Shake-Down Sail

A short video-clip of this weekend is now on YouTube.

I had forgotten how much work is needed to prepare a wee boat for the season. The long weekend was approaching fast and I will never be ready to sail for Thursday 1st of May holiday. Instead of being on the water, we spent the day cleaning and finishing preparations. Just as well, because the North wind was a bit fresher than advisable for the first sail of the season. Chilly too.

Friday the weather turned wet but on Saturday it was bright and sunny but cold. By noon we declared Mekicevica ready for day sailing and out we went in a gentle wind. This pretty soon turned into a gusty, northerly 5 Bf. It was amazing how quickly the procedure of reefing on-the-go came back to us when the water started coming over the toe-rail.
After a couple of hours of fun beating into this wind, we decided that was enough for a shake-down and ran downwind back to Bruinisse, and to a dinner celebrating the opening of the season.
Sunday's weather was a very different picture: it was still too cold for the time of the year, but the wind had all but vanished, allowing the warmth of the sunshine to linger on us. For the first two hours we found easy, relaxed sailing conditions, but then the wind died completely. We had to rely on Yoyo-Ma, our faithful, little outboard, to bring us back to Bruinisse.

Relaxed sailing on the Grevelingen, with First-Mate at the helm.

A happy sailor, after the first weekend sailing this season.

On the way back we came across the ship Maatje. This large fishing vessel is always moored by the Grevelingen lock. Her bows towering above us are a common sight while we wait for the lock. On this sunny Sunday, it seems that the Bruinisse lads had a few beers, decided to take Maatje for a spin and terrify all the yachts becalmed on the Grevelingen. She ripped among them, well over the Grevelingen speed limit creating a huge wake. We manoeuvred to take the wake head on and even then were well shaken. Than, she turned around and came for another pass. Watching her grow behind us, we gave gas and managed to hide behind the harbour breakwater just before the tsunami of a wake reached us. Other yachts and even two kids on a laser got a tough ride of it.
Bastards! What did they do that for?