Five countries, friendly Germans and a golden key!

Well maybe 4 countries, but 5 if you include England! France, Belgium, the Netherlands and we're now in Borkum, Germany.

It's over 80 nautical miles (so 90+ land miles) from West Terschelling to Borkum. That might not sound much in car driving terms, but we plan on the basis of 5 knots so had to allow about 17 hours to reach our destination. To arrive before it got too dark we left before sunrise (again!). As the crow flies it's nothing like 80 miles, but it's so shallow around the islands that we had to go miles out of our way to avoid the sand banks.

So it was alarm call at 0430 and off at 0515.

As I've said before, getting up at that time is not great, but it's fine once you're moving. You then get the reward of watching the sunrise in your own little world...

Leaving West Terschilling before sunrise

We had a lumpy but fast sail and got here in 14.5 hours - an average of just over 6 knots through the water and pretty good for a 33' boat. As a result, we arrived in daylight with time to spare.

A wonky Borkum town

We were chased into the harbour by this!

Approaching the harbour entrance, with 2 hours to spare before darkness

Now Reeds Almanac, the Yachtsman's bible, advises you to moor on the large pontoons in the commercial harbour as the yacht club doesn't receive visitors. We found one had insufficient space whilst the other was completely empty. I was reluctant to go on the empty one in case it was used by large fishing boats off season - we really didn't want an 0200 wake up call of "Oy, you're on my berth!" (or its German equivalent). Luckily our dithering was spotted by the crew of a large sailing yacht (70' I'd guess) that was already secured to the pontoon and invited to come alongside them - a really welcome gesture. They said they didn't expect to start too early in the morning - the number of empty beer cans in their cockpit supported this - and we went turned in, confident of a well deserved lie in.

Well apparently 0715 isn't early!

After our rude awakening, we thought we'd give the yacht club berths a try as the large pontoon was designed for ships; it was made of concrete and towered above our decks. As it happened, the yacht club had lots of empty berths so we tied up there and hoped for the best. Turns out that visiting yachtsmen are welcome when space is available, so that's where we stayed - and for 17 euros a night!

Our berth - that's our mast, just to the right of the ship!

A better view of our surroundings

It wasn't worth going back to bed so we decided to walk into town - about 4 miles along a cycle path that skirts a nature reserve. Jo always enjoys a nature walk with me as I point things out to her - like birds. Sometimes I even qualify "bird" with an adjective, like big, small or brown. Anyway, there were lots of them and they looked different to the ones at home. No doubt a twitcher's paradise!

Borkum is also popular with tourists for its beaches. According to the Glaswegian in our local bar/cafe, the winter population of about 6,000 swells to 30,000 in the summer months and this is when most of the residents make their money. The beaches have very fine sand, an eclectic collection of beach huts and views over the many wind turbines in the area.

One of Borkum's beaches....

... and another

Borkum town itself is small but tourists are well served with bars and restaurants. Trying to find a butcher's is another matter though - there was very little meat in the town supermarket - and when we did eventually find one it was shut (lunch, we found out later, is typically 1300-1500)!

The tourist train in the middle of Borkum town

Like West Terschelling, Borkum has a lighthouse in the centre of town. Unlike West Terschelling, you can climb this one and exit onto a fenced in balcony, just under the light itself, for fantastic 360 degree views. According to the Scotsman manning the ticket booth, there are 365 steps to the top of the 60.2m tower.

View from the lighthouse balcony

Another view from the lighthouse balcony

Don't look down!!

It all looks very tranquil in the pictures, but it was blowing a gale up there. There's no way you could fall off, but I have to admit to feeling decidedly uncomfortable with a very noticeable wobbly feeling in my legs! Jo was completely untroubled, so she took the photos while I bravely flattened myself against the wall.

The post title refers to friendly Germans and so far I've only introduced one group. Well, it was raining in Borkum town when we came down from the lighthouse, so we decided to do our shopping there and catch a bus back (we'd originally intended to walk back to the Lidl we'd passed about half way to town and do our shopping there). Duly laden with full rucksack and reusable bags, we set forth for the bus only to find that the next one was not due for an hour and a quarter! Now there were taxis available but I'm not known as a tightwad for nothing, so we started to walk the 4 miles back to the boat (think how fit you'll get, Jo!). When we reached the Lidl, we stocked up with all the supplies we'd forgotten and carried on. About 5 minutes into the last stretch of our walk, a car pulled up alongside us and the passenger door opened. Through gesticulations it became clear that the lovely lady inside was offering us a lift which we gratefully accepted. She dropped us a few hundred yards from the yacht club, leaving us time to pack the stuff away and grab a beer at the bar before it shut at 1800. And we beat the bus!!

So what of the golden key? Well, this is it picture below:

The Golden Key

It may not look that special, but this is the key to the toilet and shower facilities. Now we weren't surprised to be asked for a deposit, but 50 euros?!! What can it be made of?

Tomorrow looks wet and Friday far nicer, so we'll probably postpone our trip to Helgoland until then. In some ways we'd like to make faster progress, but this is supposed to be enjoyable and 80 miles in heavy rain just doesn't appeal. After Helgoland it'll probably be Cuxhaven in the River Elbe, from where we'll cross to Brunsbuttel and the Kiel canal. We could even be in the Baltic in a week or two!