Delfzijl, The Netherlands

 Our third crossing of the North Sea was an insanely rough passage, followed by an intense weekend festival and then an immediate return to England. 

It has been a really rough passage across from Great Yarmouth. Now skimming the north coast of the Netherlands. Not many pix; I was mostly focused on keeping my footing! OTOH, I became a better heavy weather helmsman, so that counts. Here’s a tall ship sunset for you, from one of our quieter moments.

One thing about the sailing community: we are actually a very small tight group, very spread out geographically. It was beyond spectacular to get a visit from an old USNA Sailing colleague and his family! 

This was our colleague's photo, his first view of the ship.

Shades of Jaye's former life as a scientist involved with environmental regulations: We hosted a private event for the EU’s regulators and shipping industry about new greenhouse gas emissions limits. Here’s a presentation on use of wind power on cargo ships. Deliciously ironic, on a replica of a wind powered cargo ship from 350 years ago! (Zoom in on the slide to see some of those newer technologies.) Texting with former environmental boss about this event, we noted that both the newer technologies and the trade offs they discussed (for example if time is money and sail is slower how do you quantify the balance with the unquantifiable ecological advantages?) reflected problems that we'd faced 15 years earlier on the other side of the Atlantic. But it really was a fun venue for the regulators! I guess if you've got to host a meeting, this would be an excellent way to guarantee attendance.  

An example of one of those newer technology wind cargo ships was docked at the festival.

Like many festivals, it included a crew parade and an outrageously fun party for all the ships' crews to meet each other. And unique to Holland, a snack tent where they made stroopwafels (delightful Dutch cookies) while you watched, and could eat them still warm (which we did every day while we were there!)

Fireworks every night, and we had a perfect front-row-viewing-platform right on the ship!

 

Looking back toward shore during the fireworks. Quite crowded!

We got our requisite visit from a "Jack Sparrow" ...

...as well as some other local pirates.

We didn't have a lot of time off to explore the town, but did make a somewhat hurried visit one morning to buy European-style chargers for our phones since the ones we had brought broke, and passed this stall of Moroccan pottery. Good thing we were so limited on space or I would have bought half the stall! We still had to buy an extra suitcase to get home, but more on that later.

All too soon it was time to move on. Fortunately our return passage was a lot calmer than the trip out. On June 18, my kid brother's birthday and almost the summer solstice, I posted that this far north (we’re at 54 degrees latitude, closer to the North Pole than the equator) it doesn’t get all the way dark. Here’s a hint of what the sky looked like when we got off watch at local midnight. This morning, hello England!