Across the North Sea

We arrived in Seaport Marina, Ijmuiden at 1700 UK time today, having left Shotley Marina, Harwich at 1630 yesterday. Our passage plan was a repeat of last year'sand it worked perfectly and with less stress. There was also, sadly, less sailing this year because the wind was just too light until the last 2 hours; we did sail right into Ijmuiden harbour as tankers were coming out. 

We could have sailed very very slowly, but in shipping lanes and fishing fleets and taking 3 days? Nah - slap the motor on, let's get on with it, the Baltic is calling. 

One very helpful difference from last year was that we had a good moon and clear skies, so even in the 4 hours of darkness we could still see the horizon. This helps when deciding whether strange lights are 5 miles away or 500 yards away. The sunrise pic here does not do its perfection justice. 

The marina is very different in June compared to August last year - it's half empty as the pic may show and at 1800 local time no-one was answering the VHF to acknowledge our arrival. It's very off-season for them. 

V tired now as the sleeping during a 2 hour off-watch is never very good. Food, wash, bed zzzz