July 6: Roompot (Zeeland) - IJmuiden

July 6, 2011: Roompot - IJmuiden.

The barometer had dropped overnight from 1022 h Pa to 1015 h Pa.
This meant that a low pressure cyclone had come our way and that we could expect strong wind.
Nevertheless we left Roompot outside shelter harbour for IJmuiden at 05:00 AM.
The first part with help of the motor to get us through the buoyed channel and in order to come in open water.
We first set our Genua but when that wasn't giving enough power, we also set our mainsail. When we had to turn North we regretted that we had set mainsail because it now took the wind away from the Genua.

The current was in Northerly direction for the first 6 hours so we maintained a good speed over the ground of 7,0 miles.
The passing of the Maasgeul, the entrance of Rotterdam harbour went smooth too and at 05:30 we arrived at IJmuiden with a wind that had increased to 7 Bf.= 28 – 30 knots and waves of 1,5 meter.

This were the ideal circumstances for Sam for kiting on the beach of IJmuiden.
For him the sailing for the day wasn't over: he wanted to do another kind of sailing also.
At 10:00 in the evening he came back, fully exhausted by the waves of the open sea at IJmuiden.
Oscar had prepared an excellent spaghetti bolognese for that evening and Sam just attacked that meal as he was starving.
A very nice day with 71,5 miles on the log.


We will keep you updated.
Cees, Sam and Oscar.