Equinox2018

The last day of this trip and we could have a relaxed start. We had to wait until the tide had come in sufficiently for us to depart Cowes. It was very busy in the river, compared with places we have recently visited, but this wasn’t busy at all for Cowes. We were berthed in East Cowes Marina, a place we have visited many times before, enjoying their excellent facilities. The sailing school boats were out in force, as last evening, the pupils doing circuits and bumps, learning to park. The familiar sight of UKSA at Cowes, a family favourite! We slipped lines at 10.30. How novel that seemed. Once out in the Solent, as we knew it would be, the progress was slow against the tide, but we had no choice with the limitation of when we could leave Cowes and the time we wanted to arrive in Lymington. During the first half of the journey there was little wind. Later, a sea breeze kicked in, but the wind was on the nose so there was no angle to sail. We chugged along, enjoying the warm s...

Eastbourne Marina, yesterday evening The alarm went off at 3:45 this morning, (that was three forty five!!).  We calculated that this gave us enough time to get the boat prepared and be in the lock at 4:30,  and out past the nearly drying harbour entrance while there was still sufficient water for us. It was still dark, but before long the signs of dawn started to appear behind us in the east.  We could soon see well enough to be able to dodge the few fishing buoys that were in our path. We were treated to a glorious sunrise, framed by long parallel vapour trails in the sky. It looked a little like something from an alien invasion movie. Shortly after this we watched the instruments as they showed we had moved from the eastern hemisphere into the west. There was no wind and we settled down to a day of motoring, while George, the autohelm did most of the work.We saw the odd fishing boat and a warship that we thought was doing fisheries protection.  S...

Eastbourne marina is very nicely situated. There are a series of interlocking harbours inside lock gates, each surrounded by rather attractive flats and town houses, with walk ways beside the water, like a mini version of Docklands.   The narrow channel we negotiated on the way into Eastbourne Marina, somewhat drier than when we came in. We spent the morning doing maintenance, then after lunch walked along the seafront into Eastbourne proper. We had to, at least walk along the pier. People were out in droves, enjoying the sunshine. The highlight of the day was on our return, Steve spotted a fish shop, which we have never knowingly passed on these travels. The shop was small, just a shed really, but with a reasonable selection. I asked which were the locally caught ones and decide to buy the Dab. The fishmonger weighed out two each for us; they have a small amount of flesh. “That will be 73 pence”, he said. I think we just froze and were speechless. “ Well, I can make...

We were trapped in Dover Marina, behind lock gates and a swing bridge. We knew that we would only be able to escape at the correct part of the tide, at about 10:30 in the morning, but calculated that we could not reach our next destination on the same tide, so the earliest we could arrive was about 10:00 in the evening.  Having worked out our likely speed for the distance, it was expected to be a fairly leisurely trip, possibly with time to kill en route. Although  it was going to be a slow start to the day, we still woke up at the "silly o'clock" times that we have been doing.  It is taking a while to adjust our body clocks even by the 1 hour difference to continental Europe. We filled the morning with some maintenance and cleaning, and I had some work related things to attend to. Once it was time to leave, we radioed the marina to ask them to swing the bridge for us. We had been told to be absolutely ready when we made this call as they like to disrupt the traffic, pe...

We were all excited about today, not only because we would be able to move on, having sat out the fog for two days, but also because we would be back in Blighty. So it was no trouble to jump up early to slip lines and ease out of Dunkerque in the dark at 0600. I’ve enjoyed being there. The timing was to make sure we arrived in Dover within a hour of high water to get into the marina. Motoring down the well buoyed channel from Dunkerque towards Calais, we passed a ship and a ferry going the other way. We passed four large ships at anchor, just before the edge of the TSS. The Dover Strait is one of the busiest waterways in the world so it was not a surprise to hear a constant stream of ships calling into the coast guard with their size, draft, cargo details, where they had come from and where they were bound to. One had left Denmark and was bound to Singapore, another had left Hamburg and was going to Italy. One was en route from Kalmar, a port in east Sweden we visited last...

We’re in France, so what do you do on a Sunday morning when you aren’t going anywhere, croissants and coffee. We had concluded yesterday that we would stay another day because there was still fog forecast for this morning, and we did not think it would clear in time to leave and catch the required tide into Dover.  So we had a lie in, although we still woke early, and then Dave and I set off in search of a boulangerie. Unlike every other French town I have ever been to, there was not one on every street corner, and we had to walk a surprising distance before we found one. Eventually we spotted a gentleman carrying a baguette, and concluded we must be close by. We found the shop and bought the appropriate ingredients for mid morning coffee and lunch before setting off back to the marina.   The same view as we showed a day or two ago, better visibility today We have cleaned the boat a bit, topped up the fuel and planned our route for tomorrow. We have also had...

We’ve been forced to take a rest day today because of fog all around us and in the English Channel. It would be dangerous to go in poor visibility because we have to cross the busy shipping lanes. Advection or sea fog forms when relatively warm moist air passes over a cold sea and the air is cooled. It is forecast to persist into tomorrow. It was nice to think of a lie in but my body clock work me at 6.15. However we could just linger and enjoy a relaxed start to the day. During the morning, we cleaned up the boat and Steve repaired a broken connection of a pipe from the diesel heater. We had wondered why the fender lazarette and Dave’s cabin were toasty warm but little heat filtered through elsewhere. Dave is disappointed that we’ve fixed it! After lunch we had a trip to the supermarket and topped up the food supplies along with buying a new stock of wine. This has to be done, while we are in France. I’ve been struggling to bring my small amount of fr...

This was a long tough day. Even doing the navigation in preparation had been difficult. Finding a route away from Breskens and Vlissingen was quite easy, as there is a major shipping lane to access these ports. Later in the route however, once we crossed the lane to move back inshore, there was no obvious path. There are countless sandbanks which run roughly northeast to southwest, but these end in dead ends, not unlike a maze. One route would have got us to our destination but with a detour of about 10 miles. Eventually I found a route, which would allow us to cross a shallow sandbank, so long as were were there in time for the tide to be high enough. We started early, as we have on the previous few day, being up before daybreak and slipping out of Breskens as soon as it was light. This time we were unencumbered by the police, there were no signs of their boats. They had said that they move to different ports as there week progresses. There was no wind on the forecast or in reali...

We decided to maximise our sleep time and get ready to leave in less time, then breakfast en route, as today was going to be a longer day out on the water than yesterday. We slipped lines at 0700, when it was nicely light and eased out, while the harbour was quiet. The wind was directly behind us so we had to motor, as we couldn’t get an angle to sail. There was quite a swell so the boat rocked continuously. The first few hours were fairly uneventful, even crossing over the channel outside the Europort, Rotterdam. As we approached the channels down to Vlissingen, we were navigating between the numerous sand banks. Having plotted our route down a channel about half a mile wide, we were surprised that it was used by many cargo ships of 100 metres plus. They were joined by a dredger, fishing boats and, of course the pilot boats buzzing to and fro. This was a very busy waterway, requiring constant vigilance to keep out of the way of all this commercial traffic. Once at Vlissingen...

It’s been a quiet day, but a lot seems to have happened. We planned to set off on the shorter trip to Scheveningen at a reasonable hour this morning, but it was later than planned by the time we had queued for fuel. At least we were diverted by a seal bobbing about in the water. The voyage along the coast was fairly routine, enlivened only by a passing Dutch warship, and a couple of birds that rested on Equinox for a while. We arrived into Scheveningen just after lunchtime. The harbour here is the home to a considerable fishing fleet and the yacht marina is tucked away inside the second, inner harbour. To get here we had to negotiate a disconcertingly narrrow channel, so we were glad that we had contacted the local traffic control first to ensure that no large fishing boats were trying to go in the opposite direction.   Although not as large as Ijmuiden, the marina is sizeable and has a good number of larger yachts. It is a joy to be in the Netherlands, both of t...

After the very long, eventful day yesterday, it was a day to have a break and regroup. It was also the day that Tom had to leave us. We all had a long lie in, lingered over breakfast, then said farewell to Tom. Conveniently, he was able to get a bus from outside the marina office to take him to Amsterdam to fly home. We’ll miss you, Tom! It’s been great having him and Dave to shoulder this part of the journey, requiring long hops. Now we have got to Ijmuiden, we should be able to make shorter, more manageable hops and, thankfully, Dave can stay with us for a few more days, until we get get back to UK. It has been another much warmer day, allowing us to wear tee shirts, which is lovely after being trussed up in umpteen layers of thermals, foulies and life jacket. Laundry done and a trip to the supermarket in town puts in good shape for the next few days. Loaded down with shopping, we got the bus back from town, driven by a super friendly, cool dude bus driver, whose Afro hair was...

This was going to be the big one, the single longest day of the trip. We had to get from Borkum to Den Helder, as there were no points of refuge in between. It started rather early, the alarm went off at 4:45, we had concluded that as we had been able to get in to Borkum in the dark, we would be able to get out again in the dark.  It didn't start well. When we were up we looked outside and there was fog, sufficient that we could not see the lights at the harbour entrance. Common sense prevailed, and we postponed our departure. I set the alarm on my phone for every 20 minutes to get up and see if the visibility had improved. We all lay back in our beds, dressed and ready to go, but grabbing a few more minutes rest while we waited. After a couple of  hours, we concluded that it had lifted and we set off.  Part of the frustration of waiting was caused be the knowledge that the tide that we had fought on our way in, was running with us this time, and we had missed its push...

The long lie in this morning was very welcome. We were all pretty tired on arrival last night. After a leisurely breakfast, we cleaned the boat, followed by coffee on deck. The sun was shining so we put up the cockpit table and had our lunch on deck, only wearing tee shirts; this being all the more remarkable, as only a week ago we were sitting inside the boat, barely able to keep warm, with snow on the deck. While we were having lunch, a young man came down the pontoon looking at the sides, as if checking out the suitability for a vessel coming in. We started talking and he had a pronounced Yorkshire accent. On inquiring, that he was not from arrange here, he told us he was from Grimsby and was working on the wind turbines in the offshore wind farm, of which there are many round here, to fit a receiver for a new device for the maintenance workers to more easily transfer from the tug, taking them there, to the turbine, without having to jump on a ladder from a boat rolling in the wav...

We got a lie in today, an extra 15 mins unto 5:45. So with that extra sleep to enliven us we left Heligoland. It was an interesting place to visit with a unique quality to it. We read in the tourist blurb that it was “the most islandy of Germany’s islands”, whatever that means. We think that they were trying to say that it is more remote than the Friesian islands, as there are several of them, they have more similarities. We left with a good wind blowing and as soon as we were clear of the land, we had the sails up. One of the more challenging aspects of the day was to cross multiple shipping lanes leading into the Ems estuary. When we neared the lanes, we radioed the traffic control to request permission to cross, and were told we were ok to proceed in accordance with the rules. It felt reassuring to have spoken with them, as the area is very strictly policed, and apparently they dish out on the spot fines for those who transgress. As we neared both the middle and the far s...

Another early start this morning, although we had allowed ourselves a lie in until 5.15. Again we had enough time to eat breakfast before we slipped lines, waiting for daylight, but then we had to hang around waiting outside the lock until after a ship had gone through. This meant that we exited about 8.30, which was rather later than we had hoped. However we are now back in the land (or should I say sea) of tides. The tide in the Elbe was in full flow so we raced along, at times making over 10 knots. There was almost constant communication on the VHF radio between Cuxhaven traffic control and the various ships travelling up and down the river. We had read that there is very stringent monitoring of all vessel movement and we heard one fishing boat being told off twice for either crossing the fairway too close in front of an outbound ship or being too close the fairway. The interchange was all in English so it was not a local vessel. Once we got to the mouth of the river, the ...

If we were going to have a chance of getting through the Kiel canal in a day, we knew that we had to start early. Non commercial vessels are not permitted to move in the canal outside of the hours of daylight. Helpfully, the canal website defines what are the daylight hours for each 2 week period of the year. As a result, we set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. and leaped enthusiastically(?) out of our cosy berths. It was disappointingly dark outside, and I was a little reluctant to move out of a cramped and unfamiliar marina in the dark. So we filled our time for a few minutes having breakfast. As soon as it was light enough we slipped out of the marina and made our way the 3.5 miles to the lock at the end of the canal. We were followed by some impressively large ships, but when we arrived, we all had to hang around and wait to be allowed into the locks. There are normally 4 locks in operation at each end of the canal, 2 large and 2 smaller. However, at the moment, the 2 smaller locks at t...

And so, after all the waiting, we were finally able to leave Fehmarn today. The alarm went off at 6:30, we jumped up, and then after breakfast, we consulted the preparation checklists to remind us of what had to be done before we left. Then, with a little emotion, slipped our lines and headed out of the harbour. We have had such a good experience in Fehmarn. The people were warm, genuine and friendly, the businesses that looked after aspects of the boat were all competent and efficient. I could not recommend the place more highly. We feel as if we made many friends there. The weather started cool and windy, we all had multiple layers of clothes on. Before long however, the cloud melted away, the wind moderated to a reasonable level and the temperature rose. We got out the sails, and tried out our new mail sail. We were going along beautifully, and I had a grin like a six year old in a sweet shop. It was one of those perfect moments that you just cannot describe to those who...

The new sail fits! The new main sail is on, with the rigger’s help. The genoa is on, having come back from being repaired by the local sail maker. The spray hood is up! This has all happened despite various strengths of rain through the day. It has been just as well we weren’t planning to leave today as the visibility has been between poor to very poor. The passage planning is done, so we are all set to leave tomorrow. Tom and Dave are cooking the spaghetti Bol for supper and we have the boat really nice and warm inside, at last. Distance covered today - 0 nautical miles Total distance covered -  0 nautical miles Tricia (and Steve )

Bizarrely, even though we haven’t been anywhere yet, it was time for a crew change today. Chris has been with us over the Easter weekend, but has had to return to work. He managed to sleep a fair amount while he was here, so it was probably for the best that we weren’t going anywhere. The day dawned considerably warmer than yesterday and the snow was starting to melt quite quickly.  To ease the whole changeover process we had rented a car, as in addition to taking Chris, I had to collect  our new crew members, Dave and Tom. We had managed to synchronise the arrival and departure times at Hamburg so that there was not much hanging around at the airport for anyone. By the time the round trip was finished I had started to get used to the car, which I found a little quirky. I have not driven a car with lane control before, and it felt as if the car was fighting back every time I tried to change lanes on the autobahn. A late lunch was followed by an initial orientation for ...

We woke to another 10 cms of snow that had fallen overnight. It looked wonderful, but even with the occasional new flurry during the morning, it started to melt quite quickly. I think the temperature has been a little higher today, which has been rather welcome and the forecasts are saying that this might be the last of the extreme cold for the year. We are managing to keep warm inside our floating igloo, with the various heating devices taking turns to get the temperature up. I’ve spent a good amount of time clearing snow off the decks, not something I ever thought I would have to write about. I fear our deck brush may never be the same again.   It was easy enough on the foredeck where the snow had not been trampled down, but the cockpit area was much more difficult. We were very impressed that a snow-plough had been around the marina area before 10:00 this morning, Easter Sunday. The roads are largely clear, and when we walked into town every occupied house had cleare...