Nr 63. Coast of Bretagne
‘The French really can’t sail’, Reinhold sighed, ‘look at them!’. The German points at a boat that makes a turn for the third time in the harbor of Roscoff to park their boat in a box. A harbor is sometimes just like a drive-in cinema: you ‘drive’ in with your own vehicle, park your boat […]
Nr 62. Saint-Malo and Le-Mont-Saint-Michel
We sailed south from Jersey to Saint-Malo, that’s at the coast of Bretagne. It’s also called Côte d’Émeraude, because of the green or emerald color of the water. It’s still so amazing to see this kind of color in the northern part of France, because it is still the North Sea. We were surprised by […]
Nr 61. Jersey
When we sailed out of the harbor of Cherbourg at 7.00h in the morning, ‘waved’ goodbye by a group of 15 dolphins that swam in front of the bow of the ship, we were excited to go to Jersey! The excitement had 2 sides: we heart so many good stories about Jersey by people that […]
Nr 60. Dolphins in Cherbourg
Cherbourg is a harbor many sailors know: it is on a strategic point in the Street of Dover, close to south coast of England. So it’s a popular harbor for English sailors to make the crossing to the mainland of Europe. When we arrived in the port of Cherbourg we noticed a lot of English […]
Nr 59. D-day in Normandy
We left Le Havre and sailed further along the French coast. We came into the heart of Normandy, which is famous for the ‘Invasion beaches’. We sailed into the harbor of Quistreham and the contrast could not be greater with what happened on the 6th of June 1944 when the British, American and Canadian allies […]
Nr 58. Visiting the Lagoon factory
When we were in Le Havre, we made an appointment with Hemmo Dijkstra, our boat dealer in the Netherlands, to visit the Lagoon factory in Bellevigny which is about 4 hours driving south of le Havre, in the province of the Vendée. Hemmo was there with some new catamaran clients who have their ship build in […]
Nr 57. Le Havre
While sailing along the coast of France, we have good weather: sunshine and wind of around 20 knots coming from north/east. So that means we have the wind at the back of our catamaran and we can use our new big ‘kite’, the parasailor! When sailing here, you have to pay attention to fishermen though. […]
Nr 56. Paris Plage
After a great start in French waters by sailing through the Strait of Dover and visiting the nice city of Calais, we continued to sail along the French coast. Our next stops would be Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dieppe. Both nice harbors and vibrant cities along the Northwest coast of France. This area of France is called […]
Nr 55. The Dragon of Calais
After a nice day in Nieuwpoort, Belgium, our time had come to do The Big Challenge: sailing to Calais, which means crossing the Strait of Dover (in French: “Pas-de-Calais” and in Dutch “Nauw van Calais”). This part of the Northsea is the smallest part between France and England: from Calais to Dover is only 33 […]
Nr 54. One night in Belgium
After a great time in the Netherlands, we sailed off to the coast of Belgium. It’s a small and busy coast, with industrial harbors like Zeebrugge and Oostende, so the day before we left we planned to have 1 stop in Belgium before we would reach the coast of France. A good harbor for sailboats […]