Jun. 28, 2009 - Day 1 - Vlissingen

Very first thing this morning it was brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies. But by 8 o'clock it had gone all murky and horrible! We headed round to the fueling pontoon, filled up with diesel and pumped out the holding tank. There was no wind to speak of and we motored all the way up to Veere.

By the time we entered the Kanaal door Walcheren the murk had cleared and it had turned into a rather oppressive afternoon. Uneventfull passage down the canal livened up only by the tedious wait for the last bridge at Vlissingen to open!

Found our way into the the VVW Schelde marina and tied. By this time the temperature was 26C in the shade. We went for a walk into the townj and inspected the Michel De Ruyter marina with a view to stopping there on the way back.

Now back on board Emjaytoo and yes we have WiFi!. Fingers crossed for no fog/mist tomorrow morning. The forecast is for a scorcher tomorrow - with, maybe some wind in the afternoon.

Next stop - Oostende!

Jun. 26, 2009 - Will We Make It To Oostende?

Well this is it. We are off to the boat for a week's cruise and the destination is Oostende.

We are off tomorrow on the 8.00am ferry out of Dover and the plan is - Sunday, down the Veerse Meer to Veere, into the Walcheren Kanal and down to Vlissingen. Monday, out into the Westerschelde and down the coast to Oostende. Tuesday, sight seeing in Oostende. Wednesday, back up to Vlissingen. Thursday, back up to the Veerse Meer, with an overnight stop on an island, perhaps and back to the marina on Friday. Ferry back home Saturday.

The weather forecast is generally for no wind and possible thunder storms - so the whole plan is up in the air and entirely subject to weather. The fall back plan is to cruise up the Oosterschelde and go to Hellovetsluis, or something similar. Who knows?

Jun. 11, 2009 - It’s Not Always Plain Sailing!

Having caught the 4.00pm ferry Friday night, our arrival at the boat around 9.00pm was very leisurely. However Saturday morning we were faced with quite a strong easterly wind which made the exit from our berth particularly difficult. We decided to warn our rather unfriendly neighbour on a Contessa 32 that our stern might come over towards him but, as with some Belgians a year or so back, he took it as an invitation to take over, shouting instructions, which Wendy does not appreciate!  Having decided that we would go in a lull in the wind, Wendy was faced with Kim letting the bow line off and our neighbour pushing us.  To make matters worse, she had forgotten to check that the wheel was unclamped so had no steerage for a second, by which time we had been blown over to the other side.  In our neighbour’s defence, he was only trying to be helpful, but he only made matters worse and was very intimidating. He did, however, clamber over other people’s boats to fend us off and for that we were grateful. Eventually we exited the Landbouhaven but were both rather rattled so as the wind in the Veerse Meer was particularly gusty we abandoned our decision to go out into the Oosterschelde and head up to St Annaland, in favour of a more relaxing trip to Veere.

The sail up to Veere was brisk and we tied up to the visitor jetty outside the Kaai even though it was a bit bouncy. In the evening we went over to the Yacht Club and had an excellent meal – starters, main course and beers for €46.25. We didn’t sleep too well – Wendy was fretting over our departure that morning and a mild case of the “slappers” didn’t help.

Sunday we decided to head over to the Goudplaat – all of 1½ miles! Our departure from the visitor pontoon proved hairier than we would have liked, due to some lunatics in a dinghy hurtling in front of us onto the jetty just as we had let go all the lines!  Wendy was on the bow and reported that their boom missed us by inches!  There were two boats on the Goudplaat when we arrived, including a British Westerly Solway that had just come over from Eastbourne, but we soon had the place to ourselves.   Within the space of a few hours, we saw the wind go through 180 degrees twice and experienced, complete calm & torrential rain:-

May. 26, 2009 - Aground Again!

Went over for a quiet weekend with Jimbo. He didn’t want to do much sailing, just wanted to “chill” – have a bar-b-que, watch the Monaco Grand Prix, have a walk and generally take it easy. And that is exactly what we did.

Saturday morning we did some shopping in the village, got some excellent kebabs at the local butchers and some nice rolls at the bakers. We then headed off to the fuelling jetty where the holding tank pump out is located as the previous trip had left the holding tank full. In order to get close enough to the pump out point you have to go on the same bit of jetty as the boats that are refuelling. Given that it was a Saturday afternoon, of a public holiday weekend and by this time the weather was terrific, we expected quite a queue. In fact we didn’t have to wait too long and the whole process was completed quickly.

The sail up to the Haringvreter was good, full main and genoa. The water was pretty busy and we started to think that we might not be able to find any space at the main harbour/jetty we had in mind – the one we have been to previously. And indeed it was full, but about a quarter of a mile away there is a good sized jetty which is not attached to the island. This had quite a bit of space.

Presumably most people want access to the thunder boxes, bins and the nice grassy area. It suited us fine as it gave an excuse to get the tender out and to use its outboard, which had not been fired up since last year when it was serviced.

We got the Cobb out and cooked up the kebabs, just as it started to rain. The Cobb is not affected by the rain as it has a cover. The rain did produce a wonderful rainbow, though.

The rest of the evening was spent watching a film.

Sunday we had a very leisurely day, Kim had a swim (the Germans on the neighbouring boat thought he must like cold water but it was actually 17 degrees, which isn't too bad for May!)

and we played with the Man-Overboard recovery device and boarding ladder. This was a very useful exercise as Wendy attempted to get Kim back on board over the side. In a choppy sea, getting back on board via the swim platform at the back would be too dangerous as the stern of the boat would be bouncing up and down too much. The whole exercise proved to be hard work, Wendy attached the rescue/lifting strop to a spare halyard and then winched Kim up as he climbed the webbing ladder. Neither the winching nor the ladder would have worked on their own, but combined, it was just about possible for Wendy to get Kim back on.

After the exertions of all that Kim and Jim settled down to watch the Grand Prix.

Then we went over to the island in the tender (all of about 100m!) and had a pleasant walk round the island. All the time the sun shone and it was glorious! Sunday night we had a lasagne that Wendy had prepared at home and had an early night. We started to have a problem with the house battery getting low. The nav instruments were inadvertently left on over Saturday night and with the boat not motoring anywhere we had to put the engine on a couple of times to recharge the batteries.

Monday morning we headed back to our marina. Kim had made a towing strop for the tender, so instead of deflating it and putting it away we towed it all the way back.

The grounding occurred as we were beating up from the Bad Hotel. We were on Starboard tack running up a line between two green buoys out on our port side. We were in effect sailing along the 5m contour. At this particular spot the bottom shoals very steeply so we had little room to play with. Kim hadn’t been watching the depth gauge and the first warning was the 2.0m alarm going off. Kim threw a tack in immediately, but too late, we grounded. There was not a lot of wind and we were sailing quite slowly – 2 knots maybe. The strange thing is that, when clearly stuck on the bottom, the depth gauge was showing 1.9m – we draw 1.5m! We whipped the sails away and started motoring astern and slowly she came out. Veerse Meer mud is very forgiving!

With three adults on board and no access to proper toilets, the holding tank was completely full again, so we decided that it would be easier to empty it before berthing the boat, rather than leaving it till the next trip over (which is in two weeks time). Monday was not a public holiday in the Netherlands (they had theirs on Friday) so we thought it would be dead easy and quiet. It wasn’t! There other boats waiting to refuel and when we did get on the jetty, we found that we needed the Havenmeister to switch the pump on and he had gone to lunch. Fortunately, he interrupted his lunch for us.

The long and short of it all was that by the time we had pumped out the tank, got back on our berth (which took two attempts), put the tender away and then done all the usual packing away things, it was getting on for 2.00pm – we were booked on the 5.00pm ferry and really should have left by 1.30pm latest! As headed back to Dunkerque the sat nav had our arrival as 4.30pm, Wendy was confident we would still make our ferry – check in time is 45 mins prior to departure. 10 kms out from Dunkerque we encountered road works and the next thing is, the Sat Nav is predicting arrival at 4.45pm! Well, we checked in and were told we were booked on the 7.00pm ferry and no we couldn’t get the 5.00pm one – we were too late. Wendy remained confident, though her confidence wavered a bit at the sight of the usual queue for UK passport control.  But we drove round to the holding area to find they were still loading. So by the skin of our teeth we caught the ferry! In fact, we were put on the lorry deck which meant that when we got to Dover we disembarked before the cars – a real result!

So, all in all, a very enjoyable weekend with better than expected weather.

We have another long one booked in two weeks time.

May. 22, 2009 - A Weekend With Jimbo

Following on from the last entry, the necessary paperwork duly arrived and at least it didn't cost anything. Whether our radio can be set to transmit the ATIS number remains to be seen.

                                           --o--

It is now Friday evening and we are on the ferry - the usual Friday night Norfolkline and Jimbo has gone to get the coffees. The weather forecast looks as if Saturday & Sunday should be cloudy and sunny with a slight chance of rain, whereas Monday could be quite wet, even with thunderstorms.

                                            --o--

The plan is to spend a quiet weekend on an island, read books, watch films, have a barbeque, watch the Grand Prix on Sunday and generally chill out (Jimbo's itinery!)

                                            --o--

May. 9, 2009 - Changes to the Radio Regulations

A few weeks ago Wendy spotted an article about changes to the European inland waterways radio requirements. A bit more research reveals that the Netherlands along with a number of other EU countries (United Kingdon excepted - of course!) signed up to some agreement called RAINWAT some years ago regarding the requirements for VHF radio on board boats within the EU inland waterways. UK as normal didn't want to "join the party" so were offered a derogation.

Well, the long and short of it all is that the derogation has ended and the UK has decided to join up to RAINWAT. So what this means is that we have to get Ofcom, who issue our Radio Licence to issue us with an ATIS number and amend our Radio Licence. Sounds like a load of bureaucratic nonsense. Anyway, apparently one can e-mail Ofcom and they send you stuff out in the post. So last night I sent off the e-mail and we will wait and see what happens.

Of more concern, was that as I was researching the issue I then find that an ATIS enabled radio is illegal in the UK (apparently) and that under RAINWAT boats in the Netherlands are supposed to  monitor two channels at the same time - Ah, Dual Watch, you say!. Well apparently not you must have two radios. That's okay, we have a second portable VHF. That won't do as, apparently in the Netherlands, our portable radio is illegal because it can receive too many channels including one of the ones we're supposed to monitor. Apparently what this means is that we should have two fixed VHF radios. I really don't believe all our neighbours in the marina have two fixed VHF radios! I suspect some of them don't even have one!

We will have to ask around when we are next over. Which by the way is in two weeks time (Bank Holiday Weekend). James is coming down for a long weekend and we will go over on Friday evening and come back Monday evening. A quiet weekend is planned - Haringvreter for two nights with lots of chilling!

May. 7, 2009 - Teamwork

Having originally planned to have a long 4 day Bank Holiday weekend, we ended up postponing our departure to the Saturday morning after Kim had to cancel Friday’s holiday due to work commitments. In order to get the best out of the Saturday we took the 6.00am ferry to Dunkerque. That meant getting up at 4.00am!  Didn’t seem like quite such a good idea when the alarm went, but worth it in the end!

Having got the boat sorted, we headed round to the fuelling jetty to have a go at pumping out the holding tank. But there were too many boats there, so we abandoned the idea and set off towards Veere - destination Middelburg.

The weather was cloudy with some spells of sunshine and a reasonable breeze – 10 to 14 knots. After an hour or so of short tacking down the Veerse Meer, we gave up and put the engine on. The tacking was fun for a while, but was hard work and with a VMG of only 1.5 knots, too slow.

Had the lock at Veere to ourselves and motored down the canal to Middelburg in glorious sunshine, albeit a bit chilly. Arrived at Middelburg to find the Spijker Brug open and the Havenmeester calling us through to the inner harbour with the choice of rafting alongside or going between piles. Since we were expecting to go alongside the Havenmeester’s jetty we had all our fenders down, so a hasty switch in plan was instigated and following some athletic leaping about the boat by Kim and skilled helming by Wendy we neatly slid between a set of vacant piles with only inches to spare. Whilst rafting up can be fun and sociable, it is definitely more private to be on your own.

After a quick walk around we returned to the boat for a nice meal and an early night. Well, by this time we had been up 18 hours.

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Sunday morning was a very leisurely affair as we did not have to rush off anywhere. After breakfast we went for a longer walk around Middelburg. It started off quite cloudy, but by lunchtime had brightened up considerably. Wendy has acquired a new photographic interest – Dutch Front Doors and took loads of photographs. Well Middelburg does have a lot of front doors!

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 We had looked at the pilot book to see what time the Spijker Brug opened and it said every hour on the half hour, but with a five hour gap between 11.30am and 4.30pm. However, having watched it open a couple of times after the supposed gap we wrongly assumed that the pilot book was inaccurate. Anyway, we slipped out of the box expecting the bridge to open at 3.30pm, only to be disappointed. Fortunately quite a few boats had left during the morning openings, so we were able to go alongside the visitor jetty whilst we waited for the next opening. Which occurred at 3.15pm!

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Back up the canal to Veere and straight into the lock with no waiting around. This is the lock we had a lot of trouble with last year on our previous trip to Middelburg. We always like to go port side to in the lock, but when heading back into the Veerse Meer there is a horrible offset in the lock on the port side. So we had decided that in future we would always go on the starboard side. On this occasion there was only one other yacht in the lock – on the starboard side and right in the middle of the wall leaving only the port side vacant (it is a small lock!), unless of course you raft up to the boat already in there! Which was precisely what we did and it made for a very easy exit.

We then headed down to the Haringvreter for an overnighter. This is the biggest island in the Veerse Meer and Kim visited it last year with the boys. There were only three other boats there, so it was very quiet. We had a really nice long walk and saw the horses and the deer, later watching an oyster catcher and crested grebe fishing their supper from the shallow water around the island.

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First thing next morning there was no wind and the water looked like glass, with brilliant sunshine making for a superb photo opportunity.  Coincidentally, we have both quite independently chosen this shot as our wallpapers.

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The wind then filled in and we had a really good downwind sail back to the marina. After all the brilliant teamwork and excellent boat handling by Wendy, our arrival at our finger berth was not so clever, but you can’t have it all your own way and at least we didn’t hit anything – it just wasn’t very clever. Wendy did the turn into the berth expecting the wind to swing the bow round, but it didn't so we landed up at 45 degrees.  It's all very different this year as there is now a boat in the space next to us so not all of our old "tricks" work, but with sailing there are always lessons to be learned for the future!  Next time Wendy is going to treat it as going between piles and - hopefully - all will be well.

Apr. 13, 2009 - Easter Weekend

With a wide variety of forecasts for this weekend, we weren't quite sure what to expect but as it turned out, we were really lucky.  On arriving on Friday, Wendy and the boys went up to the supermarket to get some victuals while Kim started to sort things out on board.  We decided it was all a bit too late to head off to Goes on Friday, so settled for an early-ish start on Saturday.  After waiting nearly an hour on the fuelling pontoon (never interrupt a Dutchman's lunch!), we set off through the lock and out into the "big water" of the Oosterschelde.  It was Stew's first experience of a lock and having primed him about bollards and how to get the rope on, he was presented with a ring and landed up in a semi-boat hook fight with Kim but it all went well in the end.  The weather was gorgeous and we were unbelievably sailing in T-shirts.  Managed a  brief spell under genoa only before turning up into the canal towards Goes.

The journey up the canal was lovely, with Stewart clicking away on his camera.  The plan had been to stock up on food for the Easter weekend from the C1000 supermarket, but when we got there it had become an Aldi and some other shop and, like every other shop we could see, was already shut.  So we decided to make the best of what we had on board for the rest of the weekend. 

Goes was as lovely as ever but a mental note was made not to go there again on a Saturday night as it was very noisy into the early hours and well beyond!

We made a surprisingly early start on the Sunday and left at 10 to 9, with a number of other boats, ready for the 9 am bridge opening.  However, we tied up on the pontoon just the other side for a breakfast break and then tagged onto the end of the next batch at 10am.  The weather was not as warm but was still ok and the extra wind was welcome, resulting in an excellent sail out in the Oosterschelde with both main and genoa and a good angle of heel.  Tom spent most of the time down below writing and reading, so has presumably inherited his mother's lack of seasickness!   The main excitement was Wendy's mis-reading of the chartplotter and Kim's instruction to go "between the red and green buoys" (which the Oosterschelde is full of!), but any real incident was quikcly averted.

Once back in the Veerse Meer, we carried on up to Zandkreekplaat and again had an excellent sail, with lots of short tacking.  Our arrival on the deserted pontoon was interesting as there was a strong wind blowing us off and Kim's excellent idea of using a centre spring was somewhat thwarted by having to have too many turns on the pontoon ring which then locked, keeping us too far off.  However, we eventually got tied up at a good distance in and had a lovely peaceful stay, watching the geese and other birds. 

We watched one of Stew's films in the evening and Tom inadvertently summed up the effects of all the fresh air by saying, at 9.25, that he was "glad he'd stayed up late to watch the film"!.

Monday morning was a bit of a shock with a real pea souper outside.  It cleared a bit by the time we left, though, and we motor-sailed back to the marina, by which time the sun was shining again. Two hours later we were packed up and in the car.  All in all another successful weekend and hopefully the first of many this season.

Apr. 10, 2009 - Busy Ferry

Got away from home on time - 7.00am for an 8.00am ferry. When we got to Dover the whole place was heaving. NorfolkLine had messed up our booking again and by the time we got on the ferry we were about the last car to be squeezed onto the car deck. There were loads of cars behind us and one has to wonder if they all got on.

Fortunately, we had not planned to have breakfast on board - it all gets a bit expensive when there are four of you, so the fact that the restaurant was packed didn't matter. We struggled to find somewhere to sit and ended up by the "children's club" with an excessively loud american play leader.

All in all, the crossing is one of the most unpleasant - it is now 9.10am and we still have an hour or more before we dissembark.

The weather forecast still looks pretty unsettled, but at least it's not likely to snow!

Apr. 8, 2009 - Weather For The Weekend

	Woensdag 08-04-2009	Donderdag 09-04-2009	Vrijdag 10-04-2009	Zaterdag 11-04-2009	Zondag 12-04-2009	Maandag 13-04-2009
Max.  temperatuur	13	17	18	18	15	13
Min.  temperatuur	7	7	7	6	9	6
Ochtend
Middag
Avond
Windrichting  Windkracht	6-4	5-2	5-2	1-2	4-2	1-2
Neerslag mm	3	0	0	0	0-1	0

Mar. 29, 2009 - No Snow!

A sucessfull weekend without any snow. Infact without any rain apart from overnight Friday/Saturday. Friday night was very cold, but otherwise okay.

It took most of Saturday to get all the gear loaded on board and put away, then we went over to the Marina Office and paid the second installment of the year's fee. We won't talk about the Euro/Sterling exchange rate save to say OUCH!

In the evening we got the TV back up & working and settled down to a nice meal - steak & salad, washed down with some red wine and followed by some cheese.

The job that had not been done on Saturday was bending the sails on. These had been taken home over the winter for cleaning and protection from the elements. Sunday was a bright and sunny day and although there was a bit of a breeze coming over the stern (not the best direction for sorting the sails), we managed to get them bent on and the boat is now "ready to go". So all in all a sucessfull weekend.

The next visit is in two weeks time when we are taking the boys(Tom & Stewart) over at Easter. Hopefully a more sucessful time than last Easter provided we don't let Tom carry the car keys!

Mar. 27, 2009 - WiFi on the Ferry

Having discovered, at the end of last year, that Norfolkline have free WiFi, we are now able to post entries to the blog whilst travelling over to the boat and back again. So here we are - 6.30pm Friday evening and Kim's just had a curry and we should be in Dunkerque for 8.00pm.

The car is loaded up with most of the gear that was brought home for the winter and the weekend is planned as a "sort the boat out" trip. Kim has plans for a trip up to Zandkreek Plaat, but Wendy thinks it will be too cold/too windy and the water level in the Veerse Meer may be too low to get on the pontoon.

There will be lots to do tomorrow without actually going anywhere. Both the main sail and genoa need putting back on, the TV needs putting back and the aft cabin cupboard door needs freeing as the catch jammed last time we were over in January. It may require drilling out, but hopefully a squirt of WD40 will do yhe trick.

Mar. 23, 2009 - Checking Out The Life Jackets

The winter lay up is nearly over. We are booked on the ferry this Friday evening and will be taking all the kit stored at home over the winter, back to the boat.

We have been testing/servicing the life jackets over the weekend. Sounds complicated, but simply means manually blowing them up and leaving them to make sure they don't deflate.

The weather forecast is looking a bit mixed for the weekend, which is a shame, because we have had some brilliant weather recently. In fact yesterday we had a bar-b-que! It will probably be the only one of the year.

Feb. 1, 2009 - At Least We Didn't Have Any Snow -

Well, not until we got back home!

We arrived at the marina about lunch time and after getting the sleeping bags & pillows on board, firing up the fan-heater and having a cup of tea, we decided it was far too cold to spend the night on board. The boat was covered in ice, we had no water (due to having all the systems winterised) and the thought of walking back to a freezing cold boat, later that night, after a restaurant meal did not appeal. So we jumped in the car and drove round to a nearby hotel at Wissenkerke.

Having checked in, we drove over to Zierikzee, had a walk around the town and harbour, stopped off to have apple pie and coffee before returning to the hotel where we enjoyed an excellent meal, a few beers, a wonderfully warm room, a good night's sleep, a piping hot shower the next morning and a good breakfast!

We then drove back to the marina, removed our unused sleeping bags & pillows from the boat and headed home.

There was no snow until we arrived at Folkestone. We had a good weekend, checked out the boat, which was the main thing.

Overall -

The sun shone,

It was very quiet,

And it was bloody cold!!

Jan. 29, 2009 - Mad or what?

We are heading over to the boat this weekend to check that everything's ok.  We've been watching the forecast and for the last few days it has been for sunshine, light winds and temperatures a few degrees either side of zero.  Fine, wrap up warm, take the thermals, should be lovely. 

Now with less than 48 hours to go, Wallie's weather site (the local one we always trust!) is showing sun on Saturday, max. temp 3 degrees, winds force 5 increasing to 7, from the east.  Sunday daytime max zero degrees and .... you've guessed it, more b****y snow!!!

Jan. 14, 2009 - Montage 2008

It's very hard to pick photos which sum up a whole year - and even harder to make them fit onto an A4 sheet without any gaps! - but I've tried:

Dec. 31, 2008 - Review of 2008

2008 has been a notable year for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the season started in snow and ended in snow! Easter came early this year - last week of March and we "enjoyed" the experience of sailing in snow, before Kim had his enforced stay on the boat! The year then ended with thick snow when it came to clearing the boat out and a very treacherous journey home in the car.

Other high points were having Emjaytoo lifted out of the water in April, entertaining guests and finally going on the Kaai in Veere.

Looking back to last year's review, we identified some objectives for this season - getting to the Haringvliet and going into the Westerschelde and on to Oostende. Well, we didn't make either of those, but we did manage a weekend in Middelburg and a week's holiday with Julie & Trev where we went up to the Grevelingenmeer.

Guests this year included Mandy & Pete and Maggie, James & Zach. The set port to take guests is rapidly becoming Veere - and why not? On both occasions we had stunning weather which enables Veere to really impress.

Overall the weather seemed to be disappointing this year, but we still managed 14 trips to the boat and covered 289 miles, which when you take into account the first year's trip across the North Sea, was par for the season.

Objectives for next season? It's probably best not to set any, other than to plan for more of the same. We are a long way from getting bored with the Netherlands, so Emjaytoo will be staying put for the forseeable future. However, the current financial crisis is having a bad affect on the Euro exchange rate, making the marina a much more expensive place to keep Emjaytoo. On the other hand, we have just had an invitation from Norfolk Line to book 10 return tickets for next year at the amazing price of £38 each!

Actually, we have set one objective for next season - a repeat of last year's - to get to Oostende. So we will see how we get on.

Next planned trip? Hopefully, towards the end of January/early February. However, it is unlikely that we would go out in Emjaytoo, as although she is staying in the water over the winter, we have had the engine and water systems winterised.

Finally, a picture to sum up the year:

Nov. 27, 2008 - Packing Away In The Snow

Despite the abysmal weather forecast of high winds and rain, we caught the only available shuttle, which was at 6.05 on the Saturday morning. We arrived at the marina at about 10.30 having stopped for breakfast en route, but as the weather was not conducive to taking the boat out, we headed off by car to Westkapelle on the coast for lunch and a walk along the beautiful beach.

Saturday night we snuggled down with the fan heater on full belt and watched a film.

Because our return shuttle was not until 9 pm, we had a leisurely start on Sunday before starting to clear stuff out of the boat and load the car. The process started well then what had been forecast as rain, turned into snow - and lots of it! By this stage we had taken both the sails off and although the genoa had been loaded into the car, the main was laid out on the foredeck slowly getting covered in snow.

Eventually we got everything in the car and just about managed to cram the snow-sodden main in on top, with one end between the two front seats, dripping onto Wendy's lap!. By now it was 3.00 pm, the temperature was 0 degrees and there was about 2 inches of snow on the road - very pretty but not the easiest of driving conditions.

We cautiously made our way up to the main road, but that was thick with snow.  Progress was slow and even the Dutch motorways were no better, in spite of the snow ploughs. As a result, the first half of the journey all the way to the E40 motorway in Belgium was done at about 25 mph in thick snow. Thereafter the weather and the roads improved and by the time we got to France things were completely normal and the temperature was up to the dizzy heights of 7 degrees!  As it turned out, it was very fortunate that our shuttle back was not until 9.00pm.

All we need to do now is to find a home for all the gear until the spring. It's going to be a long winter.

Oct. 26, 2008 - A Weekend With Stewart

Headed over to the boat on Friday evening with Stewart. Norfolkline were having hiccups, so the ferry was an hour late leaving Dover. We drove up via Zelzate so Stewart could take some night time industrial photos for his college course work. Finally arrived onboard Emjaytoo at around midnight.

As it was a clear night, it was a bit cold. However Saturday arrived with bright sunshine and a moderate breeze. After getting a few things at the village Spar Shop, we headed off up the lake towards Zandkriekplaat. The forecast was for the weather to be okay on Saturday but not Sunday, so the intention was for a few hours' day sail only.

We tacked all the way there under full main and genoa, then turned round and broad reached all the way back. Got over 6 knots at one point so all in all, a pretty good sail.

When we got back to the marina, we went for a walk over to the main part of the marina and had a nose in the chandlery, but didn't buy anything.

Earlier in the day we had seen Luc & Christine, who had invited us over for a drink, so Stewart & I wandered over to their boat for a couple of early evening beers. Well Kim had the beers, Stewart had Coke!

Back to Emjaytoo and a meal knocked up from the tins on board and then some TV.

Overnight the wind got up and the sky clouded over as forecast, which made for a warmer night. The clocks went back this weekend, so we got an extra hour in bed.

Thereafter, the usual Sunday drive back to the ferry. The slight difference is that I've posted this blog entry whilst on the ferry. I must do this more often, it passes the time and gets the blog entry online more quickly.

Wendy & I will probably have one more trip to the boat this side of Christmas to bring the soft items home and that will be it for the year.

Oct. 20, 2008 - On The Kaai

Went over on Saturday morning with a long weekend planned - return Monday afternoon. The plan was to go to Veere, spend all day Sunday there and see some of the sights we have not got round to seeing, such as museums, churches, etc. However, there was a more ambitious objective!

For two years now, every time we go to Veere, we stay on the outer visitor jetty as we've always considered The Kaai far too small and far too congested for us to venture in there. But, given that this was October, we thought it should be quiet enough for us to have a go.

So, in we went, with Kim on the helm. The first thing to do once inside the narrow harbour is turn round so you are pointing "out to sea". Not too difficult a job when you are only 31 feet long and the boats already inside were only rafted two deep at most. We identified a likely looking host boat to raft onto, but then Kim spotted a vacant space on the jetty. Having asked Wendy's opinion as to whether it was big enough, and being told "no", he went for it anyway! As the wind was coming over the stern and after the lesson learned last month in Zierikzee, Kim reversed Emjaytoo into the space. A kind Dutchman took the stern line and the bow gently drifted in against the jetty.

Whilst it probably looked like Kim knew exactly what he was doing, there was a degree of luck involved. In fact Wendy reported afterwards that our bow only just missed the back of the kind Dutchman's boat in front. When we had finished tying up we realised the gap we had gone into was only about 35 foot!

On a more general note, despite a rather overcast and on occasions wet journey up to the boat on Saturday morning, the weather cleared up as we headed up to Veere. The wind was brisk and we motored all the way to The Bad Hotel, but then got the sails out and had a cracking sail. By the time we got into the Kaai it was really sunny, although still pretty crisp as you would imagine for October.

In the evening we went to the Veere Yacht Club to eat and had a superb 3-course meal with wine for less than 70 Euros, which we thought was amazing.

On Sunday we had a leisurely start as we did not need to be going anywhere and were just preparing breakfast when we had an unexpected visitor along the jetty - Hans out walking their Leonberger "Bomel". We told him that we inteded to go to De Schotse Huizen museum and he suggested the museum in The Old Town Hall, as well as going to the top of the Grote Kerk, the enormous cathedral-like building in Veere.  As we bought our ticket to go up the tower at the Grote Kerk, the lady warned us that the last bit was rather dirty due to the pigeons - and she wasn't exaggerating.  In fact we even had to shoo pigeons out of the way to get up the last set of steps.  However, the views were well worth the effort.

On the way back to the boat we bumped into Hans again (Veere's a very small place!) and although we had previously arranged to meet up in the Veere Yacht Club, he suggested that we might like to go their house for a few drinks.  This then turned into a Dutch-style fish and chip supper and a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

We had planned to do a night passage back to our home marina, but in the end decided to stay the extra night.  We made an early start from Veere, leaving at 7.30  and were treated to a rather impressive sunrise with blue skies. 

Again the wind was brisk and initially in the wrong direction, so we motored again as far as the Bad Hotel, then since the wind was abaft the beam, unfurled the genoa and sailed the rest of the way under genoa only, getting back to our home berth by 9.20.

To add to the social nature of the weekend, we bumped into Luc and Christine who invited us to see their new boat.  Although we had to get cleared up in time to get the ferry, we were still able to spend half and hour or so chatting to them.