We waited a day in Brundall prior to departing on our Holland adventure. Sundays forecast was perfect so we met at Reedham on Saturday evening for the usual mix of food, drinks and hilarity plus our Skippers Briefing of course.
We woke on Sunday to a beautiful still morning & a fabulous sunrise and made our way to Breydon & our 0930hrs Haven Bridge lift. Our 13 strong fleet departed Yarmouth Harbour in calm seas and made our way down to Lowestoft then the Stanford Channel & onto the Outer Gabbard before turning East for the crossing to Roompot.
The fleet ran really well as we made our way to the Netherlands at around 20 knots, The sea state was fairly perfect & well worth the wait of a day.
We locked into Roompot at around 1700 dutch time and then travelled the short distance across to Roompot Marina to a warm welcome from Piet, the Marina Manager. It is fair to say that the drinks flowed freely that evening with all the crews in buoyant mood & with a real sense of both achievement having made the crossing and excitement about the cruising ahead.
After Roompot, the experienced crew of Apollo left us to explore some of the smaller dutch harbours & marinas inaccessible to a larger fleet. They rejoined us at Roompot for the return North Sea Crossing.
The rest of the fleet travelled to Delta Marina on the Veerse Meere the following day. After that we split into two groups with one group going to Veere & the other going to the Island. After that we visited Middleburg, Goes, another Island and Brunisse, often spending a leisurely two to three days in a place if that is what the group decided, often with both groups meeting up and socialising together.
We regrouped at Roompot ready for our return leg across the North Sea on Friday – once again the sun was shining and the seas flat calm. We spent our last evening at the RN&SYC in Lowestoft before returning to Brundall on Saturday.
I think it is fair to say that nobody was quite ready to leave Holland & all can’t wait to return.
