I can't stand the rain

So here we are in Enkhuizen and it's raining. In fact at the moment it's bucketing down, and also chilly and rather dark. The wind has dropped from the 5-6 overnight, but there's still enough breeze for wind chill. We are due to leave today but it's hard to feel any enthusiasm for a four-hour sail to Lemmer in this.

One noticeable change on our return to the Netherlands is that whereas two weeks ago the roads were edged with dry scrub, now they have lush green grass which has to be trimmed by men with strimmers. Clearly this rain has been going on for some time. The problem is obviously that we can't remember how to deal with it.

Unusually, today I am broadly in favour of setting off and Sam wants to stay. I feel that if we don't get going we may never go at all.

The coot is still sitting on her eggs under our pontoon. The grebe's nest, which was under construction right next to the coot's nest when we left, has vanished completely. Maybe the coot chased it off, or it got disrupted when the adjacent yacht left its mooring.

I like Enkhuizen, but I do hope we're not still here when the coot's eggs hatch.....