Summer Cruise 4: 7th - 22nd August 2010

[Hartlepool to Amsterdam]

Please click here to view crew report with photos (pdf)

Our cruise began in Hartlepool, where we stayed for three days attending other crew parties (one of which was Rona II's 'tight and bright' which became so crowded the boat began to sink and we were advised to "distribute our weight more evenly") and the crew party hosted by Hartlepool. It was the last day however that held the best introduction into Tall Ship's life for the crew as we took part in the famed crew parade, dressed as a 'Dauntseian Dragon' in the sail cover we danced through the streets of Hartlepool.

On the morning of the fourth day, we set sail out of Hartlepool in a parade of sail which all the ships took part in. As we had decided not to join in the Tall Ships race in the North Sea, we headed for Great Yarmouth further down the East Coast of England. The weather was good with ideal conditions for sailing. The crew was organised into shifts in order to make sure everyone took part in the helming of the ship. After some close encounters with the giant oil rigs, we arrived at the port of Great Yarmouth. Our arrival at Great Yarmouth was very exciting due to us having to use our anchor to swing the boat round with the aid of the tide (the incentive to get the manoeuvre right was a low bridge that the tide was trying to push us into!). After our eventful arrival out, 'mummy watch' for the day threw a barbecue for our crew and our neighbours Moosk who had left tall ships at the same time as us, with a young crew. The barbecue was very successful and allowed us all to see yet another interesting perspective of what Tall Ships means to different crews; it was the highlight of our stay in Yarmouth; it did, however, produce a lot of washing up!

The next day we all got a lie in as we wanted to see how one of the Challenger boats coped with coming down the River Yarmouth and mooring up before a very low bridge that nearly took us out. After getting the all clear from the Harbour Master we started to proceed out of the river to sail across to Texel in the Frisian Islands. The weather as we started out was lovely and calm with enough wind for no engine, but as day turned to night the wind and the tide were battling against each other producing a great swell, causing a few of us to feel sea sick, but mummy watch produced a wonderful lasagne for dinner and most of us managed to keep it down, and the night sail passed through with only one horrible gibe during the night, and we arrived in Texel at 1100hrs the next day. Texel was just one of those stunning Frisian Islands that will never be forgotten. With Texel being one of the main islands at the start of a long string of Dutch islands in the north of Holland, the crew had 3 well deserved rest days. We managed to rent bikes from a local bike shop and spent two days sun bathing and generally lounging about the island and just about managing to catch the end of their smoked fish festival.

As soon the weather began to turn for the worse we decided to head off in the direction of Den Helder, home to the Dutch Royal Navy. We only stayed in Den Helder for one night; the whole crew enjoyed hot showers in the port and spent the evening on Maybe, another Tall Ship, with their crew, a member of which was Emily Dobson an old Dauntseian. We spent the next day sailing to Ijmuiden, the final port before Sail Amsterdam. In Ijmuiden we had another crew party, with good food and enjoyed wandering around other ships in the Tall Ships fleet. In Ijmuiden we had all been sleeping in very late so it was a bit of a shock when we were woken up early to take part in the ships parade along the North Sea canal from Ijmuiden to Amsterdam. None of us had seen so many boats in such a small canal in comparison. Most of the crew climbed up the mast to sit and watch the parade from a bird's eye.

As we entered Amsterdam we barely had any time to admire the scenery and large crowds because we narrowly missed several collisions. We took out someone's deckchair due to their careless steering. Thanks to excellent fender positioning we narrowly escaped unscathed by another ship our size. After finally docking in Amsterdam we explored the shops and the next day we were given a free guided tour of Amsterdam's infamous Red Light District via boat in the canals. Following this we attended a second party aboard the hospitable Rona II and we made good friends with their new crew. Every night we watched stunning fireworks and for our final night in Holland's capital we were joined by the next crew and shared a barbecue. The new crew had priority over the beds below deck so we pumped up air beds and slept on deck, luckily it was superb weather throughout our time in Amsterdam so there was no fear of rain and there was none. The next morning we loaded the minibus for the journey home.

We have made many new friends from our crew and other crews and we have explored the wonderful culture of Holland and its capital. We thank everyone who has made this trip so special, Toby Marris (our skipper), our first mates and Sue Stone and her husband for taking us to and from School.