August 2024 – Page 2

Belgian Limericks 🇧🇪

Sunny sailing along on a close tack

Put in a reef, shook the out, put it back

At Ostend the wind blew

Our main halyard flew

We surged in with the sky turning black!

Day 39, Round the Dover Strait to Boulogne, 39nm

Sunday, 11 August

A very foggy morning today! But we set off anyway on glassy seas with hardly a breath of wind, motoring with the main up – to help anyone see us – and with fog horn at the ready!

Day 38 – Ostend to Dunkirk, 28nm

Saturday, 10 August

Another lovely sunny day as we left Ostende in 12-15 knots of wind around 9am. We had one reef in and skipped along nicely at around 8 knots.

Dutch Limericks 🇳🇱

We motor sailed fast through the night

On calm seas along German Bight

To Terschelling we headed

Took turns to be bedded

Pink dawn was a wonderful sight!

Day 37 – Up the Mast in Ostend

Friday, 9 August

Today we stayed in Ostend as it’s still very windy. We had planned to stay 2 nights anyway but someone needs to go up the mast to fetch that main halyard before we can sail again, and that someone is me!

Day 36, Reefing and Tacking to Ostende, 75nm

Thursday 8, August

We set off at 8:30 and had a half hour wait for the mega bridge lock, mostly because a Swan yacht had gone a bit early and nabbed the lock just for itself before the rest of us got there.

Day 35, Scheveningen to Stellendam 36nm

Wednesday, 7 August

We left Scheveningen around 8am to avoid strong winds forecast for later in the day.

Day 34, Amsterdam to Scheveningen, 38nm

Tuesday, 6 August

Today it’s just the two of us and we got up early to make the most of the tide when we get out onto the sea.

Day 33, Amsterdam

Monday, 5 August

Today we stayed in Amsterdam as Angela and Fin are leaving after lunch – at least going home we are right by the station and there’s only one change in Brussels!

Day 32, on to Amsterdam – 31nm

Sunday, 4 August

We spent the morning in pretty Enkhuizen and walked along the town wall to the beach.