Hellevoetsluis - Day 2: A Million Tacks On The Haringvliet

Sunday morning. After the torrential rain during the night the weather gives some signs of clearing. Yesterday we stopped earlier that planned, which means that today we still have to cross the Volkerak lock and cover the ambitious distance of 15 nm. That is, if we were able to sail in a straight line, which we won't because the wind veered more to the west, the direction we will be going. It will be a long day of beating against the wind and the bet is on whether we will reach Hellevoetsluis or not.
After a morning jog and breakfast we motor to the lock. It was not too busy, but there was an old classic boat with such a long mast that they need to lower it to fit under the bridge above the lock. That wooden mast certainly weighs more than the whole of Mekicevica, but a clever combination of a wooden A-frame and old, geared winches allowed the crew lo lower and raise the mast with relative ease. Makes us feel a bit stupid since stepping our 7 m aluminium mast that I can carry with one hand is usually a whole day job.
Out of the lock we start turning west and immediately hoist sails (in the right order) and pass under the bridge under sail, watching a J22 ripping past as if we were anchored. These little Dutch racers are really fast!
The Haringvliet is comfortably broad and beating against the wind would have been easy. Except that sometime around the XVIIth century someone decided that it would be a good idea to put an island right in the middle (Tiengemeten, read Mekicevica's previous adventures here). So to negotiate the narrow channel on the north of the island against the wind is a lot of work. It did not help that at times we had to lose ground to give way to other boats and once had to go back downwind shortly to reef the genoa.

The people going the other way had a much easier job.

The heroes of the day:

1. First-Mate who did a wonderful, hard work at tacking the genoa, while Skipper just sat there holding the tiller and barking commands.
2. The new mast trim that allowed us to point a few degrees closer to the wind, especially with the genoa taken in a few rolls and sheeted hard.

At least the weather turned really pleasant and the sun was getting low and shimmering on the waves as we approached our destination. As it often happens here, the wind calmed a bit in the late afternoon and the last tacks in the sunshine with just a tiny pressure on the tiller and not much heeling were pure magic.
Moreover, we finally made it to Hellevoetsluis!

We opted for the comfortable (but pricey) Cap Hellius marina and after (re)visiting the town had a huge pot of mussels at a restaurant by the old harbour.