Ship messages

This morning we left Rotterdam with beautiful weather. We have 16 guest crewmembers on board for a short voyage to England for the long weekend. The weather forecast predicts southeast and east wind so we decide to sail to Lowesoft or Great Yarmouth. But when we sailed down the Nieuwe Waterweg and where at sea the wind changed and we sailed towards Scheveningen. We tack and the wind is now just right and Great Yarmouth is right ahead. Let’s see how long the wind will blow from this direction.

The birthday of Hamburg harbor is greatly celebrated! Three days of festival, with around 100 ships in the water and also a nice festival and fair on shore, throughout the whole city. We have sailed several great daytrips with each 80 to 100 guests on board. Wouter, our chef, has prepared a very nice meal for all our guests. A great firework show was given on saturday, which almost all the ships could see from the water. Besides these 100 ships, there were also 3 gigantic cruiseships (Aida shipping company). Therefor it was to be expected that some ships would clash or crash into another. We have seen several ships with a shorter bowsprit after the festival. Now we sail above the Dutch 'Wadden' on our way to Rotterdam. We left the harbor of Hamburg early yesterday morning. At this point there is hardly any wind, and from the opposite direction. For tomorrow they forecast a fair wind from north west direction. Therefor we try to pass Texel soon, so that we profit from this wind.

53°32.41'N, 009°59.17'E. Cours on compass 090.
Our voyage to Hamburg was very nice and smooth. On monday night and tuesday during the day we sailed in a wind of 5 to 6 Beaufort and with a wind of 11 knots we passed the 'Wadden' Islands. Tuesday in the afternoon the wind dropped completely and we motor sailed the last bit towards the 'Elbe'. We timed it quite well, so that we would go with the tide on the 'Elbe'.
At midnight, we celebrated Jana's birthday (one of our crew members).
We went with the tide during the whole night, so we went pretty fast. We moored in Hamburg at 6:45 in the morning. During the day we painted and cleaned the ship to make her ready for the Hamburg Hafengeburtstag. In the evening we had dinner in a restaurant for Jana's birthday, where we also met her grandparents. (Jana is from Germany).
Yesterday we have had the 'Einlaufparade', in which we sailed with around 100 other ship on the Elbe towards Hamburg. Of course this is somewhat chaotic, but everything went well and our group of 80 guests had a great day on board.