Yesterday we had our most beautiful and by far the fastest trip so far. Going from Scheveningen in the Netherlands to Blankenberge in Belgium, we had a good force 4 to 6 from northwest and could run a beam reach course (does one wright it that way ?) towards our destination. The trip was a total of 70 miles and crossed some of the major shipping lanes towards Hoek van Holland, Rotterdam and Vlissingen. This and the waves that at some stages got quite biog made it interesting, and althought it’s still quite cold here, the sun was actually showing she’s still there somewhere… I was writing we were going fast and yes, we were – at least for our own mesasurements. Which means the current and the wind were pusing our twelve ton Rancho Relaxo with a good 8 knots forward. That’s feeling like flying. Hehehe. Everyone with a modern, light yacht is probably laughing his ass of right now.
When leaving Scheveningen, the customs and immigration came for a visit, both in cool frog-men like outfits and very friendly looked our papers and around the ship and soon after were off with their powerboat and roughly five times our speed. Hehehe.
The approach towards Zeebruegge and Blankenberge (which are quite close to each other) was a little frightening as both cities look AWFULLY when viewed from sea (pic below). But the 80ies style concrete nightmare that’s to be seen from sea is actually hiding some nice housings behind and the marina is crowded but quite nice. We’ve got free rental bikes and one can shower as long as one likes. – Ah, and Bruno wrote a menue plan for us. :-)
