25-07-2008
Sailing home
With Torstein and Frode onboard and ready for action there was only one thing for us to do: Set Sail!
At 5:30am we rolled out of bed, unplugged the shore power, took a last picture and cast off. The engines purred like kittens and got us out of the marina and past the breakwater, before we hoisted the sails and shut them off. The sun was rising over the not so scenic coastline, but we still took a picture, before we dodged inside to enjoy some breakfast.
The wind wasn't particularly strong, only about 13 knots and it was coming in almost right on the nose. We were able to keep it between 30 - 50 degrees off our bow and with the current aiding us slightly we were kicking ass doing 11 knots in 13 knots of wind, or 10 knots in 12 knots of wind when we took the following picture.
Our spirits were high and we enjoyed the sail northwards. There was something right about 3 Norwegians sailing north towards Norway! We did manage to find 4 knots of wind at one point and that's when we decided to change course to unleash the fury of the 135 sq.m. gennaker.
We were enjoying the sight of the well set gennaker as the wind increased, when we all of a sudden heard a sickening rip. One of the corners had torn off and the gennaker was now flapping like a punctured balloon. We got the mangled remains down and reset the normal sails. I wept a few brave tears as we stored the gennaker below deck and continued the sail directly north again. We were relatively lucky with the weather, enjoying a nice selection of what nature has to offer from sun and clear blue skies, to anvil shaped black clouds sweeping by directly above us, drenching us in a torrential downpour.
Torstein and Frode admitted that they had expected a nice smooth and warm sail, but once we left IJmuiden, the temperature dropped and the wind quickly forced us to don warm clothes. Their plan to drink a lot of the beer we had bought en route also evaporated, because though the waves weren't big they were short and steep and everyone had to focus to stay on top of things. These kind of waves are typical in the very shallow North Sea. The boat handled them wonderfully and we didn't experience any of the dreaded waves slapping up against the bridgedeck which everyone fears. The boat did in fact handle wonderfully and kept us on track, moving at a comfortable pace the entire time.
Considering that this was the first time I was sailing the boat without the previous owner onboard I think we did very well. By the time we got to Norway we had spent 51 hours since we left the marina. Considering that we had covered about 415 nm from dock to dock, it gave us an average speed of a little over 8,1 knots. Very satisfying. We were moving by the force of the sails all the way until we entered the fjords outside Stavanger. There the wind completely died and we had to fire up the beast below. Moving in the fjord was absolutely incredible. The water was completely flat and the weather was gorgeous. We used the flat water to enjoy a nice breakfast cooked up by a smiling and very hungry Torstein.
After breakfast we enjoyed slow motoring towards Sokn. I only used one engine at about 2800rpm to conserve fuel, so we moved forward at just under 5 knots.
When we got to Sokn where the boat will be docked while I'm in Norway, we immediately started celebrating by cracking open a few beers: fortøyningspils as we say in Norway. We cleaned up the boat and ate another meal, before we focused on a proper celebration of the successful delivery to Norway.
20-07-2008
Picking up African Innovation
With no small amount of nervousness I stepped onto the tarmac at
Schipol and made my way to the bus to the terminal. Contrary to what
you might expect when you're going to your new home, I had very little luggage with me. A small backpack and 2 waterproof bags contained all the things I deemed essential. I was met by Gideon Goudsmit, the owner of the company African Cats and co-designer (together with Angelo Lavranos) and previous owner of my new home and sailboat: African Innovation.
When I came to the Netherlands I didn't really have a plan of what to do next, except get the boat ready and sail home to Norway. My plan was to spend a year in Norway to sail, get the boat ready and most importantly me ready for a 3 - 5 year circumnavigation. I would also need to save up quite a bit of extra money, because I spent a lot more than my budget allowed to when I bought the boat and since I no longer had a girlfriend to share the expenses with, ... well I would need to work hard.
It's funny that when I look back on the month and a half I spent in the marina working on the boat I can't really figure out how I could spend so much time achieving so little. Truth be told I spent a lot of time waiting. Waiting for Gideon, waiting for parts, waiting for different people and working on things the old way: learning by trial and error. No way is better to learn if you have time ... and I did.
To those of you interested in sailing stuff: I basically started out by cleaning the boat from top to bottom and used that as a chance to get to know the boat properly. It also allowed me to test and learn how everything worked or in some cases how things didn't work. First of all, here's a list of things I installed: A Seabreeze Windgenerator, 2 x 215 Sanyo solar panels with a charger, 1000 ah house battery bank, 80 ah starting battery, 6 solar vents (1 in each cabin and head and 2 in the salon), handrails above the front windows, a 5,5 K Webasto heater, a new water pump, plus some small stuff. I repaired a few things here and there and made some small improvements, a new socket here, some drain holes there, fixed some wiring here, got the sails mended there, etc.
I also became a master baker ...
... Thanks to my breadmaking machine. I LOVE it!
I met a lot of great people that worked on my boat from Jan the electrician whom I really bonded with because we shared an interest in Black Metal to ...Rob, who spent an amazing amount of time installing my solar panels, to Patrick the sailmaker who hates Germans and charges them double of what he charges anyone else. Interesting people that made my stay more pleasant and helped get my boat ready to leave.
Towards the end of my stay my sister from Beijing, Tine, brought champagne and popped by for a visit. What better way to share a bottle of champagne than to do it on the deck of a beautiful catamaran ... well, sunshine and a warm temperature would have been nice, but we made do with what nature served us.
My last week in IJmuiden was jam-packed with the last minute stuff, mostly things I hadn't already finished or things that had popped up along the way. I would probably have stayed another month if my buddy Frode hadn't showed up to help me out. He came to help me sail the boat home, but as he is an incredibly handy guy to have around, I immediately put him to work. We were able to enjoy a drink or two (or three) along the way and had a great time. On the final day, Torstein showed up and all we could do was do the last bit of shopping before we could set off.
How was my stay in IJmuiden? In one word: Excellent. Made so almost entirely because of Gideon. I know I've made a friend for life. He was incredibly helpful and forthcoming and he really made the stay everything I had hoped, only better. I can't wait to go back!