Finished!!!
Heerenxvii
Sun 12 Dec 2010 20:01
Yes, we made it, passing the finish line at 1:21pm local time 11 december. Unfortunately we do not yet know what place we have, as the handicap system, in combination with a penalty for motoring can kick us right back to a low position. For now, it looks like we are number 6, but again this can only get worse. We filled in as honest as we cold the motoring hours, 72.5 propulsion hours. But a boat finished today who reported an explicit zero hours motoring... Maybe true, maybe not. There are 2 boats in front of us on the ranking, but they still have to finish, and looking at the (lack of) wind today, there is a small change we can move up to 4th position!
On arrival, we were welcomed by a small dinghy with a dutch flag and balloons, shouting, it were H, A and G, and on shore, minutes later, surprise surprise, S was waving and yelling! What a perfect welcome after our 3000+ nautical miles :)
In the marina and surroundings there is lots of activities or things to look at during the day, and in the evening there is a daily party, different place, different time each time. So, during the day we hang around, do small boat repairs and in the evening we are up for BEER!
The sails als taken down and ready to be handed to the sailmaker tomorrow, monday, but tomorrow is also a local holiday, so this may not work :) The laundry dude came by by boat, asking for our dirty laundry, which we were happy to handover. But no form or paper to be filled, so hopefully we get our clean stuff back, we agreed within 24 hours.
Tomorrow we need to check the bottom of the boat, and see why the LOG meter does not work properly anymore, we cleaned it (from the inside) already, but somehow it does not indicate the speed correctly, more than 50% off.
Next is to declare any item on board that can be moved or sold, and we need to agree with the local dock master which activities to undertake on the boat while we are out. Looks like we need to start adjusting to the dutch climate in 2 days, but hey, we all enjoyed this trip very much.
Thanks for reading our blog and supporting us during this trip, hope you liked the (almost) daily updates, and maybe till a next adventure!