Netherlands Trip - In Transit      18th June:

    I was aware of a gorgeous red glow sneaking through the gaps in the fore cabin curtains at 4am. A beautiful day lay ahead.
    We were both up and about before 7am. A hearty breakfast was the order of the day, then we made the boat ready for our journey back to the UK.
    The lads on the Westerly Konsort next to us were up too, readying their craft. They were patiently waiting until their third crew member turned up on a bus. We exchanged pleasantries with them, wished them a safe trip, and slipped our lines.
    We had only reached the entrance to the marina, and Rex was fuming. A Dutch boat leaving just ahead of us was proceeding at the fearsome speed of 2 knots. As we left the marina, I spotted a huge bulk carrier, accompanied by two tugs, slowly entering the outer harbour. The Dutch yacht had by now stopped completely, and a lady aboard shouted to us, "A request has gone out over the radio that vessels have to stay well away from the ship while it enters the outer harbour," We thanked the woman for the warning; perhaps the request went out in Dutch, and it would have been lost on us. We duly followed the order. Once we saw the Dutch yacht make a break for it, we followed suit. The bulk carrier, Sagar Sarat was 225m long and 32m wide, with a draft of 13.2m, and it was manoeuvring towards the large Tata steelworks complex.

Sagar Samrat Bulk Carrier Arriving at Ijuiden

    We made a beeline for the large yellow mast offshore from Ijmuiden, then set a course that would take us through a gap between a massive anchorage to our starboard and a windfarm to port.
    We espied a luxury yacht that was being towed by a tug, escorted by another. I checked it out on AIS. The yacht had been towed from east of Dordrecht, through Nieuwpoort into the North Sea, up the coast and now heading towards Ijmuiden. A DFDS ferry from Newcastle overtook it as it too headed to the port.

Towed Luxury Yacht and DFDS Ferry from Newcastle All Heading Towards Ijuiden

    In the distance we spotted a large platform. Investigating, we discovered it was a dropping off/pick up point for pilots, with a helicopter pad on its top. As a comparison, pilots travel 8-9nm out from Harwich in high-speed pilot boats to deliver to/pick up directly pilots for vessels to/from Felixstowe and the Thames Estuary.

Farewell Ijuiden

    2.5 hours out from Ijmuiden I noticed huge numbers of cuttlefish bones floating on the sea. We have noticed them on past trips, but we were at a loss as to why. A lot of them end up on Ijmuiden beach.
    As we passed a windfarm, a mist dropped down shrouding the blades. The mist deteriorated to fog. We knew we were passing anchored ships 0.7nm away, but could not see them. Hmm …. What about vessels that are not showing up on AIS we thought. A wind-over-tide situation also picked up, and the sea was now decidedly lumpy. I tried to get some rest below, but that was futile.

Fog Dropping Down

    When I came up on deck, Rex was hovering around the radio, and he pointed out on the chart plotter two ships ahead of us. "I'm having communication problems with the second ship," he moaned. One of the ships appeared to be hovering over a well head, obviously engaged in operational work. The other vessel was carrying cargo, and appeared to be drifting slowly on its route between Antwerp to Rotterdam. This cargo ship was getting concerned we were in the same patch of water it and the ops vessel were. The ops vessel had a 500m exclusion zone around it, and Rex was absolutely certain we would pass between the two of them with over a mile to spare. Peering out, it was a complete white out; we saw nothing of these two vessels, but we trusted the chart plotter and proceeded ahead.
    Now, in the background, we heard the Rotterdam coastguard advising those yachts, who did not have AIS, what courses they should steer. That was a novel concept to us, but totally logical. The fog had generated much radio traffic by now, some of it heated.
    We passed within a mile of a cruiser and cargo ships, without seeing or hearing anything of their existence. After 6 hours of fog, it gradually lifted and at last we saw ships and an oil rig that had been invisible minutes earlier.
    The tensions of sailing in fog must have disturbed Rex's mind. He had a mad half hour: he donned his pinny, cleaned and hoovered. I half expected him to burst into song as he imitated his hero singing Jumping Jack Flash.
    In response, rain now appeared. A solitary yacht came into view, sailing along the track we had just traced. His sails were set well, and he slowly disappeared off into the distant gloom. For a while, time was spent altering course to avoid a couple of ships speeding towards the TSS lanes.
    More rain passed, and the sky brightened to our starboard, with at last the sun dropping below a bank of cloud that stretched above us and to the east The sun was soon dazzling and the sea was settling down. We skirted the eastern flank of an enormous wind farm, as were myriads of other ships too; this colossal wind farm certainly made its presence felt.

Sun Sinking Down to the Horizon

    After a spectacular sunset, Rex took over the watch around 10pm. Ominous clouds were accumulating over Vlissingen.