The harbour of Ostend has rendered us a free berth for today and tomorrow because of the festival “Ostend at Anchor”. This festival is linked to the coming “Sail de Ruyter” manifestation that is to be held in the neighboring port of Flushing. The two festivals are linked by means of a race to be held by the participating tall ships. In this race also our bigger brothers “Dar Mlodziezy” from Poland and the “Mir” from Russia will be there and as their length is over 80 meters, they need to be piloted in to the port of Ostend. The pilot is definitely not coming out today as the swell causes three meter waves to roll towards the shore, this means that the Dar and the Mir will have to wait outside tonight before entering.
Here on board everybody is preparing for an open day, as a thank you for the kind hospitality that we find here. The weather is not particularly great but the people of West Fleming will almost certainly not be held back by these conditions, they are used to the sudden changes of weather on these latitudes.
With the beer tap on pressure, the coffee running and the red carpet laid out we have to conclude after two hours that today there will be no visitors. After asking the organization we find out that the border police had objections because of the Polish and Russian ships present. It is just unfortunate that they completely forgot t tell us about the change in plans.

Cosmo Wassenaar
Captain Clipper Stad Amsterdam