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| 250 pounds of gear for our trip to Savannah Sky, in the Netherlands |
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| Savannah Sky looks happy to finally see us at Port Zelande, Netherlands. At least ice is off the water! |
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| Walking along the beach with so many kite surfers out on the North Sea. Brrrr! |
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| Maria inside where it is a bit warmer |
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| Maria liking our full enclosure with the heater on |
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| Golfing with Jim and Tim in Colorado, before we flew away. It was so much warmer than the North Sea! |
S/Y Savannah Sky – May 21, 2023 – Log #1
Savannah Sky Position: 51 degrees 45’ N, 003 degrees 51’ E
Port Zélande, Ouddorp, Netherlands (Holland)
Time Is All About Changes
In April of this year, when we sailed into Grenada on Aspen, we put Aspen’s logbook by itself on the shelf with our hearts in it.
Our humor was most definitely in need of repair after all the work we did on Aspen, getting her ready for new owners in Grenada.
Today we find ourselves in cold and windy Marina Port Zélande, Netherlands, of all places, and getting settled onboard our nicely floating S/Y Savannah Sky.
It is an adjustment getting to know our new boat, having sailed 22 years on Aspen. Everything is in a different place and all the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sailing systems are not quite the same, ha ha.
Having more room on our 50-foot sailboat is nice but Maria claims there is just that much more to keep clean, ha ha.
Savanna Sky was in storage during the winter, so all the dirt and grime had to be washed off, even in 50-degree weather with howling frigid North Sea winds pummeling us at the dock.
The Dutch think it is warm out, for some odd reason, and are walking around in shorts and summer tops in the blustery cold conditions. Bicycle riders, kite surfers, walkers, hikers, dog walkers and runners of all ages are everywhere. Geeze, how refreshing!
I guess our blood has thinned so much from sailing in the hot Caribbean sunshine that we will have to adjust, quickly.
The Dutch seem pretty tolerant of us speaking English, with no Dutch words. We find Dutch is pretty difficult but Google Translate really helps.
Paying for things is a challenge since credit cards are not used by many stores, we quickly found out. The red X on the ‘credit card machine’ must mean something, I mentioned to Maria at the non-functioning self-checkout kiosk.
Oh well, at least IKEA takes our American credit card so we can buy lots of stuff for Savannah Sky.
We’ve had friends still ask us, why are we doing this? Shouldn’t we be thinking of moving to a nice retirement community with lots of restaurants and programmed activities to keep busy during the day as well as people to watch over us should something go medically wrong?
Whether it is sailing toward a distant horizon or doing something crazy like buying a boat in Euroland, we understand it all will come crumbling down sometime in the future. That is true for everyone, if we are lucky enough to live long lives.
Our credo is to live life as we want it, for as long as we can, and not let society nor others determine our adventuresome future.
We’re all temporaries in this life, as no one gets out alive.
Steve and Maria
1. You can follow Savannah Sky’s route here, once we leave the dock: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SY_SavannahSky/
