Position: 54°17’42.6″N 9°41’24.6″E Transiting the Kiel Canal is oddly relaxing. Despite huge cargo ships bearing down on you in both directions compared with Holland things couldn’t be calmer. No one can travel faster than six knots and container and tanker …
Position: 53°52’26.1″N 8°42’29.6″E After crossing the Ijsselmeer, the towns of Lemmer, Stavoren, and Haarlingen are your three options for continuing on the Staand Mastroute (SMR) across Friesland. Our ultimate goal was the route’s farthest starting/end point, Delfzijl. To get there, …
Position: 52°22’40.3″N 4°38’18.1″E If only this was the beginning of a recently discovered manuscript by Ralph Ellison we would all be enriched! Sadly, it is not. It is our thoroughly engaging tale of getting halfway to (the OG) Haarlem. Leaving …
Position: 52°00’41.5″N 4°42’38.8″E For the past eight years or so, I’ve been meeting weekly with three other chaps to solve all of the world’s problems. Our online chats last about an hour and long predated Covid copycat meetups. We have …
Position: 52°22’40.4″N 4°38’18.0″E Negotiating the English Channel and the northwestern edges of France and Belgium required us to pay more attention to the depth sounder than we had anticipated. The Channel is shallow. Between Guernsey and the Straits of Dover …
But if you have, these photos will be a happy reminder of how nice these three places are. Cascais, Position: 38°41’52.9″N 9°25’11.9″W Perched out on the western corner of Lisbon’s wide Tagus River estuary, Cascais is where Lisbonistas go to …
Position: 49°43’07″N 2°00’14″W Time and tide wait for no one. Nor do currents. Our navigation skills grew fat and lazy in the Mediterranean, at least metaphorically, and the vigorous waters around Brittany put them back on the treadmill for some …
Position: 48°22’36″N 4°29’34″W Tonnerre de Brest! Twenty miles offshore and heading for Brest in the thick of a thunderstorm, Captain Haddock’s expletive, Tonnerre de Brest! (Thunder of Brest) became reality. Rain lashed the dodger and our radar circled colourfully, highlighting …
Position: 42°16’36.7″N 8°49’20.9″W Carol’s dad, Bob, asked us if we were going to see anyone on our journey north to the Baltic? It was a reasonable question. Our contact list is, after all, long. We thought about it during our …
