May 19th Grenaa

From  Helsingor we sailed north and west around the top of Sealand (The island that includes Copenhagen) and across to Grenaa a good marina on  the Jutland east coast.

Grenaa is really a cruisers holiday town.  There are dozens of tiny houses with an upstairs bedroom and downstairs living quarters, parking space, tiny deck overlooking the harbor, and couples seating by the front door to pass the time. A larger bath house / toilet/  building, and laundry facilities for docked boats ( all closed for our visit), more than 200 slips for transients, a cute little restaurant complex and a short trip over a bridge to town for groceries and more shops to complete the scenario. A large area for dry docking boats and a children's playground are within site of the docks.

When we entered the harbor there was a dredging operation at the entrance, Depths went from 7 to 11 feet depending on the spot you hit entering the entrance jetties.

I should say something about Danish marinas - they are a challenge. The most prevalent arrangement is a face dock, floating or fixed with a row of either fixed poles or floating spar buoys about 45 feet from the face dock. The procedure is to come between a pair of poles or buoys, stop to attach stern lines and then proceed to the face dock and attach two bow lines.  After everything is adjusted properly the boat remains in one place with the bow a couple of feet from the face dock; there are no finger piers. It sounds easy but in a cross wind and with only two people it can be quiet hard particularly as most of the poles are closer together than Ariel’s beam and it is hard to tell if there is enough room before you discover there is not . The dock master is only around for a half hour in the morning to collect fees and does not give information about depths or slip numbers or widths between pilings, nobody to catch your lines or assist in any way. 

 When we arrived at Grenaa it was calm so we had the opportunity to try our hand at docking with two stern poles and a floating face dock with rings to put your bow lines through. We were ok on depth but the first two tries showed us that the beam was never going to fit here.  We went over to another dock where we saw a beamy motor boat so we fit fine there. Denmark uses a system of cards in a space. If the slip is empty but the card attached to the dock at the head of the slip is RED it indicates the slip holder will be back. If there is a green square then you can go ahead and use that slip.  

Signs say that if you don't pay within an hour of arrival you can face stiff additional fines for not paying your dock fees. The harbor masters office has an automated machine that takes your credit card and produces a long sticker you put on your life lines or bow closest to the dock to prove that you paid your fees. It has the date you have paid to and their own color code / symbols.  Sometimes maps are on posted under glass to show you around.

Charles got us reservations at the seafood restaurant dockside.   They were full when we arrived for our 6:30 seating. Only two servers for the whole restaurant but it was run very efficiently.  A salad bar and quick delivery of great food made it memorable.

We had decided before we left Copenhagen to go to Norway but not make the detour to the Shetland islands. Norway is not part of the EU so by stopping there we restart the VAT clock at our first European stop after Norway which will be Scotland.  Kristiansand is a major port and an easy overnight sail from Denmark.

From Grenaa we had two choices: go to Skagen at the northern tip of Jutland and from there to Kristiansand, or through the Limfjord which cuts through the northern end of Jutland to the north sea coast at Thyboron. The distance from Skagen to Kristiannsand is essentially the same as the distance from THyrboron to Kristiannsand.  Kristiannsand is due north of Thyboron and due west of Skagan. Because the prevailing winds are west we elected to leave from Thryboron which meant a trip through the Limfjord.