On a rainy day in Brouwershaven, the fleet gets some news
Monday 14th August
Day 10
Position – Brouwershaven
51°43′. 583 N 003°54′. 918 E
It all changed today. As the rain came down in buckets, confining crews to their boats, cruise leader Kim was poring over weather charts. It seems the weekend is expected to bring freshening south-westerlies for the channel, which could make a crossing on Saturday very interesting.
A plan was therefore hatched to cut our stay in the town of Goes by two nights and make for the Belgian coast as soon as possible. So, if nothing changes, we’ll be tomorrow night in Goes, and Wednesday back in Nieuwpoort, Belgium, ready for a hop back to Ramsgate on Thursday.
The news was broken to crews at an evening briefing session in the local yacht club. Those that have been on this cruise before, and know how beautiful Goes is, were disappointed, but understand the need to take advantage of any window the weather throws our way.
The rest of today has been remarkable for one thing – rain. Crews woke to it and fell asleep to it. There was brief respite in the evening, as people sought out various restaurants across town to eat in, but the clouds soon darkened once again.
It was a shame, because this pretty little town would have been the perfect stop had the weather played into our hands. The narrow, winding alleys open into green fields, where can be seen the occasional windmill. These same alleys offer a great selection of quality restaurants.
The start tomorrow won’t be too taxing. The bigger boats will be setting out at about 8.30am, followed by the rest of the fleet an hour later. Kim will slip his mooring at 6.30am, accompanied by Claire inTime Flies, and race ahead to Goes to help get the fleet into the basin in the centre of the town.
