A chance meeting with one of the big ships around Malmoe harbour

Tuesday and Thursday evenings around 18:00 the members of the kayak club KF Öresund try to find some time to paddle. This most often takes place around Malmoe harbour. Turning left when leaving the harbour gives a choice of a number of short traiing trips, most often to Lagunen.

This day, 20100608, we instead turned right. In that direction, there is a lighthouse, and the harbour, to visit. This day, the visit to the lighthouse timed well with one of the bigger ships entering Malmoe harbour. It can here be seen coming in the direction towards the harbour.

Here the ship is just passing the lighthouse referred to as the "rat trap". I do not know the story behind the name on the rat trap, but we pass that one more or less every time we do not go left out of the harbour. These ships are quite big, specially when seen sitting 5 centimeter above water line in a kayak.

The whole paddling group is sitting and waiting for the ship to pass. The ships do not generate very big waves when they pass.

Gets me to think of a trip only two weeks ago when I and another member in the club were the only two paddling in the quite heavy fog. Since we wanted to be seen rather than risk beeing out on the open water in the fog, we took the trip into the harbour. The day was perfectly calm, in principle no wind at all. But inside the harbour, suddenly waves started to build quite high. It turned out that we where on our way out at the very same time as another big ship (Finnlines) were on its way in. We first did not see it in the fog only the waves which where built by the water it pressed in front of it.

Just like the group on this picture, we that day waited until the ship passed, but it so happened that on the way out another big ship exited before us. Like with the "KESS" ship, it did not generate waves, but its propellers creates quite a turmoil in the water behind it.