Zeebrugge and west

Excellent day yesterday. Farewells to Robby at Royal Belgium Sailing Club. Then slipped past Zeebrugge - where windsurfers are prohibited from passing the port entrance. A headwind meant that the course across was oblique, so my tactic was to sail a long (long!) way out first, and then cross approaching from seaward, where I guessed I'd not be noticed until it was easier to let me pass than block passage. I know from experience going past Rotterdam that I don't show up on radar.

I also had decoys - Kristof and Tomas setting off from the south side. They had (attracted?) a police boat for company, so perhaps they really did work as a decoy. It's a nice story anyway.

We met up just past the opening on the southern side and enjoyed good sailing to Nieuwpoort, and eventually De Panne, just short of the border with France. Nearly 30 nautical miles so a good haul for upwind sailing.

Belgium (country, people) has shown itself to be very welcoming, and I'm happy to have been more time getting past than I had reckoned for. Now just 6km short of France. When a bit of breeze fills in I'll head out. Next up is to negotiate the ports of Dunkirk, Gravelines, Calais...