Hello!

Long time since I updated our blog, so this will be a comprehensive post to be able to catch up a bit to get closer to where we are now.

Holland

Last blog we were in Helgoland, and we set sail towards Holland, first stop were at the Frisian Island Terschelling. What strike us when we got there was how good the Dutch are to take care of their old traditional boats.

A real beauty

Next stop was Harlingen and on the way, we saw this beautiful boat

As you can see the weather is a bit gloomy, and unfortunately it was Gloomy for most of the time we were in Holland.

Of that reason we came to stay close to a week in Harlingen

It was stormy over a big part of Holland and the Schiphol airport was closed for almost a full day.

But sometimes the sun showed up and we enjoyed the street life

And of course, admire the skilful skippers of the old traditional Dutch vessels manoeuvring in close quarters.

We saw many examples of very skilled skippers, Dutch people are obviously good seamen.

But we do not saw that when entering the Kornwerdarzand Lock  into the lake Ijsselmeer.

When we came to the lock, it was plenty of boats waiting to pass, and as soon the green light was lit, everybody just hurried in towards the lock and it became a bit of a commotion. It was not the only time we saw that behaviour it was unfortunately very common as soon a bridge or a lock was opened, it looked as it was a race to be the first in.

On our way to Medemblik we saw these lowly old ships sailing.

In Medemblik we collected our Starlink kit which was delivered to an Amel friend, Herman Govers, Heman and Hella are preparing their Amel for live aboard cruising so we had a lot to talk about

Starlink at its temporarily place, very easy just plug and play a real game changer for communication with friends and family when fare away from home.

Next stop was Urk.

Urk is also a very nice village with a lot of maritime history, some of it showing the harsh life for people having the sea as their main source for income.

A wife and/or a mother looking for their loved one if they will came home. The text you see on the rocks in the back ground is name of the perish sea men and fishermen over the years.

1868 was difficult year with many persons lost at sea, age from 11 to 68, Life was tough at that time.

More cheerful history is watching and listening to an old engine

We also stopped in Amsterdam and moored at Sixhaven, again we saw the chaos when no one waiting for other to leave ore come. No everybody at the same time.

The marina was packed with boats during the night, and in the morning when mosty of them left at the same time, others was entering. Strange that they did not hit each other.

It was much calmer at the botanical garden

Other reflection from our time in Holland, nice that old smaller boats (24 fot and above) was very common and larger boats 35 feet and above was rather uncommon, and a lot of young people was sailing, nowadays most people that sail has had grey hair for long.

Biking is very common in Holland and several Swedish politicians wants Sweden to follow the path of Holland, but I hope not because there is a lot of chaos especially in Amsterdam, either there are no traffic rules or they are not followed, it is the same behaviour as in the marinas everybody try to get first!

For a Swede it is a bit shocking that no one has a helmet, not even on the infant they have back on the bike!!

Belgium

In Amsterdam my son Kristoffer with family came to visit us. After they have had a short tour of  Amsterdam we set sail towards Zeebrugge, unfortunately the weather gods was not on our side, head wind +/- 20 kn and  shoppy sea, made the female crew very sea sick, and about 1 hour before reaching Zeebrugge the halyard for the head sail broke so that might have been a bit scary for the crew as well, not the best start of a holiday.

Broken halyard

It was not too difficult to pas a pilot line from the top down to the exit for the head sail halyard. I had no spare, so I turned the old one in reverse the top part down so the part with the tension is the old part that has not been under tension.

From Zeebrugge we took a daytrip to Brugge a very nice and historical town

Kerstin enjoining Moules, one of her favourites

France

When sailing on the English channel, one has to take the tide very carefully in consideration. Our next step was for Boulogne Sur Mer, and for that we had to plane carefully not to get into very strong conter current when rounding the Cap Gris-Nez, as a Sweed we are not used to deal with tide, so it was with great satisfaction we manage to time the departure and arrival almost perfectly, it took away some of the anxiety we have had for the strong tidal current in the English channel.

I hope these two pictures from the Marina in Boulogne Sur Mer illustrate the difference in sea level due to the tide.

This boat came in when we were there and they had collided with a big freighter vessel

Must have been a very frightening experience.

Can’t say that the harbour is particularly nice, but other parts are very nice.

Our plan was to have a stop in Cherbourg, but the marina was closed due to a sailing race, so we took a trip of 180 Nm to St Helier on Jersey, (The crew had booked flight tickets from Jersey and the weather was not the best so we took a decent weather window to be sure we get there)

On our way to Jersey, we were overtaken by this a bit faster boat than us

Else the passage became rather pleasant.

The tide in Jersey is up to 12 meters, very amazing, and it must be very difficult to have a boat and plan sailing. Not only weather but the tide put constraints on when to use your boat

Mont Orgueil Castle

We managed to get at least on good day for sightseeing in Jersey, other days it was very windy and rainy.

In Jersey we shifted crew, my brother Thomas with partner Brita came to visit us.

We took a trip out to the Elizabeth  Castle

The castle is in the background of Thomas and Kerstin

It was a very strange vehicle who took out the tourist to the castle, we opted to walked in the mud and water instead.

Leaving Jersey, towards Brest became a very rough trip, and Brita became extremely seasick and was totally out for most of the trip.

In Brest we meet our friends Anika and Kent who were there with their boat.

We had a  very nice lunch together and Kerstin got her favourite dishes again moules!

New update to come soon.