Sonderborg to Kiel

The morning was cloudless with no wind. It was promising to be another lazy day at sea which was not quite so good since we had some distance to cover (not a stretch as such, but boring to do on the engine). Spent part of the morning doing some shopping, hosing down the deck and cockpit and giving the ship a general tidy up.

We headed out and then the wind started to come in. So we got the No 3 (genoa) hooked up and secured the No 1 further aft along the railings. On exiting the marina the sails went up quite smoothly and Struana took off. Beating into 18 knots of wind and a growing sea: she was in her element.

But it was a bit much for our program of slowly getting used to her. So we put in a reef and continued on our beat away from Sonderborg at a convincing 7.5 knots. And the outperformance relative to others was simply breath taking, both in angle to the wind and speed.

Continuing on our way SE to the lighthouse on Kalkgrund we were thereafter presented with a 30 mile close haul all the way to Kiel. With the building sea and a wind speed reaching 23 knots it was a remarkable experience.



4 hours later we were in Kiel. A very nice day sailing. Tomorrow into the Kiel Canal.

Sonderborg 54 deg 53.9'N 009 deg 47.6'E

Kiel 54 deg 20.3'N 010 deg 09.5'E

10-23 knts wind, 1/8 cloud cover, good visibility
Distance 45 nm