From Terschelling we set sail to Vlieland, a short sail and lovely sail of 2 hours. The harbour is very full but the harbour master still manages to find a spot for us alongside the quay for which we are very grateful.
Vlieland is my favourite dutch Wadden island. There are no cars allowed other than those of the locals. We go for a walk to the lighthouse and climb up the stairs to see the inside of the lighthouse and enjoy the nice view of the island. On the way back we visit a beautiful little museum in town that has lots of information on the island and a real skeleton of a whale! The kids visit some of the shops looking for little souvenirs to bring home and before going back to Guppy we decide to go to the beach for fresh dive into the sea.

So far the weather has been amazing, lots of sun and the wind has been great. Tonight we will set sail to Helgoland – an overnight journey of 120nm. The kids are excited but of course also a little nervous about this long sail. Luckily the forecast is looking very good. The first bit out of Vlieland is a little bumpy as we have to go upwind out of the channel, then we turn and sail along really nice on a broad reach. In front of us sail Snugger Konijn – a Jeanneau Trinidad Sander and I owned and lived on before we bought Guppy. The parents of teens who sailed with us on the first Atlantic Roundtrip bought the boat, so it’s really cool to sail on the north sea together now. The trip to Helgoland is lovely, some of the kids get a little seasick but they cope really well and enjoy the lights of windmills, lighthouses, ships & buoys at night. We also see lots of shooting stars!

In Helgoland we meet 2 further ex-students from various Atlantic Trips that have also sailed to Helgoland – such a cool little reunion, and so nice to see them all sailing 🙂

Sadly Helgoland is pestered by the bird flu and the population is a lot less than normal. There are still a lot of Gannets but not as I’m used to. But even without 100,000’s of birds Helgoland is a very unique and cool island to visit with its red sandstone cliffs, green meadows and cute town. As we walked into town a bagpipe band is playing and we watch for a while, a bit further in the harbour a paper boat race is being held and music was playing. We spend one night in Helgoland and leave for the trip back the following evening after an early dinner consisting of wraps.

There is less wind now and we have to motor parts of the journey back, the good thing is that no one even got slightly seasick and some of the kids even managed to stay up until 5 am! ) they did sleep a lot of the following day though 😉 As we sailed back past the islands and through the lock onto the IJsselmeer. Where we spend the last night of this journey at anchor. We sleep in a little after 140nm and 24hrs of sailing and slowly make our way back to Medemblik but not before a mornings swim and last jumps into the water from the new bowsprit =D

At 3 pm we enter the harbour of Medemblik, lots of parents, friends and family waving us in – the kids all did a great job and receive their certificates after which they get embraced by their family.

Another amazing Europe Trip is already at its end – time flies when your having fun 🙂 we have had so many adventures and experiences in the past 10 days and we’ll certainly miss the young Guppy sailors! Now we are getting ready for the Medemblik Waterweek ( 12th-14th of August) you will be able to talk to us in person and have a look at Guppy 👀 ⛵️