Day-04-Veere

Saturday - Veere
Well we sailed at 10PM last night and cruised along quietly through the night and arrived at Veere this morning at about 8:30. Took quite a while to get tied up as the deckhand hadn't mastered the art of how to use a heaving line to get the cable ashore. The said deckhand was this evening undergoing training from the captain. The man wasn't happy this morning. Grey, windy, freezing still. Had a morning mainly on board, but had a walk around the old town for a while. They have a huge, very solid and quite ugly church and some old commercial buildings. Was once a major trading port, principally with Scotland. This afternoon we went out to inspect the Delta works. A huge engineering feat, completed over about twenty years to protect this area from a possible storm surge from the North Sea. The section we went and looked at has a wall several kms long with 52 hydraulic driven gates, which are normally open to allow tidal flow into a large estuary, but which can be closed on an extreme tide to protect the inland areas. A staggering project, but essential to keep the country safe. Tonight we dined off-ship at a nice restaurant overlooking the ocean. Arrived back at the ship with about two minute to spare before sailing.
Late afternoon the sun came out and it may tomorrow as well. Forecast of 9deg.