Mekicevica Goes Back to the Volkerak. 1: Quiet Sailors, Noisy Lubbers

Thursday started sunny, but it is still unbelievable cold for mid-May. The weak to moderate wind is from the SW, but it is expected to back to the E later in the day. Good to sail up the Grevelingen. We'll have to beat against the wind all the way back, but how bad can that be? Pretty bad, it turned-out! Read on...
We've never sailed on the Hals, a narrow channel on the W corner of the Grevelingen. It is too narrow to do against the wind, but today we'll have the wind behind us, so let's explore.

The Hals was one of the few bits of the Grevelingen still unknown to Mekicevica.

As we had hoped, as soon as we veered from the main channel we left all the traffic behind. Sunshine, a gentle wind from astern, only the sound of the birds on the shallow banks, the Sikken van Flakkee, a nature reserve.

Hard work, sailing downwind on the Hals.

It was so quiet, that when we got to the public pontoons where we planned to have a break, we were reluctant to start Yo-Yo Ma, and decided to approach under sail. Huh, how was that manoeuvre again? First attempt failed and I nearly ran Mekicevica aground. Oh, yes! I remember now: when you have the pontoon a bit aft of the beam you tack and approach under mainsail only.
And then THEY arrived! The boy-racers with their over-decorated cars, with far too noisy motors. Some five of them, revving-up their infernal machines, making all sorts of stupid stunts on the gravel, and generally being a nuisance for people and birds. How can somebody behave so stupidly in a place like this is beyond comprehension.

How can anyone prefer a noisy, polluting car to one of these beauties?

Since the peace is destroyed, let's find a place where they cannot drive to. The Archipel, a quiet spot reachable only by boat.
We found it infested by a type of caterpillar that - according to the warnings posted everywhere - produces a toxin that can cause a serious allergic reaction. Never mind, rather dying of anaphylactic shock, than having to bear the boy-racers.

The monsters on the Archipel.

Right! It is now mid-afternoon, we are eight nautical miles NW of Bruinisse, and there is a SE east wind blowing. We have a long upwind beat ahead of us. We know that Mekicevica points higher with the genoa reefed a few rolls, but on this occasion the winds were so light that we needed all the canvas we could get to gain some speed.
Then the wind picked up, as it usually does here in the late afternoon. It was still no more than a 4 Bf, but with the now overcast sky and the temperature dropping, it felt like a long, cold, miserable beat.
I had always wanted to do some evening sailing, but what I had in mind was a warm evening with pink sky, light winds abaft the beam, and a sea so flat that we would be able to balance a glass of wine on the cockpit seats. That is definitely not what we were getting.
We made it to Bruinisse well past 20:00, cold, thirsty, and hungry. Luckily the friendly staff of the Sailor's Inn, the restaurant in the Bruinisse marina, were able to provide adequate treatment for these ailments.