TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

We left Harlingen later than hoped on Thursday May 1st delaying our 150 mile journey a few hours because of the strong winds.  We finally decided to leave at about 11.00am with a forecast promising diminishing winds throughout the afternon. We set sail with Suzie Too on the tide to head north of the Frisian Islands and then east through the German Bight.  As we had set off late due to the weat her the tide turned as we headed out of the Waddenzee and the wind over tide wipped up a rough sea just like Saolent on a bad day!!!  Finally as we turned east around the top of Terschelling Island the sea eased and the wind dropped a bit to give us an excellent dead run, with preventer on we goose-winged our way towards the German coast.

 Unfortnately the wing continued to ease and we had to motor sail to keep up speed to make the tidal gate  of the Elbe the following morning.

Hollie was really excited, as always at at a night sail and kept watch with us unit 12.30 and got very good at spotting and identifying the many cardinal bouy lights on route.  She and Di crashed in the early hours leaving your truly to do the nigh watch until 5am.  A cool but crystal clear night with amazing stars.

We arrived in Cuxhaven marina at about 9am on a clear blue day had an excellent breakfast in the sailing club and I hit the sack for 5 hours!