The plan was clear: Klaus had agreed a three-month sabbatical with his company, running from 1 June to 31 August 2023. We wanted to use this time to sail a clockwise circuit of the Baltic Sea. Anori was to be our home for this period—a first realistic test of how this lifestyle would suit us.
As so often with larger projects, things turned out differently. The refit work at the yard was significantly delayed—apparently a law of nature. There was no time left for proper test runs before departure. On Saturday, 3 June, we went out for the first time after the winter lay-up, filled up with fuel and sailed a few miles in Lübeck Bay. On Monday, things were supposed to really begin.
With little wind, we cast off at 7:15 am, set the sails around 8:00 am and shut down the engine. Routine. During the subsequent check in the engine compartment came the sobering moment: the engine was clearly losing coolant. Sails down again, coolant topped up, and back to the yard under power. By 10:05 am, we were tied up again. The cause was quickly identified: hose clamps on the cooling hoses had not been tightened sufficiently. The yard fixed the issue.
As we did not want to set off a second time that day, we went to the golf course instead and played a round. Golf was firmly planned as part of this trip—but certainly not as the opening act.
The following day, the start went as intended. We sailed to Gedser, made a short overnight stop there, and continued on to Klintholm on the island of Møn. From there, we took a bike ride to the chalk cliffs of Møns Klint: long wooden staircases down to the water, a walk along the shore, and back up via another staircase—around 500 steps in total. This was followed by an extended cycle tour across the scenically beautiful island.
Our next destination was Ljunghusen near Falsterbo. We stayed for two days to sit out a storm, took care of Anori, and played a round at Flommen Golf Club. After that, we continued on to Skillinge for an overnight stay.
On this leg, it became clear what we had been missing before departure: proper sea trials. The new autopilot failed, and the pressure water pump and the inverter also dropped out at times. Technically, the voyage now turned into the test run that should have taken place before the start. At least the weather was on our side, even though the wind was right on the nose and we had to beat to windward.
With the replacement autopilot, we reached Karlskrona the following day. There, we took a harbour day, went on a short bike ride, ran a few errands, and reflected on the first days. This journey began differently than planned, but step by step we found our rhythm.
Leave a reply