spraying water on everything.
The quickest route is often not the most comfortable passage.
We entered the bay on the southern end of Fehmarn Island where we’d planned to stop for the night but for some reason, despite being quite sheltered, long sweeping sea swell was rolling in. This would not make for a comfortable night. Fortunately it was fairly early still, around 4pm, so we decided to continue on to find a more comfortable anchorage.
Two hours later we dropped the hook near Hundestrand where the water was still, the sky expansive and the silence rejuvenating. We had a simple dinner and relaxed in the balm of a quiet, deserted anchorage. Tomorrow the sea may still be angry and the winds may rage, but that is a concern for another day.
