Since we are being urged to think that we are in a “war” with Covid-19, I thought that I’d file the occasional dispatch from the front, from our very comfortable fox hole, unfortunately much more comfortable than many dealing with Covid in other parts of the world….
Both V and I continue to receive many emails and messages from readers wondering if Blue Clipper has been lost with all hands since my post abruptly stopped in the middle of the voyage. In fact, as the trip wound on, I felt that I had written so much about my various sailing voyages in the last 8 or 9 months that readers must surely be sated with salt water and sails. I therefore decided to stop writing and just enjoy the passage with son J.
However not wanting to leave the journal in limbo, I thought that I’d wrap up the voyage with some final observations…
An interesting couple of days’ journeys since my last post. On Thursday we left our anchorage right after breakfast, raised sails and headed for Gothenburg, an old university town and the second largest city in Sweden. Winds were not helpful, Force 2, so not really moving the boat with any speed, so on with the engine expecting our motor-sail to cover the 70-odd nautical miles by late evening. As the day drew in with our boat speed hovering between 4 and 5 knots it was clear that it would be very late evening or early morning before we arrived, so picked a very nice anchorage about 3 hour’s sail from Gothenburg and tied up for the night….
Following our train journey on Sunday, tiresome to read about I’m sure, and tiring to experience, it was with real pleasure that we found our boat moored in the midst of a flotilla of tall ships on the Aarhus docks. The whole area was filled with masses of people, vendor’s tents and tall ships at their moorings. The harbour in Aarhus was the final destination of the annual tall ships race which begins and ends in different venues each year. This year’s race began off Bergen, Norway and after 8 day’s hard sailing, finished off Aarhus, the fleet then mooring in Aarhus where a Tall Ships Festival was underway. We joined at the tail end, many of the ships having already left by Sunday afternoon but Blue Clipper and a number of others were still at their moorings…..
J arrived on Saturday morning and we spent a couple of hours walking before a very early dinner, 6pm, as he hadn’t slept on Friday night, sitting up on an overnight flight. I, on the other hand, the previous evening had found a wonderful Italian wine bar and restaurant, an easy 15 minute walk from my hotel. Had their tasting menu, which featured as the Primi, a wonderful roasted tomato risotto and grilled cod for a Secondi accompanied by a couple of glasses of very pleasant Barbara d’Alba. The restaurant, interestingly named d’Alba, was charming, the service prompt and helpful and the food very good.
The last time I wrote I was in the Azores having sailed from Bermuda, and now here I am in Copenhagen, continuing what has clearly become a very bad habit. But before I begin....it has been a wonderful summer, at least for some of us. It began in late May with the start of the Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial event, this year hosted in the UK….
Overdue following up on my last posting, but the first 10 days back were consumed with preparation for and attendance at a full-day Board Meeting, my other life, as well as a host of long-neglected and overdue tasks that needed attention.
As I return to day-to-day reality I have finally started reading newspapers again, retreat over, but I have no sense that I actually missed anything, all too predictable. However, on a more cheerful note…
