Germany to Netherlands

We left the long sandy beaches of Borkum behind in poor visibility, but we could still see what looked like crowds on the beach. In fact they are row upon row of high-backed two-person seats which are everywhere in these parts, used for sunbathing or relaxing in the shade.

It was another challenging journey, with Sirena IV rolling like a metronome in big uneasy seas, all the crockery crashing to and fro at each transition. 

Unfortunately we miscalculated our arrival time at the buoys which mark an entrance channel to our destination, Lauwersoog.

We got there too soon. The water would be too shallow for us to enter safely, so we had to pointlessly motor out to sea for half an hour and then motor back to wait for the tide to turn and give us more water under our keel. We have not had to wrestle with tides for 3 years in the tideless Baltic, so it's all coming back to us in a rush.

And how did we know that the depth would be too shallow? Not from our primary navigation source, our chartplotter which is the 'satnav" of the seas, but from our humble tablet which has Navionics software installed as a backup. 

And the tablet is our only way of navigating inland waters, because the chartplotter won't do anything but high seas. And yes, inland is where we are headed now. The weather looks so bad that we will have to putter through Dutch canals rather than go around the outside top bit of Netherlands. 

We've done it before,  twice. And we'll just have to do it again. This is a delivery trip not a pleasure trip. But being in Holland has its compensations- seeing beautiful traditional boats like the one pictured.