Off at last, after months of pouring over Charts and agonising over the right way to tackle our trip towards the Baltic. We were grateful to Bob & Jean Shackleton for all their helpful advice, books and charts and to Kerr & Denise Sinclair who had brought their new boat back from the Baltic last year and lent us some very upto date ones. Lowestoft - Ijmuiden Having surveyed the weather Sunday looked good, a following wind, should be in for a fast trip. John Humphery joined us, what a relief to have another pair of hands onboard. The only downsides appeared to be spring tides and therefore no moon. All the way across we watched the fronts go through and so just before dark reefed the boat well down. Just as well as the forecast was not quiet as predicted and the steady winds enjoyed all day peaked at 30 - 35 knots. Having left at 10.00am we finally reached Ijmuiden and got our heads down about four on Monday morning. Another 18 hour trip covering 106NM