Wix and Wrabness Yacht Club 

Dove Cottage Oakley Road Wix Nr. Manningtree Essex. CO11 2SE

                                                                                        Tel 01255 870777

The encounters.

We had plagues of locusts (well indeterminate insects in  the Isselmeer, and fruit flies in Breskens), dodgy tea (as well as other offers) in Amsterdam.  Countless bridges on the route down to Gouda (and beyond to Dordrecht), we laughed with the Dutch and cried with them (almost) when they were kicked out of the footie by "Russland".

Going steady	Anything you can do....	Bridge after bridge	Chinese anyone?	Yes Please!
Old and new.	Mine should look like that.	Motley crew.	Power gives way to sail.	Special Offer.
More special offers	What, more boats?	The love boat.	What did you just say?	Where is her other hand?
Dutch cap.	Isn't he lovely?	Is he lovely?

We discovered we were Europeans and as such the immigration police were disinterested in our "Schengen" efforts.  We also discovered European white diesel (and white diesel prices, .... Ouch).

We discovered Lovers boats, Love boats, convoys and bridges.  Oh God, did we discover bridges.  Suspension bridges, bascule bridges, road bridges, motorway bridges, railway bridges, lifting sections, swinging bridges and aquaducts.  I think the only thing we didn't get was an underpass.

1	2	3	4	5
6	7	And we worry about getting through	Rail	Waiting for bridge 1
Waiting for bridge 2

Timing was difficult (not to say fraught) but would have been infinitely worse without the invaluable translation services of Dutch Adrian.  He was to introduce us to a number of Dutch delicacies including "broken cheese", but perhaps most significantly on the boys' boat, Genever!!  He also proved that none of us could possibly hope to keep pace, even if they were only small beers.

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