Lifetime achievement for Harry from the Royal Netherlands Yachtclub KNZ&RV!

December 16, 2024

Last Saturday the Royal Netherlands Yacht Club (KNZ&RV) honored  Harry with a Lifetime achievement award for all his achievements with WINSOME in the last 25+ years. This price, the ‘Halve Maen’ award, is a beautiful silver full model of the old VOC sailing vessel ‘Halve Maen’ (‘Half Moon’) and was last awarded to King Harold […]

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Stay in Vienna and 7th leg Vienna-Budel

December 7, 2024

The hotel in Vienna, called Motto, looked from outside impressive but what we did not know was that it appeared to be a “do-it-yourself” or “no-service-hotel” with heavy doors [Fort Knox?] served by complicated electric systems to open them.  What was good in the hotel was their restaurant on the top floor where we had […]

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Our stay in Nice and the sixt leg Nice-Vienna 30 November-3 December

December 3, 2024

We had a good time in Nice, also thanks to the efforts of a friend resp, ex neighbour Rodolphe Frégé, who organised a very pleasant hotel belonging to his company. It is overlooking the bay of Nice. The airport – Nice Côte d’Azur, was gigantic but fortunately there were in the off-season only some 20 […]

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4th leg Essaouira-Tanger and 5th leg Tanger-Nice

December 1, 2024

Departure uneventfull. A two hours flight.  No problems with the wine on board. At Tanger, I left my phone at an ATM, but it was still there when we returned to the airport within 15 minutes.  In Tanger we stayed in Freemont Hotel. A similarity with the hotel in New York. At the end of […]

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3rd leg Cascais-Essaouira

November 29, 2024

An easy flight. We were the only aircraft at the airport of Essaouira and we had very nice wines on board, a present from Marie. We did not make an effort to ask for a cooled space at the airport and hoped for two not too hot days. The hotel l’Heure Bleue was from the […]

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Our stay in Cascais-Lisboa-Évora 24-25 and departure 26 November on our third leg Cascais (not Lisboa)-Essaouira Morocco

November 26, 2024

Our stay with Marie was very nice, but intensive. Best friends Sophie and Marie had a lot to talk about. The house at Pavia was very nice but will be sold after Marie’s husband Michael died half a year ago. The wine cellar was special. The next day we were invited by Herman van Beuningen […]

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Second leg.  Cherbourg-Lisboa 23rd November

November 24, 2024

The airport, Maupertus, at Cherbourg looked much much better than the previous day. The runway was clean and dry and so looked Pilatypus. Her hull looked shining like a brand new aircraft. We put our luggage on board and we made a fast and uneventfull flight to Lisboa. Our SOG was over 300 knots but […]

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Trip Budel-Cherbourg-Lisboa-Missouira-Malta-Grosetto-Vienna and return

November 23, 2024

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Last day…

August 4, 2024

Today was the last day in the regatta Cowes Week 2024. The wind looked in our favour and we had a reasonable chance to end as 3rd in our IRC-5 Class. We only had to keep ZARAFA two places behind us. Instead ok keeping ZARAFA behind us she managed to stay in front us so […]

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Day 4 and 5 of Cowes Week 2024

August 1, 2024

We waited more or less the entire day for a start, but it did not happen. At 2pm we were ordered to proceed to buoy ‘Zwerver’ close to Lymington but the wind stayed below 4 knots. All races were finally abandoned. Today started like yesterday: with no wind. But the daily weather briefing (Boj is […]

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