22-10-2008
The Bay of Biscay
We stayed in Falmouth for a total of 4 days. It did however feel like a lot longer. Not because it was a boring place, but because we accomplished so much. We made a number of new friends, tried out most of the nearby (and some of the not-so-nearby) pubs, dug into the hearty local cuisine, downed more ale than we both care to admit and even had space for a cider or two (or possibly three). They stay was a success and re-charged our batteries and made us hungry for new sailing adventures. We were ready to set sail across the dreaded Bay of Biscay.
The Bay is an undertaking not to be underestimated at the best of times, so we prepared properly. We got our food shopping done, got the boat in tip top shape and were mentally prepared for hardship. The forecast indicated that the wind would be on the light side, but we decided to err on the side of caution, so we took nothing for granted. In the first 24 hours we saw good winds that helped push us away from the UK and towards France. The trajectory wasn’t perfect, but it kept us moving. Right as we were passing France, the wind died down and we had to motor for almost 24 hours, before we could again hoist the sails and enjoy some splendid sailing. The Bay gave us more wind and higher waves than what had been forecast, but both we and the boat were comfortable. The whole trip across was going remarkably well, when we got a twist in the gennaker and it split with a heart wrenching tear. We got it down and into the bag. We wanted to hoist the main, but it was too windy to get up against the wind, so we turned and motored towards Portugal. At this point in time the waves were between 4 – 5 meters, so it was a tad uncomfortable to try to go against the seas, but when we were sailing towards Portugal, we got them hitting our rear and then everything was excellent. We were surfing down waves and enjoying life. As soon as we rounded the tip, the wind completely died and the waves vanished with it. It didn’t take long before a group of dolphins came up and started playing around us. They never cease to amaze me and this was no different, we were spellbound the entire time they were around us.
They left shortly before sunset, which was when we were getting very close to our destination: Povoa de Varzim. We had intended to go farther, but when I heard that this place was the cheapest and also one of the best marinas in Portugal, I set my course straight for it. We tided up just as the sky darkened and night fell upon us. Our timing was perfect and I’m very happy that we got there before dark. An night approach to a new harbor is no fun.
Povoa de Varzim was everything we were promised and more. It is a perfect place to stop and get properly ready for the sail to Gran Canaria. I took stock of our trip from Falmouth. We had sailed around 580nm. To accomplish this we had spent a total of 86.5 hours. This gave us an average speed of 6.7 knots. I have to say that I was surprised, because it felt like we were going faster.
The best news is that now we’ve braved some of the toughest areas of the trip to the Caribbean. Though I don’t expect an easy time after this, it feels good to move forward with confidence after having sailed through the English Channel and crossed both the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay. Doing this in summer, can be hard … doing it in late fall like we did …. Not recommendable … This of course just adds spice to the tale.
11-10-2008
Going to Cherbourg … or wait a minute!
We woke up early and maneuvered alongside the fuelingship. The night alongside the fuel barge had been short and uneventful. With freshly topped off tanks and 100 liters in jerry cans, we hurried into the marina in IJmuiden to do the last few things. The last few things included picking up the sails Patrick (the sailmaker) had fixed, hoisting the new genoa and finishing off the bilge pump repair. We topped hoisting the new genoa off by pulling the starboard pulpit out of the deck. I’ve never been closer to crying, but it worked out. My friend Rob showed up and did some emergency repairs that will allow me to sail until I decide to get it fixed, probably in the Caribbean. Though it was a shock and it looked worse than it was, it was still a big blow. With the pulpit stored safely in the dinghy and the holes sika’d shut, we cast off. Patrick waved us off and we set a south-westerly course straight for Cherbourg.
As is normal, we had basically bought the wrong things to eat, because as soon as we were on our way, our appetites vanished and we focused on two things: standing watch and sleeping. Basically if you weren’t doing one, you were doing the other. We did 3-hour shifts and though we had lots of tasty nibblies, speaking for myself, getting food down was like a second job. It’s not that it was particularly rough, but I just wasn’t hungry. I did drink a lot of water though, so the body seemed happy.
What was clear was that we were making very good progress and when we were looking at the map and the wind indicator 2 days later, it was clear to us that it would make much more sense to continue for another day and go straight to Falmouth on the south western extremity of England. We spent about 10 seconds discussing it, before we traded French cuisine and red wine for pub grub and ales. What a great choice! Some really good friends of us studied in Falmouth, so we had a complete run-down of where to go and what to do before we hit the harbor. This looked very promising.
Of course before we could even think of entering Falmouth we had to cross one of the busiest shipping lanes in the World: The English Channel. I’d like to say that it was stressful and scary, but we followed the rules and made a straight line across. This minimized the danger and made crossing the high-traffic separation zones a speedy affair.
When we arrived in Falmouth we entered on cue as the sun was supposed to rise. It didn’t and when I was thinking the World was going to Hell, I realized that we had forgot to set our clocks one hour back. This ensured that we were sailing around Falmouth in the pre-twilight. We did OK and found a perfect spot in the guest harbor, happily aided by Meme a friendly South African lady who popped up as we were about to tie up. She gave us all the info we needed to ensure a happy stay in the guest harbor.
The trip had taken us 62.5 hours. In that time we covered 440nm miles. This gave us an average speed of just above 7 knots for the entire trip. Not amazing, but pretty damned good. We were certainly happy and ready to enjoy Falmouth.
09-10-2008
Amsterdamming
Having arrived safely in Amsterdam, Lauren and I set out to enjoy ourselves in town. Though I had a long list of things I wanted to do with the boat, Lauren only had a few days before she had to return home to the US, so I took the time “off” to hang out and have fun. Taking time “off” is a strange concept when I in truth don’t really have any work to do, so I’m technically speaking always “off”. Any boatowner will however tell you that this is not the case. When you have a boat, you’re never unemployed and you’ll never run out of things to do, fix or improve.
What was good, was that we were able to move the boat from the marina in IJmuiden, which lies an hour on the bus outside of Amsterdam, into the center of Amsterdam. Going through the locks was a bit of nerve-wrecking, since we had no idea what to expect … or what to do, but it worked out. Staying in Amsterdam with the boat gave us a great starting point to explore the town… and explore we did. Her last days flew by and before I knew it, I was driving her to the airport in the Worlds smallest car. It was amazing that we were able to fit all her luggage inside. Though the Smart car is tiny and not particular fast, I still managed to get two speeding tickets on the way. Damned speeding cameras.
With Lauren on the way home, I started working on the boat. I had a long list of things that needed to be done, first on the list was getting the boat lifted out of the water. This was done with a mobile crane, which weighed my boat in at 10tons. Again I was more than a little nervous, because the crane seemed to puny and my boat so big, but in the end we encountered no problems.
With the boat firmly on land, I was just about to get cracking when Knut walked around the corner. He was joining me for the next three weeks and to be honest I was very happy to see him. Not only because it meant I had someone there to help me with the work, but also because the boat became very empty when Lauren left.
Knut and I went to work and hammered away at my do-list, which included: raising the anti-fouling by 10 cm (this so that I would be prepared for the heavier loads I’ll no doubt carry in the future), we swapped the old 15m anchor chain and 45 meters of weighted line, with 100m of stainless steel chain. We also marked the chain every 5 meters, so that it’s easy to count how much chain has been dropped out. At the end we took off the 23kg CQR anchor and put on a brand spanking new 33kg Rocna anchor. With the brand new bridle, I’ll be ready to anchor anywhere around the globe. Finally I’m confident that I have a good anchoring system. Now the rest is up to me.
I also cleaned the propellers properly, removing a ton of chalk and growth from them. We did the same on the whole bottom. Let me just say that cleaning the bottom hull of a boat is a time consuming endeavor. I finally changed the non-operational bilge pumps, which was a relief after 2 months of disappointments. In short, we kept ourselves very busy. Having said that we enjoyed some fine meals in Amsterdam and onboard and even received a very nice visit from Edvard and some classmates of his.
When we were finally back on the water, we topped off our water tanks and re-pulled the snapped halyard, before we shot away from Amsterdam and headed back out towards the sea. We had arranged to pick up fuel in the morning, before we would cast off for Cherbourg. Though I had a great time in Amsterdam I was VERY ready to put it behind me and get moving south. The longer I waited the worse the weather would get and my chances of getting a good weather window would lessen. It was in high spirits we tied up along the fuel barge, to spend the night there, so that we could get off early the next day.