At about 16.30 we leave Cuxhaven. We must take this opportunity no matter the time of day, yawn… when the winds are right. We expect to reach Borkum, the last of the German Frisian islands before the headwind comes. Which we also do and arrive early in the morning of June 2. During the night we see bioluminescence in the waves from Sally, magically beautiful.

There are two ports in Borkum. A slightly smaller Yacht harbor that will be 2.3m deep at low tide according to the chart (we need 2 m of depth) and a larger working harbor. We start with the larger one where we can not find a place. The workboats take all the good berths, and the Y-bars that are available for private boats would not even reach half of the length of our boat, so there is nothing to dock to. We then try to go into the marina. A small channel into the harbour, current against and 2.6 m of depth … at high tide !!!! The water would sink about 1.8 m in a couple of hours. We turn quickly.

Returns to the larger port and dials a number that is written on an empty pier. Should any workboats dock there during the day? Is it possible for us to berth there? A dizzy woman answers, it’s hard to hear what she’s saying, but one thing is clear, The English Royal Navy is coming and we are absolutely not allowed to berth there.

Not sure how to translate this Swedish expression, try with this one.
Puff and moan! What to do? Sail back 12 hours? Continue to the next port at least 15 hours away and in far too strong headwinds? None of the options feel good.

We circled around in the harbor to discuss where to berth, albeit temporarily. We do not want to go out to sea again. Then we see a saving angel waving at us from a large SAR boat. He thinks we can berth to the bridge in front of him. Admittedly, the dock owner shows up just when we are done with the docking and pushes us away, but that does not matter. Because he also shows another vacancy he has at the next bridge, and that is most important. We are happy to change place as long as we know that we have our own place where we can stay.

Not much water left here now, luckily we turned around.