German Speed Sailing Championships

What a journey. The German championships have always been an event I wanted to attend, back in the past it was always well attended by the big guns, Maka etc.

Getting here has been a bit of a adventure on its own. Living in a small island like Guernsey getting anywhere can be difficult and costly. The only way I could see of getting to Germany in the quickest time was to ship my van to England without me, pick it up at Southampton airport, drive to the Euro Tunnel and drive up from Calais. All went to plan, the van left on Monday 30th without me and I flew on the red eye on the 2nd.

6am start on the 2nd, picked up my van just after 8am and on the road. 2.5 hrs later and I was in Folkestone ready for the tunnel. Its quite daunting turning up without a clue of where to go or what to do. I was ahead of schedule as I had prebooked the tunnel crossing for 12.30. By now I was in a cue of traffic going through the self checkin, no way of getting out of it but to my great relief when I got to the automated check in, tapped in my booking code, it told me that I could go on the next train.

All going to plan and ahead of schedule. I didn't know how long the train would take but decided to try and have a nap as I would have a 9 hr drive the other side. I just got off dreaming epic speed conditions when the annoucer informed us that we had arrived, 30 mins from leaving. Not much of a nap but well ahead of schedule now.

Sat navs are so great. I know 99% of people will read this and say "yeah so what" but I have never had the need for one until now. I entered the destination "Fehmarn" and off I went. 6 hours driving through France maybe Belgium and Holland, difficult to tell when your following the sat nav and all the names look the same (foriegn) then into Germany and I need to stop. The german motorways don't have as many petrol stations and hotels along the way as in France so finding one took a little longer than expected but find one I did and had a good night sleep and food.

Friday 2nd and I am up early and on the road by 8am with approximately 3 hours to go. It's feels lot easier than driving yesterday evening and before I know it I am at the bridge that takes you over to Fehmarn Island in the Baltic sea.

Fehmarn is approximately 10 miles square. The motorway from mainland Germany runs straight over the connecting bridge and on to Puttgarden on the North East of the island where there is the main ferry port for freight and transport on to Denmark.

We are based on the South West side on Fehmarn in a small village / marina called Orth. It's quite similar in feal to Weymouth, lots of yatchs and small boats pottering about. Lovely cafes and resturants with outside seating, a holiday type of place.

From first arriving the speed sailing potential is obvious. It doesn't matter which direction the wind is, there will be a speed strip to sail.

Most of the competitors have turned up on the Friday however the registration is open on the Saturday morning as well. We are based in a field adjoing two potential speed strips, on to the west and one to the east. Both only 100m away. The rigging area is next to the camping area in the field and it is no surprise given the Germans history of travelling through Europe that they have pitched up in there camper vans.