I was coaching Venture Capitalist Mark Carnegie on the surf ski, and we recently completed the Molokai crossing in Hawaii. Mark was looking for another challenge and I was on google earth looking for that challenge.
Using the measuring tool on google earth I mapped out a challenge. Paddle from Puttgarden, Germany to Rødbyhavn, Denmark, then ride our bikes up towards to Copenhagen to a town called Køge and then jump back in the surf ski and paddle across to Malmo, Sweden.
I showed the plan to Mark and his only question was "its obviously been done before, so road plans and ocean maps will all be available". I looked him in the eye and said of course.
With no idea of how I was going to pull this off, I took the gamble of flying in 2 days before he did and driving the course by road and sea. Those two days involved over 20 hours of driving on the roads, as I needed to find roads that didn't have pot holes and were wide enough to fit us and not be hit by passing cars. The 2 days I scoped the ocean paddles it was beautiful clear days and I could see the other country across the water.
Mark landed, and 4am I picked him up from his hotel in Copenhagen and we drove to Rødbyhavn, put the car on the 6am car ferry and headed for Puttgarden, Germany. As we arrived in Puttgarden the rain set in, and it quickly turned to torrential rain, we looked across the water and visibility was now about 300m. Mark said "Luke do you have the GPS/compass all lined up, or should we cancel", I said "Yes Mark, everything is set and ready to go".
I didn't have a GPS or a compass, my plan was to follow the car ferry line as I thought I would have clear visibility. Off we paddled, a tail wind kicked in so we were flying, I was happy, I thought I was going to pull off the impossible. Then Mark said, "Luke I think we have paddled ourselves into a circle and going the wrong way", I hadn't heard a car ferry for a while now and I started to second guess myself. After 5 mins of arguing, I made a decision on what line I was going to take and I stuck to it. About 30 mins later I heard the horn of the car ferry and I was relived. We were about 2km off course, but I now knew where the car ferry line was, so I paddled towards it and the rain started to clear and we could see Denmark. We made it...
We were freezing cold and we were excited to be on land and now jump on the bikes. Mark is a very good cyclists, and I was fit, so I knew the long ride would be manageable.
Some 5 hours later we reached Køge and waiting for us was a Danish man I met the day before who owned a speedboat and in broken Danish I convinced him that if he got us across to Sweden, this Australian Venture Capitalist man named "Mark" would pay him whatever he wanted. The Danish man was there on the speedboat with his entire family, his wife and teenager son and daughter, he was there to watch two Aussies paddle/ride 3 countries in one day!
The Danish family cheered us the whole way, they were more excited than us. My wife with our 1 year old daughter Indi were driving across the famous Øresund Bridge wondering if we were going to make it to Sweden.
After 2 days of driving the entire distance of Denmark, the many bullshit lies I told along the way, and nearly be lost in the middle of the Baltic Sea, we make it from Germany - Denmark - Sweden in just over 12 hours.
