Netherlands/Germany Trip - Borkum      31st May:

    Rex was up bright and early checking the wind forecast - Force 4 gusting to Force 5. "Shall we chance it?" he asked. "Yes, let's go for it or we'll be stuck here for ever," I replied.
    In no time at all we were bouncing along in the choppy waters between Vlieland and Terschelling, carefully picking our course between shallows and wrecks. Once out of harm's way we steered a course parallel to the islands.

Sailing Past Terschelling

    As we crept past the long stretch of Terschelling, we picked up a series of VHF messages from a NATO warship which was shortly going to detonate a second world war mine in the vicinity. Fortunately we were well away from their exclusion zone. Not long afterwards, we heard a long sequence of calls in Dutch concerned with a rescue operation somewhere off Terschelling.
    With the wind behind us and sunny skies we were in our element and glad to be moving again. The peace was suddenly shattered by two fighter jets appearing from behind us at low altitude. A seal popped his head up to see what all the fuss was about. Then as we glided past Schiermonnikoog the air turned blue when Rex spilled his dinner over the cockpit floor. Did Nelson ever have this trouble? I adjusted his bibby and told him not to worry about it, the gulls would soon clean up the mess.

Cable Laying Ship Ahoy!

    As the sun sunk lower, we skirted an anchorage full of tankers and a wind farm. At one point I spotted we were sailing through a smack of jellyfish, hundreds of thousands of them. We soon found ourselves sailing down the Westerems channel parallel to a shipping lane with a huge cargo vessel slipping past us on its way to Emden.
    "Sailing ship Duonita, sailing ship Duonita, this is patrol boat Mary Ann. Over," the VHF burst into life. With a little difficulty we managed to establish communication with the vessel. Some distance ahead of us were some anchored vessels, one being a cable laying ship. We were required to keep at least 600' from the north of them, or 1000' to the south. We bore off south since the shipping channel was to the north. Rex kept a keen eye on the depth, we could easily run out of water at the entrance to the Ems.
    As the sun masqueraded as a warm orange, we headed down the Westerems towards the Randzelgat, with the German town of Borkum on our port side, dominated by its lighthouse. In the distance the industrial town of Eemshaven sprouted a complex of buildings and towers above the horizon with a trail of smoke emanating from the high points. A breeze was getting up and the tide was turning against us.

Sailing Past Borkum Town

    We entered the narrow channel that took us behind Borkum to the marina. The large harbour was primarily for commercial vessels, so we opted for the smaller marina, despite concerns that it was silting up. We spotted a space on a short, rickety finger pontoon and edged into it. It was not the best of berths, it had a large piling in the corner with a sharp metal structure around it. It was essential we adjust our mooring lines to keep the bow well away from it, or we could be holed. Two kind chaps came out to take our ropes and we were soon moored securely, with a spring on to keep our bow out of reach of the metal structure. The journey from Vlieland had taken 13 hours.
    In the dimming light, I ventured up to the buildings above the marina. The harbour master would not be around until 08:00 the following morning. The toilet and shower block had seen better days, and smelled of stale urine. Outside the bar/restaurant I came across a couple having a quiet smoke and drink. "The bar and restaurant closes at 9pm, but today they closed at 8:30 pm," they informed me. Later in the evening I went up to the toilet block to use the facilities, only to discover it was all locked up! This was probably the worst marina we have ever been in!
    Not to worry. The town of Borkum was an 8km hike, so we enjoyed a couple of beers on board, and turned in at 11pm. The repetitive whoosh of the blades of a wind turbine right next to the marina soon lulled me to sleep.