The Skipper Gets Cold Feet

When we made the plans for the weekend, the weather forecast was moderate NE wind. Perfect to go through the Grevelingen lock into the (strongly tidal) Oosterschelde. Just outside of the lock is one of the busiest shipping routes in Europe, but in the right weather and wind, and timing our exit to the right moment of the tide, we should be able to do it.
By the time we arrived to Brouwershaven, the wind felt more than moderate, and increasing. The updated weather forecast confirmed our suspicion: now the prediction was for fresh breeze (5 Bf), with a warning of strong breeze (6 Bf) later. Do we dare to dodge supertankers and monstrous cargo ships under these conditions? We had the journey back to Bruinisse to decide, since to get the right tide we would not pass the lock until 5pm. After a few tacks along the channel in front of Brouwershaven in the lee of Dwars in de Weg, the rest of the journey was a beam or broad reach. With a few rolls in the genoa, that was really pleasant. Fast, as well!

The Waarschip, another Dutch classic. One of these went to the Azores and back twice.

During the couple of hours it took us to return to Bruinisse, we decided that the wise course of action would be to postpone our foray into the Oosterschelde to another occasion with less wind.
We spent another pleasant evening and night at the luxurious Bruinisse Yacht Harbour.