Swimming from Denmark to Germany

Netherlands swimmer Marjan Brouwer took part in the 2025 edition of Fördercrossing, a 3km swim from Sønderhavn to Glücksburg

It is first of April. I’m full of tension trying to buy a ticket for the famous Fördercrossing. It is said that the 450 tickets will be sold out before noon.

Success. I’m in! I can start planning, preparing and training for the 3km crossing between Sønderhavn Denmark and Glücksburg Germany.

Part of my preparation is reading Renaissance Swimmer as swimming in salty water is outside of my comfort zone. I also signed up for Outdoor Swimmer’s Swim Further and Faster in Open Water course as this crossing is longer than I have ever swam before in an open water swim event.

Children can swim too

When I told my nine-year-old daughter Silke about this event, she got interested too. We signed up her for the AK1 Kindercrossing.

After swimming our distances in our nearby lido (clear water) and a small lake (open water) we are both confident that we will manage it in the sea.

We’re all going on a summer holiday

A week before the event, we headed for the south of Denmark for our family summer holiday. We found a nice camp site (Gl. Ålbo Camping) at the Lillebælt that we made our basecamp for the last part of our preparations. It is about 100km north of the Flensburg Fjord, so it is almost the same water. Here, we practised dealing with the current, waves, sea life, wind and saltiness of the water. Perfect!

Event day

Our big day was 9th of August. We arrived at the event site in Glücksburg early in the morning. Silke showed her Dutch swimming and lifeguard diplomas, which allowed her to join the Kindercrossing, a 150m swim from beach around the pier to the finish flag back at the beach. Wearing her self-painted swim cap, she enjoyed the swim and finished third.

A few hours later it was my turn. A bit nervous, I entered the briefing pen for swimmers with odd-numbered race entries. Jostled between around 200 wetsuited, orange-capped, excited participants, I tried to listen to and understand the briefing, which was in German. I hope I understood enough!

We next walked 500m barefoot along the boulevard to the marina. Here, we boarded small speedboats to be transferred to the start near a sandbank off Sønderhavn.

We then had to jump from the boats and wade through the water to reach the start point, where we joined the “even” starting numbers, who’d been briefed separately and had arrived before us.

No walking allowed

At 14.15 sharp, when all 411 participants had arrived at the start, the horn blew and we set off! Although the water was shallow in places, we had to swim. We were not allowed to walk because of the sea life. If you did, you would be disqualified.

The route took us between Lille Okseø and Store Okseø, two small islands just off the Danish coast. We then had to follow a line of buoys back to the finish at Glücksburg’s Beach.

I’m pleased to report that after little more than an hour, I finished somewhere in the middle. Feeling tired but proud, I was welcomed by lots of supporters and my family.

I was also delighted with my event goodies, which included a rubber duck and T-shirt. A big thank you to organizers DLRG Glücksburg for a wonderful day.