Terschelling Onwards

I'll give a list of dates presently, but from Terschelling we spent a night at anchor in the Waddenzee (see 'A Night at Sea', from Riddle of the Sands). Then to Den Oever and through the locks.

The Dutch are very generous with their locks and canals - with the exception of a small (total about 20 euros) charge for going through Haarlem everything was free. The marinas were also cheap, and there were places where I could tie up for nothing (often in town centres).

Two days in central Amsterdam in the Marina het Realeniland (in the Westerdok) only cost 50 euros with power. It was quaint rather than fully serviced, but very pleasant. They don't have many places - I think I got the only one, and had to raft up on the first night. If you want to follow me in, phone ahead!

The route into the Westerdok is a little bit hair-raising - small bridges and Amsterdam canals - but very atmospheric.

Peterhead to Vlieland

After trying & failing to get hold of the marina manager in Peterhead, I decided to go with what I thought was about fifty hours of fuel on board (I can carry about four days). We left the marina at 09:35.

On the first day (Thursday) we used the engine for 4 hours. At 23:40 we were getting too little wind to sail, and switched it on again. It was switched off again at 18:15 on the 7th. Total so far, about 46 hours. We had 10 hours left in the main tank, which I thought we should keep for final approach and manoeuvring.

I had drained the reserve from full, getting 39 hours - a useful statistic. I then switched tanks, bled the diesel, and switched it off again.

We were utterly becalmed until 03:00 on the 8th (Saturday morning), so we lost 9 hours because of the fuel shortage. We then sailed towards the channel between Terschelling and Vlieland. The winds were very light, and we were slow - the spinnaker was up for about 8 hours from 09:30g.

At 17:30 we put the engine back on to motor for the last six hours, tying up in Vlieland just before midnight.

In the interim, Carrie had become concerned about our late arrival, and had asked the coastguard if they had heard from us. This resulted in a Pan Pan and a Navtex report, so we were much better known than we expected to be by the time we arrived. I hadn't seen the Navtex report because I had only looked at weather forecasts ...

I should have been much clearer about the range of possibilities.

And I should have been more careful about fuel ...

We stayed two nights in Vlieland, recovering and sightseeing, and filling the tanks, before moving on to Terschelling for a night.

Lowestoft

I'm in the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club marina, in Lowestoft. I'm going to pick up the north going tide this evening and sail round to Cromer - where I will anchor off.

Conditions are in my favour, and there aren't so many places I can stop until I get north of the Humber estuary.

I'll be following the tides.

I sailed fifty miles out of Stellendam yesterday, starting about 4:30 - just before first light. I thought I was going to go to Walton, or maybe Harwich, because that was the best course I could make. Then the wind began to die & I decided that if I was going to motor I might as well head for Lowestoft, which was further on my way and also five or ten miles closer.

So here I am.

I'll post some links to photos and stories presently ... I've realised that doing this in some sort of orderly way is a fond hope.

Catching up - Portsoy and Peterhead

I've got some catching up to do.

On the 29th of June, Edan and I took Raasay through to Portsoy for the boatshow.



We had an uncomfortable night on the first night because she settled very head down - the slope of the bottom was against us. On Saturday we swapped round.

The weather was blistering.

Portsoy was just the first step in a much larger master plan, though, and on the Monday (2nd July) I sailed round to Peterhead.



I did some final checks and tasks, and some business in Aberdeen, and then Angus joined me on Wednesday night to sail for Vlieland on Thursday morning.

I was planning to fill up with diesel in Peterhead, but the marina manager was very difficult to get hold of and I decided to make do with what I had. Surely we wouldn't be motoring for more than 50 hours ...