Back on salt water! Vlieland

We are very happy today, being back on salt water. The canals, lakes and rivers in Friesland and in Holland are all very pretty, but for us the real stuff is going onto he bigger water and especially salt water. It feels and sounds completely different, sort of a 'foamy' feel and (especially) sound.

We left Franeker around 12:30, from there Harlingen is less than an hour away and with high tide there at 1:30, we did not want to be out of the lock before then: it would just have meant pushing against the tide for some time. It all worked to plan and at 1:45 we were on the Waddenzee. It was quite busy, with boats coming back from Vlieland and Terschelling (the school holidays end this weekend), but also some other yachts taking advantage of the nice weather to go 'out'. Add to that a few ferries and commercial traffic and it ended up being quite busy!

 The ferry 'Friesland', on its way to Terschelling, passes us.

With tide tidal current behind us, we did up to 10 Knots at times (a knot is 1.85 Km/hr), even at a low engine speed of 1400 rpm when we usually do 6 knots). One only really notices the current when looking at the buoys one passes:

We'll be on Vlieland until Monday at least. Walk and cycle a bit. If the weather is kind, we'll mare the short (about an hour) trip to Terschelling early next week.