More Great Sailing on the Grevelingen

The weather seems to be on a weird weekly cycle: it gets warmer and warmer during the week, finishing in a summer thunderstorm on Friday followed by cooler and unstable weather during the weekend. Repeat.

Friday 12th of June: Solo to Brouwershaven
On Friday I left First-Mate struggling with the choppy waters of corporate life to keep the boat financially afloat, and rode my motorbike to Bruinisse. This time I didn't get lost and the only delay was that the guys from the boat yard had a huge new Beneteau to be rigged blocking my way out. But shortly before noon I was motoring Mekićevica out of the harbour. As soon as I had cleared the breakwaters, I hoisted full main and jib and set on a broad reach letting the easterly, gentle breeze push us up the Grevelingen. For the first time this year, I was sailing in shorts and T-shirt in Adriatic-like temperatures. Mekićevica was making good progress, leaving a most satisfying wake behind. The only minor difficulty was steering so that the main did not blanket the jib making us lose speed.
Soon I was at Bomenede and turned straight downwind, gybed the main and ran goose-winged until the island of Dwars in de Weg. There I furled the jib, did the last bit under main sail only and then motored into the harbour of Brouwershaven, feeling the usual elation of completing a trip single-handed, even such a short one.
The rest of the afternoon was enjoying the glorious weather and waiting for First-Mate to join.

Funny that some people should think of sailing as a sport...

Saturday 13th of June: Retail therapy for a sick crew

On Sunday morning the wind had picked-up to a fresh to strong breeze from the SW. The initial plan was to make a short hop to Ouddorp, which would be mostly downwind. However First-Mate was down with a bit of a flue and not feeling fit enough to sail in demanding conditions. So we just stayed in Brouwershaven, filling the day with a shopping trip to Zierikzee, a walk along the dyke, and dinner out.

Sunday 14th of June: Great sailing back to Bruinisse
During the night the wind completely died. The forecast was that it would eventually become a light to gentle breeze from the North, which would be enough to get us back to Bruinisse.
We changed head sail to the Big Genny, and as soon as we could feel some wind, we cast off. Once out of the harbour we found there was enough wind, but varying from W to SW! It was not the downwind sail we were expecting. I had even prepared everything to pole-out the genoa but instead we were close hauled and even had to do two tacks to keep out of shallow waters.
Still we were doing good progress, even beating a chartered Fox 22 that seemed to be trying to keep up with us but was left in the distance. The sun came out and it was wonderful sailing.

Approaching Bruinisse we came across Mekićevica's sister, Mrs Karlson.

A beautiful gaff-rigged yawl in front of Bruinisse.

The north wind eventually started just as we tied-up in Bruinisse.

A Weekend Cruise to Dintelmond

After the rainy weekend came the sunny weather. Still a bit fresh. The winds will be mostly a moderate breeze (4 Bf), sometimes fresh breeze (5 Bf) on Saturday, and gradually veering from E on Friday morning to N on Sunday late afternoon.
The initially plan was for the skipper to get on his new motorbike, ride to Bruinisse and then sail to the NW corner of the Grevelingen with the SE wind. First-Mate would then join to sail across to the NE corner on Saturday using the W wind and then back to Bruinisse with the NW-N wind. Three days of sailing always with the wind aft of the beam.
This planned started to go wrong when I lost my way trying to find new, interesting routes to Bruinisse. I am much, much better on navigating on a sail boat than on a motorbike. As a consequence I got to Bruinisse late and would have to get Mekićevica ready and rush to sail up the Grevelingen before the squalls forecast for the late afternoon. This seemed too much stress, which is a feeling I don't like to mix with sailing. Or with any activity for that matter. Moreover the plan was almost a repeat of the tour of two weeks before, and as such looked less and less interesting. Spending the afternoon messing about in the boat in the sunshine and Croatia-like temperatures seemed much more interesting.
Enters plan B:
First-Mate joined for dinner aboard, after the squalls had passed, and we decided to make a tour up the Volkerak towards Dintelmond. This would be downwind on Saturday but return almost against the wind on Sunday, but we were ready for it.

Saturday, 6th of June: Plain sailing in the sunshine with long periods of waiting at the locks.
On Saturday morning (well, late morning to be honest) we motored to the Grevelingen lock. It was surprisingly quiet for a sunny Saturday, but the wait for the lock was never ending. Then when thee lock finally opened, the motor wouldn't start. It looked almost like we were going to miss the opening when with some jiggling and frantic pulls of the starter cord, Yoyo-Ma finally came to life. Even more frustrating, it repeated the same scene when we needed to get out of the lock.
Never mind, after we got on the Kramer we hoisted our more reliable Big Genny, and it was plain sailing towards the Kramer lock, with only one jibe early in the route.
Giving that Yoyo-Ma seemed to be in a bad mood, we tried to start it plenty in advance. It started at the second pull, leaving us still some 200m to sail with his "music" sounding behind our backs.
Then it was a long wait (again), followed by trouble starting the motor (again).
Once on the Volkerak it was full genoa again and enjoy the sailing. There was not even much shipping and crossing the shipping lane after the Nordplat was plain sailing. When we were approaching Dintelmond we were tempted to sail into the outer harbour, but the thought of being left with not much space and a motor then wouldn't start made us change our mind. Just to spite us Yoyo-Ma started at the first pull.
We motored past the lock into the inner harbour which is normally open but with a traffic light system. On the way we helped a bloke on an Optimist to pass the lock, as his small sail was well below the lock walls. He was a very friendly guy and we had a nice chat during the couple of minutes it took to tow him through.
Than we went into the harbour and after completing the procedures with the very chatty harbourmaster we prepared for a stroll to the town of Dinteloord for drinks and dinner.

Mekićevica in the company of a classic boat in the harbour of Dintelmond.

Sunday, 7th of June: Close-hauled back to Bruinisse.
Sunday morning and as forecast the wind had continued veering and was now blowing from the NW. It had also decreased, but was forecast to pick-up again in the afternoon.
With motored our in the company of the classic boat in the picture, Than hoisted the main as we were coming out of the harbour, fell off the wind until the sail filled and unfurled the small jib. And then the wind all but died and became gusty and from variable directions. At one point there was such a gust that I had to ease the main sheet to avoid heeling too much and after a few seconds died again and turned by more than 90 degrees, leaving us with backwinded jib and spinning about.
Apart from that we somehow manage to do the first bit of the Volkerak close-hauled but always on starboard tack. Then it was time to cross the shipping lane, which was incredibly busy. We waited for a gap in the shipping, tacked and prepared to cross. At this point the wind shifted again leaving us close-hauled on port tack going the way we had come, parallel to the shipping lane. So, we furled the jib, started the motor (started at first pull) and rushed across. When we resumed sailing we managed to get to the Kramer lock with only to tacks, as the wind had veered further to the North. Much better than we had anticipated. Also the passing of the Kramer lock was much faster than the day before. Than it was close-hauled to beam reach on main only to the Grevelingen lock (crowded on the other way, but not so much traffic going in) and motoring back to our place in Bruinisse harbour.
Another great weekend cruise for Mekićevica and crew.