We arrived at Scheveningen Sunday, August 5th at 7 pm after a long 24 hr. motor sail from Dover… no wind at all. That wasn’t too bad though. We made well use of the time by collecting all our stuff and cleaning the boat.

It felt a weird entering the breakwaters of Scheveningen and calling the harbormaster for clearance to enter the marina after almost a year. It’s been quite a trip and now it was coming to an end for real. No more flying back to where I left the boat for the next leg. This was it.

Friends and family greeted us standing on the quay and that really felt great. Clare was there with the kids and she had picked up my mother too. Jantine’s parents and boyfriend were there as well as a couple of friends of Willem Jelle and Monique. Frits who sailed with me from St Martin to the Azores had come down from Katwijk. Unfortunately, we were too early for Eline to come over all the way from Friesland to join the party.

And very, very special to me, Marischka was there to welcome me, together with her daughter Ashley.
During my short stay home in between arriving and leaving the Azores we had really met and had stayed in close contact. She and her daughters had lived in my house during my times at sea and on my way back to Scheveningen we had agreed she would stay living with me as my new True Companion.

It’s funny if you think of it, Marischka, Ashley and Yentl were all there to say goodbye when we left Scheveningen September last year.

It took almost 10.000 Nm to bring us together at the exact spot I left about a year ago. We are very happy and looking forward to a new future together. Exactly 9 months later, May 5th 2013 we married, in Scheveningen just opposite my boat.