Leaving Ijmuiden
A later start was on the cards for our trip from Ijmuiden to Scheveningen it was only 25 miles, a grey and forbidding looking sea greeted us as we turned around the breakwater of Ijmuiden with winds from the South and SW.....the exact direction we wanted to go! Once again engine on and bash out the 25miles, we were resigned to a 5 hour passage on the engine. Then the sun came out the the sea suddenly looked a much happier place to be, up went the sails and with a bit of a tack out we got a good angle to head into Scheveningen, the wind picked up to approaching 25 knots and Mr Blue Sky, with 1 reef in was starting to really enjoy this close hauled romp into Scheveningen.
Arriving at Scheveningen
Grey skies
Approaching the outer breakwater a call to Scheveningen Traffic Centre is required on VHF 21 to make sure there are no vessels leaving the harbour, then once inside a call to the harbour master on VHF31 for berthing instructions........only we hadn't got 31 the set jumps from 28 to 60. More problems? No......apparently 31 is exclusive to the Netherlands and it is only Dutch VHF sets that have channel 31. It isn't a problem as there is a large clearly marked visitors area with plenty of room for visiting yachts.
Once tied up alongside it was time for a "small sweet sherry" and a very pleasant Dutch bar was found and we sat done to peruse the extensive beer menu
Nice session beer 8.5%
Suitably refreshed and fed we walked around to the yacht club to see if we could eventually swap one of our Brixham YC burgees for a local one. What a reception we received, the yacht club commodore was sent for and drinks were supplied, we were treated like visiting royalty. The commodore arrived but unfortunately he didn't speak a word of English (our Dutch being a little rusty) but there were translaters on hand to tell him about Willem III who set sail from Holland and landed in Brixham in 1688 hence the orange on the Brixham YC burgee. Burgees were swapped and we were loaded up with gifts.
Our representative from Brixham meets the Commodore
They came bearing gifts
An excellent evening was had by us all and our thanks go out to Scheveningen yacht club for the warm welcome they gave us. If Carlsberg did yacht clubs.............
Great stash from our night out……where did those glasses come from?