Den Helder

3 July 2023

News

After the last evening trip on Saturday evening, we lifted all catering, crockery and drinks off the ship with the help of 12 crew members of the Roald Amundsen.  With such a big group of helpers that was quickly arranged. The whole week was a pleasure to lie next to each other with these ships, to help each other where necessary and of course often to exchange experiences while enjoying a drink.

Sunday was spent preparing the Oosterschelde for sea again, clearing buffet tables, cleaning the saloon and preparing the cabins.

At 15:00 an hour of rest for everyone and at 17:00 all guests were on board for the journey to Den Helder. Immediately after the introduction, we left to pass through to the Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal) in one go. Because high tide was at 8AM the next morning in Brunsbüttel, we decided to sail through the evening and night. At 04:45 we anchored on the Elbe just outside the Brunsbüttel locks, waiting for high tide to sail down the Elbe with the current.

With an increasing westerly wind, it was quite a struggle to reach the entrance, but in the end we were able to reach Helgoland with a few sails, where we moored next to a Polish sail training ship, the Kapitan Borchard. The next morning, we left at 11:00 am. There was a strong west-northwest wind so we went half wind towards the German Wadden Islands. With 9.5 knots we had a fantastic sailing day, which unfortunately we had to close on engine because everyone realized that we were not really making headway against the wind and current. The rest of the journey was therefore unfortunately not under sail, but luckily the decreasing wind did not cause too much delay so that we were moored in Den Helder for dinner. All in all a nice short trip that most will look back on with pleasure.

As a captain, I would like to add that we have a fantastic crew at the moment. They work well together, but the mutual atmosphere is also great. Not infrequently, the evening washing up is turned into a party with loud singing and laughing.