25-09-2008
Second attempt at IJmuiden
We spent a good weekend in Egersund reading, eating good food and relaxing, while we waited for good northerly winds, scheduled to arrive on Monday. We did get a bit of bad news, because Frode had to return to work, so it would only be Lauren and I that would make the passage down to Amsterdam. Lauren was a bit apprehensive about it, because the only sailing experience she had was from the first attempt at getting to Ijmuiden, which had been no fun at all. In the end she agreed and we changed her ticket, so that she we wouldn’t run into time constraints. She was supposed to fly back to Maryland on Thursday, which could have been tough if no wind materialized or if we had another mishap. She moved her flight to the following Monday, which would should be enough.
The Monday started exactly like the one a week earlier had: We went grocery shopping, topped off the diesel tanks and motored out to sea in search of wind. I was keeping my fingers crossed that September 22nd would be the date I actually managed to set sail from Norway. The date is actually very special to me, because it was the birthday of my grandmother Ingrid, the person I was closest to when growing up.
We left Egersund at 10:30am and met a very docile North Sea. Tiny waves and no wind. It continued in that fashion till about 7pm, when I decided to put up the gennaker to see if we could utilize the almost non-existent wind you could feel on deck. With the sail up and engines off, we were doing between 3.5 – 5 knots in 4 - 7 knots of wind. We weren’t flying, but we were moving and any movement without engines is welcoming. The sun set at 7:30pm and though the night the wind and waves gradually grew bigger. I didn’t want Lauren to be outside at night, because a boat can be tough to handle on your own in daylight if you’re new to sailing and leaving it in her hands at night wouldn’t have been fair, so I had a LONG nightshift. The wind and waves were working with us this time, so we were able to point directly at IJmuiden. Progress was good, the wind peaked at around 15 knots and we were sailing at around 10 knots. I opted not to use the mainsail, because I lack enough experience with the boat, to confidently handle the main and and gennaker efficiently. Sailing wouldn’t have been a problem, but reefing or taking down one or both at the same time, by myself, could have been tough. Soon I’ll have that confidence, but not right now.
I was very happy that I only had one sail up at 11:50am the next day, when a loud whip-like crack rang through the air. I looked forward and saw my brand new gennaker slowly disappear away from the boat to lay down perfectly in the North Sea. The halyard had snapped. The sock started sinking and it looked like it would take the sail with it. I let go of one of the sheets and managed to winch the sail in with the remaining sheet, and then pull it onboard once I got a hold of some fabric. All in all I was lucky and only got a small tear in the gennaker and an even smaller one in the sock. I think the holes happened when I pulled them onboard, but if the choice was between loosing them and making a small hole, I'd make a hole any day.
My spirit sank a little, because my percentage now is 100%. On every longer passage a sail has broken. The big gennaker ripped with capital R when I was sailing to Norway, the jib on the first attempt to get to IJmuiden and now the second gennaker on the second attempt to IJmuiden. I fired up the engines to see what speed I could attain. Doing 2750 rpm I was able to do 7 knots. I was happy with that and set the course for IJmuiden and let Otto take care of the rest.
I haven’t had much luck with my sails. In my … or their defense I have to repeat what the sail maker here in IJmuiden said about them when he went over them before I sailed to Norway. My main and jib are racing sails. They are awesome for that, but they need to be treated like gold. Prior to me buying the boat they had just been hanging on the boat all year round for 3 years, which is kind of like leaving a dog in your car with all the windows closed during the peak of summer. The sails were hurting badly and the sail maker said that they could last one trip or a year or two, but he doubted that they would last longer. So it was in the back of my mind when they tore, but it’s still painful when it happens. The gennaker that went for a swim is brand new and with the exception of the little hole it got now, is in perfect condition and should last me a few years. I do however need to go over my halyards to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. The new jib I’m getting is in Dacron and to supplement my other older gennaker that ripped on the way to Norway, I’m buying a brand new one in the same size. The older sails I’m planning to repair and have as back-ups while I use the new ones as my working horses. It hurts to spend so much on sails, when I have so little money to spare right now. Still, I can’t let a broken sail or two (or three) bring me down too far, I need to roll with it. Lauren says that I’m good at making lemonade out of lemons and this has been a good confirmation of that.
To get back to the trip to IJmuiden: After I started the engines we motored straight down to the Netherlands, aided by waves, wind and current. I was actually surprised at how swiftly it went. Otto managed beautifully the whole time, so we spent most of the time inside, keeping watch from there. It’s great that we have full visibility from inside in all directions. It made the passage enjoyable, because we could chill out and relax while the nautical miles clicked by. We even watched Return of the Jedi while we were motoring along the Dutch coast. At 11:30pm, exactly 61 hours after setting sail from Egersund I jumped ashore on the dock in Seaport Marina IJmuiden and tied us up. We had traveled 365 nm and our average speed was 6 knots. I was unhappy about only sailing for 16.5 hours and motoring the rest, but we got here in high spirits and aside from the hole in the gennaker and the torn halyard there’s little to complain about. Now I’m docked in position: N 52°27.592 E004°33.708. The plan is to spend 1 week in IJmuiden. I’m putting on a new anchor (a Rocna 33), new anchor chain and a new bridle. I'll also be fixing the broken halyard, the bilge pumps, along with some other stuff that needs to be done. Lastly I’m going to haul the boat out of water to give her a proper scrub underneath, change the zinc anodes and find out how much she really weights (this has been a big discussion on a forum online). I have my work cut out for me, but first I’m going to enjoy today and tomorrow in Amsterdam, because it’s something I didn’t really do the last time I was here. It is after all much more fun to party with someone, than go at it alone.
19-09-2008
Prekestolen (The Pulpit rock)
With the boat tied up in Egersund, we decided to do a bit of hiking in the area around Stavanger. One of the most visited places in the vicinity is called the Pulpit rock or Prekestolen in Norwegian. I had to show Lauren what proper Norwegian nature looks like and Prekestolen never fails to impress. Frode was supposed to come along, but he hit the town the night before with Iselin (my half-sister) and was severely hung-over and in no mood or condition to go hiking.
We grabbed a pair of bikes and rolled down to the ferry terminal. When I say we grabbed a pair of bikes, we really did. Lauren borrowed my mom’s and I, well, I “borrowed” a bike from one of my mom’s neighbors … but the neighbor never knew that I borrowed it. Hey, if you don’t lock your bike … Anyways, it was returned in a better shape than when I found it, because I filled the tires with air, so no foul.
We were lucky with the ferry we caught, because it corresponded with a bus that drove us straight up to the Prekestolen hytta or a hostel that lies at the beginning of the trail. While Lauren waited for the bus I biked like a madman to the nearest store to buy some supplies for the hike. Had I taken a minute longer we would have missed the bus, but I didn’t, so we had both water and a bunch of pastries and rolls to snack on. We grabbed a coffee at the hostel and started on the 2 hour hike to the Pulpit. We were lucky with the weather, because it didn’t rain and with no fog either we could really enjoy the views the trail offered.
The Pulpit is breathtaking and even though I’ve been there a number of times it never fails to impress. The crazy 600 meter drop straight down looks amazing when you lie on your stomach and pop your head over the edge. There was a cold draft at the top, so we didn’t stay long, but we did get all the obligatory shots.
We managed to dodge the crowds as we made our way up and down and had a great hike. When we returned to Stavanger we headed to my mom’s apartment and made an excellent dinner. My mom was out of town and kindly let us borrow her apartment. We were able to chill out and get back on top of our game again. The forecast was looking promising for setting sail on the 22nd, so we returned to Egersund to spend the weekend there.
17-09-2008
First attempt at IJmuiden
Monday September 15th was slated to be the start of the circumnavigation. I was joined by Frode Bergsvik, who also crewed on the trip for Amsterdam to Norway; in addition Lauren Hutchinson was making a first time appearance on a catamaran. Our departure day went pretty much as planned. We got up in the morning, did grocery shopping, topped off the diesel tanks and finally at 2pm motored away from Stavanger in search of wind that would bring us to the Netherlands.
The forecast promised easterly winds, which would work very well for us. As is often the case the forecast was wrong. We got southerly winds. The strength was as forecasted, but the wind was blowing directly from where we wanted to go. This meant sailing as close hauled as possible. Progress was hard won, because we had waves, wind and current against us. We fired up an engine to assist and then managed to creep the speed up to somewhere between 3 – 5 knots. It wasn’t pleasant, because the sea was building and the North Sea is no fun to be with increasing waves. Otto the autopilot was my man and he worked overtime to keep us on course. In the end it proved too big a challenge for him and he packed in and shut down. With the waves directly against us, we were hardly making any progress. We tried to get turn Otto on, but a fuse had blown and we couldn’t find out where the fuse was located. Trust me when I say that it’s no fun to search behind cupboards, bulkheads and every odd end of the boat looking for a small box where the fuse is located. We weren’t even entirely sure if it was a blown fuse, but hoped that it wouldn’t be anything more serious. In this commotion I managed to sacrifice my lunch and dinner to Poseidon and wasn’t feeling entirely on top of things. We made the decision to head back to land, to sort things out. Lauren and Frode hit the sack while I had the night watch. We headed for the closest port which turned out to be Egersund, about an hour south of Stavanger by car. The waves were knocking us around quite a bit, so I decided to furl the jib. It had received a lot of beating when Otto was having difficulty steering prior to giving up, so letting it rest a bit would probably be a good thing, right? … Wrong!
From where we turned, it took us approximately 10 hours to get to Egersund. We arrived tired, but in good spirits. We tied up next to the police station and went to work on Otto. It took exactly 1 minute after I had spoken to Gideon about the location of the box to get Otto back again. I ran a diagnostics test and everything was good, so we were basically all set to go. That’s when I took a look at the jib. It was ripped. When I say ripped I mean RIPPED: From top to bottom, pretty much directly along the part that a sail maker in Ijmuiden had strengthened it. It was disheartening. The sail maker that had strengthened it had told me that the sail was old and that it could break the first time I used it, or it could last a year or two, so it wasn’t a huge surprise. I talked to Gideon and we agreed that he would get a new job sewn in South Africa, which he could hopefully bring with him when he returned to Amsterdam in 10 days. My biggest problem was that it would be very tough to sail to the Netherlands without a jib. After doing a bit of thinking I decided that if we had northerly winds, we could forgo the jib and use the gennaker instead. Northerly winds were forecast in 6 days, so we decided to chill out and wait for proper winds.
6 days gave us plenty of time to get acquainted with Egersund. To my surprise it proved to be a super convenient place to stay with the boat. You only have to pay mooring fees during the summer, so we got to stay for free. On top of that they didn’t charge for water, electricity or internet, so it was a prefect place for us. Another thing I really liked was that there the city is so small, that everything was within walking distance. This proved to be a big boon when we were restocking the boat and fixing the bilge pumps. Oh, yeah … the bilge pumps which I thought I had fixed crapped out again, so we were sailing without any means to get water out of the bilge short of doing it with a bucket. After having spent 2 days in Egersund, we decided to head up to Stavanger, to chill there. We jumped on a train, leaving the boat safely tied up in the middle of Egersund.