8. North Sea 2020  

The North Sea, bounded by Great Britain in the West, Norway to the East and the European continent in the south. We followed the coast from Calais in France and passed Holland and Belgium to end up in Germany 3 days later.

The North Sea is shallow. Often only 25-50 meters deep. This has made it a popular place for the offshore industry. First were the oil and gas companies. The North Sea is full of ugly platforms.

Now it's the windpower industry. The countries around the North Sea are all investing heavily in big windfarms with hundreds and hundreds of windmills. This picture is from the Northwind farm close to the Belgian coast. 72 wind turbines with a total capacity of 216 Megawatt, and this is only one of many wind power farms along the coast.

Wind turbines are better for the environment of course but also more beautiful to look at if you ask me.

On the third day, late at night we arrived to Brunsbuttel in rain, hard wind and a current of 5 knots in the Elbe river. Nice to come inside the lock and tie up in the calm yacht harbour.

It takes a day to motor through the Kiel Canal. It ends in Holtenau in the Baltic close to the city of Kiel.

It was now time for our crew to return to their home in Minsk/Belarus. They joined us in south Malaysia in mid November and have been with us all the way from there. More than 9.000 NM and many places seen. Well done. Many thanks for all your help and bye bye, Andrei, Katarina and Marta.

Now it is only Tove and me again and that makes the sailing harder for both of us but for the moment we can rest. The weather situation in the south Baltic will not let us leave Holtenau for several days it seems.