Early morning we left St. Malo to use the tides best we could. 
It was a whole day sailing and our new sailors fought against sea sickness. But in the evening we reached wonderful خle – de – Bréhat at the Côte Rose, the pink Granit coast which got its name after the colour of its stones. Anchorage was exciting but after 3. Time the captain was happy and we could spent the next day at this bay doing some snorkelling. 
In the evening we drove to
Lézardrieux in the nearby river because of changing winds. 
The day after we went to Trébeurden, a harbour that falls dry outside the sill on ebb. It was fascinating to follow the waters rhythm in raising and falling. Here we spent some days due to hard westerly winds, did some repairs( anchor winch) shopping and used the marinas e bikes a whole day to explore the Pink Coast. Then we continued westward in sometimes rough weather via Roscoff to L’Aber Vrac’h which is the classic waiting point to get a weather situation which allows to cross the bay of biscay. 
From here our new sailors had to go homewards and unfortunately at the last evening even our water pump went out of order. So Brest became our next destination to buy spare parts and replace the pump.
At first we had good weather conditions with fair winds, put up our big foresail, the Gennaker, and came up to a speed of 8 knots/hour. Passing the Belgian coast nearby which is not really interesting with its flat coastline interrupted by ugly lines of high houses. In line with The French border it happened again to us, surprise, surprise, in the evening a thunderstorm was passing near by and the wind accelerated to 90 km/h. 
Quick as a flash we cleared our sails and took cover in the marina of Dunkerque already in the darkness finding our way in the lights of headlamps.
heading towards Boulogne-sur-Mer with a marina available in all tides. 
we arrived at the marina of East Friesian island Norderney off the North Sea coast of Germany. It’s German ninth-largest island. The next five days we was captured there because of the stormy weather again mixed with thunderstorm. But that wasn’t so bad, we pulled up our folding bicycles from the “cellar” of our boat and discovered the island with its lovely nature, part of the island is a national park. 
We moored alongside a pontoon in front of a big lock and locking early the next morning into the canals of The Netherlands. There are countless bascule bridges,
draw bridges,
lifting bridges,
turning bridges,
railway bridges,
motorway bridges,
pedestrian and bicycle bridges,
the most of them free of charge and remote-controlled. It’s a little scary and hopefully the bridge keepers keep on their toes and do not close too early. Sometimes you meet a real bridge keeper at the bridge which is responsible for two or three bridges. They move between the bridges with bicycle or scouter and twice we had to pay the bridge keeper while passing through. The fee has been catching with a wooden clog.
You have to find your way through this labyrinth of waterways (sometimes even an aqueduct)
especially when you have a mast height of about 16 m and a draft of 1.50 m. It took time to plan our route, there are many rules and regulations, but with help of the web, books like “cruising guide to the Netherlands”, our electronic sea charts and also Google maps with its fotos we hide our way on the “Staande mast route”(fixed mast route)
from the north with entrance at Delfzijl, passing right through the centres of Groningen, 
over the Ijselmeer
to Amsterdam.
We continued the next day and had to stay during the night in front of a railway bridge waiting for opening it at 6 o’clock. Passing the busy waterways around Rotterdam with meeting big vessels near by at the streaming Nieuwe Ijsel, (for example the Arch of Noah)
Oude Maas , passing a huge storm barrier
and being held by a faulty lifting bridge at Dordrecht. Therefore we entered the Nieuwe Haven at Dordrecht in the old towns center.
After amazing 360 (700km) nautical miles through the Netherlands we have reached Vlissingen at the Westerschelde in the southern part of The Netherlands.
Exciting and thrilling to join these big ships nearby with their propellers still going. It’s like rafting with a sailing boat. But we made it 🥵!
Petra seized the opportunity to test her diving gear.
After staying two nights in the Flenhuder lake we left the Kielkanal through the lock at Brunsbüttel out to the river Elbe with its tidal streams having friendly weather with light winds. Going by engine down the Elbe towards Cuxhaven with the current during low tide means that you go 2-3 knots faster than normally. It’s a little bit to exchange your old “VW Käfer” with a Porsche.
After 22 hours and 115 nautical miles tough work we stayed for a couple of hours to got some rest on the island Idö east of Västervik. 
Sailing again at 8 pm with course towards Kalmar but again nasty wind against us with only 2 kn by machine we took a berth at Borgholm the biggest town on Sweden second biggest island Öland. Here we got the great opportunity to use the hotel Spa and pool.
Next morning we had been passing under Öland bridge, 
and moored in the small marina Grönhögen at the south end of Öland. With a rain deep drawing in from southwest a thunderstorm followed. 
The weather forecast wasn’t really good to jump over the Baltic Sea to Germany. We decided to take a risk after intensively studying the weather forecast. We thought we could take a corridor between two deeps. But soon after leaving Sweden we was catched up by a nasty fog with sight under 100 m, a bit creepy. Thanks to the radar we felt safe. But worse have been waiting further on. We followed our plan heading south. But the wind grading up to gale with speed up to 70 km/h.
We both became seasick, Petra worse, and so she has been missing the fight to got away from a huge thunderstorm easterly to the danish Island Bornholm. Lucky we were, to escape these countless lightning’s. Frightened I was, starting to pray the first time since long ago. In The morning the waves were high as 2.5-3 m and the wind very squally difficult to hold the ship right to the breaking waves. Finally the main sheet traveller ripped off and the mainsail boom hanging loose. Very dangerous, worst case situation out their at the rough sea. After a adrenaline spraying half hour we catched the boom and tied it to the deck. After breathless exhausting 31 hours, 190 nm we took cover at danish island Bornholm’s biggest town Rønne.
Leaving the next day
13th of June, in good weather with fair winds it was the first time since starting in Gävle that could sail joyfully. We passed a couple of big offshore wind power plants and had carefully sailing sick sac around all the many fishing net which surrounds all these plants.
And then again in the night round about 10 pm a huge thunderstorm with hundreds of lightning’s drawing against us from the German island Rügen. We changed course headlong and sailed back to where we came from. After 5 hours flight the lightning’s ceased and we steered towards our destination Heiligenhafen on the mainland opposite to the island Fehmarn. Last but not least in late afternoon the next thunderstorm was drawing near with its angel predicting, fascinating light contrast but also threatening darkness.
Lucky we were to get a sun runway through the dark right through Fehmarnsound under the bridge into the harbour.
Since more then a week we have been moored in the marina Heiligenhafen with clearing away
, repairing, serving (after 100 machine hours oil and oilfilter had to be changed)
, meeting Petras parents and my mother. 
Several days we got furthermore thunderstorms with changing between dramatic and than clear skies with a full moon. 
, feeling save if you stay at the jetty in a protected marina. We hadn’t much time to stay at the beach with its typical beach-chairs. 
Tomorrow we will leave towards Kielchannel which is the world’s most frequently used waterway.
dreaming 3 long years about sailing across the Atlanticlast year we’ve been starting to realize our dream beginning during buying a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 34.2 named Lucky Star 
from year 2000 last summer on the German island Fehmarn. After upgrading the yacht with a radar, wind generator, heater and new VHF-radio we have sailed our new boat up to Gävle at the northern Baltic coast of Sweden. During the winter and spring have we been working breath- and sleepless to fit Lucky Star with additional winches, a saltwater foot pump, automatic bilge pump, refitted the Genua furling system, got a new rig and sails
, mounting 20 mast steps, buying a lot of security stuff such as Satellite emergency beacon Epirb, AIS MOB beacon, servicing our life raft, overhauling the dieselengine and m.m. But last not least we have cleared out our house for renting it to a good friend. Not to forget the tremendous bureaucracy.
, but the sun was friendly shining and we were nearly alone at sea. 
It has been a lot going with enginge. Passing through the Väddö canal was really nice and to get the traffic stopped and the two bridges open only for us at 7 am was feeling great. 
And finally after a whole days flight from a threatening storm passing by the fortress “Dalarö Skans”
from the 16th centuries, nowadays available for weddings, have been hunted by a container vessel 
, have we reached the nice marina situated in the river mouth of the Nyköping river.
Sailing Lucky Star 