DUTCH ROYAL TOUR

The Leaver family take Duchess, their regally named Van der Valk 1800, on a return visit to her homeland

- James Leaver

Duchess is a 2002 Wim Van der Valk Continental 1800, which I bought secondhand in the Netherlands and brought back to the UK in 2017 (See MBY Sept 2020). The delivery trip gave me a taste for cruising in the Netherlands and I always promised that one day we would return there for a family cruise.

This is the year we decided to make it happen. The plan was to spend a couple of weeks on the delta taking in the Veerse Meer, Oosterschelde, Grevelingenmeer and Haringvliet, but first we needed to find a suitable weather window for crossing the Channel and choose an easy Schengen port of entry for the paperwork. July 2023 was the wettest on record, with heavy winds to match, and I was beginning to wonder whether my carefully laid plans would work. Thankfully, as we approached our scheduled departure date, the long-term forecasts improved. This is the story of our cruise.

ENTERING EUROPE 

My son Archie and I are blessed with calm seas and sunny skies for the passage from Chichester to Eastbourne. Our plan is to go direct from here to Nieuwpoort in Belgium. It’s a 95nm passage rather than a short hop across the Channel from Dover to Calais or Dunkerque but I’ve heard too many stories about bad experiences with French border controls and we’re keen to reach Holland as soon as possible so we can meet up with my wife and daughter, who are flying direct to Amsterdam.

We complete the UK Border Force paperwork online 24 hours before departure as advised ([e-mail]) and the Belgian paperwork for entering the Schengen Area (https://apps.digital.belgium.be/forms/show/police/pcdec?Ing=en). Within a couple of hours an email comes back confirming clearance.