With Mike and Louise waiting for us in the Sound ( the narrows between Denmark and Sweden) , it was time to travel the 100 miles SE to meet them. The only problem was the wind which was firmly in the SE, 120 miles directly upwind! The solution was to stop for the night at the little sand island of Anholt, out in the middle of the Kattegat and therefore a fetch on port tack, wait overnight for the wind to swing into the SSW and so fetch into the Sound on starboard . All went to plan until 20 miles off, when the wind increased to a steady 30 knots some hours ahead of schedule. Despite tiny sails, Festina thrashed along like a scalded cat and once we had a lee from the N Sjaelland coast, the wind and waves fell away and we spent the night in the charming fishing village of Gillelele, some 10 miles from the entrance to the Sound.
Next day whilst poking around in a little fishing museum, there amongst the typical round bodied Danish fishing boats was a long slim Viking shaped faering from Norway, just like those we had been admiring from Faroe and Shetland to the Norwegian coast. I asked the curator how it came to be here and she told me that after Nelson destroyed the Danish fleet at Copenhagen ( er …. sorry for that guys!) the Danish king gave carte blanche for any small Danish craft to prey on British merchant shipping trying to pass through the Sound. This was a pretty high risk procedure, and although large fortunes were made by well equiped privateers (the curator at the wonderful Orlogsmuseum in Copenhagen told me prizes worth 200 million kroner were taken) the fishermen didn’t fare so well, and at the end of the war had very few boats left. With timber also scarce, they bought cheap second hand boats from Norway. Whilst these were fast , they were too unstable to do well at the net fishing that was used for the herring here in Denmark , as opposed to line fishing for cod in Norway for which they were better suited.
In Copenhagen I discovered an amusing sequel of this privateers war, which was that the successful “letter of marque” men were by and large fisherfolk and seamen , and thus from the lower classes. Nevertheless they flooded Copenhagen with their new riches and thoroughly put the noses of the establishment out of joint, who couldn’t stand these nouveau riche upstarts flaunting their wealth. Thus the king put an end to this guerrilla war, not because it was unsuccessful, but because its very success threatened to upset the old order!
Next day we sailed to Helsingfors ( Anglicised to Elsinore and home to “Hamlets” castle) , and there were Mike and Louise at the end of their long Eastern Baltic trip.
We decided to join up for a few days, and our first move was to Copenhagen from where we took a train to Roskilde to see the amazing Viking ship museum. For me this was the culmination of what has gradually become a journey of Viking discovery, starting at the Viking city of Dublin , then sailing the Viking derived lugger at Stornaway, pouring over the Viking ships and rowing boats of Faeroe , visiting the Viking age stopover points of Shetland and Norway (and the ships and museums of Tonsberg and Oslo ), and finally this extraordinary place where the past is meticulously researched by building and voyaging in detailed replica Viking boats. I was in seventh heaven!
Festina and Vela were moored in Christianshavn , a canal in the middle of the city and just opposite the Orlogsmuseum – which houses ship builders models of the Danish navy from the 16th century to the present , and whose curator was happy to look up the action at Lyngor in 1812 when a British 64 gun ship Dictator entered the Norwegian skerries to sink a Danish frigate the Naiad. She was hiding amongst the islands , sure that no large ship could follow her and Dictator must have followed the course we took to get in there. If the captains description of his stunsail yards brushing the rock either side was probably a bit of hyperbole , it had been tight enough for Festina with an engine and GPS , so was undoubtedly an amazing piece of seamanship . The Danes / Norwegians were convinced a local pilot helped the Brits, and offered a huge reward for his capture, but nothing ever came of it.
Well, after 3 days in the city of Copenhagen and a wonderful history fest, it’s time work our way South again and take the first fair weather for Holland and home. The swallows are gathering and presumably, like us, their eyes are glued to the weather forecast and that all important weather window. Until it comes, Festina and Vela are going to slowly island hop their way towards Kiel.
