After nearly three weeks without sailing, Mekicevica and crew are starting to get the jitters. Moreover, with the end of the season approaching we desperately need to use every opportunity. The trouble this weekend was the weather forecast that kept changing, and our plans changing with it. Finally we decided that even if we got a bit of rain now and then it was worth trying to make a BBQ on one of the islands of the Grevelingen.
On Friday, I set off on my own to sail towards Brouwerhaven. Against the latest version of the weather forecast, there was not a cloud in the sky and it was nicely warm. The only problem was that the SE wind was very, very light, sometimes stopping completely. I almost fell asleep at the tiller.
On one of the occasions that there was some wind, I took the opportunity to practice heaving to.
With all this, by the time First-Mate called saying she was living work, I was only half way.
Here is a story for Top Gear: one Ford S-Max leaves the Kempen towards Brouwershaven trying to beat a 19-foot sailing boat that is now half-way up the Grevelingen towards the same destination. Given the traffic jams on the Antwerpen ring and the light wind, it was never going to be an exciting race. Especially since the wind finally died completely and I had to motor the last three miles. As I was turning around the buoys to enter the harbour I saw a familiar S-Max coming down the ramp to the water front. Nobody won!
By then it was getting late and the pontoons on the island seemed rather full, so we just headed for the first island with the curious name of Dwars in de Weg (Across the Way) which describes what once sailors arriving from Brouwershaven from the North Sea felt about the island. The SE wind started picking up again; probably just the evening breeze, we thought.
We managed to squeeze into a place, well sheltered from every direction but SE. Then it turned out I had forgotten a bag with half of the provisions. Luckily, I still had wine, meat, and the instant BBQ, so we could have some sort of dinner.
During the night the SE wind started to increase and building up waves that came right into us. It was a very disturbed night that felt like trying to sleep in a washing machine. To make matters worse, in the morning it started to rain. We got up feeling very tired and just motored to the next island - Stampersplaat - hoping to find a sheltered place where we could have breakfast, some rest and hope for the rain to clear. It eventually stopped raining, so we changed the head sail and even considered reefing the main for the expected beat towards Bruinisse. At first we had a nice breeze more Easterly than we tough, meaning we would be able to make it with just a few tacks. Then the rain came back in force and killed all the wind. Soon, a wet and tired crew decided we just wanted to arrive and have a hot shower, so we motored most of the way back. Not a successful trip at all. At least it made us realise that all of this season we had managed to avoid sailing in the rain... and how much we dislike it.
