Twice during the day I put sun cream on. Now the sun is sinking towards the horizon. Underway since midday from Cuxhaven to Borkum. Around twelve, on the first of the ebb, we left Cuxhaven, passed the Elbe sands and out onto the North Sea. We – that’s Markus on the boat TeKielA and me on Koraki – share the same destination for now. Westward. We stay within sight of one another and call now and then on channel 72. When one of us goes below to cook something, say. It’s a good deal more relaxed when you can cook without forever having to keep a lookout. It’s a fine passage. Out of the Elbe at first on the tide but against the wind under engine, then the wind veers towards east and it is peaceful sailing on into the night. Little by little the contours of the land disappear. The night, the moon, the sea. On the horizon only the lights of lighthouses, buoys and other boats. I love being at sea by night. Above all when it’s as peaceful as tonight. Shortly after midnight the radio comes to life. A cable-layer off Baltrum (a monster of a ship, over two hundred metres long) asks me to pass well to the north of her. We wish one another a good watch, and then it’s quiet again – an uneventful night at sea. The moon is nearly full; lost in thought, I take particular pleasure in the music tonight, and as the sun shows for the first time on the horizon at five, the wind veers further into the south and freshens a little, just as forecast.
As we come into the harbour at Borkum, the over-tired mind dips briefly into a low. Borkum has only the old naval harbour, used mostly by pilots and the work boats of the offshore wind farms. Just one side of one pontoon is open to private boats, and that is fully taken up, rafted three deep. Weary, half past six in the morning, the coming rain shower on the horizon and nowhere to tie up … we’re rather at a loss. Sailing on isn’t an option. We make fast, on the spur of the moment, at an occupied berth just as a tall ship casts off and leaves a gap on the pontoon. Once again it’s all fallen into place. Tie up. Square the boat away. And into bed. Deep, restoring sleep.
Now, afternoon, on the beach at Borkum with a cup of coffee. Really good progress so far. Long may it go on like this. Tomorrow the wind comes from the west. After that it’s meant to shift again, and we could carry on.