A wonderful day. Out of Borkum on the morning tide. There are four of us, almost a little flotilla. But let me take a step back, to how that came about.
It fell into place the day before, in Borkum. Besides Markus on TeKielA, whom I’ve known since Brunsbüttel, there are Stefan and his wife on Pas de deux, a boat built entirely of wood. Two Rhinelanders, with their boat kept on the Elbe. Over a beer in their cockpit they tell me of two long voyages: 1992 and 2012, two and a half years each in the Caribbean aboard Pas de deux. And then Carpe Diem, friends of theirs. Four boats with the same destination: Lauwersoog. And from there, by way of Friesland’s small inland canals, on a variant of the Staande Mastroute, all the way to Harlingen. Same destination, same tide – so in the morning we set off together.
It’s beautiful sailing. Wind on the quarter, a calm sea. And yet the Waddenzee shows its treachery the moment you leave the channel off Borkum. Not only do the charted depths on my two charts differ markedly from one another – neither matches what my depth sounder reads at all. That calls for caution. And then, later, at the seagat off Lauwersoog, again: at first glance the eye sees nothing but water, far and wide. At second glance, between the winding lines of the narrow channel, breaking waves come into view. Breaking waves on a wide, calm surface – a sign of the steeply rising shoals. I can only try to imagine how demanding, how dangerous, this must be in a strong wind.
At Lauwersoog a lock awaits. We lock through together, motor into a small harbour. A cosy evening. Tomorrow we carry on towards Harlingen.