Ep14 | Tankers, Tides & Dragons on the North Sea: Amsterdam to Calais, France

September 18-19 50°57’45.2″N 1°50’54.5″E Sail from Amsterdam Marina to Calais, France: 149nm 21hrs Fair winds Clear skies – and yet ANOTHER firey orange sunset! Just the thought of heading out onto the North Sea again made us a little nervous. However, we couldn’t have had a more lovely start! The sun was shining, the seas were relatively calm & it was 18 degrees Celcuis! We didn’t imagine it could be this delightful on the North Sea! We were hopeful, to say the least, as the sun set & we were heading into darkness. However, we got ourselves into a dangerous position in relation to a cluster of cargo ships that were coming at us at a speed of 13knots! We ended up having our worst, scariest night-sail yet! Gratefully, with the morning, comes new hope! Sailing into the mooring area of Calais Marina was a relief & we were kindly issued a mooring ball to hook up to. We experienced a major tide-difference for the first time as sailors. We found out that the tides change every few hours & have a difference of about 7meters!! We explored the fortress next to the harbor and later found the boardwalk along the beach. On the way there we were lucky enough with our timing to see a huge dragon that blew out fire & water ;) - the highlight of this stop in Calais! _________________________________________________________________________ CREDITS: PICTURES Port of Rotterdam Marine Traffic D&D Photography-Dirk Kleijn Dreamstime ramdesk.co.uk mfame.guru vesseltracker.com registrarcorp.com audexglobal.com alkas.it jpt.spe.org shipwrecklog.com scheepvaartwest.be Marin Mikulic EPIDEMIC SOUND MUSIC Dreamers of The Shore (Instrumental Version) - Volcan Peaks Let's Get Aboard - Experia Slow Fade - View Points Orchestral's Tune 04 - August Wilhelmsson Come 2gether - Ooyy We needed to stretch the legs and see what Calais was like. There was an old fortress at the harbor and later on we found the boardwalk along the beach. On the way there, though, we noticed a large glass garage with people lining up to go inside. A huge dragon was behind the window. After observing, we saw it start moving, and after the people were mounted on the dragon’s back, it began to walk (roll) out of the glass garage! Not only that, but as it started it’s “walk” along the promenade, it blew out real fire and sprayed water at the audience on the ground! (I was a little concerned that the operator could get the fire & water button mixed up and singe a few people!) This was definitely the highlight of our trip to Calais, for the boys. Since we entered into a new country, we were obliged to buy the boys another ice cream, according to our deal (1 country – 1 ice cream – 1 picture)! Lucky for us, there was an ice cream kiosk on the promenade. It was both cheap and the server was generous with the scoops! (Mommy got her picture of the boys on the beach, too!)