Part One " A trip to London and back"

A couple of years ago, my parents and I took a sailing trip across the Channel to London and back. We sailed in a small fleet with 8 Dutch yachts. My parents boat, “Do it”, is a Dufour 31 which was built in 1977. She is a very fine boat if you ask me. 

The journey started at the end of April and the fleet was organized by the Oceanpeople

Day 1, Grevelingen to Roompot [30sm]

So we arrived quite early in our marina and stuffed everything on “Do it”. And I just forgot my boots, which I regretted later. After I placed my stuff at the navigator bed next to the chart table, we set sail. But we were stopped at the Grevelingen lock, because it was broken. We had to wait; nobody could give us a clue when the lock would be repaired. And we were the only boat at the lock. Time for some chips. Later in the afternoon the lock opened again.

After leaving the lock, we entered the Oosterschelde and now the wind reached a fine force 8. But “Do it” did a very good job with a jib 1 and a fully reefed mainsail and we smashed through the waves, a sail of a lifetime.  We covered the distance of 25 nautical miles in no time. (Wibbly wobbly timey wimey ). 

We arrived just before the sun melted into the ocean at Roompot Marina. We were the last boat to get in, and we arrived just in time for the briefing for the trip starting on the next day. “Do it” was inspected by Paul of the Oceanpeople and his parting words were “ Well, all safety gadgets are on board at least in duplicate, so if anybody else drops anything, you guys might be able to help them out.

We made friends with the other  crews and were invited by Hank (67) and Harry (70) on their Fisher 40. It was a pleasant evening with too much alcohol.

Day 2 Roompot- Nieuwport (55 nm)

 

The alarm clock went mad at 5 in the morning, definitely too much alcohol! We crossed over to the Neltje Jans Lock to get out onto the North Sea. 

 The fleet assembles

The wind was a force 5 NW, quite fresh. 

The North Sea, well  it was stirred up from the force 8 the day before.  There is a German saying “Nord See ist Mord See” translated it means “North sea is Murder Sea”. And I could almost understand the saying on that day. We had waves between 2 and 4m in height, in very quick succession and they came in quite chaotically. First, we had to go straight out through “Hompels“ (sandbank before the Oosterschelde ) and we were quite beaten up by the waves. 

I sail through the “Hompels“ quite often and it is quite famous for its chaotic waves. Outside at buoy Kaloo the chaotic waves usually disappear but this time they still came in very short succession.We were on a jib 1 and a fully reefed main sail again. And the wind decreased over the course of the day, but the waves stayed the way they were. So we had to change the sails nearly every hour, which meant I changed the sails, because we needed the speed to get through the waves. Reef 2 out, full main, change of clothes(a wave came by and said “Hi”) Jib 1, Genoa II, change of clothess II, (thank you, Dad, couldn’t you have avoided that by steering the boat better) , Genoa I.

On my second change of clothes, I may have had a small argument with the helmsman… 

Me: “Dad, why don´t you have a rolling Genoa on your bloody boat?”

 Dad: “But you also don´t have a rolling sail on your boat, why would anybody need them?”

Me: “Yeah but my sails don´t weight 10 to 20 kg each, and I am still in my 20s, rather than nearing the end of my 50s.”

Dad: “It’s fine, we could handle them if necessary.”

Me: “Yeah I see, I handle them, I haven´t seen you on the foredeck the whole day.”

Dad: “No need, you did an excellent job with the sails and the waves!”

Me: “Thanks!”

Dad: “Next time we only set the High Aspect (Genoa II).”

After changing the sails for the sixth time, we finally made it to Nieuwport.

My balance sheet for the day:

-          Six sail changes. Eight incidents of being sea sick. (Turns out that dried ginger doesn´t help with sea sickness).Air temperature 5 degrees.Bloody fingers, cold salt water and 5°C air temperature not a good combination…

S

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