One of the things I love about where I work is its location. Denmark yes, but where in Denmark is even better. The office of OMT (Odense Maritime Technology) is located in a former industrial area that is being revitalized. Instead of tearing down beautiful old buildings, the city building codes lead you to “renovate” the old buildings. OMT is a company of ship designers and engineers that are used to being near the water and ships. This led them to the waterfront on the Odense Canal and a renovated grain building.
The Odense Canal leads to the Odense Fjord and the fjord opens into the Kattegat, the sea that is bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Straits islands of Denmark to the south and the provinces of Västergötland, Scania, Halland and Bohuslän in Sweden in the east.
The reason I am telling you all of this is my office window looks out on a working harbor with access to the open ocean. I can see all kinds of ships and interesting sites. The Queen’s Yacht comes into this harbor yearly (a past blog entry). Sailboats, working ships, Danish naval vessels, fishing boats, kayaks, even paddle boats you can rent. I get to see all of this by just looking out of my window.
So when a Wooden Boat (or should I say SHIP) Festival is held in Odense, I get a front row seat.
This festival is called the “Regatta "Around Funen”. Funen (or FYN in Danish) is the island where Odense is located. Each year during the summer, these ships sail around Funen and stop at most of the ports to promote wooden ships, their preservation, and keep the Danish wooden ship cultural heritage alive.
All the ships arrived on Friday evening and on Saturday I went down to take a look. I was not disappointed. There where all sizes and types. Many you could go for cruises on after the Regatta.
My office
The view from my window
(and of course you noticed that the old wooden ships were under power when leaving. Sailing these ships is for the open water these days!)
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