Limfjord – 1st-13th June

This blog covers our trip down the Limfjord. It is down, as we entered from the top on the east side. It is one of the ways you can get to the Baltic from the UK by entering from the west side. So I guess technically the northern half of Denmark is an island (much like Scotland with the Caledonian Canal). It is 1500 sq KM of salt water, all of which is fairly shallow so it actually gets relatively warm (compared to the North Sea )

Hals ( First Stop at the entrance to the Baltic)

Found this in the marina (with the thickness of glass it must weigh a ton or three)

Beautiful 3 master came in. Can I play please, please…

“Jenny, Jenny. They let me play with the big boat!!!!” *(he was like a kid on Christmas Day, huge smug grin on his face and everything!)* This sticks in my mind as shortly after I read that one of the classic sailing yachts had been run over on the Elbe by a container ship and wrecked. We were playing with the same container ships on the same bit of the river in the last but one post.

2 ice breakers. Tim spotted what they were. You can tell by looking at the bow. Ice breakers lean on the ice to break it rather than cut through it. *(guess we need to get out of the Baltic before winter sets in, don’t think fibreglass hulls do well in ice)*

Aalborg

Tim demonstrating his flag raising skills. No, it’s a towel in the background, not just an errant flag that Tim has miss placed.

Flag fact time- the blue chequered flag is the flag for ‘N’ in the maritime alphabet and is normally used to indicate a negative response to a question but is used here to signify that you need a bridge opened so you can pass underneath. Above, Tim is demonstrating it flying correctly on the Starboard side, underneath the courtesy flag so “no offence” should be caused!. The bridge operators keep an eye out and then when they can (rail bridges are subject to time table, and road subject to rush hour) raise the bridge for you. It is quite some feeling bringing the transport across a city to a halt (Aalborg is split in 2 by the Fjord) just for little old Feath. Some pics below

Road bridge across the city

Rail bridge across the city

We found this street food place next to the Marina. I have seen one before in Denmark. Lots of little food stalls all under one roof. Have to say the chips cooked in duck fat were outstanding (we had to have an extra glass of wine to cut through the fat and save our hearts!) *I love the lights, a simple and effective use of old summer dresses.*

We had a crew change in Aalborg. Tim left ( he said it was one of the nicest airports he has been in ) and David (Junior when on the boat ) arrived. This was us doing the passage plan for the next day.

IMG_3496_LI — Out door swimming pool (just a big wooden structure over the Fjord). As you can see only one sun bather and that was it (Red arrow). May have been something to do with the way the pool was acting as a jelly fish net. There were thousands in the pool (Blue arrow). My photo shop skills know no bounds.

Think this was a Bank originally. No work here for a stonemason as every building, old and new, seems to built from brick, I’m amazed at the variety of patterns and colours of brick used and the fabulous roof tiles, some of the rooves are a work of art in themselves.

Nice old street with a pottery at the end

Loved some of the stuff but they would not ship to the UK

This was the Jelly fish in the Marina ( there were more than this in the pool)

David impersonating a gnome (some bugger has swiped his fishing rod)

A motor down the Fjord the next day in no wind

Veno

After a stop over at Nykobing we headed on the Veno to see our friends Trevor and Marianne. We met them through David in Norway where they work most of the year. When they are not working they stay in their Danish house on the island of Veno which is absolutely stunning (Andy definitely had house envy). Trevor used to do a bit of serious racing in yachts and was on Drum with Simon Le Bon when the keel came off. They are a smashing couple who fed us and looked after us during our stay . Thank you, again, for making us feel so welcome, arranging a deep enough berth for Feath and generally spoiling us while we were with you.

I love these little rowing boats that belong to the rowing club ( according to the book I am reading the average Dane is a member of 2.8 clubs )

I want one of these !!! mini 12 Meter yachts, about the size of a Kayak. Saw this in Struer, just south of Veno when we went shopping (Veno has no shops). *Even going to the supermarket becomes interesting when you have to get a bus and a ferry to get there!*

Jenny gets over excited over a gluten free cone! *My first cone in decades……. and every bit as good as I had wanted it to be.*

So after a stroll along the beach, out comes the Sloe Gin. One of Trevor and Marianne’s many skills is making many varieties of Schnapps etc from all sorts of things they gather. Needless to say we tried a few

What do you mean I have to walk some more. I was just getting started on the Gin.

David’s “Trusty Stead” next to the Bromptons ( Marianne’s mother’s bike I think). *I think it looks like a mummy looking after her wee babies…*

Off for a bike ride and walk round the North of the Island

The Lagoon, the fences are up to protect the area during the nesting season, this is quite a common sight around Denmark and there are even some areas of water you are not allowed to sail through until all the babies have fledged.

KBOT0543 — The flowers here are just like on the “machair” on Tiree where Jenny’s dad comes from. *Veno reminded me a lot of Tiree, apart from the trees and hills!). The sand and plants were almost identical and the island is famous for it’s potatoes and lamb. I felt very at home here.*

We discover there is a round island race coming up so Davis quickly masters our paddle board. Unfortunately we missed the bit where he fell in trying to get back on the boat and was left stranded in the harbour.

NGBZ0036 — Trevor on the paddle board. David collecting some pacific oysters. The fjord if famous for its Limfjord oyster. The Limfjord one is flat, where as the invasive species of pacific oyster is an irregular shape and harder to open. The box in the water is full of pacific oysters that Trevor and Marianne had collected. The pacific ones grow to a good size in 2-4 years . The prized Limfjord ones take between 20 and 40 years ( so hardly a surprise the pacific one is doing so well) They both taste the same in my view. We went to a fish farm where they take them and leave them in fresh sea water for a month or so before shipping them (that way in the summer where there is algae in the sea water that can be harmful if not cooked, they can carry on selling them). Also found out that your fishing licence in Denmark gets used to fund fish hatcheries who grow young fish then release them ( brilliant idea)

PUMG4885 — I go foraging for the real deal. they only live in deeper water.

Managed to get a small bag full – *there’s that happy wee boy grin again, he was VERY pleased with himself!*

Andy bought me a waterproof case for my camera so I could take it when we go diving. I decided to have a practice when we were snorkelling first to get the hang of the controls. Unfortunately, I had the settings a bit wrong and couldn’t see anything on the screen, so had no idea what I was managing to photograph. Below as some of the lucky snaps I managed to get.

YFYE4644 — There were tiny guppie type fish swimming around me as I was putting on my fins, didn’t capture any but I quite like this general seascape and the way the light is reflecting.

VQDC9151 (2) — *A wee shrimp thing and an anemone (I think, I forgot to bring my book with me that tells me what all these things really are!)*

QLVP9973 (2) — *The wee fish and shrimpy things were attacking the worm in the middle, it was doing lots of wriggling to try and get away.*

PVQK7537 — *This was an attempt to photograph David paddle boarding over my head, you can just see the fin at the top of the photo!*

KRCM0093 (2) — A pipe fish, like a straightened out sea horse, I know what this is as I love seeing them diving in Scotland. I didn’t even know this one was there until I zoomed in on the very bad photo of a wee fish and found him lurking in the corner.

HZIV2567 (2) — *A poor photo of a fish, but I quite like the overall look of the photo.*

EEYE4220 — *This is the grass stuff that gets stuck in your engine cooling filter as mentioned later on!*

NDAK0746 — The race round the island day was a very windy affair. It is open to all self powered or wind powered vessels from hydrofoil kite boards to paddle boards and kayaks. The paddle boards and kayaks start from the beach.

BADD8571 — The beach start was fun. There were only 2 paddle boards and they spent most time in the water. The winner is whoever gets the most complete laps of the island. the paddle boarders walked around as far as they could then came ashore, I don’t blame them, the wind was ferocious.

IGLU4275 — These guys were amazing and were clearly enjoying the conditions

ASMY6101 — I love this picture Jenny took. The bright colours against the grey

CKZR7123 (2) — The wind powered vessels crossing the start line

WSYB8735 — Marianne’s brother and girl friend joined us for a walk along the beach

This must be the shortest ferry trip in the world. Must be all of 200 Meters

Good bye Trevor and Marianne (and David who also left us on Veno)

Logstor

We passed a couple of these on the way back out the Fjord. They looked to be full of gravel. Talk about hitting the weight limit. I saw one unloaded and it sat 1.5 Meters clear of the water along the side.

The amazing thing was the dunes made out of mussel and cockle shells. We asked a local about it and she said it used to be sand then suddenly this happened and nobody is sure why, best guess is a lack of oxygen in the water. Logstor is still famous for its mussels and there is no shortage so clearly they did not all die out.

This is the king Fredrick canal which is only 4 km long and was build to bypass the shallows at Logstor, before dredging became viable

The museum in Logstor actively restores old canal boats, *and, yes, Andy did stop the men working to ask all about it and what they were doing!*

Leaving the Fjord

In Aalborg on the way out we met 3 boats from Grimsby Cruising Association ( we stayed at their marina on the way out) and joined them in the flotilla for the exit of the Fjord ( should have taken about a day). This lasted for about an hour as they had to stop due to cooling problems. After checking they were ok, we carried on. Our total experience of flotilla sailing is one hour!!!They called me to let me know that it was sea grass in the water filter combined with jelly fish. I nipped down and checked mine while Jenny put up the sail. The filter was full of sea grass from the Fjord, but luckily none of our Jelly friends had got in. Quick rinse out and all was well again.

We anchored over night after a brilliant sail at Laeso, an island half way to Sweden

We could see and hear the Thunder over Aalborg. Thanks to Marianne’s recommendation, Andy was also following the lightning strikes on the app on his phone, it’s been really interesting watching the sound wave move towards your position and waiting to actually hear the rumble, kept him amused for hours!

Sweden, here we come!!

3 thoughts on “Limfjord – 1st-13th June”

Mike says:

Jun 22, 2019 at 6:26 am

Looks fun. Glad you got in the water and the oysters were edible. Scenery looks wonderful. Stay safe. Mike Lynne.

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David Noble says:

Jun 22, 2019 at 11:23 am

Glad to see you are having so much fun. Keep the news coming. David.

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1. thekinvigs says:
  
  Jun 22, 2019 at 6:53 pm
  
  I have found the Jeanneau flag, I should hoist it and send you a picture….
  
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