The Longest Day(so far). — Blue Sky Skippers

An 0500hrs departure from Cuxhaven (now we realise why you left Lisa) was a bit of a shock to the system after a few days of being stuck in port.

Leaving the River Elbe we were greeted by a mass of shipping queued up and at anchor in what we assumed to be the wait to get through the Kiel canal, there must have been approximately 30 ships waiting with pilot boats circling like Sharks.

Luckily for the rest of the crew Adrian was kept amused for most of the day trying to re-establish AIS connection that seemed to have been lost when the B&G engineer came aboard to fix the windex, it seems to be that we get one gremlin resolved for another to raise its ugly head. If you want to follow Mr Blue Sky we are now exclusively available on www.vesselfinder.com, quite why this seems to be Mr Blue Sky's favoured AIS app is a mystery! I'm sure all will be revealed once back in the UK.

We were at 65miles, off the island of Nordeney when we decided to go on past another two islands to the island of Borkum. We had spoken the previous day with a Dutch skipper in Cuxhaven who had warned us of the approach to Nordeney harbour in certain situations tides and weather conditions. Borkum was an easier entry and was accessible 24hrs a day.

Skipper passage planning whilst dog sitting.

The day continued with little to distract us other than cups of tea, lunch and the occasional passing ship.

By 1900 hrs we realised that unless we ate it would be 2300hrs before we would get anything, so Sue managed to conjure up an excellent bowl of Thai Curry and rice (1st rate bowl of slop).

We have realised that going in and out of harbours takes out a huge chunk of your sailing day and when you can see your favoured port of entry it is often a long way off, with negotiating channels and following the correct buoyage, remember there is a lot of shallow water around the Frisian Islands, don't be tempted to cut corners. We finally tied up alongside a Dutch boat in Borkum Harbour at 2215 hrs.