In Stavanger we are lucky ... this weekend all the boats of the Tall Ships Races have visited Stavanger. The whole town harbour was full of these wonderfully large sailing boats. We find refuge on the other side in a good marina. We walk into town over the high bridge and eat .... yes yes ... the second time really eating out this vacation, and that is very little for us! ... a delicious dinner at the only 'griddle' Japanese restaurant in Norway.

This is and will remain the favorite food of all four of us. With two bottles of wine it goes down very well. Afterwards we 'sober up' with a walk along all the beautiful Tall Ships and back to the boat. A pleasant evening and a great last evening in Norway!

On Saturday, July 30, we left at 8:00 am for the 470 mile return trip to Bruinisse. The first hour we sail against the wind towards the North Sea. When we round the corner and enter the sea, we can finally really sail, with wind force 4-5 from behind. We set the 'cloverleaf' position; an ideal sailing position for the Brandaan, with the mainsail and the staysail on port side and the genoa with the 'fixed' boom on starboard. We sailed a large part of the trip to The Gambia and Suriname this way. Soon the wind picks up to the expected wind force 5-7. The sailing is fine and we make a nice speed (7-9 knots), but the waves are high and annoying and push the boat in all directions. And when the wind picks up in the afternoon and reaches wind force 7 with gusts of 8, we have a bit too much sail on. And how to reef in a strong wind, in cloverleaf position and with a big wave? Especially when the boat is flying into a jibe, we have to act fast. Fortunately, this goes well and with both sails reduced to reef 3 we are still going at about 7.5 knots and with a much more 'controlled feeling'. What do we learn from this? That more than 15,000 nautical miles behind us does not mean that we have finished 'learning' .... This is the first time on the Brandaan that we were not in control of the boat for a while .... Nothing happened (except for a foretop that was bent by the bullet line) .... but in the future we will reef earlier! In the evening the wind subsides to force 5, but the swell stays the whole night and so we spend the first 24 hours on a huge moving boat which is very uncomfortable and even makes Eline seasick just before sleeping. 24-hour distance is 165 miles.

The next day the sea looks very different as expected ... nice and flat with few waves and little wind. But it is still completely cloudy. In the morning we can still sail at wind force 3 and in the afternoon we add the engine with full genoa. The boat is almost stationary, so we can do all kinds of things again and we spend a day on the boat as we could have done lying in an anchor bay. In the evening, the plates are put on the table again and we even play Canasta with the cards on the table! We notice that it is getting dark earlier again and that it is really dark at night; we haven't experienced that in the past few weeks. Daily distance is 133 miles, well over halfway!

The third day it is a clear blue sky with sunshine but a slight headwind. So again motorcycles. We spend the day watching movies, reading books and eating well. Again, the plates on the table and we eat a delicious meal with even a glass of wine (we actually never do that while sailing). We are approaching the Netherlands and are already sailing near the Wadden Islands. While playing Canasta in the evening, we enter the busy shipping lane above the north of the Netherlands. An enormous tanker passes right in front of us as it gets dark. An impressive sight. After the tanker we can 'cross over' without any problems and suddenly there is a nice breeze. Half wind, force 3, totally fine for sailing! We had almost forgotten how it is to sail without too much wind and without an engine ;-). And so we sail along the Dutch coast all night, occasionally dodging ships, so no more short sleeps during the watch. Early in the morning we passed the Eurogeul, the entrance to Rotterdam. Again very busy. Total distance 130 miles.

The last day is also sunny and warm. The wind has died down again and we decide to go via the Haringvliet, because we would probably arrive at the Roompotsluis too late to pass under the bridge with half a second of water. We passed through the Hellevoetsluis locks at around noon and went at a brisk pace, because we wanted to make it to the Haringvliet bridge at 2 p.m. We arrived just in time. Then we 'just' went through the Volkerak and Krammer locks, and at the beginning of the evening we were back in Bruinisse to eat a delicious pan of mussels. Exactly 3 days and 10 hours later!

We look back on a beautiful summer vacation ... in a beautiful rugged nature with few other boats. An experience we wouldn't have wanted to miss and which gave us a taste of the "life as a sailor". The girls are older and we notice that they are now at an age where they really want to help with setting sails, hanging fenders and mooring and unmooring. Very nice!

Only the 'sailing itself' has not been easy for us this year; in the fjords it is almost always windless, and on the way there and back we have only had limited good sailing except for the start of both the way there and back with a lot of wind. Oh well, better luck next year .... and who knows where the Brandaan will take us all!