We travelled home on Eurostar on one of the hottest days of the year so far, on Monday 19 June. One of the trains was cancelled delaying us by about 2 hours, but luckily we had left ourselves LOADS of time to get to Brussels before the Eurostar left. But we were stuck on a train with no air conditioning for quite a while, it was stifling.
After a busy week at home we caught the train back to Ashford and stayed in a very seedy B&B, will never go back there again, despite it’s proximity to Ashford International. The journey back to Middelburg went smoothly except when the train conductor from Roosendaal to Middelburg inspected our e tickets, he said the barcode read as two babies travelling! Well, we had to provide our passports to prove we weren’t a couple of tots! Eddie was so cross he almost threw his toys out the pram!! 🙂
Once back on the boat we prepared to go back into the Veerse Meer for another week or so, but there was a problem with the waterflow of the engine and we had to get Flipper Watersports to sort it out. Eventually set off on Friday 30 June, but by then had decided to make a slow journey home, first stop Breskens,
Whilst there we had the shocking news that our friends on Blue Diamond had been fined €500 for having a slight trace of red diesel in their tank, when they were bortded by customs in Nieuwpoort. That changed our plans, as we were going to hop along the Belgian coast visiting a few ports, instead we sailed to Cadzand, a brand new marina on the Dutch border, and from there went to Dunkerque avoiding the Belgian coastline altogether. We saw a ‘Douane’ vessel leave Ostend as we passed the entrance (he had to go behind us to avoid us) but luckily he was on the way out to a container ship further out. Went into YCMN at Dunkerque, where a very friendly and efficient young lady directed us to a berth. The marina filled up pretty quickly, and they were rafted out, which we didn’t want as planned to leave at 5am the next day. Sail to Dover then Eastbourne went very smoothly, literally as there was little wind both days! We were pleased to get home after about 11 weeks away.
Cadzand Marina
Canon Fire on Watersports Day in Middelburg