We spend the last week in Stromness waiting for ex-Bertha to pass by. Wednesday evening the 13th of August we leave and after a heavy sailing trip of 76 hours we arrived in Stellendam yesterday evening 22.30 hrs. For us one of the toughest trips ever. We can sail the whole trip with wind force 5-6 right from behind and the last day half to high.
Not so much the strength of the wind, but especially the seaway makes it uncomfortable on board so Toine and I can hardly sleep the first two nights. We don't experience that very often. What a shitbox that North Sea is. We are glad to be away from the sea! But it was more than worth it considering the whole holiday. A 'tough' destination requires a tough sailing trip. Today and the next few days it is going to be very windy. We can still go through the Haringvliet Bridge, but the bridge at the Volkerak locks will not open due to strong winds and that will take until next Tuesday. Therefore we are forced to leave the SeaQuest in Willemstad and sail back to Bru in the coming week.

The last week from day to day. We wait three days in Stromness until ex-Bertha is over. This causes a storm on the North Sea exactly in the area we have to pass through. In the Orkney's it blows a lot more with regular heavy showers. The boat is firmly attached to the jetty with double lines. Fortunately in Stromness there is an indoor swimming pool with whirlpool and steam sauna. On Monday I go there with the girls. On Tuesday the girls go themselves and Toine and I go for a walk together. And the last day we go with the four of us. In between we have fun on the boat and we have contact with fellow sailors in the harbour. Everybody is wondering what is the best time to leave. A Norwegian family next to us are in more of a hurry than we are and are therefore forced to let mother and eldest daughter fly back and father and youngest daughter are waiting for a good moment to sail to Stavanger. Nice to exchange thoughts about this with each other. They leave early Tuesday morning and will have had a tough trip. The stronger wind is further south, so no option for us to leave yet.

Wednesday night, 5:30 p.m. First we have dinner in the harbour and sail out of the harbour with a sun and wind force 5 to get to the Pentland Firth just in time. That is the narrow stretch of water between the Orkneys and North Scotland where there is a very strong current. Especially with spring tide (and that's it now); then there is a 12 knot current at maximum tide. Such a situation with stronger winds against tide is life-threatening. A piece of water that you have to approach cautiously. We make sure that we are exactly at the turning point and then have the current with us. Pretty exciting beforehand, but once there, it's a piece of cake. No problem at all. The rest of the trip is much heavier.

The first night we sail clover with the genoa and the cutter. That sails pretty well, only the boat moves like that. Luckily the girls sleep well, but Toine and I both can't find a good sleeping position. In the morning we set the mainsail with the genoa in clover mode; that gives the boat a little less movement. We get through the day fine reading, watching movies, sleeping and eating once in a while. The boat is on the autopolit 'wind position' at 165 degrees. This way we 'cross' in front of the wind and prevent a jibe. In the afternoon large dolphins swim with us for a while. And I bake an apple pie. Once a day the clover sails 'over' to the other side. That's a bit of work, especially for Toine. Food distance 165 miles, we're on a third.

The second night all four of us didn't sleep so well. The boat moves more because of the heavier sea. During a change of watch at 6 o'clock we have to change sail position again and a reef in the mainsail because the wind picks up. And then we notice that the bolts of the mainsail are loosened and the boom suddenly comes down when we roll in the mainsail. That's a bit of a scare. In a big seaway fortunately to be repaired by Toine and over an hour later we sail again. We get through the day again, mainly lying down, watching movies and eating. On this part of the North Sea there is almost no shipping, outside it is cold and rainy, so we spend the day mainly inside. Dinner distance 160 miles, two-thirds!

Luckily in the evening the wind decreases more and more, so we can go into the night on the engine with a relatively quiet boat. What a gift ... so we make a reasonable night until the next day at half past 8 it starts blowing again, this time half wind. We don't get the genoa rolled out. We had the same problem before the holiday. Let's go on the cutter. And that turns out to be fine the rest of the day with wind force 6. The last part is the toughest. We still have a few hours before we reach Stelledam and we have to sail higher and higher. We really have to keep going, especially because of the lack of sleep we don't feel fit.

We count down the hours and are happy when we are in Stellendam at 10.30 pm and the boat is stationary. Via the internet we find a chip shop that is still open and also willing to deliver the order (3 km walking is too far). The four of us are sitting together at 23.00h to empty a plate of fries with a lot of water and the shortages are being made up. Afterwards it sleeps well ... very deep.

So today we wanted to sail back to Bru, but we got stranded in Willemstad. Toine took a taxi to Bru to pick up the car and we cleaned up the boat. The SeaQuest we will sail back next week. And so we come to the end of a beautiful holiday! A great maiden trip for the SeaQuest.