Hi !
It is 8:15 when I’m woken up by Dad, with a lot to do before we can leave. I have to go to HEMA, which opens at 9, to buy a baking dish for my meal tonight. Meanwhile — just like yesterday — Dad gets everything ready for departure, and I’m back by 9:10 AM so we can go. We say hello to the neighbours and can join the queue immediately to go through the bridge. Just a little wait for the other boats, wind from behind. Dad puts the engine in reverse BOOM, lots of noise, engine broken. We can’t do anything anymore; we have to get to the shore quickly, the wind is blowing us towards the bridge. A German woman helps, after Dad screams “help” very loudly and throws a line far to her in one go. It’s great that it works; she pulls us to her ship. Eventually, we are alongside, and it turns out they are having engine problems themselves. Dad is able to find the problem on our boat quickly and fixes it. It turns out to be the bolts of the engine on the shaft. We can still leave at 10:15, going with some trepidation, but we’re going for it.
Things go well and we sail past the Elfstedentocht locations, arriving in Dokkum around noon. In between, we moor once more to wait for a bridge and also check the engine. Everything is bolted down, so I feel confident sailing some tracks on my own and even manage to navigate through bridges by myself. The lock at the end of the route, to reach the Lauwersmeer, goes very smoothly for us; for others, it is a bit less smooth. After a long day of sailing and a bit more wind, we reach a small bank and we both think: We’ve got a day, tomorrow a somewhat more relaxed day with a very short sail is nice. On Thursday (day after tomorrow), hopefully with some calm weather, out onto the Wadden Sea. Tonight we’ll enjoy the silence, birds, view, and tomorrow we’ll relax (eat a croissant) and sleep in.
- Departure: 07-07-2026 10:15 (Leeuwarden)
Arrival: 07-07-2026 15:45 (Sennerplaat) - Sailing time: 0.5 h
- Engine time: 5 h
- Sailing distance: 19.7 NM