Last Friday it was a traditional light event with a boat parade called Ljusfesten in our hometown Ängelholm. Since we couldn’t’t make it this year, we had our own light party together with all the other boats that left Amsterdam Saturday night. To be able to continue southwards on the canals you have to leave Amsterdam in the middle of the night. The first bridge opened at 2.15 am and then all the boats leaving Amsterdam went together through the city in a parade that looked like a beautiful red/green/white pearl band. Everything went smooth except for a drunk Dutch that made the trip little inconvenient from time to time. The Dutch and his buddy were smoking and drinking while going in the convoy through Amsterdam. In one of the locks they almost started fighting and had severe problems keeping the boat to the side. At one point their boat was lying vertical in the lock since they hadn’t tighten the ropes properly. Guess who was just next them and little worried about getting overdriven by them? Of course, we were moored just next to them in the lock and really furious about their behaviour. I mean, being drunk when sailing is NOT accepted and if we had been in Sweden, this would be a very great topic for the TV show, “Kustbevakarna”. Luckily we weren’t’t hit by them and ended up at a bridge close to the airport at around 4 am, where we had to wait until it would open at 8 am. Consequently, we got a few hours of sleep before we continued and ended up in the city famous for its cheese, Gouda.

Even though Gouda is very proud of their well-known cheese and showing it by putting cheese above the streets, the city has more to offer. It has also a beautiful old city town with a 15th century huge church. After a chill afternoon at the boat, we went to an Italian restaurant and celebrated the fact that we have been on go for a month.

Today the sun is shining nicely and we are heading for Rotterdam. Since it is my aunt Bodil’s 50th birthday today I want to send her an extra regard; happy Birthday! /First Mate