The sea lock in Inverness opens, and the Dagmar Aaen enters the familiar salt water of the North Sea again.

Since the weather forecast promises favorable winds for us, we take advantage of the hour and sail out of the Moray Firth, a bay that stretches for seventy miles, without any further stopover.

Early the next morning we reach the open North Sea and head for the Skagerrak with a strong wind. It is a good 500 nautical miles from Inverness to Skagen, our next destination. A bit of melancholy resonates as we see the coastline of Scotland slowly disappearing in the haze astern. Scotland has so much to offer, and we feel like we've only seen a small part of it - even though we've been on the water for over two months now.

On the way we stop to take measurements with the CTD probe. During one of the last measurements, the probe gets stuck on some underwater obstacle at a depth of almost 300 meters. Everyone on board is alarmed. The loss of the sinfully expensive instrument would be terrible. But fortunately we manage to get the CTD free again by careful maneuvering. Lucky!

After four days we enter the harbor of Skagen on August 24. We are almost home.

Position: 57.712885, 10.651245