Position: 2000 LT, Alongside in Amsterdam
Date:Thursday August 19, 2010

Sail In Parade

Heavy traffic on the Waterway and the North Sea Channel is quite common, but the amount of ships showing up yesterday, was overwhelming!
 
Sailing out of the locks of IJmuiden we found ourselves in a wall of ships. It was a good thing there a port authorities boat politely cleared the way for us. Otherwise we still would have been in IJmuiden. As the Sail In is not called ‘Sail In’ for no reason, we decided to set some sails.
 
The strong Southwesterly wind however made the Clipper want to sail to her home port and out of the parade… The Svitzer Marken, tuck boat sailing behind us offered to help us out decreasing our speed and sticking to the parade plan. This gave us the opportunity to set some more sails.

Our guests, including our Royal Prince, Mayors and Ministers, had a wonderful day of sailing in the middle of this enthusiastic crowd! What a day!

Richard Slootweg
Captain Clipper Stad Amsterdam