Scandinavian Summer

George DuBose explores capital cities and lonely islands on a cruise from the Netherlands to northern Denmark

- George DuBose

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George DuBose was a professional music photographer and art director with over 300 rock and hip-hop covers to his credit. The Ramones, B52s and Run DMC were some of his clients. Now retired and living in Europe, George is sailing his 1973 Pearson 36-1 and writing about his adventures on board while exploring the waters of northern Europe.

Every summer I go cruising with my teenage sons to distant European harbours. In 2018 we decided to spend our six-week holiday exploring Denmark and Sweden before using the Kiel Canal in Germany to take the short-cut home to the Netherlands.

My wife would join us in Germany and I’d take various crew for the different legs, on board our 1973 Pearson 36, Skylark. My deal is that I provide all the food and beverages and they make their own travel arrangements.

Once the hard work of planning and paperwork had been done, I had plenty of willing crew members to keep me company from Enkhuizen to Skagen, the most northerly part of Denmark.

The distance was 400 miles, and with Skylark capable of 120 miles a day, we were looking at three days or more of sailing across the North Sea.

The west coast of Denmark is quite shallow, often a lee shore and with not many attractive harbours. The ones that are there service the fishing and wind generator industries. We therefore decided to make Vlieland – one of the Dutch Frisian Islands, eight hours away – our first port of call.