Spring is … springing?

Saturday 24 March

The day dawned grey and overcast with no wind. Skipper backed me neatly out of my box mooring and we set off up the channel out into the IJsselmeer proper, for a passage of around 15 Miles Northeast to Lemmer. Out on the open water it was even more overcast, with mist lying low and visibility poor. That is to say, it was almost impossible to distinguish the horizon between sea and sky, and the only movement on the water’s surface was the occasional seabird. Later in the afternoon, some yachts started to appear, some even with sails hoisted, probably to make them easier to pick out in the gloom. I had my steaming lights on all day.

Eventually we drew closer into land, and a field of wind turbines started to appear out of the haze, as the sun finally began to burn off the sea mist. By the time we were approaching the sea lock into Lemmer, the crew were stripping off layers, and the atmosphere began to feel almost Mediterranean, not least because of the numbers of yachts suddenly out and about, the first we’ve seen in months. It looked like a fleet of club boats whose crews were polishing up some pre-season manoeuvres along the walls of the town quay.

We tied up tidily and the crew were soon basking in warm sunshine in the cockpit with mugs of tea and birthday cake – bliss. All went well, until 0430 (0530 really, thanks to European Summer Time clocks change) when the nightclub, in front of which we had unwittingly docked, turned out but showed no inclination to go home…quietly.