We left in the evening, leaving behind the red rock and a sunset on full mainsail and spinakker. Cruising all night long (all night,all night long,..). Our changing of the shifts works great: go to bed when you feel like it, wake up when you feel like it. The vibes are perfect! When the wind became a bit weaker we crossed the traffic line just above Terschelling, although we were almost there, the last bit is alway’s the hardest, going around Terschelling is a long way. Our first plan was to go to Vlieland, but that was impossible because there was a kind of festival on the island so the harbor was completely    full. I called the harbor master of Terschelling and he said that his harbor was full as well. But on the radio they said something different. So we took our chance. I’ve not seen such a density of boats in a harbor a lot. Usually this only happens during a competition or something, but now it was just a weekend. We moored as a 4th ship so we had to wake up again at 8 to give the possibility for the others to leave. A chill day at Terschelling... until Eagle eye and I decided to go for a run. We ran on the beach for about half an hour. It’s a real amazing place, very wide, lots of birds, big dunes and almost nobody! But Jerry was bored of running into the emptiness so he took a right turn with aiming point the Lighthouse. So it became a cross country run. First some dunes to counter, then another sand field, then bushes, a swamp and a small canal, then a forrest, a garden of some people, a bit of the city and the harbor. So it ended as a kind of biathlon. Great rest day!! At the end of the day our new crew member arrived: Caroline! We were supposed to leave at 11 that night aiming for Scheveningen. But at 11 it started raining really hard. So we waited... At 5 o’clock the rain was gone and we left. At first we were very happy, we could sail out of the harbor, into the very small shipping lane, doing all kinds of maneuvers in the sunrise. A perfect start of the day. But then things changed. The wind and current against us and it took us about 11hours to get to Den Helder. We stopped there because we were exhausted of fighting against the forces of nature and Caroline was sick all the way... Then we had to decide what to do. Not so easy. Going to Breskens by sunday was already impossible. The wind became quite strong in the wrong direction. So after lots of discussing, looking for other possibilities and making phone calls we went for Amsterdam. We had to wait quite a long time because the tide was now in the wrong direction. At 9 o’clock in the evening we left Den Helder going thru the Waddenzee. The wind in our back and full power thru the small channels between the sandbanks. Everywhere blinking lights! Just 2 hours later we arrived at the IJselmeer and continued on the Markermeer around 3 o’clock in the morning. At sunrise we started our approach for Amsterdam against the wind, so with a lot of maneuvering. This time Caroline was not sick anymore, although the wind was blowing a 25kts (6Bft aprox?). Entering Amsterdam is really easy. The people of the bridges and locks are very fast and kind. But then we arrived at 9 o’clock in the morning chaos of ‘t IJ. The river running thru Amsterdam. Everywhere yachts, small ferry’s connecting the different sides of the city, industrial traffic, river cruisers, and big cruise ships. This with a wind up to 30-35 kts! Arriving at the Sixhaven the real chaos started. We wanted to get in, but people where waving at us to go back. The habor has a very bad visibility and is quite small we found out. After a while we could enter and discuss with the people. They advised us to get out again and come back a couple of hours later because the harbor needs to be rearranged each day! So we did. At 1 o’clock we found ourself a nice spot. Packed our backs and took the ferry to the train station on the other side of the IJ, leaving Jerry and Peter for a city trip in Amsterdam. Next week Kurt will come back and continue the trip with Jerry to hand over the boat to Paul again on friday. The story continues!

Ciao, 

C’ptn Pinkbeard, Eagle Eyed Jerry, Chef, the Hyper Zen Navigator and Curly.