The Route

Team 4!

Thank you guys & girls!

Looking back at a fantastic adventure with much wildlife (seal, otter, bottle nose dolphin, common dolphin, porpoise, puffin, shear-water, gannet, razorbills, etc), top scenery (e.g. fluorescent sea off IJmuiden, Dunnottar Castle, kyle of Tongue, Suilvan mountain, loch Nevis, Sky, Mull, the Mull on Kintyre, east Dunmore, Falmouth bay, moonlit night in Fastnet), tough sailing, smooth sailing, poker nights, too many drinks, town excursions, crab dinner, uno nights, calm nights at anchor, wild nights in squalls and many many fun dinners. Thank you all!

This 'production' was made possible, and much fun, thanks to the efforts made and logistic nightmares endured by: Charles, Frits, Jan-Willem, Joost, Matthew, Pieter, Scott, Rene and Robert. Thank you for coming along, for helping to keep the boat in top condition (NOTHING broke!!) and for taking on all challenges (the weather, your skipper..) in good humored way.

Pretty much the same great many thanks to the ladies: Ann, Hettie, Julia and Sophie. Plus special ladies-thanks for coming along on the ride, upping culinary standards, spotting wildlife and being excellent co-skippers, jetty-expedition helms-woman, navigators and 2nd co-captains.

And now back to work....

p.s. Anybody in for a south-coast dessert in May or June next year? :)

-

Uitgekleed!

The adventure is over or parked for the winter. We cleaned the sails and equipment, got all the salt off the boat, dried everything and had a brief spell enjoying Falmouth.
Falmouth is nice, lifely with a real boating scene: sailclubs, fancy restaurants and all. They also have a big maritime museum here. It is as different from the gritty Scottish and Irish scene (excl. Dublin) as you can have it. The bay is very pretty with about 5 rivers running into it and many boats moored.
We hauled Hartendief out of the water yesterday and crew 4 (Rene, Pieter and Matthew) took the taxi this morning at 4 (!). We slept on the boat while when it was already parked on the hard which invoked a scene described by Pieter about Russian sailors stuck on their ship in midwinter Petersburg unable to sail.. It is surely more classy to sleep on a boat when it is in the water :)
The marina here is fantastic with shops, all facilities thinkable. A good place for the winter.
Next year we hope to use Falmouth as starting point for our family vacation and than have a last leg of our round Britain adventure for a last crew to take here back with me. From Falmouth to the Netherlands is about 350 miles of coastal sailing and that should be a wizz compared to the tough bits we went through.

Falmouth

We sailed 185M in 28 hours!! Rene and Matthew tuned Hartendief into a
thorougbred, somewhat overpowered :), wave surfing race horse and
broke the speed record with a new record of 9.7kn. Tough seas and many
showers kept us on our toes and generally slightly cold and miserable.
Highpoints were Dolphins (5+), an increible moonlid night with a
moon-rain-bow, stars and surfing the waves. Max wind reached 35 knots
only once with most (gusty, squally) wind between 20 and 30 knots
(5-7bf).
The sun is coming out and will hopefully allow us to desalify and dry
ourselfs and the boat.

Dunmore East

Supercute village at the entrance of the river Suire (south ireland)

Definitely worth spending a summer holiday. Beautiful beaches, palm
trees en lovely thatched houses.

Now It is a stormy and rainy day and we are waiting for a 'hole in the
weather' as we call it. already waiting for days now...Tomorrow 4 O'
in the early morning we wil finally leave for south england. a 200
Miles and 40 hours on the ocean in stormy conditions and part of the
famous fastnet track.
Chears

Verstuurd vanafijn iPhone

Waterford waiting for burgers

Regrettably, we did not make the dash for Falmouth today. Weatherforecast includes possible 8bf winds and 7bf for sure - not from behind at all...
We deliberated for a couple of hours, but around 1800 we decided to let this 'weather window' pass. As a result we will be stuck until Thu morning for sure. Hopefully Thursday's winds will come through as forecasted as this point. If that is the case we will have 6bf right from the NW and should have an exiting ride.
This morning we had a marvelous swim in the hotel resort spa across from the marina. A bit of decadence won't hurt.

Waterford (Irish South coast)

We sailed 15M up the river Suir this morning and arrived in Waterford.
Looks like nice town with amazing golfcourse. The sail started very
smoothly yesterday pm. Dublin bay was full of racing boats, some sun,
3bf and totally smooth water. Pieter hoped the rest of the week is
going to be like that... Around dinnertime the wind tuned to SW. And
picked up to 5-6bf on the nose and we ended up motorsailing in rocky
seas. This lasted until early morning when the wind turned farther to
the south and we got an angle to sail to Waterford rather fast. In the
end we sailed about 100 miles in 20 hours - an excellent start-up
sail!
Matthew and Pieter have been adapting fast. Rene spotted Dolphins /
Poroises and Matthew nearly ran over a sleeping seal/sea-lion. It is
unclear who got the biggest scare.
We cleaned boat, gave the town a 'Chippendale shower show' and are now
ready for drinks!

Dublin

Yesterday we readied the boat for the next leg. Motor and battery check, filled up diesel, cleaned deck. Checked wiring motor panel and put extra chaff protection on the genua. Hartendief is still in top shape!
We had a great lunch with my Harvard AMP mate Enda Connellan, the CEO of the Dublin Harbour/Port company. Enda is also a serious sailor and very entertaining. He toured his empire with us: miles of docks, ferry, container and roro terminals. Impressive stuf.
Dublin has grown tremendeously over the last 15 years and has some very sleek and modern KNSM-Island like developments. After lunch we came back to the boat to finish our maintenance work and at night we enjoyed Dun Laoghaire, wich is a young, modern affluent bayside satelite town of Dublin - again with lots of new modern sleek bayside developments. The RIYC stands here overlooking a big, ultra modern marina (fingerprint access control!). The RIYC is just one of 4 yacht clubs here and there is a tremendeous racing fleet that dwarfs anything we have in the Netherlands. We had dinner at the club on Thursday, which turned out to be the last race day of the season and the place was full with nice enthusiastic racing crowd. One of the owners of "Attitude" explained how we should be able to make even Hartendief plane under spinnaker by dropping it off a wave; "If you haven't got green water up to the mast you haven't tried hard enough". We will try that some time.... :)

Joost and Charles just got on the 'Patton Flyer' bus to the airport. We had a great time guys!

Dun Laoghaire is in full preparation for its international cultural festival starting tonight, but crew 4 with Pieter, Rene and Matthew will be on the plane by now and the plan is to leave this afternoon to catch the south going tide to Waterford (100M). There is a slight chance that we will head for Falmouth in one go, but most likely is that we will overnight in Waterfort Sun-Mon to let a patch of strong S-winds pass and than set out for the 200M sail to England by mid afternoon on Monday. Winds look terrible after Wed morning, so if we do not escape before that time we will get stuck in (beautiful :)) Ireland. We won't take stupid risks though and 7bf backstay wind is the max we plan to encounter. Hopefully the weather forecasters are having a good week. The models have been flawless so far.

Dublin - Dun Laoghaire

Goodmorning all. Early in the morning we arrived at Dublin after 22
hours sailing. We were able to use the sailwindow to its best to get
here. It was a beautiful night, early very clear with an immense
amount of stars. Charles has seen a lot of falling stars, later on
more clouds arrived, but kept their raindrops for Scotland! We
escaped. Joost is a bit disappointed for seeing only 1 seal. We tried
to catch some mackerel, to the commodere Jos' amazement without
success. Today we will party and do some shopping in the city.
As far as we can oversea, the boat will stay here for the next 2 days.
The next crew will arrive in Dublin on Saturday, due to weather
conditions we didn't make it back to England.
Today we will update some photos.

Glenarm

Leaving Glenarm for the general Dublin. Making use of 24 hour weather
window between latest low and remnants huricane Bill.

Glenarm - N Ireland

Today was a great trip. Tough start in 6bf and 3+M, fairly confused
seas. Towards the afternoon we were near the Mull of Kintyre: the
winds abated somewhat, the sea got camlmer and the sun came out. Now
in Glenarm Joost is in shrts and we are enjoying a well deserved rest
in a perfectly sheltered harbour. Great evening.
Hurricane Bill's remnants are approaching, so we hav. To take it easy
step by step. No oveernight trips planned untill good windows for that
open. We are approx 110 miles N of Dublin, so end point for this week
is likely to be the SE coast of Ireland.

Islay

Monday morning. Yesterday was a very hard slog with 30kn+ winds (7bf)
on the nose in exceptionally wild, steep, breaking sea. Deck is well
washed now.
We anchored at Atos bay (Islay) and had a quiet night there. Jos
heared poroised vere nearby making big puffs.
Beatiful morning now and on the way to Port Ellen. Slight chance we
may make a dash for Ireland today, but probably better tomorrow as end
of the day promises 25knot wind and tides bere run 4kn.
Yesterday in sound of Luing we maxed 13 knots over the ground in stong
tides , impressive rips and wirls. Quite sporty!
With all forecasts for wind on the nose, the English south coast looks
very very far away right now... Logistics for team 4 can not be
determined yet, but there is a chance we will not make it farther than
Dublin.

Arrival Crew 3

Charles and Joost arrived in Oban at 15.20. We hope to leave tomorrow morning at 05.00 - 06.00 subject to weather conditions. First a glass a wine, cheese and a nice diner!

Cleaning, Checking, Planning

Checking and cleaning boat today. The weather is very 'lively' with some strong low pressure systems flying around. Squally wind conditions mean we will have to tread carefully. Joost and Charles are expected to arrive tomorrow. Hopefully two fronts connected to a depression west of Ireland will have passed us by early Sunday. That would just leave short fairly calm weather window to get to the south of the Mull of Kintyre (Islay) before it starts blowing hard again later on Sunday. You need a bit of luck...

Family vacation is over

Ann and the kids got on the train this morning. Our vacation together was a great adventure with a final highlight yesterday when Sophie and daddy hiked all the way across Karrerra Island - 16km with many hills. I am proud how well Sophie did. The island offered many fine views including a fairy-tale-like ruined castle and views of Mull. The day was complete with Ann picking us up from a remote pier which was fun and added much to the "expedition feel" of our hike.

Oban

Our last family week is 'Scottish' with persistent rain. This weekend at Loch Levin we had 45knot+ winds. Luckily while we were safely tied to the dock.
We mostly ducked the bad weather by taking the West Highland Express, first west to Glen Finnan (where 'bonnie prince Charley' landed), then to Rannoch moor, which has breathtaking nature and where you realize just how empty Scotland is. Sophie got the added excitement of seeing the 'Jacobite', a steam-train of Hogworth express fame as well as a helicopter film crew that was there to shoot the new Harry Potter film.

Sunday we stayed at a sweet mooring off Suna island to arrive in Oban early yesterday in time for some serious shopping for the girls.

We are meeting lots of nice people and experiencing the whole atmosphere here as much more sociable than what we were used to in Denmark. Participating in the West Highland Week is now firmly on our wish list. Yesterday Julia and I met with our Scottish neighbors who just spend 8 years building their own stunningly beautiful wooden 44 footer. The family then had very pleasant drinks (Oban Wisky obviously) with Hans Yntema and his sailing friend Frank. Hans is also a member of the KNR&ZV, his team is sailing around Britain in a Etap 37 and we previously met him and his daughter Nina in Lowestoft. Hans and his team are now on the way to the south coast and I hope to catch up with them again.

Today, still in Oban, we took the kids to Gforce, a nice James-Bond-like film, but produced by Pixar and about Guinea Pigs. Otherwise a few too many ice creams but we are enjoying ourselves very much, also in the knowledge that tomorrow is the last family day (!) and that daddy will have some challenging sailing ahead next week. The low pressure areas keep coming in like clockwork and virtually guarantee south winds in the Irish sea.

Loch Levi & Glen Coe

Tobermory ended with daddy and Julia witnessing the otter steal
herring from a fishing boat; quite a show!
Today we are at Loch Levin. Loch with big beautiful green mountains
that create interesting downdraft/squalls.
We are encountering serious rain for the first time. After a
leisurely start with lunch in a sweet coffee/book shop, we hiked to
the National Trust Center at Glen Coe; an impressive glen where the
leadership of the MacDonald clan was murdered at the orders of our
very William of Orange....! Now enjoying a quiet evening with the rain
droning on the deck. We are thankful for the luxury of our cabin
heater....

Family Photos!

Click on the slide show on the right to see a new set of photos...
Tobermory is a great recovery stop. The girls are shopping and happy. Sophie caught up on her vacation (arithmetic) home work. Yesterday's dinner at Fish was excellent. Most notable are the 'in harbor' wildlife sightings we did. Yesterday an otter that was not shy at all was frolicking and feeding just 50 meters away from the main boulevard with about exited tourists cheering him/her on. Today we sighted 4 dolphins jumping and playing between the moorings.

Tobermory

Today we wake up at mooring in rainy Tobermory harbour. The town looks
promising with brightly collored houses and nice looking shops. The
girls will like this.
Yesterday started in Loch Nevis. A very impressive totally remote loch
with just a few houses and 'the remotest pub in Brittain' that turned
out to be a great find.
We sailed all the way to the head of the Loch (some tricky navigation
through narrow with strong currents) and anchored to enjoy the
fantastic mountain views and total silence. Nobody there.
Our plan to then go visit the Armadale castle gardens had to be
abolished over strong Northerly winds that created a swell in Armadale
bay. At a spur we decided to use the Northerly wind (fairly rare here)
and make a dash for Tobermory. For 45 min or so we had rough waves in
wind against tide at Ardnamurchan point (no fun) but otherwise we had
a very fast beautiful 'sleigh-ride' which included blue skies,
stunning views of Sky, Rum and Egg, diving Gannets (they drop into the
sea like dive bombers) sightings of Manx Shearwaters (puffinus
puffinus) a sundowner at sea and arrival in Tobermory with a remainder
of twilight and the moon just rising above the mountains...

Otters and porpoises - Kyle of Lochalsh

Quiet weather & smooth sea helped our fauna spotting team to excell.
We spotted 3 otters and many porpoises; also, razorbills with babies
and various seals, although the latter ones did not allow us to feed
them by hand like the Gairloch seal did.
My mom's time was up and we waved her bus out just now. The fauna
spotting team is loosing its most valued member! Another problem will
now be what to do if Julia is succesful at her mackerel fishing
efforts...
The crab Julia caught yesterday got seasick over night. We had to free
it. There is some slight hope that it will recover now that it is back
in clean cold water...
Kyle of Lochalsh has an excellent supermarket (we drove cart to the
boat) and the village is not unleasant. The hotels and restaurants are
'vergane glorie' though, so yesterday we had our slightly liberal
interpretation of 'high tea' in the cockpit - glorious.
Last night we were anchored at Eilan Donan Castle: looks better on the
photos, but nice quiet mooring and beautiful loch.

Portree

Today, is the total opposite of Rona (wich is rough and deserted;
perfect place for 'retraite' / writing book) Portree is a sweet place
on sheltered bay with nice microclimate. Lots of palm trees. Sailing
race with little dingies in the bay. More peaceful than this is hard
to imagine. Lots of second homes. Two trains diaily make this a 'major
hub; 6 hours to Glasgow. We had fish and chips (9/10) at picknick
table overlooking the bay. Family decided tob move here and start
pottery business.

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Sent from my mobile device

Rona

Anchored at Rona in rough, fantastically beautiful secluded bay with a
view at Sky framed by series of gates formed by rough rocks and green
islands. The sense of depth is striking, augmented by the partially
clouded and partially sunny sky shedding a different, changing, light
on each island and with Sky's high, bold mountains the dark shaded
backdrop.
The wind has been changing all day, SW, SE, 5 knots, 15, 18, 10, 25,
10. Whenever we turn a corner around one of the high headlands the
wind changes.
For the first time there are other yachts anchored with us. All have
heavier anchorchan than we...
Grandma is cooking the few mackerels that we held back from the seal
yesterday. Enjoying parmazan with port in the mean time!

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Sent from my mobile device

Rona & grey seal

On our way to Rona ('rough island'; just east of Sky) in 15knot S
wind. Kids head great stay in Gailoch with many sightings and even
feeding of the resident seal.

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Sent from my mobile device

Gairloch

We (grandma, Ann, Sophie & Julia) are playing Uno in the Mountain
coffee company. Harbour seal was there again this morning. Fairy tail
walk on the beach. This pm we will collect clams and mussels at the
beach for spagetti al vongole (with mussels) tonight... Hopefully high
water will not interfere....?!

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Sent from my mobile device

On the way back to Schotland

Now at Gatwick. Flying to Inverness in 30min. Nice day. Happy I went to Pauls service.

Ullapool

On Monday, we first organized Jos' trip to the Netherlands for Paul's funeral on Wednesday. We then decided to weather 15-22kn winds on the nose to get to Ullapool as our basis for the next couple of days.
Leaving around 13.00, the ride was a bit rough. Sophie and Ann coped very well, as did Hartendief, but Julia fell seasick. We rested at anchor for a couple of hours at Horse Island where everybody recovered in glorious sun with soup and swim and we then continued our 'roller coaster ride' to Ullapool where we arrived at 20.00.
Ullapool initially was unpleasing because of the howling wind, grey sky and impressive, barren mountains. Also there was no berthing for yachts and we had to take a mooring. With Jos off to the Netherlands and our dinghy too small for Ann to comfortably ferry herself and the kids to and from shore this was a problem. We did have a quiet and peaceful dinner at our mooring though and all slept fine.
Today, Jos dropped the family on shore. Ann sorted things out with the harbourmaster (nice, mainly preoccupied with fishing boats) while Jos tied Hartendief back to its mooring and rowed to the shore. After a family breakfast in a friendly sandwich shop we all went our ways. Ann found a pleasant B&B for the duration of Jos's trip and Jos took a ride from a very friendly Ullapoolian - Ian - to Inverness to catch the plane to Gatwich and then to Amsterdam.
Tomorrow, Ann and the kids will visit the Isle of Lewis. We are looking forward to continuing the trip on Thursday. Luckily, it appears that winds will be more favorable then.

Lochinver stop

Ann and the kids arrived yesterday. Today is terrible weather day. We will do some reading and have checked into a B&B to enjoy the town. It is pretty here. Just behind the town (200 souls) civilization stops...
Yesterday we cleaned the boat and fiddled about a bit to stop a small deck-leak and prevent the chute from catching in the standing rigging. With all the sun, two walks and a 'nature swim' we had a great time.

Loch Inver

Wonderfl environment with impressive view of Suliven mountain. We had
a smooth ride here. The town depends on fishing. Big trawlers 'owned
by the French supermarkets' bring the fish onshore here. The fish is
put in cooled trucks that drive to France the same day. Apperently no
fish gets sold here. 'You have to know people to be able to buy
lobster'. Luckily we struck a good chord with the local fisherman at
our pier, so just let us know what you need and we'll get it for you!!
This evening Ann and the girls arrived afterf a long drive. The
weather will be bad tomorrow, so we will hide out in the local B&B. It
is called the rose and owned by a Dutch couple!
We had a beautiful walk throurgh the woods, quite rare in the
highlands and took some time for visiting the local village. At eve we
went for another walk and did some swimming in a wonderful loch. Early
to bed this night, for a nice journee back.

To lochinver

After a peaceful night it was time to move on.
The weather changed, at departure good wind, rain and coldness. High
waves to take and break through! Later on the wind dropped and changed
its course, happy we have dieselpower also. Seen a lot of missiles,
not from the submarines, but real bird attacks on the fishpopulation.
In groups they dived vertically in water, really as missiles hitting
there targets, impressive..
Now sailing again in a peaceful mood, passing a gsm-mast, that was
planted on shore for us, as we are not aware of any other users. With
2 hours to go to Lochinver where we will checkin for the night.
Tomorrow the last trip of this crew.
Sleep well!

Magic and Sadness

We are softly rocking at anchor in the magically beautiful ''kyle of
Tonque". The ocean is roaring just 200meters away from us, but there
is a drying sandbar keeping us out of its reach. This is magic, we are
enjoying life.
And just now we get the news that Paul has passed away today. We are
still struggling to let sink in what happened. Such a fantasticly
cheerful, strong, bright, warm and friendly man will always remain
part our world - if only as a great example. What a sad day.

Pentland Firth

Passing the Pentland Firth in quiet weather (3 bf NE). Sea is smooth,
but with eerie wirls / tidal rips that make it clear you should not be
here when tides run fast in bad weather. We are just after dead tide
and have 4 knots of current with us.
Now entering the North Atlantic Ocean; under spinaker!! To the nortgh
is Hoy, one of the Orkney's. To the SW is Dunnet Head. This is a dream
of a sail.

Queen of Tarts arrives in Wick

Wed july 22 we arrive in wick at 6pm. Set out from peterhead 4am with
tide after night sheltered from storm. Bound straight across moray
firth into heavy fog. Pass ratry head old homestead of friend peter
cumyn back in quebec. Wind 10 kts beam reach enough for halfling
spinnaker. Soon lose wind have to motor all the way at 6 kts. No
Dolphins today but many seabirds. Tonite ther is talk of poker and-or
scoth. Tomorrow we battle the heavy tides to the orkneys, jos will do
his homework well. Spirits are high in anticipation of tomorrows next
adventure. Love to all. Slang!

To Wick

Wed 0400 UTC: Front has just blown over (strong wind and torrential
rain) now all clear for departure to Wick.

Peterhead

We arrived in Peterhead around lunch. Peterhead lives of fishing and
service to the oil rigs. Both industries are clearly hurting. We had
very smooth and beautiful sailing, but the 'foute boel' bad news about
Paul Cuperus dims our spirit today. Paul was hoping to join the first
team on the trip but turns out to have cancer and the cancer turns out
to be much harder to treat than anticipated. Let's all hope Paul now
gets a lucky break for a change.

Stonehaven

Monday 1900 UTC: we arrived in Schotland! The ride was fast with 4, 5
and 6bf SW winds, but also with a vere rocky and confused sea making
us slightly uncomfortable.
Arrival made up for that though. We anchored underneath Donmorran
Castle and went for a swim in 15degree (...) water. The view could not
have been more dramatically Schottish. We are now readieing for a
pubdinner in Stonehaven - a vere pretty village.
Tomorrow winds will shift east, so we will probably push ahead at
first light get the tide and the remaining SW wind and make it to
Peterhead while we easily can. From there to Wick is NW journey and ok
in E-SE winds.

When crab hits the fan

Whitby is een alleraardigst dorpje aan de monding van een klein
prutriviertje. Links en rechts staan hutjes met souvenirs en oude
boeken en een abundance of pubs. We scoorden allengst ein zweital
krebsen und ein homar und die haben wir heuteabend in Das Boot
aufgegessen, wobei die Moewe die Resten aufgefressen haben im fluss.
In York gab es heuteabend torrential rains aber hier war es trocken.
Wir tranken ein Australian weiswein und hatten ein heftiger discussion
uber Katholusche kirche (und alles was dabei falsch ist, oder nicht),
Entwikkelungswerk, fascismus, das innere, Geburtstagbeschraenkung und
sustainable development. Der Huaptman fragt ob ich erwaehnen koennte
das wir bestimmt nicht ueber bestimmte themen geredet haben. Wir haben
auch bestimmt nicht ueber ex-en gesprochen. Dieses Dorf hat auch ein
Gottische kirche, aber ohne Dach. JW hat erklaert wie die geologische
Schichten entstanden sind und was wir dafon lernen. Morgen ist es
leider wieder vorbei.

Whitby

Thu 2100 UTC: safe arrival Whitby.

Dreigende berichten over galeforce winden en gierende geluiden in de
staglijnen deden vanochtend sombere gevoelens ontluiken. We moeten
echter verder, want anders komen we deze week uberhaupt niet meer
verder dan Lowestoft. Verderop deze week zijn de voorspellingen
namelijk nog slechter, tot windkracht negen. Dus als 's middags de
wind luwt vertrekken met de wind achter ons. Inmiddels zeilen we zeer
comfortabel langs de kust, met een pastaatje, aardbeien en koffie. Het
lijkt wel feest! Normandische torentjes en klokgelui van de wal. Het
lis zomer.

Lowstoft

We reached midpoint between IJmuiden and Lowstoft at 0600 on
Tuesday...! The weather was beautiful with the crew fallling into an
easy routine.
Our previous try early on Sunday had shattered on heavy seas, head-on
wind and our self imposed trip limit of 24 hours to reflect our small
and unexperienced crew.
After reaching the shipping lane, we retired to Texel and pondered our
options. We decided leaving with the tide again on Sunday to make a 14
hour nightly dash across the IJselmeer to IJmuiden to benefit from the
fair weather and southerly winds forcasted there for late on Monday.
This worked fine and provided a good night sailing drill for the crew.
We departed IJmuiden around 1900 on Monday night. It was a beautiful,
quiet night, with perfect 10-12 knot S winds and a calm fluorescent
sea - a dream ride.
The second half of the leg had wind increasing to 20 knots which made
for a 'sporty', but smooth arrival through the Stanford Channel into
Lowstoft harbour around 1530 local time - a 21 hour run.
Lowstoft itself is no high point. The town is clearly past it's
glory... Still, we feel pleased about our sailing and the team is
doing great. We went into the first pub in full sailing gear and
enjoyed cod & chips...

Yesterday we left Enkhuizen at 0800. First showers, but later nice
and sunny. We caught a great tide to Den Helder and arrived at the
stortemelk at 1500. There we did 2 hours of practice turns to 'drill
the crew'. We were in good shape. Today we caught the tide out at
0400. Winds will be W to South max 6bf. Destination is was Lowestoft
for Monday, but we aborted the effort when hitting the shipping lane
at 0800 and concluding that winds had far too much west component in
them to render Lowestoft feasible. We turned back and arrived in Texel
after.a 9 hour sail.

Hartendief Departed: Saturday 11th July 09.00

Yes..

Hartendief has departed today for the Great Adventure 2009: Round Great Britain.
Conditions very well. Departed from Den Helder and will go up North in due time to Scotland!

See these wonderfull photos.

Stay tuned for further announcements.

First weatherforecast

The weather for Saturday is now expected to be fairly favorable. With winds around 10 knots (3Bf)... We would prefer wind from the East though...

Website fully operational!

Added wind and fotos to the site. Isn't it great?

Our worklist is mostly completed. Remaining actions are attaching sprayhood, integrating map plotter and creating UMTS link between phone and laptop for obtaining grib files.
Other than that it is time to start passage planning. There is a low crossing the northern North Sea towards the end of the week, giving strong NW winds up Norh and seak SW in the Channel. Not ideal, but winds will weaken Saturday and possibly allow for a smooth passage to NE England. To be continued....