Grevelingen Round Tour - Part 1: Mekicevica in a blow and nearly dismasted

The Grevelingenmeer is a former estuary, now separated from the North Sea by a dike (Brouwersdam). The result is a huge salt water lake, rich in wild life. You can read more about this example of "engineering with respect for nature" in this site: http://www.grevelingen.nl/content.asp?menu=1&page=337&lang=0. Bruinisse, Mekicevica's first home in the waters of Continental Europe, is on the East side of this lake.
We have previously rented day boats here and had thoughts of a two-day round trip of the Grevelingenmeer. So, it was an obvious choice for Mekicevica's first real trip.
We left home on Friday and drove the (by now very familiar) 106km to Bruinisse Yacht Harbour. After a light dinner aboard, a few more tweaks of the rigging and electrical system, and a good night sleep we woke up feeling ready for the trip. A short visit to the chandlery resulted in a new addition to the equipment: Fat Bob, a big round fender. Fat Bob now lives in the starboard lazarette, keeping company to Bender The Big Fender. This profusion of fenders says a lot about my trust in my own ability to manouver.

Breakfast aboard.

The day was sunny, and the wind a SE gentle breeze, forecast to freshen-up during the day (and it sure did, read on). So the fist part of the trip out was plain sailing on a broad reach making close to 5kn. Life was good!
Our goal was to get to Scharendijke for the night. It soon became clear, that with such good progress we would be there for lunch. So we decided to extend the tour by going around one of the islands (Hompelvoet), even if that would mean some beating against the wind later to reach our destination.

The extended route from Bruinisse to Scharendijke.

As forecast, the wind was now picking-up. As I looked ahead to our route I could see some yachts heeling seriously and I started thinking of reefing for the up-wind bit. Do you know the saying "if you are thinking of reefing, you probably should already have done it"? And do you know the typical attitude of the inexperienced skipper: "Ah, it's too much hassle; we'll be alright"? That is exactly what I said.
Let me tell you: I don't believe that in her previous home in the Norfolk Broads Mekicevica was ever pushed so hard. But she did wonderfully. Eventually, my fear overcome the desire to avoid the trouble of reefing, so we put a few rolls in the genoa. This in itself, was quite a mission as the roller reefing started playing up again, and Sandra had to go forward to disentangle the reefing line. Moreover, the pressure of the wind on the genoa was such that it took several goes of turning into the wind, pulling in a bit of the genoa, being blown off the wind, and starting again. Moreover, I had not even checked properly how to reef the main, so it had to stay fully up.
By now most of the big yachts around had dropped sails and were motoring, especially in a narrow, up-wind passage. But Mekicevica bravely beat up this channel, in hot pursuit of a big yacht called Freya. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of this part of the trip because the camera panicked and refused to work.
Eventually the route to Scharendijke turned to a beam-reach and my heart-rate dropped below 200 bpm.
After a while Sandra asks:
- Hey, is it normal that the leeward shrouds are so slack?
My expert answer:
- Uhhh, I s'pose so.
Sandra again:
- Wait a minute, one of them is not slack, it is completely loose.
Luckily by then we were in front of Scharendijke harbour and it was time to douse the sails. This did little to calm Sandra's fear that the mast was going to drop on our heads before we arrived. It did not help the situation that the boom came off the goose-neck as we lowered the main.
Mekicevica made a triumphal entrance into Scharendijke harbour looking a bit battered, with shrouds blowing in the wind and boom hanging from the toping lift. Down below was also a bit of a mess. I once saw a video of cruising in the Caribbean where they had this net with fruits hanging in the cabin. I though that was a good idea and copied it for this trip. The violent beating and the fruits made the cabin look like the inside of a food processor after you have made a smoothie.