Drama at Ristinge ends happily, August 25, 2019

Every year, the Tourist and Business Organization of Langeland celebrates the Day of the Fynen Archipelago at Ristinge harbor the last Sunday in August. Locals and tourists can experience the anatomy of a fish, bake pancakes, drive in the donkey cart and much, much more. Also sailing trips from the port of Ristinge with the old schooner Meta from 1884 are on the program. The water depth outside the harbor of Ristinge is not impressive, and this year the last trip ended with a stranding. Will Meta be sailing again, or rests it still stranded there?

View of Ristinge Harbor, Langeland, Denmark. In the background lies Meta, aground.

View of Ristinge Harbor.

The stand of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation.

Meta aground. The small boats from the harbor help in trying to bring her afloat.

Skipper directs the attempt to bring Meta free from the bottom, and the passengers follows the process. Are they going to spend the night at Meta at sea?

The remaining guests in the harbor are eagerly watching whether the rescue operation succeeds.

Waiting for the drama to end, in the meantime view from Ristinge Harbor.

Meta is sailingt again. The drama at Ristinge ends happily. The schooner META is a wooden ship that sails every summer on sightseeing trips and sunset trips with locals and tourist from the three ports of Svendborg, Rudkøbing and Marstal. The schooner META was built by shipbuilder Christoffersen in Assens in 1884. Meta sailed until 1938 as a freighter, after which it was rigged into stone fisherman. In 1961 Meta was sold to Copenhagen, where it sailed with anglers, and after that it was given up and moored in 1978. In 1979, Meta was rescued by a group of people from Rudkøbing and then furnished as a pleasure craft.