This morning, I woke up to the news that we are near Amsterdam already. It’s weird that I was away from home for so long, but now we’re almost back. First, we could see The Netherlands on the horizon. Way too soon after that, we entered the port town of Den Helder. So weird. We also visited this place when we left all those months ago, and now we’re back. We spent some time just looking at the town as it came closer to shore, but there was also a lot of work to do. Bracing the yards, putting the fenders out, getting the mooring lines ready and of course taking plentu of pictures!

When we passed the first houses, people started to cry. We leave the ship in less than a week. The end is coming. I started to get emotional myself too. We waved and smiled at the people on the sidewalks, even though we didn’t know them.

Suddenly, we saw a few familiar faces. Crew members that had been with us in the beginning were waiting for us. The ship owners were also there to welcome us back. It was nice to see those familiar faces.

I was put in charge of the mooring lines, so I handled that together with one of the deckhands. When we were all tied up, the final ship takeover was done. The student captain made a little speech and then we left the ship and touched Dutch soil. The welcoming committee had brought all kinds of typical Dutch snacks. We all agreed to make it the best last days ever.

Signing out
Pien