8-9 July 2013 -Breskens

51:23.8N

3:34.2W

We made good progress from Lowestoft with a fresh NE wind 15-20 knots.  We ate the last of Roger’s ready meals – a hangover from my time in Manchester when I left him with homemade meals to heat up every evening.  I kept watch till 10.30, and the light was just fading as Roger took over.  Radio 4 was still in range – a treat!  Roger then called me at 2am, and I went through to 5am, and then before we knew it Vlissingen was in sight at 7am.

We’d agreed to call Wil and Maya in Amsterdam at 5 miles off-shore – but it was too early!  So we called at 7.30am (8.30am Dutch time.)  We were in harbour for 8am

Wil and Maya arrived at noon.  What a lovely day! There was champagne!  including an excellent bottle of Taitinger.  Thank you to both – so generous!  Lunch was old cheese and an excellent sausage: then we went to get the lobsters from the fishing boat in the harbour.  The captain was in good (?too good?) form, and was cooking lobsters for a German family to eat aboard before they travelled home to Dusseldorf. He cooked our lobsters; we admired his smokery with its smoked mackerel and eels and selected our oysters and 500g of brown shrimps – all from the Westerschelde.  (I think!)  The seafood from this region is wonderful and the best in the world in our experience so far.

The Captain with his cleaver….

We came back about 6pm and spent the rest of the evening gorging on seafood. 

This morning Tuesday 9^th we all had a slow start.  There were problems with accessing the mailasail pin, so apologies for the delay in uploading these blogs.  It’s been hot and sunny again, and the new solar panels are working well.  Maya and Wil have just left after treating us to a lovely lunch in a beach restaurant.  Sitting under an umbrella in the shade on a deck on the beach eating seafood salad with good friends.  Life is good.

We’ll stay another night in Breskens, and catch the tide south  at 5am tomorrow morning, with very happy memories.