David and Judith Behan "Autour du Monde"

On Monday 2/10 Judith booked a taxi to Southampton and went back to London to collect the car. This left time for a bit of essential maintenance, a visit to TWY at Hamble Point and completion of the last Customs and registration paperwork. Judith returned with the car on the Tuesday PM. We took off all of our superfluous gear and then finally headed back to London on Wednesday 4/10 afternoon via Sussex to pick up something essential for the coming weekend. Suffice to say, it was very strange being in a static bed after more than a month on board...and a little sad! But the sadness did not last long. Friday afternoon we were back on board, excitedly preparing the boat for the arrival of Charlie, Sophie and Vicky on the Saturday morning. Saturday dawned bright and sunny, "the kids" were on board by 0830 and after a leisurely breakfast and some exploring of the boat, we set off out into the Solent with around 15kts of wind and enjoyed a beautiful sail down to Newtown and back...

We pulled out of Den Helder at 1030 on Friday morning into the most horrendous slop with Donald and Judith driving, the boat being slammed every which way and David at the chart table trying to submit a UK Pleasure Craft Report customs declaration. After a few hours it all calmed down once we got to deeper water, so we hoisted sails and flew south towards Rotterdam and the Maas. The journey to the Maas was uneventful and very quick. In bright sunshine we bowled past Amsterdam mid afternoon, had nice VHF interraction with a Scottish skipper on MV Karver, a rig service vessel which we called up as he was heading straight at us out of a wind farm at 20kts, and many cups of tea. We knew Rotterdam would be busy, but none of us had been through there before. On leaving Den Helder, the entire coast is a TSS with a windfarm inshore of it, so you can either stay right inshore or go way out towards the UK coast on the other side of the lanes. With the wind we had, only the inshore route was ...

We left Cuxhaven at 1100 the folowing day in an aramada of yachts who, like us, had been waiting for the tide and hoisted the sails in not much wind. But with a bit of help from the iron sail, Atom scythed though the water at 7.5kts plus and more than 9kts over the ground. A beautiful days motor sailng followed as we gently negotiated the TSS regulations of North Holland, dutifully flying our motorsailing cone! As night fell the wind built from the NE and David and Judith were treated to four hours of absolutley tramping sailng. The wind decided not to play ball however, and less than an hour after the watch change it swung SW and died, so poor Donald and Julia motored for the next four hours. A beautiful morning dawned over the Fresian Island of Texel and the hours following breakfast (blueberry jam and cheese sandwiches for David, porridge or meusli for the others) were seeming endless! A morning was spent navigating the islands and shallow water against a direct headwind under ...

We pulled out of Sporthafen Kiel at 0615, testing our thrusters as we moved Atom sideways against an on dock breeze from where we were buried beside the huge cat, and motored around to the entrance to the Kiel Canal at the earlest time yachts can enter. A quick chat with the canal control on the VHF and the small North Lock was opened for us. We moored to a floating raft that was no more than 6 inches above the waterline (the pilotage advice about weighted tyres is good advice if you have space for them, which we didn't!) and after a couple of other yachts had joined us we gently rose 40cm to the height of the canal. Once the gates had opened we stopped to pay the very modest 35 EUR canal fee (thankfully we had cash as the card system was broken!!!!) and then set off at the statutory 6.5kts on glassy water, counting down the kilometres from 92. But glassy water meant time for breakfast and a civilised lunch. It also allowed us to appreciate this extraordinary feat of engineerin...

Saturday morning was as miserable as promised. After a late breakfast, we provisioned the boat and set out of the harbour over the very shallow sand bar (2.6m! Eek, don't try this in a strong Easterly!) As we motored away from Grenaa, the wind swung from SE to NW and built to 13/14kts. Up went the sails and Atom took off. We shot South at between 7.5 and 9kts, all day under full sails, save for a dog leg around the shipping lanes where were were forced back on ourselves for around 6 miles. At around 1800 we picked up the lights flashing on the bridge and as each hour passed the channel narrowed and the volume of shipping built. It was like driving slowly on the hard shoulder of the M1 being passed by a stream of lorries. But it was beautiful sailing... We made very good time and got to Storabaelt at around 2300. A quick VHF call to Great Belt Control and we were given permission to continue under the bridge, under sail if we wished, on the proviso that we kept out of the main sh...