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!
03-04-2007
Sailing in the Gulf of Thailand
There is something not right about having a girlfriend that’s never been on board a sailboat when you’re planning a circumnavigation. This trip to Thailand was a great way to remedy that, while introducing Steffi to the pleasures of sailing. I had chartered a Beneteau Oceanis 32, which was a perfect boat for the two of us to play around with for a week.
After being picked up by a driver at the Bangkok airport we drove to a large Tesco in Chantaburi. There we proceeded to do a weeks worth of food shopping, before we drove to the charter base on Koh Chang. We were given a short map briefing by Phil from Gulf Charter and a quick run-through of the boat before we cast off and were on our way.
It took us just about two hours to get to our first anchorage in a sheltered cove between Koh Mak and Koh Kham. We dropped anchor and went for a swim. The water temperature was amazing and it was a true pleasure to dive down and check that the anchor had set properly (which it had). Afterwards Steffi made a great chicken and mushroom dinner. We enjoyed the rest of the evening chilling with a few drinks and some soothing music.
We kicked off the next day with a hearty breakfast before we lifted anchor and set sail for Koh Kood (also known as Koh Kut). Our destination was a bay called Ao Chek Ki. We enjoyed 5 hours of awesome sailing to get down there. The wind was pretty much on the nose the whole time, but with very little swell, we had no problem to hold a good course. In the end we did tack a few times, just to toss it up a bit. We dropped anchor about an hour before dark and as the bay also contains a 5-star resort (called Captain Hook), we decided to take the dinghy ashore to look around. The resort looked excellent and though the restaurant looked inviting, we had so much food on the boat that we decided to have a drink at the bar while enjoying the sunset and then return to the boat for dinner. The sunset was spectacular, as was the dinner Steffi prepared.
The next day we hoisted anchor after yet another delicious breakfast. We set sail for Ao Ban Bang Bao which was about an hour away. We had gotten horribly sunburnt the day before, so instead of soaking up the rays, we did our best to hide underneath the bimini. Bang Bao was another nicely sheltered cove where we could chill and enjoy ourselves. Lunch was made on the BBQ grill suspended off the pushpit. Once I got it fired up it was incredibly efficient and promptly burnt the first batch of sausages to crisp. Having learned my lesson the next batch both looked and tasted better. There were two nice resorts on the beach and like the day before we went ashore for a stroll and enjoyed a drink at the nicer looking resort, before we returned to eat dinner on the boat. The sheltered cove got hit by a cross-swell, making the boat rock from gunwale to gunwale. The problem was solved by using the dinghy to drop a fortress anchor off the stern, pulling the boat towards it, so that the bow faced the waves. It worked well and we could enjoy ourselves again.
The next morning I topped off the tank on the dinghy before we took it to go exploring. Our destination was the Khlong Chao water fall. We didn’t bring the map, so before finding the right river, we went up a small river and had a look around. The propeller got fouled by a line, but it was luckily easy to fix. After a look around in some tight mangroves we headed back out into the bay and found the right river (This little detour caused us some problems later). We went up the “right” river for about 30 minutes before we had to tie up the dinghy and continue on foot. The walk to the waterfall was nice, even though the heat was oppressive. When we got to the waterfall we discovered that since we’re here at the end of the dry-season, the waterfall had in deed dried up. I’m sure it looks more magical in the rainy season. We certainly had no problems to imagine that it would look nicer then. Once back on the dinghy we headed down the river and made a stop at Ao Khong Chao, possibly the nicest beach on the entire island. A golden retriever puppy wanted to become our ship dog and it even followed us into the water when we headed back towards the sailboat. We were about halfway back when the engine stopped … Our little detour up the wrong river came back to haunt us. We were out of gas. Luckily we had good oars and a solid 45 minutes later we were back on board. We lifted anchors and set sail. After about an hour we passed the tip of Koh Kood which also marks the south-eastern most point of Thailand, before continued North again and headed in to Ao Yai.
Ao Yai was a small fishing village, with a handful of fishing boats. We dropped anchor and chilled on the boat till the evening, when we headed ashore on the dinghy to eat an excellent fish and scampi meal at the restaurant on the pier.
The next day was Steffi’s birthday, so as is expected we enjoyed a great breakfast before we set sail for Koh Rayang. The wind was perfect again and as we cleared the north tip of Koh Kood we enjoyed excellent sailing. We dropped anchor and went for a refreshing swim. After a tasty omelet I gave Steffi her birthday present: an Ipod Shuffle already charged and loaded with some of my best music … no Satyricon … I swear! Right before sunset we went ashore on Koh Rayang and chilled on a secluded beach. It was top notch!
The next day we got a bit of a surprise. We had just pulled up the anchor when the engine alarm sounded and the engine stopped. Instead of dropping the anchor again, we hoisted the sail and sailed towards Koh Mak. A bit of troubleshooting did not give any answers. I assumed the propeller was fouled, or that a plastic bag had jammed the engine water-intake. In any case there were no tools onboard, so there was little I could do except phone the charter company. While we enjoyed a slow sail to Koh Mak, the charter Company sent a boat with a mechanic to meet us when dropped anchor. We anchored pretty much exactly where we had anchored the first night. This was the first time I dropped anchor without the aid of engines; it worked flawlessly.
The anchor set and while we were eating dinner, the mechanic showed up. He had sailed down on a Fountaine Pajot Athena 38 (a catamaran). He immediately went to work on the engine and figuring that it would take some time, we headed over to the Athena to have a look around. I was VERY impressed by what I saw. I was so impressed, that I decided to find out more about the feasibility of doing my circumnavigation on a catamaran (more about that on my sailing blog). The mechanic found the problem: The fuel filter was clogged. Not our fault, so that was good. After he had departed, we enjoyed a leisurely walk on the beach on Koh Mak, before we shot over to Koh Kham to eat a sensational fish and calamari dinner. We ended up spending a few hours, drinking a number of beers, together with a friendly Swedish couple that were chilling at the resort.
It was a sad realization the next morning that we had just spent our last night on board. We ate breakfast and set sail for the Charter Base on Koh Chang. We were in before lunch and after a short debrief, we were on our way back to Bangkok by taxi and bus.
It had been an awesome sailing trip. Steffi was a sailing convert and all things were groovy. I did have one more surprise up my sleeve for Steffi, but she didn’t get that one before we got to Bangkok.