An unexpected battering

It's late, we're cream-crackered,  so brief notes & perhaps more tomorrow. No pics.

After being stuck in Scheveningen for over 3 days the forecast today looked like a window to make some southing; a stiff breeze, and on the nose of course, but with a lift from the tide we planned on 9 hours for the 48 miles to Roompot, a small marina just inside the Oosterschelde lock.

11 hours later after a really rough passage,  we're in Roompot safely tied up ready for the next storm; a force 9 is due tomorrow and into Wed. We're very happy to have a chunk of land between us and the open sea.

Today was much rougher than expected, in terms of wind and especially waves. Boat and crew took a battering. We had to cross a big shipping lane outside Rotterdam,  tankers doing 20 knots bearing down on us and truly tumultuous waves from all directions. Just after that the reefing line snapped, leaving the sail and boom sagging. We managed to set the 2nd reef - F5-6 was not the time for full sail - thank goodness for the Autohelm that keeps the boat on a steady course while we're both busy. We started looking at nearer harbour options but Rotterdam is very 'big ship' and complicated, Harlingviet can't be entered at this tide with these seas, and it's way too late to turn tail to Scheveningen. So on we plugged, and in the end it was a good decision, as wind & waves eased in the evening as per forecast, and the last hour was almost civilised.