The Kattegat

The Oresund straight opens out into the Kattegat, the area of the North Sea that separates Denmark and Sweden. This would be the longest segment of our crossing. I felt my choice of a cabin with a sea view was vindicated; had I not had a window I wouldn’t have spotted the enormous offshore wind farm with over 100 turbines, which prompted me to take another spell on deck. Our passing the wind farm coincided with sunset, 

With night fallen, vessels (or possibly platforms) passed silently, their red port side lights visible but giving little indication of the types of vessel or structure I was seeing. Around midnight we called at the city of Frederikshavn at the northern end of the Kattegat. The platform that marks the passage through the outer break water was populated by a huge colony of seabirds, illuminated in red by the marker light.

The port stop was very brief, barely time to embark whatever passengers and cargo were joining; I headed to sleep as the ship headed out across the Skagerrak towards Oslo Fjord.

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