Wustrow and the Baltic Sea

This past weekend, I went to the Baltic Sea with Eileen, Sasha (our intern from Moscow, and her parents, who are business partners of ours) and there we met Guenter and his wife, Inna. This part of Germany, that I went to is very famous for its beautiful shores. Because it's from the East, it is also newer and less built up. It is also only 20miles from the Danish shores and 60miles from Sweden.

The land there is really nice, and very similar to Michigan. There are lots of little lakes, and many trees that cover the streets. Als0, there is the Baltic on the otherside. To begin, we left Berlin early in the morning to drive the 2 and a half hours to Wustrow, but that's with Eileen driving her FD Seat Leon, which is quite fast. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for Sasha's parents) there was a lot of traffic, and we couldn't drive any faster than 100km/h. There were pockets of fast driving, but in the end it took us about 3.5 hours to drive there. When we got off the autobahn, the landscape was filled with meadows and cows and pockets of forest. It is amazing how Germany is the most populous country in Western Europe and yet is smaller than France and Italy, and yet retains so much natural land. Well finally we arrived in Wustrow to this small harbor where there were parked only sailboats, no yachts or motorboats. Here is a picture of the sailboat. Its about 8 meters long (about 2 feet). To begin, I helped Eileen and Guenter change the mast to the storm sail so that we wouldn't go so quickly, and that the ride would be quite a bit smoother. We departed the marina using a little honda engine, and then we put up the sail and we were off. I should note that around this village Wustrow their is an large inlet of water, which is basically surround on three sides by land, so the water is much calmer, warmer and shallower than the open Baltic. However, this didn't matter, as we sailed at about 20 knots into the center. I learned that the boat can sail the fastest when the wind is coming from directly behind, but actually from a quarter angle, as the wind is forced between the two sails, and thus basically creates pressure pushing the boat faster. In fact, when the wind blows from behind, the boat can only sail as fast as the wind, but when the wind is from a quarter angle, the boat can travel up to two times faster.
As we turned around the bouey markers, I was resting above getting some sun. We were luckly, because in Berlin it was actually raining, but here, it was sunny and warm. I even got a light tan. When the sail was up, I wouldn't have been able to lie like this, as the boat would be sailing at such an angle that it would be hard to hold one's balance.
After watching Eileen get in the water, I decided to swim (drag) behind the boat as we were sailing at the quick pace. It was a lot of fun I have to say, and not so scary unless you let go of the rope. The problem was though that my swim trunks wouldn't stay on. At least it wasn't only me. It was a really good work out though, because pulling yourself out of the water at such speeds requires a lot of upper body strenght.
Here we are with Inna at the Baltic getting ready to go swimming. The water here was much colder, and it was filled with non-stinging Jellyfish. However, the water was not so salty, not like the Atlantic or Mediterranean. So in all, the baltic is really similar to Michigan's great lakes, and it was a great feeling to be there as it reminded me of home. The one thing you have to be aware of in Germany (especially in the East) is that people are not ashamed of being naked (fully stark naked) on the beach with their families. Most people just sit and play completely naked and go swimming with nothing on. I was a bit put off by this, and found it sort of funny.
In all, I hope to go back to the Baltic as it is really nice and pleasant here. Not so far from Berlin as well. It also means that there is only Northwest Germany that I have still to see, because otherwise I've travelled through the whole country.