It's allready been a while now that the boat is in the shed for the winter layup. But the trip to get there was a memorable one.

As the boat was in the water very late due to the long job of laying a new deck I wanted to stretch the season to the limit. The boat went in to the water early september, I went sailing every week but one, but by half november I though I'd better not stretch it any further.

Woops, for the first time ever there was snow on my boat... A short burst of winter weather made me realise I'd have to get the boat to the lay up soon. Luckily a short brake in the weather was announced. On wednesday it should be quite nice.

I went to the boat with visions of mountains of snow needing to be pushed over the side. To my surprise I had significantly less snow than the other boats that were still in the water. It could be because of the insulating cork deck or the fact that my boat was closer to the water than the other boats But I did not have to clear as much snow as I had expected.

I had watched the map on the internet to etimate the time it would take me to get from the marina to the bridge. The bridge was on the winter schedual so it would have it's first opening at 1.30 pm. So I wanted to leave around 9 in the morning.

Unfortunately the engine wouldn't start due to a cold battery. 45 minutes late I finally took of and by 10.30 I had navigated the locks close to the marina. By now it was light again and there was a strong breeze blowing. I hoisted the sails and the boat took of with a lovely speed. I switched on the gps which clearly told me that I would not be at the bridge by 1.30. Oh no. I was going to be there in just one hour! 2 hours before the first opening!

Because this bridge has no moorings I decided to slow the boat down. I dropped the jib and the speed dropped from 6 knots to 1.5. Aargh! All the fun had gone! But at least the timing was right again. An hour later the sun came out and the wind dropped a bit. I really enjoyed the sun's warming rays! I put on some music and enjoyed the whole experience of this coldest sail I ever took.

By 1.15 I was close to the bridge and asked for an opening over the radio. right on schedual traffic slowed down and stopped, the bridge opended and by 1.32 I had passed the bridge.