Month of November , 2006

From the Netherlands to England, via Belgium. The first few days of being at sea having left the Netherlands and headed for England, all of us had to get used to being on board– Quirky, our sailing mate Pieter, and myself. At first I didn’t envy Joanna staying behind in the Netherlands to finish up Morganonline business instead of being at sea with us, but after our experiences, I changed my mind.

One of our worst fears materialised in the first leg of our journey. Ernie, Quirky and Pieter – our sailing mate – had put into harbour in Nieuwpoort (Belgium) to wait for a new automatic pilot. Our automatic pilot ‘Harry’ had broken on Friday 3rd November, just as the Morgan was heading out of Dutch waters to sea. Playing safe, they had turned around, put into harbour and ordered a new one, and simply had to wait till it arrived.