{"id":362,"date":"2024-05-16T09:39:06","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T09:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sv-antares.de\/?p=362"},"modified":"2024-12-03T21:15:29","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T21:15:29","slug":"wal-da-blaest-er","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sv-antares.de\/en\/wal-da-blaest-er\/","title":{"rendered":"Thar she blows!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, there are still a few things to do after launching and stepping the mast. In my case, it was the antenna cable for my AIS, which was apparently damaged in several places. I had already repaired the connectors directly at the mast, but it turned out the cable was broken under the flooring. So, I installed a new one, this time running it along the ceiling in the passageway from the salon to the V-berth. It doesn't look as nice, but it works, and that's more important to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That evening, I asked Laurin if he wanted to go out for a short shakedown sail, so we set off around eight o'clock and originally intended to just sail to the Schlutuper Wiek. But things went so well, and we were able to sail a good distance down the Trave river, that we decided to move the boat straight to Travem\u00fcnde. We sailed until about St\u00fclper Huk, then continued under engine power, arriving at Passathafen shortly before 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As far as I remember, it was Laurin's first time sailing on Antares.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The view back into the Trave. It really is a beautiful cruising area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sometimes you encounter the \"big ships\" in the Trave \u2013 this one wasn't that big, just under 100m. On the last stretch, you often meet the TT-Line or the Finland ferries, which are significantly larger, especially taller. Next to them, in the narrow channel through Travem\u00fcnde, you really feel very, very small.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our GPS track from the marina am stau to about St\u00fclper Huk shows our route. After that point, the wind died down and was coming directly from ahead, so sailing would have been possible but very slow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, although Travem\u00fcnde is very touristy, the tourists we're talking about here don't go out to eat after 9 PM. So, we ended up taking the bus back to the marina at the lock, still hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day<\/strong> there was a relatively short and not entirely optimal window of time when the wind would at least allow us to make some progress towards Wismar on a beat. The downside was that this window wouldn't open until 4 PM, and even under good conditions, I estimated it would take about six hours to cover the 24 nautical miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I wanted to give it a try, so together with Markus, I set off pretty much on time at four o'clock, and we arrived in Hohen Wieschendorf around half past ten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the beginning, we were able to make good progress by tacking, and if the wind hadn't died down, it would have improved over the distance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We hadn't expected what was about to happen in between at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were just on the last longer tack to the northeast, with the tack being around Gro\u00df Schwansee. The boat was running at about four knots, not quite close-hauled. Suddenly, Markus was very excited, and when I looked in the direction he was pointing, I understood why. Just behind the boat, the dorsal fin and the dark back of a harbor porpoise broke the surface of the water. Harbor porpoises are toothed whales but much smaller than their relatives, the orcas. The \"common harbor porpoise,\" which is found in the Baltic Sea, is only about 1.50 meters long and weighs about as much as a slender person \u2013 between 50 and 60 kg, with particularly large specimens weighing up to 90 kg. According to estimates, there are only about 300 of these animals left in the Baltic Sea. It was all the more beautiful that not just one, but surely three or four of them \"visited\" us here \u2013 because they stayed in direct proximity to the boat for at least 10 minutes, surfacing barely two meters away from us, crossing in front of the bow, and at least once, I observed one of them rolling onto its back, showing us its white belly, and swimming aft under the boat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n