Netherlands/Germany Trip - Harlingen      6th June:

    A terrible storm brewed up in the night, and by 2am it seemed as if Duonita was being pelted by golf ball sized hail. Absolute torrential rain hammered down, with thunder and lightning adding to the din. Then I had to deal with water being forced by the wind through the seal around the window above my head. I rammed a pillow up above me to catch the water dripping on my bunk. Reports in the morning stated 9mm of rain had fallen at 2am, followed by 4mm at 4am.
    We arose to be greeted by a grey sky animated by scudding dark patches releasing showers upon us. The wind was still strong. Hmmm.... we checked the weather forecast: strong winds today and even stronger winds tomorrow, with Gale Force 9 the following day. We needed to consider our options. The sea would not be a safe place to be tomorrow and the following day, so we would need to be holed up somewhere safe for at least two days. We had intended sailing down to Hindeloopen today, but that would not be a suitable place to stay for a couple of days - it is small and we would soon get bored. We could stay put in Harlingen, it is a sizeable town, but more importantly it has good rail connections, so we could use it as a base to explore from. Nobody was putting out to sea today, so we decided on the latter option. Thus today would be a laundry day plus a chance to do a decent food shop and tidy up the boat.

Architectures Around Town

Sint Michaelkerk (St Michael's Church)

    While Rex enjoyed his siesta, I headed off, found a supermarket and bought the necessaries. It was now a bright, sunny day, though the wind still had a bit of a whistle in it.
    Once back on board, an elderly chap with scraggy, long, grey hair and beard, and a pair of sunglasses hiding access to his soul, cycled across to our mooring. "Tollesbury, eh?" he called across. "Yes," was the swift response. "Excuse me if I talk a bit funny," he resumed, "I've just come from the dentist. Is that just where your boat originally came from, or do you sail out of there?" "No, we sail out of there. I don't know if you know the port, there is a marina and saltings there. I keep the boat on the saltings," retorted Rex. "I kept a boat there from 2001 to 2009, in the marina," he beamed. "I sail my boat all over, and leave it wherever for the winter," he added. We learned he had sailed a lot around the Baltic. His current boat was a Sirius, a German top of the range boat. Rex told me later they start off at £400k. "I'm currently waiting in Harlingen until my crew travel out in a weeks' time," quipped the old man. Rex offered him a whiskey for his tooth, but he declined and preferred rum anyway. Time was pressing on for the man, and he took his leave.
    I cooked tea, chicken supreme, which we ate in the cockpit while the sun shone, and put the world to rights. The wind was piping up again, but with a Blues Traveller CD playing in the wheelhouse, well, sheer bliss.

Fisherman in Herenwaltje

    In the evening we hiked to 't Lichtboei to watch the football match between England and Holland. A group of locals were playing their variation of billiards on a table with no pockets. Others were watching the build up to the match on the TV. One of the chaps playing billiards joked with us about how Holland were going to win 4:1, and he had placed a bet standing him to win 1,200 Euros. As always, there was much banter flying around in the bar, on the seats outside, and the snug, a sort of smoking area which was totally open to the bar. Rex found a fellow smoker outside to chat economics with.
    In a short while England went 1:0 up after a penalty. I clapped and cheered when they scored, Rex had wimped out and gone outside for another smoke. The little Dutch gambler pranced about the bar, still holding four fingers up on one hand, and one on the other, and still chanting, "Veer, een!" This stirred much mirth amongst his countrymen. Later the Dutch team equalised - 1:1. Towards the end of the game, England scored again - another cheer from me. However, the Video Assisted Referee deemed the scorer had a toe offside. At full time it was still a draw.
    In extra time, Holland scored - 1:2, and the wee Dutchman was almost dancing on the tables. One of the billiards players sidled up to me and told me shorty had already lost his bet since a score of 1:4 in Holland's favour was not achieved in the 90 minutes. "Not to worry, he has lots of money," he winked.
    As if on cue, to provide some light relief, a couple of girls, clearly neither Dutch nor English, stepped into the doorway and asked if the establishment was a club. "No, we are not a club," said one of the regulars. "Oh, is there a club around here?" they asked again. Then a different local piped up, "Yes, this is a club, you can come in and dance on the tables." This created peels of laughter from all the locals, and the girls got the message that they should look elsewhere.
    Holland scored again - 1:3, and betting man was almost somersaulting. And that was how the game ended. It was all good humour in and outside of the bar, nobody took it seriously.