The long haul home

Folks:

Sorry about the lack of blog! The PC decided it did not want to access WIFI, and the fix necessitated my brother Mike refreshing the whole stupid machine, which meant we had to download all our apps again (including Microsoft Word).

Bright and early on June 21^st we extricated ourselves from the crowded Sixhaven marina in the centre of Amsterdam and motored down the 12 miles of canal to the lock into the North Sea at Ijmuiden. For a while we sailed south along the Dutch coast with a fair wind, but before we got to Scheveningen the wind backed south west and we had to motor sail the last fifteen miles in a lumpy sea. Scheveningen was a disappointment. We remembered the marina from when we lived in the Hague as it is only about 10 miles from where we lived, but our recollections are dated as the marina is now very crowded with hardly any space for visiting yachts which are moored far away from the shops and cafes.

The next day was a long one for us, sixty six miles to Zeebrugge in Belgium. We had thought about stopping in a southern Holland port but the wind was fair, and the day sunny so we forged on down the Dutch coast across the busy Westerschelde, and down the Belgian coast.

The 23^rd was a rest day spent catching our breath and, at the advice of the lady in the yacht club restaurant, taking a train to Bruges. Bruges (or Brugge) is a delightful medieval town with many quaint buildings about six miles inland from Zeebrugge and well worth a visit.

Ever onwards, and on the 24^th we sailed again down the coast forty four miles to Dunkirk and so back into France. Once again the wind did not play fair with us and we only sailed without the motor for three out of eight hours. But who are we to complain? The sea was not to rough and the sun shone so we thankful for what we were given. Last time we were at Dunkirk, two years ago, we could not stay at the Yacht Club Mer du Nord as they were hosting a regatta and had to stop at a very soulless new marina. Better luck this time, but we thought that the much vaunted restaurant was over rated.
So eventually on June 25^th we arrived back in the UK, at Dover from Dunkirk. Crossing the Dover straights is always something of a chore because four hundred ships a day pass through the shipping lanes, not including the numerous cross channel ferries. We felt like a little old lady scurrying across the M25! Actually this time it was not too bad, there seemed to be less shipping going north and south, the wind was fair and we had another sunny day with good visibility.
We had intended to have a rest day in Dover and stay there two nights but although the marina has good facilities, there is not a lot to see close to it and a forecast for impending strong south westerly winds helped make the decision and we set sail in the afternoon of the 26^th for Eastbourne arriving at the Sovereign marina at 9pm after another sunny sail, this time with the wind dead astern.

At Eastbourne we definitely needed a rest day, so we spent the time sitting on the boat reading books and dozing.

We made the next day a short one and only sailed twenty three miles to Brighton marina. This is supposed to be the largest marina in the UK, and that’s about all there is to recommend it, expensive with only average services and a tricky entrance that you would not want to attempt in strong onshore winds.

Bob to date had seen a lot of marinas so we decided that the anchor needed wetting, and on June 29^th sailed into the Solent and up the Emsworth channel where we anchored in a little bay off the village of West Wittering. It was nice to sit in the cockpit and watch the sun set and be away from a crowd of boats.

 

From here we sailed up to the Town Quay marina in Southampton where Bob left us for his long journey back to Australia via Stuttgart and my brother Mike joined us to stay overnight and sail to Poole which we reached after a rather windless day motor sailing. Poole has always disappointed us and the place lived up to expectations. We stopped at Saltern’s marina because it was close to the entrance, we thought it was fairly close to the train station for Mike, and it had a fancy write up. £42 a night with extra for WIFI and the facilities on the other side of a large car park! We have stayed in better for fifteen euros.

The barometer was still at 1030mb meaning that the good weather should last, although the forecast was for a low to come our way soon, so on 3^rd July we said a glad goodbye to Poole and headed west again. We had originally planned to stop at the new marina in Portland harbour, which was constructed for the last Olympic Games, but as we felt quite fit we decided to plug on for seventy three miles to Dartmouth. Not a bad plan, but, due to the change, we had not fully accounted for the tide at Portland Bill and had two hours with three knots against us! Thank goodness for a calm day and a powerful engine. Nine p.m. saw us moored at Dart marina back in home waters at last.

We were glad we had made the long passage because on the next day (4^th July), the predicted low came roaring through and we could smugly watch the wind and rain.

The rest is history. On Sunday 6^th July we sailed to Plymouth on a lumpy sunny blustery day and locked into Sutton Harbour marina where we were joined by our brother in law Patrick, who sailed with us back to our mooring at Mylor on a day that started windless and sunny and ended with a reefed main and genoa with twenty seven knots of wind to welcome us into the Fal.

Onwards to Amsterdam and beyond

Strong north west winds were forecast so we decided that through the Dutch canals was the preferred route to the North Sea rather than the outside passage via Vlieland. Good job we did, because the sail from Borkum to Lauwersoog on June 14th was no fun. Twenty to twenty five knots wind close hauled in a lumpy sea made us glad to lock into the canal system seven hours later and tie up in Lauwersoog marina almost two years to the day since we passed through headed for the Baltic.

Next day we motored on through the Friesland canals to Leeuwarden. This is a pleasant  place to stop because the moorings are in a wooded part of the canal that circles the town, very peaceful but close to restaurants and the sights. We stayed here two nights and on 16^th June we motored to Grou to stop at the same marina as two years previously.

 Keren paying the canal bridge dues into the clog

 

Bright and early, for us, we headed south again to Lemmer. A broken bridge meant that we had a detour. Fortunately a local yacht guided us through the minor canals and we only ran aground once! Soft mud and we soon motored off and went the correct way around the buoy. The detour meant, however, that by the time we reached Lemmer we had lost the will to sail across the Isselmeer to Einkhuizen so we found a nice berth outside a restaurant and moored up for the night. A good stop, the restaurant served us Dover Sole with all the trimmings and nice wine so we fell into the boat later that evening feeling no pain at all.

The marina berth and restaurant in Lemmer

9 am June 17^th saw us headed south west across the Isselmeer, through the lock at Einkhuizen sailing south past Hoorn, Monnickendam and Marken  and on to Amsterdam Sixhaven marina which is right opposite the central station. We stopped in Amsterdam for three nights so that we could all catch breath and for Bob to see something of the city. He even found the red light district, but claims he was not impressed!

Replica of the East Indies ship ' Amsterdam' at the maritime museum



Tomorrow (June 21st) it's back to sea again via Ijmuiden and on to Scheveningen and ports south west towards Dover.

Our cheerful and long suffering sailing companion Bob

 

xxxxxxx

Dramas on Thursday 6^th June! We arrived back at Fehmarn and Stefan, the mechanic visited us to tell us that the engine was not engaging reverse gear properly. After trying to adjust the cable linkage it was found that the gear shift mechanism was slack inside its internal mechanism and that the gear change cable was virtually seized up. He managed to replace and adjust everything and left us at 8pm with a fully functional engine having enjoyed some of our Scotch.
A rough sail (or rather motor sail) from Fehmarn to Kiel on Friday 6^th June. Wind 20-25kn on the nose, (as Keren said, “if we didn’t have a head wind, we wouldn’t have any”). Spent the night at a nice clean marina at Laboe, which is on the north east side of Kiel Bay. Next morning, Saturday June 7^th, we crossed the fjord to buy fuel and then motored south to the little staging marina right next to the Holtenau lock to clean ship and wait for Bob to arrive. Bob and Barbara Speedie are long-time friends of ours from Australia. Barbara does not sail but Bob is dead keen to do some sailing in Europe, and we are very glad to have him along, because some of the passages around the German Dutch coasts are quite long and having a skilled crew aboard reduces the watch times on deck.

Big ships on the canal

An early start for us on Sunday 8^th and we caught the Holtenau lock at 0800 to motor down the 40miles of the Kiel Canal to our next stop and Brunsbuttel which is at the entrance of the river Elbe. The trip down the canal was much the same as for the trip up, seven hours of motoring with big ships passing. Brunsbuttel has a small staging marina just inside the canal right by the lock gates where we stayed overnight. Nothing much to recommend it but a convenient location.

By 8:30 on Monday 9^th we were through the lock and headed down the river Elbe bound for Helgoland which is a small island just north of the German coast. A fifty mile trip with the wind against is again. For us Helgoland has nothing much to recommend it except duty free cigarettes and booze. It is a small island full of holiday chalets that has added servicing the many offshore wind farms to its business. Yachts raft up four to five deep alongside a long pontoon and the facilities are minimal. Despite this, we stayed two nights so that we could stock up on provisions (food as well as booze!) and to wait while a low blew through.

Hegoland

On Wednesday 10^th June sunny weather and light winds were back, so we left Helgoland at six am for the seventy five mile leg to the island of Borkum. A long day motor sailing with a light head wind although we did manage to sail for a couple of hours and give the engine a rest. Borkum Island is on the east side of the Ems estuary which is the German / Dutch border. The tide runs quite strongly between the Frisian Islands and we arrived two hours into the flood so we were swept up the river doing over eight knots over the ground.

Borkum has a yacht marina with only 1.2 metres depth at the entrance (how daft is that?) so we moored in the main harbour where there is a row of serviced pontoons. As soon as we tied up  the Harbour Master  (a Scottish lady) arrived to welcome us and ask if we needed anything. We all walked up to the harbour office which is also a bar where we paid our dues and had a drink with the harbour master and her husband – what a fine welcome. We decided there and then to stay two nights, rest up, do the laundry and clean ship. 

The marina at Borkum

The last map picture was rubbish, so here's an improved version. Not great, but more readable!

Heading West

We are headed back to Fehmarn. We spent quality time with our new granddaughter and now it's time to head for home. We plan to leave Fehmarn on Friday and sail to Kiel where we will be joined by our Australian friend Bob before heading through the Kiel canal and into the North Sea. Our route thereafter depends on the weather, but the current plan is to sail roughly West via the islands of Heligoland, Borkum, Vlieland (in Holland) and then to Den Helder.

Sailing along the North German and Dutch coasts represents the big challenge of the trip as bad weather makes a lot of the harbours difficult to enter, and it is necessary to sail a fair way north of Cuxhaven to clear all the sand banks off the entrance to the river Elbe.

There are stories of yachts waiting at Cuxhaven for a week for good weather!

 



A new crew arrives

On Thursday May 22nd we received a text message that our daughter Nicola was about to produce our first grandchild, more than two weeks early. Annika Joanne arrived into the world at 12:30pm, while we were busy changing travel plans.
We left Jomora on a pontoon berth at Fehmarn and flew / drove home, arriving on Saturday 24th.
Unfortunately the little lady and her Mum had to go into hospital for three days as Annika had a touch of jaundice and was not feeding properly, so it was four days before we met her.
We think she is very cute and thoroughly charming, but admit to being somewhat biased!

Annika, one week old

 

Tired parents

 

Kept them awake, now I'm tired

 

Getting ready for the trip home

We arrived in Fehmarn on Thursday 15th May.
Jomora is looking good and they seem to have done a nice job of resealing all the windows. Hopefully no more drips!
We are now doing all the chores required before the mast is stepped and we launch.
The first part of our voyage home will be along the German coast to Kiel where we will enter the Kiel canal at Holtenau. We plan to take two days transiting the canal, stopping again at Rendsburg. We exit the canal at Brunsbuttel and then have a short trip down the river Elbe to Cuxhaven where we will leave the boat in the City Marina to travel home to await the birth of our first grand daughter.

The decks look nice!

 

 

Our planned route home is pretty much the same as for the way out, along the North German and Netherlands coasts, past Belgium to France where we cross the channel from Dunkirk to Dover.

Then we plan to jog along the UK south coast via the Solent where we will spend days looking at places we have not visited before.

After this, we have the trip across Lyme Bay to Dartmouth and then home.

We are not in a big hurry so, assuming we are back to Jomora in Cuxhaven by mid June we will probably get back to our mooring at Mylor by mid July.