Logbooks:

Panama to French Polynesia
Caribbean to Panama
Denmark to Caribbean
Scandinavian Summer 2017
Winter (and a baby) in Copenhagen
Azores to Copenhagen
Cape Town to the Azores
African Coast (Durban to Cape Town)
Southern Africa Overland 2015
Indian Ocean (Broome to Durban)
Darwin to Broome (Kimberley Coast)
Townsville to Darwin
NZ to Townsville , Australia
NZ 2014-15 Part 3: North Island
Fiji to New Zealand
Fiji 2014 Part 2: Lau Group
Fiji 2014 Part 1: Suva to Savusavu
New Zealand to Fiji
NZ 2014 Part 2: North Island
NZ 2014 Part 1: Southland & Fiordland
Hobart to Bluff, NZ (March 2014)
Whitsundays to Hobart
Brisbane to Whitsundays
Maintenance Log

Winter (and a baby) in Copenhagen

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Exploring the Øresund

Date:

May 21, 2017, 5:51 p.m.

The weather has been fabulous, but with the threat of a Friday night Easterly to make the anchorage uncomfortable, we were thinking of moving into a marina. Then we discovered that having anchored a hundred metres or so inside the boundary of Copenhagen Port we were not really allowed to stay there for more than a short while, so we decided to go check out Skovehoved Marina to the North. We are getting slightly better at these baltic style moorings but this one was a snug fit so we could almost walk ourselves in. We enjoyed a comfortable night and were contemplating spending the week there but the weather was just so nice for sailing this weekend and our friends were up in the adorable fishing village of Sletten another 11nm north...

So instead of tackling the long list of boat cleaning jobs we had a lovely sail up to enjoy a relaxing time with them. With a bit of breeze, we elected not to try sail into the little harbour and attempt the baltic mooring. It was busy in there as everyone was out making the most of the first really good summery weather. We ended up anchored off the beach nearby, watching the swimmers. 14 degree water is still 14 degree water, I don't care how much sun is about, so no, we did not join them in the water... crazy Danes.

We are now back at Tuborg as we have some things to attend to down here and have even managed just a little cleaning. The baby has her brace off and is adjusting reasonably well. However follow up appointment will limit us a little so we have decided not to attempt the West Coast of Norway this summer. Instead we will probably do a few smaller trips around Denmark, East coast Norway and West coat Sweden.

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Anchored at Svanemøllen Strand

Date:	May 17, 2017, 3:26 p.m.
Position:	55 43.27 N, 12 35.24 E

Time flies!
We recently bid farewell to the last of visiting family after what can only be described as chaotic fun. Langelinie harbour is slowly filling with boats and we have been having a terrific time socialising with club members. It has been a slow start to the sailing season with abnormally cold April/May but the weather seems to finally be improving.

Friday was a huge party at the club to farewell one of the boats embarking to sail around the world. It was suprisingly, a little emotional for us to see them depart and we hope they have as good a journey as we have so far. Several boats had their party flags up and escorted them out to the harbour entrance - the Danes really know how to do a send-off!

We have tentatively, quietly begun making our own farewells as we prepare to depart for some summer cruising. With a baby on board who knows how far we will get. We plan to be back in Copenhagen fairly soon either way, nevertheless it is not without difficulty that we begin to farewell our many Danish friends who have become such a big part of our life in such a small amount of time. Unfortunately there are so many terrific people we have come to know that we are probably not going to see them all, but we do hope some will join us sailing over the coming months.

Our plans are all tentative due to Raphaela's hip brace. We will find out this week if it has done it's job and if she can finally be done with this medieval looking thing. She knows no different but it does make everyday things more challenging and the endless rounds of checkups and size changes have been draining. Though we are really looking forward to getting it off, we are steeling ourselves for a tough couple of days afterwards as she will have to slowly adjust to being able to straighten her legs for the first time since she was 9 days old. Hopefully it all works out so that the three of us can catch some of the unusual Easterly winds up to Norway.

Normally provisioning the boat is something I focus on while Mark does the routing but with my time drained by the babys medical stuff and the breastfeeding, he had to do the first big shop. It was a bit of an ordeal for one who vehemently hates all forms of shopping (except a chandlery with a big gift card...) but he did admirably. We are treating Norway as if it were a remote, off the grid place with no supplies. It's not, but we keep hearing that it is REALLY expensive - and that's from Danes! Tuuletar is now sitting a couple of inches lower in the water but now we will only have to get minimal things over the next few months. Not only should that be cheaper if we make it to Norway but even better is that we won't have to waste time an effort on sourcing too many supplies. Even if we never leave Copenhagen this summer, the idea of hardly having to shop for three months makes the skipper pretty happy.

We loved the opportunity to be at Langelinie, it is a great little harbour full of real sailors and was not at all snobby in spite of being so prestigious. Since we gave our talk last week we have been particularly social with club members and I unfortunately got very little study done for my Danish exam. (Nope, talking didn't count as this was a written one.) We found we could not even put up our Australian flag, because Langelinie is absolutely packed with tourists each day and every few minutes someone would knock on the hull,
"you from 'straiya, we're from 'straiya..."
It's not that we don't enjoy meeting a fellow Aussie but we were really struggling to get anything done.

One weekend we did a little test sail to Flakfortet, an island fort 5nm away and met some Tuborg sailing friends over there for a BBQ. We took a couple of work contacts with us, who even managed to land some large and tasty codfish. Boat baby was absolutely fine with the whole event, though I did have to rig some dampening straps on her hammock bed which was swinging a little too well.

With calm, warm(-ish) weather we moved to one of the few anchorages in the area, Svanemøllen Strand. It is time to practice getting ashore in a dinghy and test a few system after the long winter dockside. We also thought this would give more quiet time for me to study.... Not long after having dropped anchor a couple of friends paddleboarded out with beer. The next day a friend from Turborg sailed past for a chat and now a French boat returning from Norway has joined us at the anchorage. So the first floating summer sundowner drinks are on! The boat remains a terrible mess, I have no idea if I passed my exam, but we are having a grand time.

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Hanging out with the Little Mermaid

Date:	April 9, 2017, 3:56 p.m.
Position:	55 41.62 N, 12 35.95 E

Spring weather has arrived! The otherwise stoic Danes are transformed, now walking about with grins and saying hello when passing in the streets. On friday afternoon an adorable little girl, who had clearly just escaped school with burst of pink and purple energy, roller bladed past me singing PÅSKE FERIE (Easter holiday) at the top of her lungs, to her own freespirited tune. There is much activity, especially at the waterfront as the sailing season commences. We were no exception and are so pleased to finally remove the unsightly insulation from Tuuletar and put up her sails. (After I got out the sewing machine and made some minor repairs.) She is starting to feel like a boat again and we are itching to get out of the marina but my cesarean section and our new crewmember will keep us here a bit longer.

It is not normal for us to have spent so long in a marina, the aim of most Australian cruising sailors is to spend as little time dockside as possible and as much as possible in beautiful anchorages. In this part of the world however, people spend a lot of time in marinas and there are suprisingly many boats who do not even carry an anchor. All part of the European adventure for us. Mark has even had inquiries about doing anchoring workshops, he'd certainly rather be doing that sort of work than being stuck on a computer! He's also been assisting a friend to get some of his boat systems operational in between getting our own working...

With reluctance we decided to move marinas, Tuborg have been in a bit of chaos with a new Harbourmaster and a few other factors, we still didn't know for certain if they could accommodate us or for what price after the summer had officially started. As much as we like the location, their summer rates are notoriously high and with a construction site right next to us it is not the most attractive prospect right now. In fact the nighttime construction works have been keeping us up more than the newest crewmember lately!

It is very challenging for the visiting cruiser to find a longer-term summertime berth now that the Copenhageners are getting their many boats back in the water. We are still hoping to get cruising for at least part of the summer once we have the boat shipshape and a little more experience with our new crewmember. Even though we were actually looking for a place in the shoulder months it was challenging. Luckily for us a few of our local sailing friends came to our aid and to our great suprise we are now berthed in what is one of the few upgrades to Tuborghavn, Langelinie - right next to one of Copenhagens most famous attractions, The Little Mermaid. It is just a temporary spot but it buys us a little time and we are very grateful. Plus it is a fabulous location, next to the historic fort, just North of the city centre with a active and friendly club, we enjoy the 0800 and 2200 cannon blast which rattles the boat. We are also looking forward to meeting a few more members when we give a presentation on the 10th May.

We were planning to try out Lynetton as it has an active community and great boatwork facilities, both of which were attractive to us right now but it is isolated and due to road works the only bus out there was stopping. With family due to visit it would have been unworkable.

We are up to our eyeballs in babygifts, it is getting hard to move around the boat on account of the generosity of friends and family. Raphaela is one spoilt newborn! (Thank you to all but please, no more!) It has been a hectic first month for her, she was diagnosed with a mild form of hip displasia and must wear a little brace for several weeks to hopefully correct the condition permanently. She is otherwise very healthy and growing so fast I have to regularly return to the hospital to upgrade to size of the brace. We are trying to keep up with our Danish classes as we have been making such good progress up until now. It is really satisfying how much we can now understand but we do have quite a bit on our plates.

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New crew member

Date:

March 13, 2017, 8:39 p.m.

Like many new parents we are feeling rather overwhelmed. The boat baby is thriving, although we have certainly had our stormy moments on this passage.

Many dirt-people were rather concerned about me being being pregnant on the boat but the constant slight motion helped keep me remarkably agile, furthermore when the labour came on it turned out to be a suprisingly good environment to be in. I could shuffle around the space and brace myself on the many grab bars and handholds during the worst of the contractions.

After a night of this, one of our Danish sailing friends who also happens to be a very experienced midwife came over in the morning to check on my progress. She ended up driving us to hospital and insisted on a couple of tests. The hospital staff were very busy, struggling to cope with 6000 births a year in a facility designed for 3000. They were not convinced but thankfully did end up doing them and on the long run it turned out that our friend was spot on. After a protracted labour and trying everything else I did unfortunately have to undergo an emergency cesarean section but the boat baby came out fighting fit. She amused the surgical staff by trying to crawl immediately off the table, that extra 11 days of baking have clearly helped her development.

Once in the hospital, another sailing friend who happens to be a senior obstetrician also kept an eye on us. Not that the hospital staff were anything less than amazing but it was so terrific to have some friendly faces about. When we did get back to the boat we found it decorated with a stork, a Danish tradition. This of course signalled to all the new arrival and we have been flooded with congratulations, visits and gifts ever since. We have talked before about how amazing it is to be part of the international sailing community but this has been truely overwhelming. After having arrived here just few months ago and in spite of being half a world from home, we really could not feel better supported.

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Winter Heating Learning Experiences

Date:	Feb. 19, 2017, 6:11 p.m.
Daily Max. Temp (degC):	1.0
Daily Min. Temp (degC):	-1.0
Wind Speed (kts):	12.0
Wind Direction:	270.0
Position:	55 43.56 N, 12 35.26 E

Warning: this is a long technical post on winter heating. I've put the conclusions-first (a few paragraphs down) so if you just want to know the costs then skip to there. Please skip over the rest (or the entire article) if you are not interested in technical aspects of boat-heating over winter.

It has been a long time since I (Mark) have posted a log entry. Part of the reason for this is because I have been very busy with working and setting up a small business in a foreign country, but mostly it is because I have been building up a library of data and information in order to communicate what we have learned from our experience overwintering in Denmark so far.

I'll split this into several parts, to avoid a very (very) long post. But in this first post I'll cover what we have learned about heating the boat and heating costs.

So I'll give you the conclusions first (to save you the long read). What has it cost us? Here goes:

1 – Oil for the oil stove: We have left the oil-burning furnace in the front-half of the boat on 24/7 since late-October. We turn it up sometimes to boost the temperature and cook food. We therefore use about 3-4 liters per day of oil (say 3.5 on average). Assuming that we start to turn off the heater in April/May, it looks like we'll get through the entire winter with burning about 550 Liters of oil. At current prices that is about 5000 Danish Krone (DKK) or about $1000AUD in oil heating. ***

*** Note that 550L of oil is about the same amount of diesel we consumed sailing both the Indian and Atlantic oceans COMBINED. This doesn't even include the power and wood costs below. So just sitting here over winter for one season is as costly on fuel as sailing 15,000nm from Australia to Denmark. It does make me cringe a little bit every time I think about it. Ouch...

2 – Electric power: We have not heated the front v-berth of our boat, but we have been running a small de-humidifier in the front v-berth in order to reduce/prevent condensation there. It does not need to run continuously 24/7 in that small space at the front. Especially if you run it and then don't open the door so it stays dry in the front. We estimate now that once it is sufficiently dry in that space then you only need to run the dehumidifier for about 1-2 hours per day to keep it dry. The de-humidifier uses about 100W of power so we could easily run it from our generator-equipment and that short amount of time would not have a significant impact on our generator fuel usage (especially if we did other things at the same time such as run the water-maker, top-up batteries and whatnot). Everything else on the boat is normal “house” power-consumption that we have on the boat (primarily the fridge, freezer and then just lighting). In total this winter from late-September to now late-February (5 months) we have used 585 kWh of shore-power for all of our power requirements. Normally the fridge/freezer and lights use about 1kWh per day (85 Ah in 12-volt)... then there is some inefficiency in our transformer and charging efficiency so that equates to about 1.5kWh per day (of shore-power) using our computers a bit more than normal takes our daily power consumption up to about 2kWh. This equates (over the 5-months) to around 300kWh of power for our “house” needs (about half) and the remaining 285kWh can be attributed to the de-humidifier. Power costs here in Denmark are around the highest in the world at about 2.5 DKK per kWh (about $0.5AUD per kWh). This equates to a cost of about 750 DKK ($150 AUD) for our house-power and 712DKK ($142 AUD) for the de-humidifier power over the 5-months from late-September to late-February). ***

*** I must caveat this by saying that it did take us a lot of experimentation to figure out how-long we really need to run de-humidifier to keep it dry, so we have run it this winter for a lot longer than we probably need to. There were 1 or 2 months where we just left it running non-stop. Also at the beginning of winter we really should have removed everything from the v-berth and dried it out by the fireplace (see below) and then re-packed the v-berth dry. We only had a light-bulb moment and decided to do this near the end of December. It makes a massive difference to start with a dried-out space and its way easier to keep it dry. I think if we were doing it again and we had a “drying out day” at the start of winter then we could use half of the power on the dehumidifier.

3 – Wood for the fireplace: Finally the wood fireplace... also known as “The Glorious Wood Fireplace” on this boat. This thing is really one of the best decisions we ever made on the boat. The wood stove is the epitome of the Danish concept of “hygge”. It is fantastic. We installed it in our aft-cabin because: a) the heat from the diesel heater in the forward half of the boat could not make the bridge our wheelhouse; b) We could not (easily) plumb diesel to the back to have a diesel heater back there; and c) due to the already-shocking amount of oil we were burning (with zero miles sailed) I was keen to use a more carbon-neutral type of fuel to lower our environmental impact. We tried to survive on electricity for a while but we had the same problems with dehumidifying and also the “quality” of heat is just not the same as you get from a wood fireplace. There are three things that really make it so good: a) you can get a wood fireplace burning almost unlimitedly hot, wayyyy hotter than you can ever get from electricity or even the oil stove; b) the burning wood needs a LOT of air to burn so it draws and changes the air in the space often; and c) the combination of the heat and air-change make it really really dry. Much drier than you can get with a dehumidifier. After burn the wood fireplace for just a day it will keep our aft section dry for days – even with us sleeping in there. We only purchased and installed the wood fireplace in the aft cabin around late-December. Since then I have done two pickups of wood to get 160kg of wood in each pickup. So we tend to use about 160kg per month on average. We bought the cheap pine-wood brockets in the first load which were only 200DKK ($40AUD) for 160kg. On the second load I experimented with the fancier hardwood brickets which were more than twice the price at 500DKK ($100AUD) for 160kg. The calorific energy content of both wood types are about the same, so you get the same amount of heat from both, the main difference is in the way it burns and forms coals and the amount of ash/smoke that is created. So if we had bought the fireplace earlier and extrapolating this cost over the past 5-months of winter so far the cost could be anywhere between 1000DKK ($200AUD) and 2500DKK ($500AUD) for wood fuel depending on the type of wood you prefer.***

*** I also have to add here that we have been buying wood in small quantities from one of the most expensive places in Copenhagen. We did this because it is a convenient/short distance from the harbour. We also have been buying smaller amounts to test the different types of wood fuel to see how it burns. If you buy wood from better suppliers and/or buy in bulk-quantities then it can be significantly cheaper.

So all up for say 7-months of winter from Oct/November to April/May the costs would total about 9500 DKK ($1900 AUD) in heating and electricity bills or about 1350DKK ($270 AUD) per month. The breakdown would be:
- 1050DKK ($210 AUD) on house electricity
- 1000DKK ($200 AUD) on power for dehumidification of the v-berth
- 5000DKK ($1000 AUD) on diesel oil for heating
- 2400DKK ($480 AUD) on firewood

So here's the long explanation…

Many Aussies might be surprised that actual harbour/marina fees here in Northern Europe are on par or cheaper than Australia. Berthing here over winter is particularly cheap as most boats are hauled out onto the hard for winter. Thus, if you stay in the water, you can get a choice of basically any marina you want for a very low rate. However if you are living aboard then what you save on berthing fees, be prepared to spend it on heating...

Although I did some calculations before coming here I have been quite shocked at how costly it is to keep a boat warm over winter. Insulation will only get you so far, after that its simple a matter of letting it “burn baby burn”... quite literally.

There are really only three ways we considered to heat our boat:
a) standard electric-coil heaters;
b) oil-burning furnaces (flued to the outside); and
c) wood-burning fireplaces (flued to the outside).

Other heaters which burn fuel but are not flued to the outside (like some stand-alone paraffin heaters) were not even an option due to (deadly) carbon-monoxide build-up and also the fact that burned diesel/paraffin (or any fuel really) creates H2O (water) as a by-product which then raises causes even more of a condensation problem. There are also other electric options (such as heat-pump and reverse-cycle heaters) but they require a lot of space which we just don't have on our boat.

We also ruled out running our Webasto (or Eberspacher)-type heater for the whole winter because again:
a) they use re-circulated air and do not reduce condensation;
b) they are not really designed for continuous operation 24/7 for the entire winter – they are really designed for periodic operation on a weekender-type boat (a bit like Raymarine equipment);
c) they can use more fuel than the standalong ovens;
d) they also use electric power to run the fan. Its not a lot of power, but running 24/7 it will have a noticeable effect on your batteries.

There are two main problems that one has to overcome: a) the cold (obviously); but probably more importantly is b) the humidity which causes condensation and mold. I was quite impressed how warm the boat feels if you can just manage to keep it dry. A cold, damp, moldy dripping boat is simply miserable to be in. But once you can lower the humidity and thus reduce the condensation it makes a massive difference. Even at very low temperatures below 5 degrees the space can feel relatively comfortable – if it is dry.

We eliminated electric heating as an option quite early for several reasons:
a) it is a costly way to heat the boat;
b) an electric heater does not de-humidify so you then need to ALSO run an electric de-humidifier – further increasing the costs; and
c) perhaps most importantly: we wanted to learn how to make the boat comfortable without relying on being dockside. If we are to cruise to remote high-latitude destinations for extended periods then we also need to learn how to make the boat comfortable while off-grid. This means using very little power which we could manage to create with our generator.

So that leaves us with oil-burning and wood-burning furnaces. When we arrived in Denmark we stopped at the southern-side of the island of Fyn where a small company called “Refleks” manufacture oil-burning furnaces that are used in the Nordic fishing boats. We installed the smalled of these in the front-half of our boat. These are really great little units and we are really happy with ours however there are a few things we have learned:

1 - The length of the chinmney run INSIDE the boat is important. The Refleks furnaces are meant to be installed on the floor. However we didn't have any space on the floor without creating some type of hazard that we would have to walk-around and potentially rub our legs against the hot furnace. So we created a little shelf over one of the settees and placed in on that shelf. This however raised the height of the heater by about 1-meter. The only problem with this is that it reduces the amount of chimney-flue, and thus heat-transfer surface, by 1-meter. We have found that this has greatly reduced the efficiency of the heater and we are losing a lot of heat up through the chimney. You can tell that this is happening because the chimney is very hot (too hot to touch) at its exit through the deck. With a longer chimney run inside the boat the hot exhaust has that little bit more time to lose its heat to the inside of the boat and thus make it warmer. Its not been a big problem and we have still run the heater on its lowest-setting for most of the year, but we have noticed that the space has not been as warm as it could be based on our experience going into other boats that have similar oil-burning furnaces.

2 - In hindsight, if I had known the importance of this inside-chimney-length issue then I would have purchased one of the models that have a copper-coil inside them and then used that to create hot-water that we then run through a radiator. This would effectively remove more heat from the burning process and compensate for the shorter chimney run. You can buy units from Refleks with this modification already made to them. In the future I might try to modify ours to accommodate this feature. The only downside of this is that there are more components to the system, and you have to run a little water-pump to constantly circulate the water through the system. This would use a little bit of power, but probably much less than the air-fan on a Webasto or Eberspacher type heating unit.

3 – We moved one of our little boat-fans we have around the boat (for the tropics) and placed that near the exit of the chimney. Having a fan blowing/circulating cold air over the chimney does extract a little more heat from it and does cool the chimney. It also helps circulate warm air more evenly around the space and makes the whole space much more comfortable. The effect is noticeable: however our chimney still remains very hot at the exit and I think we could be getting much more heat out of it with a radiator-system.

4 – We really love the fact that our Refleks unit has a cooking-top on it and I would strongly recommend this for the future. We have used almost no gas this winter because we have not had to do any cooking on our normal stove-top and oven. This is great because it keeps the carbon-monoxide and humidity levels down (remember burning petroleum products creates water – this also goes for propane/butane/LNG gases). Also the ability to slow-cook food and mulled-wine on the heater makes it all very cozy inside which adds extra bonus points to the “hygge” during winter

Oil is obviously great for a boat because its easy to pump/move and plumb around the boat. It doesn't take up much space we already have the facilities to store 1050 Liters of oil in the bunkers. You can also control the heat on the oil stove very accurately.

The downside of the oil heater is that oil is quite expensive per unit of heating energy... and of course there is the environmental impact which we are quite proud of minimising. It still feels very counter-intuitive having spent the past three years trying to minimise our motoring and carefully watching our fuel-consumption only to sit here in the cold over winter and burn almost as much fuel as we have used in 2-years of cruising. Its a bit weird... really weird actually. So when we needed to heat (and dry) the back part of the boat that was what influenced our decision to try a wood fireplace.

As mentioned above, the wood fireplace really changed our lives once we installed it. I can't think of any other way that we could generate such enormous amounts of heat and dryness. The major advantage of being able to do this is that we can have “drying days” like when we emptied the v-berth and can get them completely bone-dry next to the fireplace. We should have done this with everything in our v-berth earlier in the winter, but we got onto it a bit later and it was still glorious after it was done. We also do that periodically with all of the cupboards around the boat that get a bit wet at the back.

The big downside of the wood fireplace is that it needs constant attention and you can't leave it burning while you are not around the boat to watch it constantly. It also takes an element of skill to be able to feed the fuel in and keep the fire well-controlled in the rather tiny firebox that we have.

We bought a relatively cheap little “firebox” which is constructed by a small business in Nottingham, England. This camping stove is designed for camping and especially not continuous operation in a boat of all things. This particularly noticeable with regards to the diamter of the chimney flue. A fireplace designed for continuous operation would have a larger diamter chimney which is less likely to get blocked and would promote good airflow. We are acutely aware of this, and there are a few things you have to do to ensure that it runs smoothly:

1 - Don't starve the fire of air. Its better to run it with the air supply fully open and control the heat by the amount of fuel that you add, NOT the amount of air. This is good because it reduces the amount of smoke that you create, but more importantly, it keeps the chimney very hot with a good airflow through it to prevent the exhaust gases and smoke from condensing inside the chimney outside. If you restrict the airflow too much then the exhaust gases will start to condense inside the chimney on the outside. The gases condense into a really nasty sort of tar which then will run back down the chimney. It bubbles up when it gets hot again and then can expand to block the chimney. Also for bonus fun its also highly flammable... so if you are “lucky” it will catch on fire and then you've got a wonderful chimney-fire to deal with where the chimney gets red-hot with an uncontrollable fire inside.

2 - In the future, to reduce the potential for this condensation to occur we will place a larger diameter domestic chimney flue around the smaller camping chimney outside and stuff it full of Rockwool-type insulation. This will insulate the chimney outside the boat and keep it warm and dry enough to prevent condensation of the exhaust gases and keep the chimney clear or soot and tar – easier to clean.

3 - Run it super-hot every day or two to try to burn-off any tar-like deposits that might form on the inside. Burning them off makes the tar deposits brittle and easier to clear out of the chimney.

4 - Combined with the above point: we also went into a hardware store and bought a plumbing “auger” which is the long thing which looks like a spring for cleaning drain-pipes. Every day before we start the fire (when we're clearing out the ash-tray) we run the auger up the chimney and give it a really vigorous shake. This breaks down the brittle “burned-off” deposits and ensures a clear path for the exhaust gases.

5 - Obviously for safety its VERY important to have a carbon-monoxide sensor installed. Not just one of the alarms... but one of the ones that gives a digital readout of the amount of carbon-monoxide in the air (in ppm or parts per million). Wood fireplaces make very large amounts of carbon monoxide which is colourless and odourless. Its much more than you think. For example, even opening the fireplace door to add some more fuel can cause a small spike in CO levels. Its good to be able to monitor this and ensure that the space is CO-free. If it does spike a bit then its not too much of a problem because the fireplace makes so much heat that you can open all the doors and hatches and air out the boat and you will still be quite warm.

Overall this has worked well for us so far and we can run the fireplace relatively continuously. It did take us a few test-runs and some very smoky moments before we finally figured it all out.

So that's been our experience so far. We are now nearing the end of winter and we feel like we've really nailed it. The boat is “super-hyggeligt” and we are very comfortable on board. Obviously there are some things that we could improve on, but we'll save that for another post next year.

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Whale strike!

Date:	Feb. 7, 2017, 1:42 p.m.
Daily Max. Temp (degC):	-1.0
Daily Min. Temp (degC):	-3.0
Wind Speed (kts):	20.0
Wind Direction:	80.0
Position:	55 43.56 N, 12 35.26 E

I have exploded in the final month of pregnancy and getting out of bed, has become more of a roll with accompanying groans. I have been rather lucky that it is only this last few weeks that I am feeling awkward and restricted by the condition. All natural recommendations for inducing labor will commence shortly as we have been informed that the estimate of her size is healthy but heafty and well above average... Spicy food is supposed to help, so our diet is switching from less danish to more Mexican, Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian. I am saving the big guns, (Korean and Thai,) for the final week. Sex is also said to help so it is a good thing men are biologically programmed to still find their wife in full pregnant-whale stages attractive! As well as other forms of exercise, which I have been managing to keep up without a problem. I am still able to cycle at snails pace to language school in the mornings - today in a sugar dusting of snow.

We have been fortunate to not only have an easy pregnancy but also a very mild and polite winter, but as the pregnancy has become more severe, so has the weather. The next few weeks are predicted to be rather cold. We had a complaint on the woodfire smoke and although we have the legal right to use it, we decided to be neighborly and shift position in the marina. Unfortunately we are now in the more exposed outer area and of course, after a calm month, we have unusual strong easterly winds predicted for the next few weeks. The one direction that the harbour is not well designed for. Nevertheless after testing a few days on electric heating and dehumidifiers we decided a bit of extra bounce was worth the toasty warmth of the woodfire - even if you did not consider the cost factor.

We have still been doing a bit of socialising and making even more new Danish friends, you can meet some truly fascinating people just by taking the time to say hello. We are also working hard on a big presentation we will give at the long distance cruising club (FTLF) Tuesday night, next week. If any of our Danish based friends are interested please contact us and we can reserve seats for you. We have been told that Danes love to discuss the weather and just to warn our non-sailing friends, we have taken that to heart and part of the presentation will be a discussion on passage weather, particularly in the Indian Ocean. On the other hand, there will be many photos and there is wine served.

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Playing with fire

Date:

Jan. 22, 2017, 5:36 p.m.

We have continued to enjoy a relatively "*#!Warm!#*” January but below freezing temperatures are becoming a bit more common. It is actually quite beautiful below zero with the often clear blue skies and sugar dustings of snow, just this week however we have had some foggy grey days which the locals warned us of. Our local friends have been very concerned that us delicate Australians, used to our long bright days and sun-drenching, will get depressed. It is taken very seriously over here and the Danes combat it with their concept of ‘Hygge.' Making their houses cozy and warm then filling them with good friends and good food to pass the cold dark evenings together.

Now that we finally have the wood fired heater working nicely, we have been hosting such evenings with friends to try and assure them that living on a boat can actually be rather nice. Admittedly, learning to use the wood fired heater took these tropically raised kids quite a bit of trial and error. First we discovered that the wood is not simply wood and the cheap, sappy, damp stuff we picked up from the petrol station in our impatience to test the new installation proved to be a smokey mistake. After a bit more experimentation with various sources we are using brickettes of compressed wood chips with good success. Then we had to refine our stacking methodology, we again learnt the hard smokey way, but now our tunnel method is working nicely in this little heater. (Lining the outer edges with the brickettes and lighting the fire within a small tunnel that runs from the air inlet vent to the flue.) Just as we started to get the hang of those elements, all our experimenting had blocked up the flue, so then we had the rather messy task of cleaning that out… But now by regularly burning a high temperature fire it is helping to keep it clear. Mark has furthermore picked up a plumbing auger just to make sure. On a couple of occasions the smoke was so bad concerned passers by came to check on us but we have finally gotten the hang of it and are burning cleanly now. It is a relief as we were close to giving up on the whole idea but now with the reflex diesel heater in the front and the wood fire in the back we are comfortably able to use the whole boat again, and the smokey after smell is pleasant now that it is faint.

Obviously the wood in particular is only used when we are onboard and we do have electric heaters as back up but all this experimentation does have a purpose. For if we do want to enjoy remote Fjords in Norway sometime then we will need reliable off grid heating like this. The interior of the boat is staying nice and dry, eliminating our condensation problems. The other big advantage of these heating methods over electric which needs to work in conjunction with a dehumidifier. Furthermore now that we have gotten the hang of controlling the temperature I have even begun using the wood fired heater to cook occasionally. A 6-7 hour slow braised leg of lamb comes out rather nicely. It has been really nice to have the use of our full boat again and the opportunity to start to repay the hospitality of our generous friends.

The Provider and his partner do their bit to combat the dark Danish winter by hosting a massive annual costume party and we were kindly included. Those who have known me a long time will probably know that I take such events rather seriously. A trait inherited from my creative mother and my father who loves any excuse for a dress up. The rapidly expanding belly (now 8-months pregnant) meant that a custom costume for the Mardi Gras theme was the only way to go. It turned into a wonderful project as combing the city for the items required got me out to less obvious corners of Copenhagen. It is these sorts of opportunities which really transform your experience of a place beyond the normal touristic scenery. I had a wonderful time and that was before we even go to the epic party last night. We went Venetian, and Mark looked particularly fabulous as a dandy dancing to Prince. We even managed to scoop second and third placings in the costume contest and we can’t thank the Provider and all his friends enough for such a fun night.

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Happy New Year from Copenhagen!

Date:

Jan. 1, 2017, 3:15 p.m.

It seems like everyone is hoping for an improvement on 2016. Proving that we are a slightly superstitious lot, celebrations in Copenhagen seemed to exuberantly welcome the chance for a fresh start. In Denmark this time of year is spent with friends and we were kindly invited by one of our fellow liveaboards to a party he was jointly hosting at an apartment in Frederiksberg, a well heeled suburb not far from central Copenhagen.

In Australia, at the height of summer we generally head outdoors to mix with friends (and often the general public) to enjoy the fireworks run by our local municipality. Three years ago at the start of our travels we knocked off a bucket list item by enjoying a fabulous NYE spent on Sydney harbour in our own boat. Fireworks are no longer available to the general public in almost all of Australia due to safety reasons as well as the bushfire risk in the dry summer. These restrictions are increasingly common throughout the world but not in Denmark. Over the last few days people have already begun prematurely setting off a surprisingly high number of rather large, professional looking displays, the Danes don't muck around when it come to investing in fireworks. On the day itself a steady stream of explosions began in the morning and continued the whole day, culminating in a massive barrage at midnight before slowly petering off. A couple of late ones have been set off today also.

The Danes value time spent with a select group of friends, so special occasions like this usually involve a small gathering and some traditional dishes. In the case of NYE this is Torsk (codfish) and beef tenderloin which was a welcome contrast to all the pork of December. Furthermore cold weather and the ability to have your own fireworks lends itself to private functions. Knowing this, we were completely unprepared for how celebratory and communal the night would be. It is definitely up there with some of the best NYE celebrations we've experienced. After a top quality 3 course meal and increasingly noisy conversations courtesy of some fine wines and Champagne, (with Mark gallantly drinking for two,) we headed up to the rooftop terrace at midnight.

With most of Copenhagen set to a built maximum height that leaves its elegant historical bell towers and spires to pierce the horizon, the 360 degree view was breathtaking. Then add the fireworks, huge private displays as far as the eye could see. It was quite an incredible sight and our vantage point ideal. We were standing at the level that most displays were going off at, including some lit from the streets below us which were almost too close! There was still a great feeling of communal celebration, possibly due to the compact nature of European cities with apartment dwelling more common. It defied our expectations and while our huge choreographed Australian displays are spectacular and hard to match, the Danish celebrations had an atmosphere of chaotic exuberance which felt so incredibly festive. Wishing everyone a terrific 2017.

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Did you turn it off and on again at the wall?

Date:	Dec. 26, 2016, 2 p.m.
Daily Max. Temp (degC):	6.0
Daily Min. Temp (degC):	4.0
Wind Speed (kts):	30.0
Wind Direction:	270.0

It has been another hectic but incredible year for us and December has been particularly so. We never expected to find ourselves residing in Denmark but we have been so warmly welcomed it is easy to ignore the winter weather. Although the second heater Mark has installed has also really helped with that. We are rather proud and relieved to have passed the first of our Danish exams and will move onto the second of five levels in the New Year. Hopefully we can get that stage done before the Azorean Stowaway (Blind Passenger) makes her appearance. All indicators are that she is healthy and growing well. Thus far it has been a really easy pregnancy and we can only hope that continues for the final two months. I am still comfortably cycling everywhere, albeit a little more slowly. You would not even be able to contemplate doing that in Australia due to our lack of dedicated cycling infrastructure and the dangerous behaviour and aggression I experienced from many motorists when riding back home but here it is safe, common and highly encouraged by my doctor.

The intensive Danish is a lot of work but we are surprised at how much we are managing to comprehend in the short amount of time we have been attending. Our pronunciation is still dreadful but thankfully we have made some very helpful and patient local friends, particularly through the boating community. I think it would be much harder to pick up the language doing the slower paced lessons part time which more people take, and combined with the excellent English of the Danes might be the reason that few foreigners pick up the local lingo. Hopefully we can continue with the intensive lessons for as long as possible. Mark has also been working hard, after a frustratingly slow start he now has a fair bit on his plate. Admittedly, like many, he does not enjoy long hours in front of a computer but he is working with some great people.

Other than installing the heater and some other minor winterising, we have had little time to work on the boat. We did however have one big scare when a power spike tripped the battery chargers. After a lot of time and swearing Mark had almost finished reinstalling the old one, thinking our two newer ones were burnt out, when he gave one a final test. It was not mentioned anywhere on the service manual but it turns out that disconnecting the DC supply resets them and we are quite relieved to have them working again, so relieved in fact that the reinstall was swear-free. Perhaps the same will apply for the new year, I think there are a few things about 2016 that we'd all like to reset.

Over the last month Jule has been in full swing, Mark looked very Danish on Christmas Eve as we cycled to our friends place with presents exploding out of his bike panniers, (like much of Europe Danes celebrate on the eve of the 24th.) We have also enjoyed having visits from travel friends from Germany and Sweden. The Danes are nuts about Christmas and our new local friends have been incredibly generous at including us in their many celebrations throughout the month. The natives are known to be reserved and not to invite newcomers into their houses but we have absolutely not found that to be the case. We have been spoilt with some generous gifts and danish treats (the Danes really know how to do treats, they even put caramel sauce on their potatoes!) It is a little alarming how many toys our unborn daughter has already amassed. We enjoyed a quiet day on the 25th with one of our foreign friends from our language class, nibbling at some of the special treats we have received including some magnificent homemade smoked salmon and good quality wine.

We have survived the darkest day of the year but admittedly we have had a rather mild winter so far. The locals keep warning us that the worst will come in the next two months and tonight we are expecting a rather big storm to herald in the cold change. With many of our boat neighbours away, Mark is out checking the lines of all the boats as an extremely high water rises and we are currently being hit by some hail. So far we have been fairly comfortable in our protected spot but there is a wind shift due which could certainly make things a bit more interesting. All part of the adventure.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, with best wishes from both of us for 2017, Cat & Mark.

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A full dance card

Date:

Nov. 30, 2016, 6 p.m.

Our calendar has suddenly gotten incredibly full, we have been doing so much socialising that we have manage to completely deplete our once extensive South African and Azorian wine collection. We have several upcoming Christmas functions, both private and through clubs to get us into the ‘Jule' spirit. Mark has finally been making progress on the job front, which may see him working with some well respected firms, and finally we have commenced formal Danish lessons! As we both have previously learnt other languages and have many years of tertiary education we were able to get into an intensive class of the highest stream offered. It is fast paced and very engaging. We have been put into a course that had already been going for a couple of weeks but we are finding ourselves well placed with the independent study we had been doing previously. Our 2 teachers take turns giving lessons and we have a fascinating mix of about 20 classmates. Being in the higher stream, everyone is well educated but the similarities end there, we are from all walks of life, with all continents of the globe (bar antarctica) represented. We even have some topical refugees and it has been incredibly interesting to hear their stories. Initially, it was hard not to feel a pang of resentment for all the assistance that some individuals receive. It was however, humbling to receive a very ernest offer of accommodation from one of the refugees from Syria. She lives in a small room provided by the Danish government, and shares other facilities with many people. Her son is in one country and her daughter another, while they are both adults she finds it hard to be separated and starting life over at a mature age. Nonetheless she was terribly concerned that we would be living on a boat while I was pregnant, (as a refugee she clearly has a very low opinion of boats…) and has quite firmly insisted that we come and squeeze into her little room when winter sets in. We have been at the receiving end of some wonderful hospitality in Denmark but that, coming from the person who has the least to offer was obviously, incredibly moving.

Mark joined and posted on a Danish sailing Facebook page which got some wonderful responses, and we have been to some FTLF (Long distance Cruising Club) events. We are also getting to know our marina neighbours (both live aboard and otherwise.) Through all this we have met several people and enjoyed some lovely dinners with them. We also attended an glogg wine (spiced & spiked hot wine) and aebleskiver (yet another type of yummy Danish pastry) evening. The sailing and boating community has given us a fun and more in-depth introduction to Denmark, they patiently let us murder their mother-tongue, and provide a lot of practical information. We are particularly grateful for the winterising advice. Furthermore one sailor has even leant us a spare dehumidifier, Mark has cleverly puzzled out the voltage to get it running and the dramatic effect that has had cannot be understated. We look forward to being able to return some of the hospitality we have so generously benefitted from and will soon give a talk towards that end. One of the most prominent piracy cases in North Africa involved a Danish family and it seems as a result most Danish sailors nowadays put their boat on a containership in Asia to get it home instead of completing a circumnavigation. As such our experience of the Indian Ocean crossing via South Africa is getting a lot of interest and we will be giving a presentation focussing on it at the FTLF in mid February. Hopefully by then our language skills will have progressed enough that we can at least give a little introduction in Danish.

We have a freezer full of lovely codfish thanks to our new friend, whom we shall call “The Provider.” Not only have he and his girlfriend dropped the occasional fish off after their early morning, pre-work trip but they have also taken Mark out to teach him how they are best caught. The Provider then presented us with an amazing opportunity by inviting us along to his hunt on the weekend. Due to strict regulation here, these are usually an exclusive event for the wealthy and well-connected. Although we have a packed calendar, there was no way we were going to miss this. We travelled up to Aalborg in the North of Jylland (Jutland - the peninsular attached to Germany) to stay at his parents place. Unfortunately for me, men get a little protective when you are 6 months pregnant, so I was politely steered to the cultural sightseeing opportunities of the area. Mark got to go and be a ‘clapper’ (his role was described as untrained puppy bounding through the forrest, making noise to scare out the deer,) on a very traditional and ritualised hunt complete with a horn blower and Danish snaps in the hunting cabin afterwards. The team managed a deer, a hare and a bird, with each species of animal receiving a tribute song from the horn blower at the end of the hunt. It was a completely different experience to the few times he has been hunting in Australia or New Zealand and he really enjoyed the day spent in the beautiful countryside of newly denuded trees. In the meantime, I ventured into the lovely city of Aalborg, true to my architectural background, I beelined it for the Utzon centre (designer of the Sydney Opera House.) I enjoyed a stroll through the pretty old town town centre which is in full juletide (Christmas) swing as I made my way to the Kunst Museum (Modern Art) designed by Alvar Aalto of Finland. Needless to say I had a pretty terrific day spent with two of my favourite architects. On the way back to Copenhagen we visited a historic viking settlement and got to drive across the 17km+ long Storbaelt bridge.

Many people wonder why we would choose to winter in Denmark instead of somewhere a little warmer and cheaper and to be honest, on the tough days we ask ourselves the same thing. It has been a challenging time adjusting to being dockside in a semi-permanent fashion. After three pretty intense years of sailing, with the last two in particular being very full-time, we collapsed into a bit of a heap upon arrival. Mark described it as feeling like he had been fired from his job. Our new friend The Provider, acutely observed that we were dealing with a schizophrenic lifestyle, where we are looking for work an other ‘normal’ people stuff while still mapping out the more fantastic possibilities of sailing to Norway, Iceland and beyond. For us this pause seems a natural part of the challenge of sailing to these parts. We get to immerse ourselves in this very different way of life, as well as to gain knowledge in preparation to head up to the really high latitude sailing. We have have had an amazing three years with some incredible experiences but it was a very transient lifestyle and this in-depth integration makes a rewarding contrast.

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Cultural differences

Date:	Nov. 20, 2016, noon
Position:	55 43.55 N, 12 35.15 E

So far we have been settling into Denmark rather easily. We are starting to make some terrific friends amongst the locals, particularly through the sailing& boating community. Many Danes are well travelled and we are finding that those who have lived overseas themselves have made great (and greatly appreciated,) efforts to befriend us. Aussies and Danes are an easy fit socially and the Princess Mary effect doesn't hurt either. Our sense of humour is probably more akin to the Danes than any other European nation, but it is definitely the relaxed friendliness and easy going nature that we share most closely.

However, there are some big cultural differences to overcome. We are battling away at the language, reading and writing are coming along well but we are still finding it easier to understand spoken Swedish than the mumbled contractions of the average Dane. Hopefully this will change soon as we have finally been notified that our formal language lessons commence next week.

It is officially Christmas (Jule) over here, trees are going up everywhere and we even had a dusting of snow recently. The average Australian is not super-obsessed with Christmas. Our experience growing up in the tropical extremes of Australia meant that it was a pretty relaxed affair that usually involved a bucket of cold shellfish enjoyed while hiding from the heat in a cold swimming pool. Not here. I am not sure if any other nation is as nuts about Christmas as the Danes and I have spent the season in Canada.

So with an explosion of Christmas invites, I thought it was time to make some of the few Aussie Christmas traditional treats we do indulge in. Starting with my personal favorite, Rumballs. Problem number one, no wheatbix, eek, ok don't panic there are approximate substitutions that can be made. Then I discover that rum balls are traditionally made here and are commonly found in bakeries. So I start to doubt if this will be a nice different treat to contribute after all, until I discover how they make theirs... with stale cake and RASPBERRY JAM! No condensed milk HUH? That revelation is particularly baffling in this dairy obsessed nation. Perhaps because they put cream in everything else there is not enough leftover to make condensed milk. Lucky we still happen to have a couple of cans in the very depths of the bilge and I am not yet quite so pregnant that they are lost to me. In summary while we are still making frustratingly slow progress on the job front, it took Christmas culinary traditions to make us feel like outsiders for the first time.

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Winter preparations and fuel usage

Date:	Oct. 16, 2016, 1:15 p.m.
Daily Max. Temp (degC):	9.0
Daily Min. Temp (degC):	7.0
Wind Speed (kts):	20.0
Wind Direction:	100.0

We've started a new logbook "Winter (and a baby) in Copenhagen". It will be a bit different from the others because we're actually going to log zero miles. However life continues on the boat and the challenges that we have to overcome to spend a winter here in a cold climate may be interesting to follow. That is, after all, part of the "adventure" and reason we wanted to come to this part of the world.

Having a pregnancy thrown in with a baby being born mid-winter will bring some extra excitement. On that note we had the 20 week scan earlier this week and it looks like it will be a baby girl (or should I say it looks like it won't be a boy - as that's the logic they use to work it out).

We're working on names now. If it was a boy then the name would be easy - just go straight to the top of the list of "Viking power-names" to: "Thorbjorn" (literally meaning Thor's Bear). That would have been awesome. Unfortunately female Viking names don't quite roll of the tong so easily and I don't think an Australian girl would ever forgive us for calling her "Brynhildr". It's a work in progress...

We are in a marina called Tuborghavn which is about 6km north of the Copenhagen. The only weakness of the marina is its not very well protected from the East as the orientation of the buildings and harbour tend to funnel the wind into the harbour. This is particularly bad when the wind comes from the North-East. This normally* isn't a problem because the wind usually comes from the West (actually NE-winds only occur around 7% of the time). But as with everywhere we have gone in the world, it appears that the weather is doing unusual things. As we have discussed with other long-term cruisers: pilot charts seem to be pretty much irrelevant these days. Things seem to be changing so rapidly these days that the historical 50-year averages no longer relate to what actually happens on a year-to-year basis. We've had North Easterly winds almost non-stop since we arrived... for 4 weeks! Our wind meter has been rarely below 20-knots and regularly up to 30-knots during this time. We've got a brief respite with wind from the ESE for now, but it looks set to continue from the NE again next week. Unbelievable.

The harbour is in a great location though (although it is a bit weird being in a business-district). The 6km (3nm) from the marina to the city center is an easy cycling distance (about 20-minutes) on Copenhagen's world-famous bicycle infrastructure which is probably better than you could ever imagine it to be. EVERY road has a dedicated bicycle path alongside complete with bicycle traffic lights, zebra crossing and the works. There's no awkward issues crossing even large intersections. Everything has been carefully thought out with regards to bicycles. Even when there is road-work, they have to divert the road traffic AND the bicycle traffic lanes so there is a continuous unbroken method to get around by bicycle.

The cycle ride from here to town is incredible. It takes you past all of the most famous "must see" tourist items: historic churches; castles, gardens and harbours; including the famous "little mermaid" statue; the historic Nyhavn and Copenhagen city centre itself. I'll try to do a series of photos one day on the cycle into the city on the way to work

We have spent our first month here just getting settled in and doing more work on the boat in preparation for when winter really kicks in. We got a little "sneak peek" at winter the past couple of weeks when a large weather system brought strong North-Easterly winds which carried down cold air from the north. We had overnight minimums of 1-2 degrees and a day or two with maximums of only 5-6. While this is not as bad as we'll get in the dead of winter it was a little chilly and gave us a good idea of what more work we need to get prepared for winter.

We lose a lot of heat through our wheelhouse windows, so we have replaced the button-on sun-screens that we normally have around the wheelhouse (in the tropics) with double-sided reflective bubble-wrap covers. These were not on all windows. I was planning to buy some plexiglass (acrylic or polycarbonate sheets) and "double-glaze" the windows but we didn't have time before the cold-snap hit so I just resorted to cutting out pieces of the reflective bubble-wrap and duct-taping it to the inside of the windows. This effectively makes it "double glazed" (or you could say "bubble-glazed"... haha... ahhh... ahem) but its obviously not clear because of the aluminium backing! So our wheelhouse is quite dark at the moment as I've blanked off all the windows in this way.

We do however have our hatches and sunroof which we can take the covers off to get more light in. Back in Amsterdam I cut out double-walled polycarbonate sheeting (6mm thick) and I have installed that inside all the recesses of our hatches to make them essentially double-glazed also.

This has definitely made it better but its still pretty cold up in the wheelhouse. The reason its staying so cold is because of leakage through the old doors. On a windy day you can even feel the cold air leaking in through the old lock mechanism which had a huge hole for a skeleton key. Currently we've just filled every crack we can find with towels and foam but I'll be taking a trip to the hardware store to pick up some plywood and completely blank off one of the doors. We'll only be able to get in and out of one door (that's ok because we only mostly use one anyway).

While the wheelhouse remains so cold, we can literally feel the cold-air dumping down on us when we are in the saloon below. So to solve that issue (until we better-insulate our wheel house) I have blocked off the companion way which leads from the wheelhouse down into the front-half of our boat. This effectively halves our boat and we are living in a tiny space in the front half. We've even moved our latex matress from our double-bed in the aft-cabin. We can't complain too much though because the front-half that we are living in now is probably still bigger than the living space in most 30-odd foot boats. So we're comfortable.

The Refleks heater keeps things super-cozy and warm in that tiny space. We now leave the Refleks heater ticking along on the lowest setting just to keep it nice and warm at the front. We've found that the heating unit cooks MUCH better than we expected. The temperature changes remarkably quickly once you adjust the setting (because the diesel basically immediately vaporises when it enters the burn-chamber) so its almost like cooking with gas. It is very nice to have the heater always running and just put a kettle whenever you want for a hot drink.

The other major advantage of the Refleks is that we aren't using a lot of our gas-supplies. This is good because we are still using the Australian (same as US) fitting and the fittings here in Europe are different. I will have to buy new adaptors and fittings for the European gas bottles here but at least the Refleks heater buys us a bit of time to figure all that out.

We are still using the gas which we filled up with in Cape Town. One 10-kg bottle of gas lasts us about 3 months under normal usage, but it last a lot longer when we are doing a lot of passaging at sea because we tend to just eat less and have simpler meals. We used up the first of our two 10-kg bottles when we were approaching Copenhagen. So that 10-kg of gas lasted us from March through to September (over 6-months!). We are now onto our second bottle, but with the Refleks heater working as well as it does then we could last at least another 6 months on that bottle too!

Finally, while on the topic of fuel-efficiency, we are still on the same "tank" of diesel fuel from when we filled up in the Azores. That is even after motoring pretty much the entire distance from Breskens (southernmost point of the Netherlands) to here. We did a really good amount of sailing from the Azores up to Breskens, but navigating the inland canals (as well as a complete lack of wind in the North and Baltic Seas) mean that we had to motor almost the entire 500 miles from Breskens to here. Still we seemed to get here with our tanks 1/3rd full, thus we had consumed about 650 liters of diesel from the Azores to here. Although I would have loved to motor less in that final 500 miles, I was OK with our fuel consumption, considering that that accounted for the 500 miles of motoring as well as all of our heating and hot-water for over 3 months.

One thing that is very interesting is when you do the calculations on the fuel consumption of living in cold climate. I've started to crunch the numbers and its very interesting to see how the fuel-consumption for just living/surviving in a cold climate over winter compares to our fuel consumption of cruising in mostly warmer climates over the past few years. If anyone is interested to know how many miles you can sail around the tropics on the same amount of fuel that we'll use just to keep our tiny space warm for the winter here then I'll cover this in more detail in the next log entry...