Struer, a town in its own right, is still referred to as Hosterbro-Struer in pilot books and on charts. Holsterbro is a totally separate town about 10 miles south but Struer has a superior position with regard to road, rail and water communications. It was established in 1917 to serve the needs of industrial Hosterbro and so lacks any old world charm. However it is proved to be ideal for preparing and provisioning the boat. After raising the mast, our first tasks were to visit a bank to obtain currency, stock up on fuel and food and purchase the necessary Danish charts of the area.

We had used the British Admiralty chart No 2325 for planning. This covers the area adequately in fathoms, but the Danish charts No 108 and 109 are metric, have more detail and contain small panels showing major harbours, difficult channels and bridges. Brackenbury's Baltic Southwest Pilot also contains useful sketches of the harbours at Livo and Fur but since it was published there have been a number of changes, making a new edition desirable. This book described only 14 out of the 27 harbours which were listed in the Danish tourist office leaflet. We decided to make sketches of those harbours not shown in the pilot book or as plans on the charts.

Dust from the grain silo near the commercial dock persuaded us to move Tiger Lily to the pleasanter surroundings of the yachting marina where there are showers and a restaurant. After driving for 2 days, having located the harbour and launched the boat, it was time to reward ourselves with a meal in the 'Marina Club' restaurant. Although slightly expensive by English standards, the meal was superb and it made an ideal start of the sailing phase of the holiday. Our sailing plan was to circumnavigate the large island of Mors, visit the small islands of Livo, Fur, Jegindo and Veno and have one day off visiting the famous flower gardens near Nykobing.

Sailing out on the first leg of a foreign cruise is always exhilarating for the trailer sailor - venturing out into unknown waters. We left Struer on a strong easterly wind which necessitated a passage through the narrow channel separating Veno from the mainland, past the bustling car ferry and up the west coast of the island. To port we could see the vast wind turbine farm near the Oddesund bridge. On passing the two pretty harbours of Veno and Jegindo we promised ourselves that we would visit them on our return journey. Near the southwest corner of Mors is the island of Agero, part of which is a bird sanctuary and a paradise for ornithologists.

Our destination was Doverodde, a tiny jetty harbour in the narrow route west of the island of Mors. Doverodde is easily identified from a distance by a large, apparently disused, grain silo. Although the harbour is exposed to easterly winds, the rather substantial floating jetty provided sheltered continental style box moorings. In Denmark local yachtsmen leave a sign in their box to indicate whether it is in use. A green 'FRI til' sign means that it is available for visitors and a red 'OPTAGET' sign shows that the owner will be returning to it. It is bad form to enter a box displaying the occupied sign.

Our technique for box moorings is to prepare, on each side of the boat, a large bowline in the end of a long piece of floating rope. One person motors the boat slowly forward and the other slips the bowlines over the posts. The two ropes are allowed to run freely over the pushpit whilst motoring slowly forward. Just before the bow touches the jetty one person jumps off whilst the other checks the forward motion with a stern rope. The bow is secured to the jetty and the stern ropes tightened up. It is important to use floating rope, as motoring with non-floating rope disappearing over the side can be disastrous.

In Doverodde we were unable to find the shop mentioned in the pilot book, but the restaurant seemed to be very active. Although giving the impression of a 'sleepy' harbour, there were recent signs of improvements, particularly for dinghy sailors.

The bridge at Vilsund on the NW corner of Mors has one opening span. Local yachts wishing to pass through normally fly the 'N' flag from the spreaders - we sounded 'N' on the foghorn. Ten minutes later the bridge opened and we headed for the town of Thisted 4 miles away. The harbour entrance is difficult to make out against the town, but the huge white grain silo just east of the entrance is a very useful landmark. Once inside the harbour we found that the only available box was for a vessel twice Tiger Lily's size, however, no one seemed to mind and several other large boxes were occupied by small boats. Our 12 meter rope was only just long enough for that particular box.

Thisted is an ancient town and the local museum houses Denmark's largest collection of Bronze Age artifacts. A few kilometres southwest of the town lie a system of ramparts dating back to 900 AD. The marina is a few hundred yards from a modern pedestrian shopping precinct.

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