To Russia with Love?

Kees Noorman is an enthusiastic sailor who has cruised and raced his entire life. He acquired Norseman, a Contest 38S, two years ago and initially enjoyed some straightforward cruising around his home waters of the Netherlands. Last summer however, he introduced a new and very different angle to his cruising. The initial thinking was to use a three-month sailing break to reconnect with old friends separated by the pressures of time, life and work, and to have a rotating crew en route to his destination. Then reality struck. It would mean much organisation and constant, rolling deadlines. Hardly the respite sought from an already hectic life as director of the Port of Amsterdam’s biggest business association. “I thought about this long and hard,” says Noorman, “as planning to be in so many places at set times when sailing is not easy. I realised I’d become like a tour operator and not be experiencing the freedom and nature of my own journey.”

So in early May, with a different and more personal itinerary ahead, Noorman left Medemblik, where is berthed, with only one fixed deadline – to meet an old friend flying into St Petersburg seven weeks ahead. For the first three-day leg to Kiel, Noorman sailed