With the Dutch boats all arriving in Woolverstone (that’s in between Harwich and Ipswich on England’s East coast) after a quick Vuurschepen Race and myself finishing the work due this week I can look ahead to the North Sea Race.
The race basically starts in Harwich, then when you’re half way back to the Netherlands you turn back, go up the English coast before crossing to IJmuiden and then it’s back to Scheveningen. Last year I sailed on Eclectic and we did the 185nm in just under 19 hours. Then two weeks ago I got a call from the team asking if I had the time to join them for the race back this year. After making sure I could combine it with the rest of my life (wow that sounds deep) I agreed. I really look forward to sail with the team again and they should be in a very good mood after coming third in the opening regatta and in de Vuurschepen Race. One downside though, the grib-files (digitalised weather files) are pretty blank indicating very little breeze. Anyway, I’m sure everything will work out.
Talking about the rest of my life, we’re currently actually designing ship shapes in Uni. Using Woolston Unit software and design parameters the task is to combine the skill of working with the software and knowing how it should look like into a hull design. Other than that there is just a large number of deadlines for coursework and reports looming as the year is coming to an end. Three more weeks of lectures before revision week and exams start. Good stuff, challenging but fun (and it helps I think I’ll manage).
Hope all you Dutchies had a good Queensday! Mine was filled with joyful work (and again that is not a complaint). I should be arriving somewhere in the afternoon on Saturday with the great crew of the Eclectic, check with the regatta website ( http://www.nsr.nl ) if you want to organise something fun for our arrival…
Ciao!
