The route
go to the route

Voyage to Oslo


Denmark

Bad weather kept the Orm in Keil for a day, but as the weather improved the crew was ready to take on the challenge of the crossing to the Danish islands.
When the Orm reached the waters toward Bagenkopf, he was met by the Danish Coastguard.
The coastguard wanted to know which warship was sailing into their territory unannounced !
The Orm was now behind schedule, so the crew sailed toward Kragenaes on the same day.
The next day the crew headed for the port of Sandvig.
According to the charts there was a harbour there, but it took Henri a while to find it.
Once the Orm finally got into the harbour it was easy to see why it had been so hard to find it was so small that the Orm had to lie diagonally in order to fit !
The following day the crew sailed to Køge.
The weather forecast for the next day was bad.
According to the plan, the Orm should have sailed to Copenhagen that day, where he would be welcomed by the Dutch ambassador.
In order to avoid the heavy weather, the crew decided to sail to Copenhagen during the night.
The bad weather arrived earlier than expected, though, and the Orm sailed into a massive thunderstorm.
Rain hammered on the deck, and Thor hit the clouds with his hammer, causing lightning all around.
The Orm ’s mast was struck and the short-wave radio blew up -oh, the problems faced by modern Vikings !
Finally the ship reached a small harbour close to Copenhagen.
So much for what was supposed to have been a flight before bad weather to Copenhagen...
The Orm in Denmark

Copenhagen

The Orm in Denmark The next day the Orm sailed into the harbour of Copenhagen and found the Dutch ambassador waiting for the ship’s arrival, despite the bad weather.
The ambassador offered his home to the crew a wonderful chance for a little breathing room during the storms.
The following days were spent in and around Copenhagen.
When it looked like the weather-gods were finally going to give up, the crew decided to make the crossing to Sweden.
The supply car caught the ferry and the Orm was prepared for the crossing.
Of course, Murphy’s Law was in full operation; as soon as they were ready to sail, the bad weather closed in again.
Henri knew that the Orm could handle the weather on the open sea.
The waves created by the windforce 8 Bft would be big, but the Orm ’s hollow shape would simply lift the ship up and over them.
But the Orm was not yet in the open sea, and had to get out of the harbour first.
The harbour is well sheltered behind a rocky entrance of sandbanks, but the entrance itself creates irregular waves that come from different directions, and these waves are the only ones that the Orm, which has a free-board of 30 centimeters in the middle, cannot take.
The Orm had to head back into the harbour.
The radio was repaired and the crew tried to make contact with the supply car that had gone ahead, but the radio’s range wasn’t far enough.
Coincidentally, the ship that was used for the TV show "The Love Boat" was also lying in the harbour and Henri was able to use its radio.
That was one advantage of sailing such an unusual ship - you can often get to do things that others can’t.
The weather forecast was that the storm would calm down during the night.
Henri decided to take advantage of this, and so the Orm left Copenhagen as he had arrived in the middle of the night.

[  last updated :  9-5-2021  ]


© Copyright H.A. Houben