Yesss, we're back in Holland again!!! Back in Bruinisse and back at our house tonight. That feels a bit weird but also very good! 👍👍👍

When we left Florida just over 10 weeks ago, it was so hard to imagine how the trip would go, what route we would eventually take and whether we could be home around August 1st. Well, that worked out perfectly! And now, after having sailed over 4800 nm, we look back on a wonderful time that we experienced intensively and closely with our family. A very valuable periode👌..

From now on we are going to enjoy being back in the Netherlands and pick up our life here again. We still have more than 2 weeks to go before the real school and work rhythm starts. That's going to be fine! Now first back to the last 2,5 weeks ....

We have a lovely quiet week in southern Brittany together with the Indian Summer and short stretches of sailing in nice weather with little wind and sheltered water. We successively visit the nice harbours and anchor bays of Trinite-sur-Mer, Ile d'Houât, Ile d'Arz in the Gulf of Morbihan, Vannes, again Ile d'Houât, Belle Ile, Ile le Groix, Benodet and Morgat. All well known places where we have been during the summer holidays of 2015 and 2016. But that doesn't matter. It's nice to only sail short stretches or to stay for a day.

There are two things that really strike us as the difference between America and Europe. We miss the politeness of the Americans in traffic and on the streets. Here everyone goes a bit more for themselves without looking up or greeting. We are happy (especially Mira) with the smaller portions of food in restaurants. And we really enjoy the nice French baguette with cheese and pâté. 

We do a lot together with the Indian Summer and easily pick up the thread as if we haven't been away 😉. 'Paint specialist' Harald gives us good tips for painting the entrance of the cabin ... it was very hard to do and now looks beautiful again. Toine and Eline clean the blades of the bow thruster together, diving under water. Quite a heavy job, but much needed, because they were completely covered in smallpox and therefore the bow thruster barely worked. 

In Benodet cousin Luc comes on board (brought by Mark by car). Inge and Mark go with the girls on holiday to Namibia and Luc can't go because he flies to Norway on Aug 9 for an exchange year and they're not back yet. Until then Luc is with us and he sails the last part. Luc adapts quickly. He's still uncomfortable the first day on the boat and especially outside when we sail from Benodet to Morgat. Two days later there's no sign of that and he also sleeps fine when we sail twice a night. 

In Morgat we say goodbye to the Indian Summer. They have two more weeks to go to Falmouth. A day later we cross the Channel to Dartmouth. A quiet trip with little wind and only a couple of hours of sailing. Dartmouth is always nice and really British. We take a walk (which Toine doesn't like, Marinthe without socks in her shoes has two firm blisters left and Toine and I feel sore knee ligaments as we descend, apparently a remnant of the long walk with hours of descending in the Azores). Not such a success, but the for British standards exceptionally tasty lunch in a cosy pub makes up for everything. 

The next day we sail in a long daytrip to Yarmouth on Wight with the first and last three hours of nice sailing and the rest motor sailing. We stay in Yarmouth for two days to wait for the passing fronts with stormy winds. Toine takes the opportunity to give the engine a turn. This is much needed after a considerable number of motor hours since arrival in Florida. 😅Eline and I go for a nice walk and Luc and Marinthe have fun watching TV (time trial Tour du France). The second day the wind is strong (bft 7-8) and we go with the tourists double-decker bus to the Needles. What a wind ... we're almost blown away ... nice to see the natural violence of the waves around the Needles. And nice to sit at the top of the double-decker bus in the open air with wind and rain (Toine, Marinthe and Luc). 

As soon as the fronts are over we sail from Wight to Wemeldinge in 35 hours. The first day we can sail very well with the first hours in a strong sea. Luc endures this well and is hereby declared a real sea barge 😉. The night is quiet on the engine as we sail past Dover and cross the shipping lane. The second day along the Belgian coast we get unexpectedly stronger winds in the morning (bft 6-7). Luckily from behind, so good sailing with only the genoa. There is an excited mood on board now that we are almost there. We just manage to sail with the tide up the whole Westerschelde to Hansweert. We are very happy when we also get a very fast fence of lock and operation of the two bridges in the canal (we do this in half an hour, an absolute record). And so we are just in time for a delicious dinner in restaurant BomDia ... a great way to celebrate that we are back in the Netherlands!