Arrival in France

In the harbour area of Nieuwpoort, there are two marina shops of decent size. Of course, we need to go there to take a look. While we are talking to the sales clerk, suddenly a puppy runs into the store, very excited to meet every person in there. The owner comes running after the puppy, but the last one is not intent on listening. Running at full speed he tries to sniff every person and object and it takes some time for the owner to get hold of him again.

The part of the harbour where we are moored is full of yachts from sailing schools, and since it is Saturday morning many people are receiving lessons. For us, this is quite entertaining to see.

We depart in the afternoon, and we are not the only ones. The entire day there is a large incoming and outgoing flow of boats, many of which are sailing yachts but we see also a group of lasers. It seems to be a very popular area for sailing. We join the boat progressing towards the sea, and raise our sails before we are out of the channel in order to spare ourselves some fuel.

When we are out of the harbour channel and have turned our bow southwards we notice that we are heading straight into a sailing competition field. Thus, we have to change our course a bit, but soon after we are really sailing towards France, together with a few others. We are all going more or less the same speed, though we overtake one sailing boat. That’s something we are very proud of.

A few hundred meters from Dunkerque the wind suddenly drops, and we use the motor to get inside. We decide to go into the association harbour rather than the commercial one, and dock on the outside of the pontoons. Next to us is a boat of the gendarmerie. Since the evening is still young, we decide to take a look around in the city.