Friday, 28th of August: The Oosterschelde shows its nasty side (to sailors who make stupid mistakes)
With that mission in mind, I set off on my motorbike towards Bruinisse. The wind was moderate but SW, far from ideal to go down the Zijpe and the Mastgat. After getting Mekicevica ready I set off towards the Grevelingen lock and then start motoring down the Zijpe. Plan A was to turn into the Krabbenkreek and then sail the short bit to Sint-Annaland.
Then I got carried away, and went for plan C: continue to Colijnsplaat. Like this we would make the most of the southerlies and flooding tides on Saturday on Sunday.
A known peculiarity of this corner is that if you have SW headwind in the Mastgat, it becomes W wind when you turn into the Oosterschelde. That I knew. What I completely forgot was that by now the tide had turned and therefore was flowing against a 4 Bf wind. Boy was it choppy! Mekicevica's bow was slamming into the steep waves, while down below everything was being trashed about and in the cockpit I was holding on for dear life and getting showered in salt water. Luckily it was nicely warm.
A bit shaken, I arrived to Colijnsplaat and had time for a warm shower and clean-up Mekicevica to wait for First-Mate to join for dinner.
Saturday, 29th of August: Oosterschelde at its best
We got up to a brilliant sunny morning, with a light southerly wind. Too light if anything. With low water just before 10am, we can have a relaxed start. After breakfast aboard and coffee at the clubhouse, we cast off just before 11am. What a difference from yesterday! Full main and genoa, on a beam to broad reach in the light S wind, with the flooding tide helping Mekicevica glide through water flat as a pond.
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| First-Mate at the helm, with the Oosterschelde bridge in the distance. |
Sunday, 30th of August: Beating and dodging ships on the Zijpe
During the night it started to rain, as was forecast. The problem was that it was still raining in the morning. We hate sailing in the rain, so when the alarm clock woke-us up it did't take much deliberation to ditch the plan of an early start to catch the last of the ebbing tide out of the Krabbenkreek. Instead, we waited for the wether to clear and had a leisurely start. There was more wind than initially forecast, and from a different direction East to Northeast instead of South. This was perfect to beat the beginning of the flooding tide out of the Krabbenkreek, but once in the Zijpe we had to beat. As usual on Sundays, there were not many ships around, but because they have to go through locks, the few there were came in waves. The wind became weaker and more variable in direction, and to avoid the last wave of ships from both sides at the same time, we barely managed to get out of the shipping lane, reduce sail to hang around while they passed, and then put full sails again to cross the lane again. Just as we were almost at the Grevelingen lock the wind disappeared completely, so we motored the last bit to the lock. In the lock we tied-up to the little stink-pot of a very friendly local couple with a heavy Zeewus accent.
In Bruinsse harbour it was incredibly warm. I didn't have a chance to bask in the sunshine, as I had to get First-Mate's car from Coljinsplaat before riding home.
This was probably the last weekend of unusually warm weather this season, but hopefully we will still have weather nice enough to sail a few weekends more.
