From: RobertBail@aol.com
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 13:51:12 EDT  
Subject: Pooh Bear's summer (in a few hundred words)  
To: W5TFY@amsat.org  
 
Hello family and friends, 
 
Moving steadily as we have been, I have fallen very far behind in 
answering e-mails from the many of you that have written.  I know you 
have written me on an idividual basis, but as much as I hate to say it, 
I don't know how I will ever catch up on an individual basis, so I am 
going to make this a mini report to answer some of your questions and 
bring you all up to date. 
 
Judy and I had a wonderful six weeks in Norway, getting north almost to 
the spectacular Sognefjord, but not nearly as far north as we had 
hoped.  Then, one night we looked at the calendar felt winter getting 
closer.  We began working our way south with many stops including 
Bergen (for the second time), the Lysefjord (also spectacular), 
Stavanger, Tanager and Oslo.  Leaving Norway, we came down the west 
coast of Sweden with few stops, but  did include several days at 
Goteborg.  In Denmark we made stops in Helsingor, several days in 
Copenhagen, and some anchorages across the southern Danish islands 
before entering Germany at Kiel.  We spent a night each at the British 
Kiel Yacht Club, Rensburg and Brunsbuttel.  We blessed our radar 
several times before motoring in zero visibility fog down the River 
Elbe from the canal exit to Cuxhaven, also a one nighter.  We broke the 
one night string with two nights at Helgoland (quite an unusual place) 
before a nice sail on to Norderney.  We were glad we went when we did 
as boats on the following day took a terrible bashing.  We enjoyed our 
five days in Norderney waiting both suitable weather and for the time 
of low tide to move nearer daylight.   
 
Thursday a week ago, time, tide and weather were all right, we mustered 
our courage, prepared for the worst, and crossed the Riddle of the 
Sands sands quite easily.  But it was not without some interesting 
points and will be the subject of a Pooh Bear Report (if I can ever 
find the time and motivation to start writing again).   
 
Then it was back into the one night stand routine starting at Delfzjil 
and continuing through the Dutch canal "Mast up Route" with a marina 
stop at Groningen, and bank stops near Dokkum and Grou, where we had 
quite a stormy night.  The following day started cold and drizzly, but 
continued to improve and we made it through Lemer (a neat looking place 
and I kind of wish we had at least stayed the night there), then 
motored across the Ijsselmeer against a fading head wind to Enkhuizen.  
We then took advantage of a fair wind and sailed, (yes, really sailed) 
across the Markermeer to Amsterdam.  We plan to spend a few days here 
in Sixhaven Marina seeing the city before moving on south, looking for 
a weather window, and crossing the North Sea back to London. 
 
Except while in Norderney, where we had a gale, and the stormy night at 
Grou, the recent weather has been mostly very kind, though quite cool.  
Th night at Grou really made us appreciate a snug cabin and a heater.  
The predictions are not good for the next few days so we may be in 
Amsterdam longer than planned.  But hopefully, that will be the end of 
the bad weather and we can continue our passage all through Holland and 
on to London wearing only shorts and sun glasses. 
 
It has been a great summer and at almost every stop we have met 
interesting people and made new friends.  I truly do hope to put it to 
paper while the thoughts and incidents are still fresh.  But moving as
we are, it won't be in the next few days.  We do enjoy hearing from all 
our friends so "keep them e-mails a-coming" and forgive me if I don't 
answer each of them promptly. 
 
 
Bob & Judy   (aboard s/y Pooh Bear in Sixhaven Marina, Amsterdam, 
Holland)