Sporty and Champagne Sailing Through the English Channel to France (1228 Nautical Miles Sailed)

Sporty and Champagne Sailing Through the English Channel to France (1228 Nautical Miles Sailed)

Welcome back. After falling in love with the standing mast route through the northern Netherlands, it’s now time to spread the sails again. Why are we so much faster than they? Because I’m sailing, I think, and I have my fast. We lock out into the Atlantic with a few days of steady northern winds carrying us south through the English Channel. The conditions are pretty good. I would say we have a good speed, right? 7 knots. Amazing. Along the way, we reunite with our friends again, and our four-legged skippers couldn’t be happier. Now they’re coming. We took down the genua so they can catch up. Yeah, that was the reason. We get to experience everything from fast and sporty sails. Waves were coming from all directions when we passed by, so it was we just flew around to calm champagne sails. The wind is coming from land, so the waves are Oh, wow. pretty non-existent. I didn’t even think about that. It’s a huge difference. Oh my god, this is so nice. We have a quick stop in Belgium for some exciting upgrades to our boat. And Eric finally gets to do something he has been longing for. And as I said, they’re not the best haircuts, but they are free. Then we reach a big milestone. Sailing into France and Dunkerk. Seeing all the wrecks marked on the charts, it feels almost surreal to sail through these historic waters. Subscribe to join us on our adventures towards the Mediterranean. Welcome to Sale and Oxy. Welcome back. And we have made a decision to not sail into sail in Amsterdam. We were there yesterday. Did some touristy things. No, mostly we just walked around and had some beer and pizza. And uh we also visited Lynn’s old apartment that she very stubborn wanted to to look at which was like in the suburb of Amsterdam. And it was just a door. But we wanted to go there, so we did. But now we’re sailing back north again. Instead of going to Amsterdam, we’re going back north back to Dan Helder to get out to the coast again because next week we’re going to have really good winds uh down the coast, northern winds. So, we’re going to be uh quick down the coast, I think. We also meeting up with our friends again that had the unfortunate uh collision with the unmarked buoy and they are fine. The boat was towed into So this was the collision outside of Kukavan when when we were sailing to Helguland and their boat is fine. They were towed back in and there was a big hole in the in the bow. So the rescue vessel pumped it out um when they were towing them back back in and they lifted it up on the uh on the hard straight away. And yeah, the the buoy is unmarked and there is no sign of it of on any charts. So that is very unfortunate, but they back in the waters now. They’re sailing again. So very very good job and quick. So that’s very nice. So that’s the plan to meet them and uh maybe do some sailing together. [Music] Yeah, with pasta. I think it’s uh thanks to your glasses. Eric hates my fast glass. But it makes him fast, right? Yeah, it sure does. Why are we so much faster than they are? Because I’m sailing, I think, and I have my fast. It looked like their hull was very dirty. slow them down. Maybe ours are actually more rifted. This boat is quite fast. Yeah. [Music] Windy as hell. Crazy. [Music] Good morning. We are in I don’t know where. Where are we? Danel. We are in Dan Hel then now. We sailed here from Iselare yesterday and now we met up our Swedish friends again and it’s so fun to finally have some friends to sail with. So we are sailing together today to some place and we’re leaving quite early. It’s morning right now 8:00 because um the currents and the winds will be with us now. So I hope it will be a very nice comfortable sail today. Yes, it is. Isn’t this just the best sailing? Seven knots speed. We have the current with us. We have the wind from the side. [Music] I still haven’t cut my hair. No. And it’s it’s getting out of hand. More ridiculous. You might as well get dread soon or something. I like these little things that just come out of your hat. I’ve cut Eric’s hair once and it wasn’t that good. But you do what you can when you’re out at sea. You need to be able to do a little bit of everything. Cut hair, fix the engine, fix How much do you fix the engine? A lot. No, I don’t. The engine is Eric’s area. Now they’re coming. We took down the genua so they can catch up. Yeah, that was the reason. Sometimes when we sail with tailwind, we usually just put up the main sail. Uh we don’t bother to sail wing on wing or or uh so just flaps around. We’re too lazy to to start using the the spin kaboom, I think you call it. [Music] I think that’s all right. And still pretty comfortable as well. Heat. Heat. We got so much mud on our anchor chains when we anchored in Encowsen. I’m glad it’s sand in the Mediterranean, not clay. And it’s very windy today. Now we are here with Libya. So we’re going to have pre-drinks on their boat tonight and then we will have dinner on our boat. Oh, naked man. Did you enjoy your shower? Nice. Very nice to be able to take a shower right after cleaning that muddy anchor chain. It was extremely muddy. You couldn’t even see that it was a shade. No. [Music] Draw up. Keep up. Keep up. Keep up. Oh my god. What’s up? [Laughter] [Music] Anyway, [Music] what you doing? [Music] Good morning. We’re out sailing again and had a pretty sporty start of this sail. Any of you who have sailed into the then no to the Emui Den inlet knows what I’m talking about. I have no idea. It’s supposed to be a wave breaker, but I feel like it was more wavy inside of the inlet than outside. And today when we were going out, same thing, but a bit more calm out here. So, we’ve had some sporty and pretty fast sails the last two days. I think yesterday we had an average speed of like seven knots almost. So, that’s pretty nice. And uh we are once again sailing with our new friends. So, we are both going to hog today. The conditions are pretty good, I would say. Right now, we have a good speed, right, Captain? Yeah. 7 knots. Seven knots. Amazing. And um it’s around 10:00 now, so I’m going to make her some breakfast. [Music] Me and Eric are very lucky that none of us get seasick. But sometimes when we haven’t had any food on the morning and forget to eat, then I can get a little bit nauseous. So, we need to make some breakfast. And it’s pretty wavy. So I will just make some sandwiches. It has really been feeling like fall the last days. It’s been cold. We’ve had like one sale, one weekend sail in bikini, but now it’s back to full full sailor gear. [Music] We have arrived to uh Hog. So uh we are going into town and exploring a bit with our friends. And uh yeah, we stayed here today. It was about 30 nautical miles and uh tomorrow we have a very long sail about 60 almost 70 almost 70 yes miles. So that will be interesting. Then we will get two cycles of uh tide that we have to deal with. Now we have been sailing uh two days when we leave at around 8:00 and go in around straight after lunch which is about 1. Then you go out with the tide and then get in at slack almost. So that’s pretty nice. [Music] Norah is not that interested in playing with other dogs. She just wants her ball and to be alone. Oh [Music] Early morning. Very early morning. guy had to go up also because he was rafted on our boat life. Yeah, we had to go up at 6. When you’re rafting up against other boats, that’s just the rules. Yeah. My captain says I need to fix the fenders before filming. I don’t understand that priority at all. I’m going to do what he says. You can she can go in. [Music] We just passed the port of Rotterdam, which is the busiest seapport in uh Europe and one of the biggest in the world, but we found a good window of uh opportunity and uh could just cross right over. Um so that was nice. Waves were coming from all directions when we passed by. So it was we just flew around. Yeah, the waves were um yeah, coming from all directions in uh just as we crossed over. But yeah, we made it through and we have about 50 nautical miles to Belgium where we’re staying for the night. We have ordered some new batteries that we’re going to install. So, finally the wind has come down a little bit. So, I hope the the last hours here is going to be a pleasant cruise. [Music] We have done about 23 of our sail and the wind is starting to slow down. Yes. And the current and the current is starting to turn around against us. So not very good. So maybe this last the last third will take a very long time. I think we’ve been cruising at around 8 9 knots. Nice. [Music] Now we have turned on the motor because we want to get there at some point before the low tide. There’s a sill you have to come over. There is a the sill seal. There is a sill you have to cross over before low tide. And uh so we are just helping helping out a bit with the motor right now. side. Okay. This is one of the strangest ships we’ve seen. I think massive. Doesn’t look like a boat. It looks like a floating brick. Yeah. Huge bridge. Highway rise and highways in it. We’ve been sailing now for 10 hours and we have done 62 nautical miles. Yeah. And we are pushing we have to as we said we have to hurry in to the marina before uh low tide is too low and we so we’re pushing we don’t have much wind at all and the current is straight against us right now. So, we have to push with the motor because we have uh at least two knots um current against us. We’re doing we’re doing 6 and 1/2 through water and uh four and a half four and a half overground. So, it’s about two knots. Yeah. But I can’t wait to come to Belgium and buy some Belgium chocolates. Nora Don’t wake her up. No, sorry. She has been the best sleep girl today. I think she’s very tired after we were on the beach yesterday on the dog beach and let her run and play. [Music] Could this be the most chill sailor dog ever? 11 hours in and she’s laying like this. We made it to Belgium. And these beaches are really beautiful. [Music] All right, guys. Yes. Hi. [Music] 11 hours later, we made it. That’s an important line, but make sure you have a spring to put at the end of this. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Because the spring is the most important thing. Brona, geta. Yeah. You finally arrived because the other dog is waiting for him. the other dog. The dog of the of the Livia. Olivia. Yeah. Yeah. They have become best friends. It’s all That’s Blancenberry is al we also speak Dutch, you know. Oh, you do? Yes. The north of Belgium and the coast Uhhuh. is Flanders and we have we have in Belgium three official languages. Okay. French. Yeah. Which is in the minority. Then we have Germans only 18,000. It was a part of land we got from Germany after the Second World War. And then you have Flemish, but that’s the same as Dutch. We just arrived and we got a very nice delivery from the Hoffenmeister unboxing when we got here. So now we’re unboxing our order. All right. So we noticed that we need a new batteries. They are working but they lose their power very quickly. Yeah. So after about a day they’re pretty much empty. Yes. We were thinking about lithium. We decided to go with AGM batteries. Uh the the ones we had. But these ones are fresh. Yeah. This one will work fresh batteries. So now we can charge our phone. Yeah. That would be really nice. Like if we would charge our phone and our old batteries but were empty. So now we can make sure that these batteries will be healthy and good for us. Yeah. So that will be nice. We ordered them from Gearcraft depot. Yeah. Which is a brand new online store for boat stuff. So they have all kinds of boat stuff. So we have actually ordered a few more things. Yeah. We’ve ordered a solar panel. Yeah. solar panel to put in the back um with the mount. But that hasn’t arrived yet. No. And also I wanted something new because I want this to feel really fresh. New shower head. These batteries weigh 50 kilos each. Yeah. So, we have to bring this down and we have to bring up the old ones. But I think that will be a tomorrow problem. Definitely. Definitely. But we should at least bring this down. Yeah. Okay. One step at a time. Okay. The batteries are inside, but we will do the rest of the work tomorrow. Yeah, there’s not a really a Saturday night project to do. We are invited to dinner to Olivia. Olivia, it’s time to change the batteries. We have been waiting for this for a long time. Do you think it will be easy? Should be no problem. Nora is doing what she does best. Charge up with some solar power. All right, all finished. It was pretty easy. It was exactly the same size and u same type of batteries. So, it is just to hook them up and start using them. But, uh was a little bit tight. While Eric is fixing with the batteries, I have cleaned the entire boat, the cockpit, the deck. We’ve had a lot of salt water coming onto the boat during these last sails because it’s been pretty wavy. And so, we wanted to rinse that off. And now, I’m doing something that I have been wanting to do for a while, and that is to just clean our cockpit cushions. And you know what? But it’s finally time for to cut my hair. Lyn is going to do it. As and as I said, they are not the best haircuts, but they are free. It’s the second time I cut your hair, but this time it’s way longer than it was last time. Yeah. So, let’s see how this works out. for [Music] [Laughter] cute. We’re done with cutting my hair and I think Lynn actually has outdone herself. Yay. Very satisfied. So yeah, now it’s finally looking all right again. Was a few weeks there. I was looking a bit crazy. So, another little boat project that we’re doing is that we are exchanging or replacing the faucet because our old one I thought was very it didn’t look very nice. So, I thought that changing this will make the toilet a bit more fresh. So, a brand new hose and a new tap. And uh we have also ordered this from Gearcraft depot. We are in Blanken Bar still. We had a day here yesterday where we just chilled or we didn’t chill at all. No, we only did both projects. Yeah. And we also cut my hair. Yeah, we cut your hair. So, this video is in collaboration with Gearcraft depot and uh they are an online boat store and they sell pretty much everything you will need for your boat. And we decided on just having uh AGM batteries uh because our system and uh everything was set up for those type of batteries. We just wanted some batteries that we can just hook up to our current system and just keep moving. Yes. And today will be the first trial without we have had shore power since we plugged them in. So today we will try them at sea because today we’re sailing to France. Yeah. And Dunkerk. Dunkerk. So that’s exciting. Yeah. We have decided that we will do a movie night uh with our friends and watch the movie Dunkerk in Dunkerk. Belgium has been nice. The weather is amazing, but uh we will leave around lunch and uh we will sadly have the current against us. Yeah. We’re in this marina here in Blankenberry where we can’t get out before high tide or or sort of high tide. Yeah. And uh but once we get out, we we are going to have one one and a half knot current against us. And the winds are pretty light today, so we hope we will even make it forward. Yeah. So, we have about 35 nautical miles to Dunkerk. So, let’s see. But we’re not in a hurry because uh uh Dunk Kirk Marina, you don’t have to match the tides to get in. Some of these marinas you have to match because you can’t get over the the seal. It’s too shallow. So, that’s a bit stressful if you have the current against you and you’re not moving forward. Yeah. Tonight, we will have some Belgium chocolate and French red wine. wine together with Livia. So, we’ll do a little chocolate tasting. Our friends are called Two Happy Sailors on Instagram if you want to follow their journey, too. Yeah. And we will try to stay with them for as long as we can because it’s so nice. Yeah, they’re very to have their company. It’s very nice to just go back and forth between the boats. And they have a Bavaria, too. So, we have a lot. And they have a dog, too. A dog and a Bavaria. So, we have a lot to talk about. Yeah, exactly. We can help each other a lot and they are nice people too except from those things. They are nice people. So yeah, let’s hope for a good sale. here though. Yep. We have very light winds at the moment. So, but it’s nice because the wind is coming from land. So, the waves are Oh, wow. pretty non-existent. I didn’t even think about that. It’s a huge difference. Oh my god, this is so nice. It was really wavy like the three previous sails. So, I didn’t even realize that we don’t have waves right now. Oh, wow. This is so comfortable. More winds like this, please. Are you finding a comfortable position? H Livia is cheating there. They started their motor. Indis. Indis push. That is blue. [Music] I can’t believe how calm and chill this sea is. Except from that we have the current against us. It’s very, very nice. [Music] Can you make We are trying to do a little wing on wing, but it’s working. So, so the current is very strong against us right now. Like three knots. So, we’re doing three knots over ground, six through water. [Music] [Music] We finally made it to Dunkerk which is a big milestone I think for us. First first stop in France and we have uh sailed for about 8 hours today. So, we have invited our friends over for some uh drinks to celebrate. [Music]

We lock out from the IJsselmeer lake into the Atlantic sea and begin our journey south through the English Channel. With fast winds on our side, we sail along the coasts of the Netherlands and Belgium, and finally make it to France. 🇫🇷

Along the way, we reunite with our friends, who recently had the unfortunate accident of hitting an unmarked buoy in the dark while sailing to Helgoland. It’s a very happy reunion, not only for us but for our dogs too.❤️

⚓️ This video is made in collaboration with gearcraftdepot.se – a brand new webshop with everything you need for your boat!

📍 Route: Enkhuizen (Netherlands) to Dunkirk (France)
⛵ Distance sailed: 1228 Nautical Miles
🧑‍✈️ Crew: Erik, Linn & Nora the dachshund

If you’re new to our channel, welcome! 🩵 We’re Linn and Erik, a Swedish couple in our late 20s who quit our jobs, rented out our apartment, and set off to sail from Stockholm to the Mediterranean together with our sausage dog. We started the journey in our unique 33 foot sailboat from 1980, which we sold in Kiel, and luckily one week after we bought a new boat, a Bavaria 37, from 2000 more suited for our adventures ahead.

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