Tuesday 10 April

After the very long, eventful day yesterday, it was a day to have a break and regroup. It was also the day that Tom had to leave us. We all had a long lie in, lingered over breakfast, then said farewell to Tom. Conveniently, he was able to get a bus from outside the marina office to take him to Amsterdam to fly home. We’ll miss you, Tom! It’s been great having him and Dave to shoulder this part of the journey, requiring long hops. Now we have got to Ijmuiden, we should be able to make shorter, more manageable hops and, thankfully, Dave can stay with us for a few more days, until we get get back to UK.

It has been another much warmer day, allowing us to wear tee shirts, which is lovely after being trussed up in umpteen layers of thermals, foulies and life jacket. Laundry done and a trip to the supermarket in town puts in good shape for the next few days. Loaded down with shopping, we got the bus back from town, driven by a super friendly, cool dude bus driver, whose Afro hair was beautifully platted and down to his waste. He was impressed that we, at least knew two words in Dutch, please and thank you.

The marina here has an industrial view; the Tata steel works is on the other side of the river mouth, but behind the office buildings and hotel, in the other direction, is a long sandy beach. The numerous holiday chalets around the marina point with their view towards the beach and not the steel works. No surprises there.

Distance covered today - 0 nautical miles

Total distance covered - 390 nautical miles

Tricia (and Steve)