Thursday 21 May, sailing from Falsterbo to Ystad and Abbekas
Position 0730 UTC 55*24.8 N 12* 55.8 E
Ronja’s birthday! The Danish radio is warning for near gale winds in
Kattegatt and Skagerack, but not for the southern Baltic Sea, where we
are. We have some clouds and windy weather this morning. On land it is
sunny and warm. Christina and I find a grocery shop and buy some fresh
foods. Then we pack and want to cross under the Falsterbo bridge at 1100
UTC. Just missed the bridge opening as I called in on channel 73 to the
bridge control tower. We have to wait another hour. Break out the
coffee and some goodies and enjoy the sunrays. When it is time to go
through the bridge we are called on VHF and told to steam up to the
bridge. There is a German boat behind us waiting. When the bridge is
half open, the tower calls “Full steam ahead in the middle!” and we run
through at 7.5 knots 🙂
After the short Falsterbo canal we get out into
the Baltic Sea. Feels great to have passed three different seas on the
way to Karlskrona. Out on the sea we have the wind straight against (10
msec NE to E) and have to run on engine at half-speed the whole time.
The wind picks up in the afternoon and it starts raining. The German
boat that accompanied us since Falsterbo takes a sharp turn and heads
back into the port of Smygehamn. We continue, but the wind picks up to
14-15 msec and we head in for Abbekaas harbour instead of for Ystad. We
get into the very small harbour at 1700 UTC behind a small fishing boat
that just returned from the sea. Thanks to their guidance we find our
way in safely across the shallows in the now heaving sea. The habour is
not very protected and we have to secure all things inside Isabell even
while in port. A good nights sleep is all we need, and possibly some
diesel…