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To the Baltic


         After our amazing circumnavigation of the UK in 2018 our vague plan for
         the next season (2019) had been to pop over the channel, lift up the keel
         and potter down the French canals to the Med. The expectation being that
         we would leave the boat down there for a while and enjoy the hot sun-
         shine and expensive marinas. However, a number of folks suggested be-

























         fore we go South why not try a season in Baltic. So, we put the plan for the
         Med on hold and I started looking at routes to and around the Baltic.
         Around the same time a good friend from our village in Brockenhurst with
         an Ovni was talking about going over to NL perhaps through the canals and
         out to the Friesian Islands. We decided we could join them as far as the
         Friesian Islands then when they turned inland en-route back to the UK we
         could carry on to the Kiel Canal and in to the Baltic. We had both estimated
         we could leave late May so we planned a really fun 3 weeks in convoy and
         my whole passage planning exercise working out route, tides, port entry
         was modified to “Follow Jeremy”.  Highly recommended passage planning
         strategy.
         After a number of sailing chats and doing some research we decided one
         season was not enough to do the Baltic justice and so would give up our UK
         mooring on the Beaulieu River and look to leave the boat in the Baltic at


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