05-11-2008
Kicking it in Maryland and D.C.
When Knut and I arrived in Povoa de Varzim, I knew he was going home to work, before rejoining me on Gran Canaria in November, but I had no idea if anyone would be able to join me for the sail down to Gran Canaria from Portugal. That particular sail is around 850nm long, so it would be tough to do on my own. This meant I had a few days on my hands to figure out what to do. I put up a notice on couchsurfing.com and wrote a crewing site, but nothing materialized. I was getting a little worried and decided the best therapy would be to do something completely different.
Lauren really wanted me to come and see her … So I decided: Why not? You only live once! This was a perfect excuse to not think about the crewing problem. The next day I boarded a flight and flew to Washington DC, where I was picked up by Lauren in her sweet ride … granted her Jeep Cherokee has the World’s most dangerous tires and breaks … but it still gets you from a to b. In the coming days it proved to be a real workhorse.
We stayed in her mom’s awesome apartment and used that as our base of operations while we were exploring the vicinity. We managed to cover a fair share of things in the 10 days I was there. Downtown D.C. was only 30 min away, so we went down and had a look at the sights: The Lincoln Memorial, The Reflecting Pool, The Pencil (I forget what it’s really called), The Vietnam Memorial, the WW2 memorial (a lot of memorials to be honest), the White House (which will soon be inhabited by Obama :-)and last but definitely not least, we went to the Smithsonian. I LOVED it. We didn’t have a chance to see even a fraction of it, but I got a tiny overview. It was cool to see the dinosaurs, the Hope Diamond, their under water exhibit and my first IMAX movie “Deep Sea”. It was a winner! Everything in between was equally impressive, so I need to go back and do it proper justice one day.
We also went to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum out by Dulles. This was hands down the coolest museum I’ve ever seen. My favorites were the SR-71 Blackbird that set the record from LA to DC. It did it in 1 hour and 4 minutes. They also had the original Enola Gay bomber that dropped the a-bomb on Hiroshima. The also had a Concorde and lastly a space shuttle. On top of these amazing planes they had a couple of hundred other impressive air crafts. It was a stunning collection and very impressive to see. We also went and saw a new IMAX movie, this time we saw “Fighter pilots”. If I had seen that movie when I was in my teens, I know I’d be a pilot today.
October 31st happened to swing around while I was there and what better way to celebrate Halloween than at a house-party. We met up at a friend of Lauren’s and partied properly, all of us dressed up in costumes. It was good fun. Of course earlier that same day, I did my first pumpkin carving. Lauren did the sketching and then I did the carving. Lauren also proceeded to fry the pumpkin seeds in her own fashion, resulting in an interesting taste that only she enjoyed. At least no one will steal them from her!
On a particularly nice and sunny day, we drove down to Annapolis and enjoyed a good day walking around in the sun looking at the old town. I really liked it and what really made the visit was the awesome chilidog I got a diner. Yummy!
Besides these things, I also met most of Lauren’s family and got to hang out with some of her friends. On one of my last days there, we drove down to Salisbury and met her brother Erik and hung out with him. I learned to play beer pong and to my surprise I wasn’t completely crap at it.
The 10 days flew by. It was nice to get a little break from the sailboat and it was a lot of fun to hang out with Lauren. My crewing problem solved itself, when a guy who had called me a month earlier inquired if he could still come to sail to Gran Canaria. So when I flew back to Portugal, he was flying in on the same day.
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.
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.
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!
29-03-2008
Chilling in a hot spring on Steffi's Birthday
Steffi's birthday was an excellent opportunity to dodge out of Beijing to enjoy some quality time in nature. After looking at our options, everything pointed in the direction of the XYG resort about an hour North of Beijing. It came warmly recommended from a friend and their price wasn't bad (certainly the best for what we got out of all our choices.
Steffi had taken the Friday (her birthday) off, so when we woke up she could relax, while I ran out and bought fresh bread, eggs and bacon for a proper birthday breakfast. A hearty meal got us ready for our 24 hour resort-holiday. They sent a Mercedes to pick us up, so we rode there in style. I was worried that it would be close to an urban area, but it was secluded in a little quiet valley, where we were the only inhabitants. When we got there the staff was expecting us and everything was in order. The room was awesome and since it was Steffi's birthday, they had supplied a fresh bouquet of flowers. Seeing that it was approaching noon, we immediately went to work on the Whisky and Martini we had a brought.
Steffi had received some gifts from home and thinking they were the only ones she'd receive, she tore into them with fervor and enthusiasm. Her mother had given her some nice tops that she needless to say had to try on.
After a great noodle lunch we descended on the hot spring pool we had in our room. It was filled with hot spring water filled with minerals that's good for your skin. We stayed in the water for several hours, just chilling and enjoying it.
We looked like prunes when we finally emerged from the pool. In order to cool down a bit we went for a little walk outside to sharpen our appetite before dinner. To our surprise it had started to snow.
After our little walk it was time for dinner. The chef at XYG used to work for Zhaolong hotel in Beijing and he really dished up some nice food.
They really impressed us when they played the birthday song on the karaoke machine, shortly before they brought out the best chocolate cake I've eaten in China.
As you can tell from the picture I was starting to feel the effect of the wine that they had gracefully given us. It might have something to do with my pace ...
After dinner we retired to our room, to continue the party. I gave Steffi a little gift to keep her company when I'm not there (minds out of the gutter please ;-)
The next morning I attacked breakfast with great enthusiasm.
The snow was still hugging the landscape, so we decided to go for a nice long walk. The air was thick with fog, giving it a magical feel as we walked through the forest.
If there should be any uncertainty, we loved the 24 hours we spent at the XYG resort. It was in one word: Perfect. Next time we'll try to round up a group of people, so that we can enjoy the BIG pool they have. Picture 10 - 15 people enjoying the "all you can drink" bar menu, while soaking in this mineral pool.
We headed back to Beijing after a quick lunch and got ready for dinner. What better way to celebrate a birthday dinner together with friends, than to do it "Russian style"? ... Pictures will be posted when we sober up ...