After sleeping in in the morning, recovering from our three-day crossing from Norway, we enjoyed walking around Terschelling, a town we’d already visited. Don’t get me wrong, we love exploring new places, but there’s something nice about a familliar town, knowing where the nearest grocery store is, and not having to use Google Maps all the time!
The next highlight of our travels was that we were about to welcome Reto’s father and his wife on board Lív. We only had one challenge left before they joined us: getting from Terschelling to Enkhuizen with 28 knots of wind!
Our first attempt failed. We were all ready to leave when we decided that it was simply too windy and wouldn’t make for a pleasant sail. So, we took our sailing clothes off again and decided that it was time to give Reto a haircut instead!
The next day, the wind had eased a little, and we set sail towards the inland waters of the Netherlands. We had a lot of fun and made good speed. It felt amazing but very strange to have 20 knots of wind and almost no waves, because for the last few Months, sailing along the very rough coast of Norway, we normaly had less wind and a lot bigger waves. But here in the Netherlands, where it’s so shallow and the outer islands stop the waves from comming in, the sailing conditions are so much smoother and nicer! It took us only 8.5 hours to get to Enkhuizen and we arrived at exactly the same time as our guests!
Reto’s father has plenty of sailing experience himself, as him and his wife spend their summers living on their own boat in Greece. However, neither of them had ever sailed through a lock before, so of course, we wanted to take them through one!
For our second night toghether, we found a great anchorage in just 3 metres of water, which was a cool experience for all of us! After a lovely dinner cooked on the grill, we received some amazing news: Reto and I are going to be godfather and godmother to our friends’ little baby girl! They’re expecting her in late November, and we couldn’t be more honoured and excited to be part of their story!
We loved having our guests on board for a few days and were really excited to take them sailing with us. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it past Amsterdam, as the weather wasn’t on our side and they had already booked their flights to their next destination. Nevertheless, we had some amazing days together and also enjoyed showing them around Amsterdam!
After some emotional goodbyes, knowing we don’t know when we’ll see them again, it was time to get moving again. We took advantage of a small weather window that gave us the chance to sail through the North Sea and make it all the way behind the Haringvlietdam, where we would be well sheltered again.
It’s crazy to think that we sailed the same stretch of water five months ago! Back then, it took us three days to complete the journey, as we split it into shorter legs because we didn’t feel confident enough to sail such long distances in one go. This time, we made it in one go in just a little over 13 hours!
Don’t miss the next blog post, where we make our way back to our ‘home port’!
Day 139 - 140: Terschelling NL
Day 141: Terschelling NL - Enkhuizen NL
Day 142: Enkhuizen NL - Marker Wadden NL
Day 143: Marker Wadden NL - Hoorn NL
Day 144: Hoorn NL - Amsterdam NL
Day 145 - 146: Amsterdam NL
Day 147-148: Amsterdam NL - Stellendam NL
