Wednesday 19 June 2013

Solo Tour to Stampersplaat

Finally real Summer temperatures. Unfortunately in the middle of the week and moreover First-Mate is travelling for work. The weather is too good to miss, so I am going on a solo tour. The forecast is weak to moderate wind, from SW on Tuesday and NW on Wednesday. Perfect for a two-day tour up the Grevelingen.
My goal is Stampersplaat, near Brouwershaven. This was once a sandbank where seals rested at low water, but submerged at high water. Since the closing of the Grevelingen it is an island that got gradually covered in vegetation.
The trip out was delightful, mostly on a beam-reach, occasionally closer to the wind. For the first time this year, sailing wearing only shorts. There were fewer yachts around than on the weekend, but there were a few fishing boats.
Approaching the fishing harbour of Bommenede, I debated with myself if I should beat the last bit or just motor. Finally the wind decided for me: it died. After going around in circles trying to use a very light, variable wind, I gave up and motored to the public pontoons of the Stampersplaat.
There a few boats there pontoons, but everybody respects the calm of this place. There was no loud music or even loud talking. The birds were more audible than the people.
Mekicevica enjoying a sunny and quiet Stampersplaat.
During a leg-stretching stroll I came across the ponies that live on the island and keep the grass low.

The ponies of Stampersplaat with Brouwershaven in the distance. 
During the afternoon a few more boats arrived, including a British yacht. By early evening the pontoons were completely full.
After a good night sleep I woke up to a hazy morning. There was nearly no wind... or so I thought.
I even commented during a brief exchange with the British lady "What a shame there is not enough wind." Less than one hour later I had to laugh when I remembered my own remark.
I motored out and found there was a bit of wind after all, enough to keep Mekicevica moving under main sail alone. I anticipated that out of the Geul van Bommenende I would have to gibe, so I planned to unfurl the genoa only than. To my great surprise, as soon as I came out of the lee of the Stampersplaat I found a freesh NW breeze. Moreover, because it was blowing right along the Grevelingen it had kicked up the largest waves I have ever seen on the Grevelingen. All the way it was a wild ride. To avoid a crash gibe, I kept well off the straight downwind line, even if that meant having to gibe a couple of times. That made Mekicevica rock like a wild horse. Each time we fell off a wave, she would dip the bow quarter into the water up to the toe rail. I watched a much larger yacht rock like a rodeo horse and wondered how did Mekicevica look like from the other boat.
Luckily in front of Bruinisse the Mosselenbank offered some sheltered and it was not too difficult to douse the sail. It was the scariest and fastest ride down the Grevelingen I have ever made. I arrived so early that I entered the harbour against the traffic of yachts coming out after the morning coffee.

Sunday 16 June 2013

Return to Bruinisse

After leaving Mekicevica in Kortegene marina during the week, we need to return her to her berth in Bruinisse. We are so lucky that the wind has turned to the SW, just right for the trip. The bad news is that at 7 Bf it is much too strong. Sailing events were being cancelled all over the Netherlands.
So on Saturday we went for a bike ride instead. Even that was difficult with such wind.
As often happens after a good blow, on Sunday morning the wind had dropped dramatically to a 4 Bf and forecast to drop further. The return to Bruinisse that we had planned to split in two days had to be done in one long day. At least we had nice weather and both wind and tide with us.

Sunday 9 June 2013

Strong Winds on the Veerse Meer

Plan for this weekend: a tour from Kortegene, on the East of the Veerse Meer, to Veere on the West. The weather forecast is announcing moderate N or NE winds, freshening-up later. Anyway, the Veerse meer twists and turns so much that whatever the wind direction we will have to beat at some stage.
Near Kortegene there are many trees on the margins, creating areas of nearly no wind. It was almost like morning sailing in the Adriatic, a constant search for wind, often being trapped in calm spots. Further West, there are less trees and we could get moving.
The other thing with Veerse Meer is that it is narrow and busy. You come across yachts that are definitely too large for these waters. Some are on the way from the Westerschelde to the Oosterschelde via the canal from Vlissigen to Veere. Others just belong to people who have too large yachts and then sail them in waters more adequate for dinghies. To make matters worse some of these people have no idea of the colregs, as we found.
When we reached the last turn of the Veerse Meer and had to turn straight North. At this point the North wind was blowing practically unhindered from the North Sea. We turned back to more sheltered water, put a reef in in the main, and prepared to beat up the narrow channel. Compared with the beggining of the previous season, the crew is much more experienced in these situations. The new rigging is also performing wonderfully, so even if we had to do fast tacks and sometimes had the rail in the water it was fun... to a point. The wind continued to get stronger and after a while, with the church tower of Veere in plain view, we gave up, turned down-wind and headed for one of the public pontoons to collect our wits and revise the plans. We decided to head for Oranjeplaat harbour, a couple of hundred meters downwind and call it a day.
We still went sight-seeing in Veere, only on foot...
From the shore we could appreciate how hard it was blowing and later checked the website of the Dutch Metereological Institute (KNMI): we had been beating in a narrow channel into 6 Bf wind!

On Sunday morning the North wind was still blowing hard and we had to get out of the most southern point of the Veerse meer. Remembering the adventures of Saturday, we decided to put two reefs in the main. It turned-out to be too cautious: we were hardly moving and even with a tiny head-sail we had too much lee-helm. Finally we took out the second reef and could finally get going. Approaching Kortegene, where there are trees along the water we even had to let out the full sails to cover the last half-mile to the yacht harbour.

Sunday 2 June 2013

Passage to the Veerse Meer

Our sketchy plan for this season is to explore a bit more of the southern reaches of the Schelde Delta, maybe even daring to tackle the strong tides and busy shipping of the Western Schelde. Perhaps we'll even manage to sail to Antwerpen...
For now, we are happy with a trip to the Veerse Meer. This is a narrow arm of the Delta which was once open to the North Sea. In old days, Veere was an important port where wool from Scotland arrived to be sold to the weavers of Flanders and beyond. Now the Veerse dijk has tranformed the Veerse Gat (as it was known) into the Veerse Meer, a tide-free, salt-water lake popular with yachties in all sorts of boats, from Gin Palaces that moor in quay of the old town to be looked at, to dinghies raced by kids.
The weather forecast anounced NW moderate winds and sunny. Low water in the Oosterschelde will be around 5pm, so we may even be able to time our passage so that we reach the point when we turn from towards the open sea to away from it just as the tide is turning.
Negotiating the Keteen was unnerving as usual. Each time the Kramer lock opens, an armada of big ships comes out, each one with a different idea of how to avoid the yachts, leaving us to scatter in all directions as fast as we can. We only had two close misses, not too bad...
Once in he Oosterschelde we part ways with the shipping. Just as well, because here we had to beat into the NW wind for a while. At least we had the tide with us and the wind running against the tide was not strong enough to cause any difficulties. We reached the turning point a bit earlier that expected which may have to do with the fact that we cut a good corner of the no-entry area. We were not the only ones doing it. From there it was again sailing down the freshening wind. We reached the Zandkreek around low water and it was a really narrow strip of water that led to the lock. Not knowing if there was sea room at the end to maneuver we decided to motor. It turns out that there is plenty of room in front of the lock. A couple of locals on big yachts obviously knew that because they sailed past us at great speed.
After the lock, in The Veerse meer we were really into the wind. It was getting late and cold as well, so we just motored the last bit to Kortgene marina where we left Mekicevica for the week under the attention of a very friendly harbour master.