Making Our Way to England
July through September 2000

Since July, the family was reunited in Helsinki and sailed Mother of Perl together for the first time. With one additional crew member, Jerki Kivi, a Finish sailing navigator, we made our way through the beautiful and complex maze of rocks and islands that make up the Finish Archepelago. At the western-most part of Finland, Oland, we celebrated Ben's birthday before departing on our first time sailing without additional crew, an overnight trip to the Swedish island of Gotland.

We were joined by two other boats in Visby, Gotland: Alexandra and Salome. Ben had met the skippers of these boats earlier in the summer while Mother of Perl was still being finished. The three boats proceeded very casually cruising the southwestern coast of Sweden, past historic Kalmar to Sandham. After hearfelt farewells, Mother of Perl and the family crew sailed on alone to the Danish islands of Christensholm and Bornholm.

We left Mother of Perl in Ronne, Bornholm for a few days when we took a ferry to Copenhagen to meet our 15 year old crew member, Ben King, Thomas and Kristen's cousin from Massachusetts. After a day in Tivoli Garden (the Copenhagen entertainment center), we returned with Ben King to Ronne and Mother of Perl, but it took a few more days before we could leave Bornholm.. bad weather and seas.

Our first sail with Ben King was a night crossing to the Danish island of Mon, and the town of Clintonholm, with its fine harbor and good beach. The weather even cooperated with our position, and we had a beautiful, sunny day swimming and playing in the sand. This was the first and only such day on the beach for the entire summer!

We took several days to work our way through the Danish islands and crossing over to the German harbor of Kiel, the entrance to the Kiel canal which would take us across the German neck of land connecting it to Denmark. One more day up the river Elb to Hamburg and we tied up for some more outfitting and provisioning. (see the Hamburg Log entry.)

At this point Gretchen, Kristen, Thomas, and Ben King headed (by jet plane) back to the United States. Ben remained in Hamburg until he arranged for crew to get the boat to England. As it turned out, Ben changed his route to England so that it was by way of the canals of the Netherlands.

While Gretchen, and the rest of the family were in New England celebrating the marriage of her sister Fritzie, Ben took on one German crewmember, Rolf, and the two went down the Elbe, out to the lonely island of Helgoland, and then back to the German Frisian inside passage from Nordenay to Delfzhil, the Netherlands. Christof Bruening, a friend of Rolf's and one of the Hamburg's Harbor Police who inspected Mother of Perl when she arrived there, traded places with Rolf and, with Ben, motored along the "mast up route" of the Netherlands canals to Amsterdam.

Once in Amerstam, Christof returned to Hamburg, and Gretchen, Thomas, and Kristen returned to Mother of Perl. Jyrki Kivi, the Finish navigator, would be joining us for the passage to the Canary Islands. While we waited for Jyrki, we did more provisioning and arranging on the boat. We visited with our friend Tjeerd Boersma, the captain of the Holland vessel Johanna Hendrika on which we toured the Estonian islands the previous summer.

At last Jerki arrived, and we were on our way again, this time through the southern Netherland canals. Each day we pushed on to the next stopping place, never having the time to stay and enjoy the many beautiful places we saw; summer had come to end, and the autumn storms of the North Atlantic were fast approaching. We needed to get south before we were caught.

We left the Netherlands at Flushing, followed the European coast to Callais, and after unpleasant night in that harbor, crossed the Engish Channel west of Dover, finally landing in Eastbourne, England.