Jonty popped over from Lady Cressida at 8.30am to say he had chatted to the harbourmaster who said the passage should be safe this morning for anything up to 2.1 metres draft. Wind and waves had both eased at Rødvig, so we set off, having deployed a nice bit of springing off to get us out of the berth.
The bay, the Fakse Bugt, proved to be not as smooth as we hoped, in fact for an hour or so it was unpleasant. We approached the outer, dredged channel with some trepidation, expecting to see breaking waves, but it was ok - a bit hairy with the waves behind us, but Sam did an excellent job of helming with engine on and a bit of jib.
Most of the channel is well marked, although it could do with a few of the fluorescent German port-hand marks, which are brilliantly visible - these reds were hard to see and the greens even worse. Also from time to time there were cardinals or isolated danger marks, in one place (according to the chart) a depth of less than 1m inside the channel, and further on suddenly no buoys at all for half a mile. At this point we were suddenly engulfed in rain, which didn't help with buoy-spotting, and also meant we couldn't see the prettiest bit of the passage.
Like other places including Rødvig, Kalvehave has a two-part harbour. We initially went into a berth on the marina side, but we had only 0.1m under the keel and we suspect water level is high today - if it drops, we could have been stranded. So we ducked around to the "fishing" harbour and rafted up to Lady Cressida.
Kalvehave is a pleasant, sheltered spot on the south side of Sjaelland, in the shadow of the bridge to Møn, and surrounded by other little islands, with stunning sea views - this is what you imagine the Baltic to be like. Today they are holding a harbour festival, mostly musical. We've seen square-dancing, heard a Leonard Cohen soundalike, and are currently enjoying yet another set from the main band, who seem to be able to play anything.
The wind is due to go south-east 3-4 tomorrow and then go round to the west on Monday. We want to make the most of the easterlies to get as far west as we can, especially as these waters are pretty sheltered so waves should be modest. If we feel up to it we may get as far as the island of Omø tomorrow.
Miles today: 20, of which around 12 were very shallow ones.
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