My 52nd anniversary and a brilliant, sunny day with a week to moderate SW wind. I'll offer myself a single-handed trip up the Grevelingen.
The first treat was the motorbike ride to Bruinisse. Than prepare Mekićevica and by noon we were motoring out of Bruinisse harbour. I immediately hoisted the main and unfurled the full Big Genny and off we go. Then it was a common process in sailing in weak wind:
- start in the desired course which happens to be beam reach;
- trim the sails and gain speed;
- as you do so the apparent wind turns more to your nose;
- you trim the sails accordingly and gain more speed;
- this makes the apparent wind get more to the nose until you either bear away from your course or lose speed until the shift in apparent wind fills the sails again;
- repeat.
As usual in front of Bommenede the wind really got variable. Unusually, there were no motorboats in sight and all the sailors were just making the best they could of the little wind without resorting to the iron sail. So there was no annoying propeller wash to make the situation frustrating.
Once past Bommenede the wind became a bit more constant in direction. But by then I needed a break and the conditions were ideal to practice heaving to. Here are my notes on what I found:
- Start with centre-plate lowered and the genoa furled until the clew is at the spreaders;
- tack to back the genoa, ease the main sheet, and turn the tiller completely to leeward; this will try to turn the boat onto the previous tack but the backed genoa will not allow it, especially because by now nearly all way has been lost and the rudder is doing close to nothing;
- as the backed genoa makes the boat bear away further, adjust the mainsheet tension until the boat starts pointing into the wind again; it won't go very far, because the genoa will push the nose away from the wind again;
- the boat gets into a swaying movement as in turn the genoa makes her fall off and the main sail starts pointing her up again;
- be aware that the boat is still slowly drifting to leeward (or being carried by the stream if there is one).
Saturday, 11th of July: Return to Bruinisse
On Monday First-Mate has to travel to the US for work and there is still packing to do. Moreover the weather is forecast to change on Sunday, so we decided to just return to Bruinisse, eventually with a stop along the way. The weather was brilliant, and the wind was just enough for relaxing sailing under full genoa and main sail.
For a break we picked-up one of the public mooring buoys half-way. To make it a bit more interesting we decided to do it under sail. I must admit it was only at the third attempt that the details of the manoeuvre came back to me. Here it is, in case I forget again:
- The manoeuvre starts downwind from the target, so pass it on a broad reach, under main sail only;
- once you have enough distance to manoeuvre, gybe and point up until close-hauled;
- when the target is abeam, tack;
- (this is the bit I had forgotten) pointing at the target, ease the main sheet until the sail flogs; if it doesn't, bear away for a bit and then try again to get the sail flogging when aiming at the target; once you find the right angle you can sail towards the target, hardening the sheet to make way or easing it to slow down.
After a while the traffic of many yachts was shaking us too much, so we tried to find a mooring at the Mosselenbank. It has obscenely full. So we just headed to Bruinisse, went for some new haring. Really yummy!
After the process of retrieving the car from Ouddorp it was time for dinner.
As forecast, the rain started during the night, so in the morning we just headed home.
