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The Baltic is winds are different, we have had strong NE winds for days and while they eased yesterday it seemed to us that each day started relatively gently, despite a robust forecast, and then after lunch it turned to a real strong breeze, on shore, throwing spray over the harbour wall.
The delights of a former DDR holiday resort had lost their glister and those who did good work for the benefit of the state were rewarded with "holiday coupons" which they could use to "pay" for time here; our coupons had run out, it was time to go. We had been waiting for a fix for a failed instrument, it had been effected but sadly with no remedy.
We cast off just before 0900 and motored through a calm windless sea to Warnemunde, a mere 13nm away, where we moored up in the Hohe Dune marina, a newish development comprising a massive marina alongside the main shipping channel. It is a busy river serving Rostok with cargo ships, ferries (to Denmark, Sweden and Finland) as well as cruise liners. Near us, the shoreside structures could match the finest Crimean datchas complete with wellness spa, several impressive restaurants and numerous ablution blocks, one I went in was tiled in tiny gilded mosaics and delivered full facilities, including a laundry, in gaudy splendour.
A walk ashore around the gardens, with the grass being cut by a robot lawn mower, and then a short walk to the ferry took us across into Warnemunde proper where we had lunch outside on the veranda of a little hotel a stone's throw from the waters edge. There were plenty of visitors and tripper boats doing good business, again some redundant fishing boats acting as floating shops for lunchtime takeaway snacks and a few very loud youths from another eastern block. A very warm day, brilliant sunshine and the bimini earning its keep once again…but this time keeping the sun off rather than the rain!
Our next passage should take us to Denmark if the navigator is doing his sums right.
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