Around The World Slowly

Just one more day here please!!!

ALEXES

Who: Jenny and Dave
Port: Sydney
13 July 2010 | Dartmouth
11 July 2010 | Weymouth
05 July 2010 | In the Hamble
28 June 2010 | Brighton
23 June 2010 | Zeebrugger Harbour
15 May 2010 | Zeebrugge (Belgium)
12 May 2010
28 April 2010
27 April 2010
21 April 2010 | Dunkerque
18 April 2010 | 50.57.782n 001.50.742e
17 April 2010 | 51.24.96n 000.44.07e
16 April 2010 | 51.30.45N 00.04.21W

HOLLAND

27 April 2010
Jenny Spencer / Cold and Windy
After a week in Dunkerque we were looking forward to heading up north, first stop in Holland was to be the Port of Breskens. The sea was quite choppy and no sign of fair weather we had been promised . In fact it was bitterly cold, but it was only going to be a short sail, so with our Musto's on and long boots we headed for the Port. The yacht club was easy to identify, with no problems we berthed on the Visitors Pontoon. After checking in we had a visit from Dutch Customs who were very efficient and friendly but again demanded all the paperwork we had supplied to the French.
Tomorrow was going to be a public holiday as Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands was coming to visit a town close by. With free public transport all day, we were off and running. The ferry was fast with a connection to Middleburg. They are a very patriotic nation and Holland was a sea of orange. Not to be left out we also dressed for the occasion in our orange gear. We missed the Queen by one street, however we caught her on the big screen next to the stage where we were watching a carefully constructed sing song. After a great day out (the ferry was a good half hour walk) we were blown back to the Marina. The wind was strong by the evening but due to die down overnight, just in time to leave first light.

Breskens to Scheveningen
Leaving Breskens early morning high tide we were close hauled sailing eight knots down a 100 metre narrow channel and very close to the breakers on the shoreline. That's a first! The tide was with us most of the way, so the main & headsail came out. Again we weren't going too far, just twenty miles to the next town of Scheveningen. We arrived at the marina only to find it was crowded already on the visitors berth. Radioing ahead secured us a large hammerhead berth which would have been wasted on smaller yachts. Feeling a little smug we motored around to our allocated spot. Being a larger boat, we tend to get along-side berths which are easy and not a lot of fuss, but it's normally located in outer Siberia with a mile walk to anything. Hey, who's complaining! The weather was fining up as we entered the marina but it can quickly change and in the last half hour it has become windy and incredibly cold. Rain is due for tomorrow, so it looks like we'll be here for a few days at least.

Visiting De Hague (in the pouring rain).
We'll be staying at the marina for 3 days now as the weather has turned nasty. That doesn't stop the local people from getting out and about, so it shouldn't stop us either. We take a tram to De Hague, with brolly turning inside out (like everyone else) , we herd off like wet sheep to the main shopping area. It has to be one of the best shopping areas I've seen in Europe so far. Every designer imaginable is in town. Great little cafes as well, nothing like a hot chocolate to turn you all warm and fuzzy. The whole afternoon is spent in shops (basically warming up, pretending to be interested in their merchandise). A good heating system is priceless! On the way home we kind of got off five stops too late. Oh dear! Retracing our steps (frozen yet again) we did discover some interesting old pubs on the way back to the marina. Couple of beers later we had a bit more of a spring in our step, to tackle the last of the journey.
The following day we went back to De Hague to visit the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery which was fabulous. The highlight of the gallery for me was seeing the Girl with the Pearl Earring (Vermeer). The old masters are brilliant to see in their own environment, it's the light that you don't see when they are presented in print form. These paintings were so old, well worth seeing and in such a lovely building. Time to farewell De Hague (I'm impressed!) as we are due to leave early in the morning.

Leaving the Harbour Lights of Sheveningen.
These early mornings are a hard slog, as the weather is extremely fresh with winds blowing down from the north. We depart the harbour along with three other local boats who are heading down south to the warmer climate. Why aren't we? Well, we have never seen this part of the coastline so it's a good opportunity to take a look. There's quite a swell as the sea has been whipped up over the last few days of severe weather. Not to be deterred we put both sails up and it begins to rain. Not just light rain but pelting down. The coastline looks bleaker and bleaker, fortunately we're only going a short distance to the next port of Ijmuiden. This is another busy port with container ships and small craft darting here and there. It's raining so hard it's hard to get the sails down as we need to point into the wind, which puts us directly in line with a tanker. Not a good move! We bob around the inner harbour waiting for the right time. Always the way, there's another one following on closely behind. Once inside the marina we were allocated a hammerhead berth and time to chill out. It'll be a three day stay so we can see Amsterdam & Haarlem. Surrounding the marina were huge sand dunes with massive dykes, which is typical around Holland.

Exploring Amsterdam & Haarlem.
A local bus takes you into Ijmuiden where you pick up a connection for the ferry which is called the flying fish. It's a hydrofoil type of boat, which does a speed of 40 knots and takes 40 minutes to Amsterdam. We spent the whole day exploring Amsterdam, with quaint cafes and lovely old buildings. There were multicultural markets , street performers and it was great atmosphere. Very few cars were in the centre of the city, mainly very old bicycles. It amazes me how they find their own bike once it's chained up as they all look alike to me. A plus was that it happened to be a lovely sunny day, which we haven't found too many of recently. Local knowledge is the best option as you can so easily get it wrong and go into areas which aren't really suitable for larger boats. We were told the best way to see Amsterdam was to find a marina out of town and take local transport in. Talk about great information ! Haarlem was another place to visit, recommended by the barman in the local yacht club. Take another local bus into town and change bus route for the trip to Haarlem. Not as large as Amsterdam, but it was very charming. We went to see the lovely old windmill near the town centre, which was gutted by fire ten years ago and restored using unemployed labour. Equivalent to the Work for the Dole Scheme. The local guide was a retired man who enjoyed discussing all the finer points of the windmill. The tour takes you up through the centre of the mill and outside where the blades rotate (be careful of your head). There is also a breaking system up there to slow it down. Haarlem had a lovely town centre , which was hosting a BMX show as it happened to be school holidays. Time to leave in the morning for the port of Den Helder.

Den Helder
The journey out of Ijmuiden was not all plain sailing as the sky was very black which developed into rain very quickly. Sailing in rain certainly is a struggle. There was also a lot of wind, unfortunately on our nose the whole way which made it even harder. The sea was also a little choppy, apart from that we were quite focused on reaching the harbour which is a naval port. Thankfully it was another short hop as conditions weren't the best. Holland has had a lot of holidays lately and this day was no exception as it was rescue lifeboat day. Finding the tiny entrance into the marina was difficult as there were so many lifeboats cramming onto the pontoons. We only just found one big enough to take us, however it was so rickety we were a bit concerned about leaving it there. Not long after we had a visit from the Harbour Master and Immigration Officials. They were all very friendly, with all papers in order they left us alone. It's bitterly cold but we walk into town as you need to get off the boat at times. Being a naval town, it's got the usual naval memorabilia, submarines etc at the museum and various naval buildings surrounding the town. Back on the marina we found a little restaurant above the Harbour Master's office which you could sit and just have a beer if you wanted. We were due to leave the next morning but decided to have another day so we could make a decision whether to continue up north or head back down south. With bad weather so far it has delayed us a little and we're unsure if we'll have enough time to get to Germany and Sweden, take a month off to go home and then get it back down south in time to do the Arc in November. We'll have to sleep on it.

Comments
Vessel Name: Alexes
Vessel Make/Model: Taswell
Hailing Port: Sydney
Crew: Jenny and Dave
Extra: We Departed Sydney Jan 2004 bound for NZ and Fiji. We joined the Blue Water Rally at Cairns QLD in Sept 2006 and have been sailing around the MED for the last few years before venturing up to UK and Holland.

ALEXES

Who: Jenny and Dave
Port: Sydney