1st July From Lauwersoog to Norderney

At last, the winds were favourable enough for us to break out into the North Sea and by a convoluted route leave Holland for the pleasures of Norderney, one of the German Frisian Islands.

You know that trick when the man juggles three oranges ( had to be that for Holland, ) and there is a moment when all three stop moving in different directions and come together in one hand, well leaving Dutch Lauwersoog for Norderney is very much like that with the tidal streams.

You have first to go back West for two hours across the treacherous sandbanks behind the Frisian Island of Schiermonnikoog, then catch the tidal change going East to Norderney and make sure it is still flooding by the time you arrive after nine hours. Like a moving conveyor belt if you keep going in the direction of the stream it appears to run for eight hours and not the six you see if you stand still.

In fact there was one more orange in the air - the calculated departure time from Lauwersoog was earlier in the morning than the opening time of the sea lock out into the Wadenzee, which meant going out the previous evening and mooring in the outer fishing harbour now converted in part to cater for yachts. This we did but at 4 am realised that the tide had dropped such that our keel was stuck 2 feet deep in soft mud and we were just about standing up like a wine glass. Having realised this it was a relief that the tide immediately came back in but not much sleep was had after that.

The first two hours through the buoyed sandbanks was against a stiff headwind which threw up large broken waves over the bow, a grey green sea struck through with the colour of suspended sand and a grey sky and how remarkable that after an hour out at sea, dried out sandbanks appeared close by to left and right - an assorted group of grey and brown seals slumped at the edge of a bank raised their heads to watch our crazy human antics as we passed. Anyone who has sailed these sand banks along to the Scharnhorst Sands off the Elbe River will see why Erskine Childers chose the location to place his classic spy novel "The Riddle of the Sands."

We sailed in company with Fleur our Dutch companions, keeping up an hourly exchange of pleasantries on the VHF radio although remained in sight of each other it is good to make voice contact as the coastal terrain is long and low and rather distant offering little or no entertainment except the rescue of a large drifting fishing boat "not under command" by an even larger coastguard ship which seemed to take it in tow.

On entering the narrow buoyed channel taking us around the back of the Nordeney Island we needed to drop the mainsail quickly to clear the way for an ocean going tug towing a heavy barge to butt its way past with walls of white water thrown up before it - clearly not a vessel able to turn on a sixpence ( or even a pfennig.) The harbour was almost full with yachts but being more slender than many, we found a vacant berth to nestle in and wind down. Checking the decks at the end of the day we found a perfect little mackerel lying in the scuppers, presumably thrown up by the waves behind Schiermonnikoog, an offering, albeit small, from the sea goddess who looked after us en voyage. We were again re-united with Cybelle our French amis who had arrived the previous day.