After yesterday’s debacle with the tide times I asked the harbour master when the tide set in the east going direction he said 2 hours after low water which made it about 7 am. I compared this with the Navionics app on the IPad which said the tide started running at 5am. But after yesterday’s issue I decided to take the local knowledge and we left at 7 am.
The wind was on the nose and blowing 4-5 and with the wind over tide conditions it was pretty uncomfortable so we decided on a short (4 hour) hop to Oostende principally because we’d never been before. However, having been once well give it a miss in future.
If you are going to Oostende I would recommend the first marina on the starboard side as you enter or locking in to the enclosed marina as they are very close to town. We did neither as I had heard that the far marina was near the old town. I’m not sure who from!
Well as it turns out our choice of marina was a mistake. It was a good way from town and was far from pretty with industrial areas and docks all around.
We popped into town via a tram which runs every 20 mins from just outside the marina. The town was quite nice but a severe lack of ice cream vendors. However, we eventually found one by the fish stalls near the lock that we have to say grudgingly the best ice cream we have had all holiday so far and the ones in Holland were great but this was far better.
Upon returning from town we discovered that all but one of our fenders had popped out and because we were being blown on the pontoon had proceeded to make some interesting designs on our gelcoat. The interesting thing is that it had been happening for a while given the damage and lots of locals must have seen what was happening and did nothing. Not the sort of behaviour you would expect in the UK, Holland and even France. Needless to say our opinion of the Belgium’s did not improve.
So given the surroundings and the actions of the locals we won’t be rushing to come back.
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