All was done in good time allowing for a decent meal in the Chinese just along the harbour front, a restaurant where I spent many happy occasions in previous years reflecting on how much work it takes to keep a boat like Struana in good shape. Still, with a Jonge Jenever and some Heineken beers, and considering looking after Struana is almost as much fun as sailing her, these moments were always happy indeed.
The Chinese was enjoyed by all followed by the final farewell as those staying ashore were safely dispatched back to Amsterdam on the last bus. And so, as the moment drew closer for our cast-off it was considered prudent to have a proper safety briefing to ensure we would be happy and safe as we retreated into the relatively small space presented by Struana for two weeks or so. 20:00: engine on, cast off, tidy up, main + genua no 1 hoisted, engine off and IJmuiden gradually sank beneath the horizon behind Struana's stern for the last time.
Various plans & crew configurations had presented themselves in the run-up to our trip and the final configuration was nicely symmetric with a skipper + cabin boy, co-skipper + cabin boy and a medic/cook. In no particular order, here we are:
Solid, no nonsense man of quiet observation not hesitating to dive into a book should the situation become overly tedious. Specialised in sleeping in the bow in even the most aggressive head winds and waves, thereby experiencing sleep partially airborne. A veteran on board Struana as
The concept, 'If in doubt, talk', kept Tjalling going for the entire trip. New on Struana, soon Tjalling made Struana his home monopolizing the starboard aft cabin in a way which would make his mother proud and never shying away from a good game of cards or chess.
Multi-tasking Emelie had conveniently done a first-aid course landing her the role of medic on board, had cooked many delicious dishes at home ready to eat which, together with the shopping strategy, also endowed her with the role of cook, in addition to sailing the boat of course. Another Struana veteran,
Nanne had one task and one task alone: to ensure the whole show would proceed across the seas in a safe and pleasant manner. His tens of thousands of miles at sea made him the natural skipper on board. Of course, there were extra curricular tasks too for Nanne some of which may be written about later, others probably not. Previous experience as Struana foredecker:
The Saturday evening was calm with not really enough wind to make sufficient progress. And we wanted to make progress to have the option to 'hand back' some days later should the weather deteriorate and we needed to sit it out in a port somewhere. Our initial goal was to get to Salcombe in Devon, a nice stretch to sail to to get used to the boat and also a nice point to launch from on our attempt to cross the Bay of Biscay. Furthermore, I wanted to go there again once more to check if the sailing school where I had learned a lot (in the 1980's, to actually learn how to sail and also later as sailing instructor) was still in rudimentary health, and to enjoy the town itself.
Hence we motored mainly that evening in addition to moments of silence at times when the engine could be switched off, now and then. And boats being boats, the first technical issue on board made its entree: low battery alarm on one of the Raymarine repeaters. That was a concern to me: I had had that problem before at the end of 2014 and decided to get the batteries checked over the winter. Two out of the four were indeed found to be rather weak and were replaced. Problem solved I thought, but no.
What I found surprising is how in the mind the worst case scenario immediately takes hold: "there is a problem with the electrics and with the engine off the batteries quickly drain, etc, etc. There would be no way to continue the trip like that", which of course would be pretty disappointing... But I knew the batteries were in good shape, there was no issue with the actual voltage as I could see with my multi-meter so out came the Raymarine manuals. These manuals are actually quite nice to read, but they're not bedtime reading material and because I mainly find myself reading them when things go wrong I always experience a sense of discomfort (a Pavlov reflex) in situations of troubleshooting. In the end it was a trivial problem, the low battery alarm had been set too high in the calibration mode of the instrument (much higher than what the manual recommended) so after adjustment it was quiet again on board.
Emelie and I continued our first watch till midnight at which point Nanne came on deck to do his 4 hour shift.
A quiet sunrise as we mainly motored our way south on the North Sea. Route-wise we had decided to hug the English south coast (and not the French north coast along the Channel) in view of the easier navigation: fewer to no shallows and more of a straight line to where we wanted to go. Also this meant we could cross the various shipping lanes rather more north where density is lower and then not cross any again as we made our way into the Bay of Biscay.
Leaving both the North Hinder North buoy and East Goodwin light vessel to port set us up nicely for our entry into the English Channel, with our position at 14:00 as shown:
The day was peaceful with an easterly breeze picking up early afternoon allowing for the Spinnaker to be set, tugging us along at a very pleasant 7.5 knots. Add to that around 2 knots of tide and we definitely raced past the East Goodwin light vessel. Blink and it was gone...
.... and East Goodwin:
With Dover + ferry traffic + night approaching we lowered the spinnaker and hoisted the No 4 genoa. It was a good configuration as the wind did pick up, veering to a south south westerly direction meaning close reaching along the English coast. Perfect for the No 4 and full main. In fact the No 4 stayed up for most of the trip all the way to Cadiz, its range of weather conditions in which it performed proving to be quite impressive...
The night started out quite fun, with Struana making excellent speed. We had decided to adopt what I believe is called the Swedish watch system meaning 3 x 4 hour watches during the night and 2 x 6 hour watches during the day. In this way it is possible to get a good stretch of sleep during the 6 hour off-watch and more importantly, the routine would switch over every night.
So Nanne started the night at 20:00 and I would be back at midnight. Tjalling, Frederik and Emelie were a bit less strict with their watch keeping routines, Tjalling and Frederik more to not get too bored for hours on deck at night and Emelie to not just keep me company but also Nanne. So Emelie did well being on deck straddling the watch-changes greatly enhancing the social experience during the trip!
It was a noisy night with a somewhat choppy sea meeting us head-on. At midnight when I came on deck Nanne informed me that the wind speed + direction meter had died, a recurring intermittent problem which I thought I had fixed earlier in the year (lose contact?) but clearly had not.
But the sailing was very good indeed so we powered on, though with yet another problem in the form of a failed autopilot occurring in the middle of the night. I was hand steering at the time and normally when the autopilot is engaged the steering becomes solid and the helmsman is relieved. Not so on this occasion. I had had problems previously with the system 'losing its bearings' (though very rarely) requiring a power off and power on to reset the system but that did not work this time. It felt more like the mechanical link was simply not there. Opening the inner box in the aft locker revealed that this was indeed the case, the arm from autopilot servo to rudder had simply dropped away. And so the problem was easily fixed, the autopilot arm could simply be pushed back in place. But this left me with no idea how the arm was held in place: there was no thread or a nut lying around or something which seemed broken, simply an eye sliding over a pin, easily falling down.... Whatever the fault, a piece of shock cord holding it together worked and would do the job for the remaining part of the voyage.
Emelie, Nanne and I during one of our many conversations about relatively meaningless subjects agreed that probably a lot more sayings are accredited to Winston Churchill than what was probably said by him at the time. But notwithstanding: 'As Winston Churchill once said: "One damned problem after the other!"' (not unreasonable coming from the man considering the problems he was facing) and I guess this applies to sailing a boat like many people do. Problems under most circumstances not as severe as those faced by one orchestrating a war, but in terms of frequency, my gosh, it doesn't stop... I think the pleasure boating industry simply does not have the luxury of mass production like the car industry which is able to produce cars which, by and large, are fail-safe...
***
The continued passage west deteriorated during the early hours of Monday with continued slamming of Struana into the choppy sea with just not enough wind to push her through comfortably. The mood on board dipped in sympathy with Struana, not helped by the grey, damp weather so common for this part of the world. One always hopes for the best, nevertheless...
Position at noon, UTC,
http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=50.499183&lon=-000.931383:
So Nanne and I thought it would be good to reflect a bit on our plan, not least because of a persistent area of low pressure over Ireland guaranteeing more misery as we would need to beat our way west into westerly winds some of which were forecast to be strong. And then to arrive in Salcombe and sit on a buoy with rain and more wind would make some of us begin to reflect on the will to carry on... Hence we decided to head for Poole instead and sit out the next 24 hours of stronger winds prior to continuing into the Bay. As it happened, the wind backed just a touch and we could make landfall nicely and in a very relaxed way in Weymouth.
It proved to be a good decision. We made fast to the quay in the early evening allowing ship and crew to quickly regain composure thus injecting the fun right back into our adventure. It took 2 days to sail from IJmuiden to Weymouth, a very respectable result given this was our first effort.
Tuesday, August 4th 2015
A day off, parked conveniently next to the Harbour Master's office with showers, bar and all the other pleasantries to be found back on shore.
But of course there was a lot to be done, tidying the boat, some additional shopping, repairs, etc. I really wanted to get our wind speed and direction back, went up the mast to clean contacts at the masthead, checked the instrument in the cockpit, contacts at the mast foot, but nothing in the way of data came. Also attempted to pull the cable out from the mast but it was well fixed inside near the top with no inspection port so we would have to make do with no wind indication henceforth.
The autopilot was checked and seemed to be solid enough to be left alone, and sails were folded nicely in preparation for the next phase.
We also reviewed and discussed the reason why we felt so miserable prior to our arrival in Weymouth. In part and to a large extent we were still finding our sea legs, which would come with time, but also the organisation on board wasn't great. One could say there was a lack of discipline but that would make it all too military which would be a bit o.t.t. The main issue was that clothes, sailing gear, lifejackets were left simply where they came off leading to some confusion as to where to find them again and then once found one still had to figure out if indeed you picked up the correct life jacket. In rough seas it is not pleasant to experience this.
We also needed to be more aware of where all the food was stored since a lot of time was spent looking for some can or other, something I already don't like at home, and I certainly don't like at sea...! So we discussed, debated and agreed, and already felt our confidence gaining in readiness for what was to come.
In the late afternoon time for some sightseeing. A lot of fun exploring the town and surroundings including the castle, and looking out to sea it was indeed quite windy, we were happy to be spending another cosy night in the harbour.
Spotting the below two "Assembly Point" signs we first of all wondered for whom they were actually intended (for those houses behind perhaps? that's "'ealth 'n safety gawn mad!") and followed by the taking of two pictures which we thought were extremely funny at the time but looking at them now I think we must have been a bit overly jovial (it was something like "look at us four being friends and Hein has no friends so has to have his own assembly point", at the time, funny):
That evening we ate in the RDYC (Royal Dorset Yacht Club) where the atmosphere was very nice but the food was not so nice, a pity actually. Relaxing a bit thereafter with a beer and then to beautiful sleep on Struana, also resting nicely and at peace.
Wednesday, August 5th 2015
It was a relaxed start to the day as we were not planning to leave until midday. We wanted the last few gusts to blow over prior to catching the tide in favour of our projected course westsouthwest. Having bunkered more or less everything that needed bunkering, showered, etc, etc, we cast off for a second time and headed back out into the English Channel. With the No4 + Main set we made good progress around the headland south of Weymouth, comfortably missing the races further out to sea which looked menacing indeed.
And then WE went to the races, causing Tjalling to proclaim: "I think we will be in Portugal quite soon!". What a performance, as Struana cut her way through wind and sea, in continued bleak grey English summer misery...
We left land behind in due course and, apart from a faint glimpse of the Devon coastline as we passed Salcombe Estuary, would not see land again for 7 days.
The forecast was excellent. The current southerly wind would veer to the west requiring us to change our course more and more to the north prior to tacking, setting us up perfectly for a southerly course into the Bay of Biscay. And so we continued, into the night. I held the watch till midnight, Nanne took over thereafter.
Thursday, August 6th 2015
The dark start to the day proved challenging. From my position down below, while drifting into and out of an unpleasant slumber, the conditions could be heard to deteriorate and I could stay below only until Nanne's request to help reduce sail. Making my way into the main cabin the first consternation of the night was the discovery that the central seat had been launched through the cabin. With just over 12 hours since leaving, the boat was already a mess, with a lot of work ahead to get Struana back in shape. I am not sure if I am still a very large fan of the modern cabin layouts - sitting around the table in port is cramped, at sea the central furniture piece is a liability...
But on deck I went, straight to the mast, to pull the main down with Nanne controlling the halyard back aft. Thereafter we made the intended tack and continued on the 4, a fantastic sail indeed, propelling Struana along at a solid 7 knots. Back inside I did not have the ability to straighten things out so decided to sleep a bit more on the port settee in the main cabin... until that fiendish wave hit us on starboard, combined with a nasty gust, causing Struana to lose balance and fall sideways to port thereby smashing the oven door of the cooker. What a noise it was too, the bang of the sea hitting the hull with the bang of the smashing glass in unison... Glass was scattered along the cabin floor meaning some work was called for right away. And the bathroom flooded due to our first starboard tack in combo with some toilet valves having been left open.
With the dustpan and brush I began, carefully removing every piece of glass, handing the retrieved pieces to Nanne for disposal. And then, for some reason, I lost my brush in the mess of moved furniture, scattered sails, water and glass so was obliged to use the strategy 'if all else fails, throw up', which I did obligingly over the railing.
Anyway, the whole mess was cleared up and I could sleep again for an hour or so (Nanne also had to lengthen his time on deck to accommodate), quietly thinking if having relaxed cups of coffee and doing yoga with Maria during vacations while listening to what the morning breeze is trying to tell you is not something to consider a bit more seriously. However that alarming line of thought was quickly dismissed just in case Struana noticed, and anyway, it sure was adventurous. Pity about the oven though, and aaalllll those pre-baked rolls.... But Struana powered on, Frederik half asleep, half airborne in the front, Tjalling seemed to have forgotten he was on a boat at all judging by his expression on waking up and Emelie was just about to find her sea legs, just not quite yet. Nanne performed as intended and both Nanne and I did get some sleep in the end. And I found my brush.
***
When morning came the wind fell away but the sea remained quite rough. It was possible to hoist the main again but unfortunately during a moment of slack the halyard wrapped itself around the radar reflector attached to the shroud towards the top of the mast and would not come undone again. Luckily we had practiced the routine of going up the mast earlier in Weymouth so there I went for another trip, this time clinging onto the mast as Struana continued to be buffeted by the waves. Job was done and the main was set, sailing again the way it should be!
Into the afternoon the going was reasonable, though in a dying wind. We did have our first encounter with dolphins, a fantastic experience as they took up positions besides and in front of the bow.
Without much further ado we gradually exited the English Channel and made our way into the Bay of Biscay as the evening fell.
Friday, August 7th 2015
Back on shift I found the night to be grey and dull. Not too much wind and a slight sea not causing much of a problem for our continued progress towards the Iberian peninsula. The autopilot seemed content so it was a nice opportunity for me just to check things over, listen out and perform some TLC. And there was a noise, a rhythmic ticking, somewhat in harmony with the rolling of the ship. Not irritating but curiosity demanded further investigation. And I found the source: the upper bearing of the rudder stock was working itself loose and was rocking from port to starboard and back with every passing wave. Absolutely shocking to say the least with the potential to do more damage than a simple premature end to the trip somewhere in a port.
Immediate troubleshooting did lead to immediate results though. The four bolts fixing the bearing to the ship had worked loose and needed tightening for which I needed my tools, Nanne and to descend into the aft locker. So I fetched my tools together with Nanne and descended into the locker, which promptly fell shut on top of me. Now that was a scary moment (it not being possible to open the locker again from the inside) so Nanne, having opened the lid, tied it securely open prior to us doing the simple repair. The rudder was solid again and my watch thereafter was a pleasant affair indeed...
On relaying this in hindsight small incident to the others later, Tjalling made the modern mental selfie (aka note-to-self:) "Don't buy a boat!" having observed the continuous problems so far with a degree of credulity... In the meantime my own note-to-self: happy to have good tools on board...
The day passed without further incident, the evening brought on increasing winds with waves we thought likely to be remnants of the much stronger winds experienced further north, south of Ireland. These waves would later build to become the largest we would see for the trip, estimated at 4m crest to trough with some breaking, two over the ship. The wind built in sympathy requiring sail reduction to just the No4 with a nod towards the storm jib if the conditions deteriorated further, which they did not. I steered for a while (experiencing the impact of one of the breaking waves on top of me, an impressive experience) but the autopilot could also handle the situation well so the night morphed into a dull, noisy affair.
Saturday, August 8th - Wednesday, August 12th 2015
We fell into a routine and keeping track of which day it was became more and more meaningless so I will mention some of the remaining highlights prior to our arrival in Lagos on the coming Wednesday morning.
"Depth 5000m, Diving Allowed"
Waves and wind died down and it was calm enough to experience a swim, 5000m above the ocean floor referred to as the Biscay Abyssal Plain as marked on the chart. A somewhat freaky sensation, swimming underneath the ship looking at keel and rudder hanging there with nothing underneath, having only painted their surfaces previously in a shed in IJmuiden, at the time firmly standing on a concrete floor...
Our position on Saturday demonstrates the point.
The wind was now firmly behind us all the way to southern Portugal and we experienced a combination of sails ranging from Main + Spinnaker in light winds all the way to just the No4 as the conditions would deteriorate just once more as we passed Finisterre, an area which is known to attract strong northerly breezes. We stayed well offshore, also away from the shipping lanes.
With hardly a ship seen, even on the AIS, while in the Bay of Biscay, shipping density increased again tremendously as we approached the coast of Spain and Portugal. Although with the naked eye there was never much to be seen, the AIS proved its worth, taking out a lot of the work needed to avoid other ships (taking bearings, etc, is not so essential anymore, I would suggest), allowing course changes even before the other ship was visible on the horizon. And the AIS also managed to add a degree of comradery between us 'sea-faring' folk. With the Spinnaker up making close to 8 knots we seemed to be heading for a close encounter with a ship which according to AIS was called Milan Express, 700 feet long and moving towards us in a westerly direction at around 18 knots. We thought we would give them a call on the VHF on c16 since we didn't feel much like taking down the spinnaker to make the required course change:
"Milan Express, Milan Express, this is sailing yacht Struana, do you receive me, over?"
"Good afternoon, Struana, Milan Express. Yes, I receive you loud & clear. You may hold your course, we will pass behind you."
"Thank you, confirmed, I hold my course. Have a nice day. Out."
"Click, click"
And so the Milan Express, a mid sized container ship and now also our friend, later made its appearance, closed rapidly upon us, passed us on our stern and continued to its destination which, again according to the AIS, was Baltimore.
That night was a glorious display of the Milky Way in 3D, shooting stars and other lit-up or light emitting objects which ranged from satellites to relatively dull airplanes.
Position Sunday...
With a couple of 100 miles to go we began to calculate when we would arrive, another three days or so. Remarkable how distances shrink once you're in the mood. We still had further to go than our initial IJmuiden to Weymouth trip but felt we were almost there.
...and Monday...
To add some interest we decided to cross the traffic in order to close in on Lisbon. Preceded by a rather rough evening (the weather was also extremely dull at times, not at all what we had reasonably? expected, we could have been back in the North Sea), and as we approached the Portuguese coast the sea became rougher and rougher. With Nanne and Emelie on deck, Nanne thought it prudent to study the pilot some more making the following observation: "due to a combination of Atlantic swell meeting abruptly shallower waters channeled by a sub-marine valley perpendicular to the coast, waves off Lisbon have been recorded as the highest in the world." or words to that effect. We headed right back out to sea again, crossing the shipping traffic, again...
... and Tuesday
We spotted more dolphins and now also whales. Small ones, they didn't show the same interest in us as the dolphins, but it was a happy encounter. Emelie would later inform us that we were, in fact, looking at the mesoplodon densirostros. So there you are.
To hurry this account along as we approached Lagos some pictures. Or in other words, since a picture says more than a thousand words, here are a couple of thousand words:
Mustn't read too quickly
Life is good, part I
Life is good, part II
Mandatory Medical Hour, Tjalling taking Emelie's classes seriously indeed
One more plunge, with 0 knots wind, © X-Yachts
Emelie phone home!
And so the journey slowly came to an end. On Wednesday morning we rounded the south westerly point of Portugal, and Tjalling became a teenager! Decorations, a sunrise befitting a birthday and a phone call home.
We motored into Lagos at 11 that morning, to be greeted by Maria and Sofia and we were there. Back in civilization, in the midst of people making their way along the harbour front, other people selling various things, skippers trying to charter their boats, with and without glass bottoms, etc, etc. And we were tired, which showed. I also realised that being a small crew, the sailing itself was actually not the challenging part, rather the tidying up afterwards. We were simply not enough to efficiently get Struana back in shape. But we did an OK job and had a nice meal onshore that evening followed by cake on board.
Thursday, August 13th 2015
The final leg of the trip to Cádiz, 120 miles, so a breeze... Everything becomes relative, for a sailor completing a circumnavigation, having arrive (back) in Lagos, the last bit back to IJmuiden would probably be a breeze; for us the last bit to Cádiz had that kind of effect. But an effort needed to be made to get back out and Frederik felt it was time for a solid bed in close proximity to mum and sis, so F stayed back in Lagos.
Further rinsing and cleaning of the boat in the early hours followed by engine on and cast off at 10:00. Nanne steered out while I walked to return the keys to the harbour master and settle the bill. Observing Struana waiting patiently for the bridge (at the harbour entrance) to open I realised with a hint of pride what an excellent choice I had made, choosing my X.
This is how she scores as I see it now:
Comfort on board: 7/10
Space on board: 6/10
Performance: 10/10
Construction: 10/10
Aesthetics: 10/10
So an extremely good looking, solid, performance yacht for which you pay with reduced comfort and space. I wouldn't have it any different if I had to choose again.
Nanne picked me up and off we went again. We worked through the sails to get them dried one by one and sailed in a straight line to Cádiz. A fun trip again, becoming a bit tedious during the night, freshening wind resulting in one reef which would have been well served by a second reef. But we were not set up for the second so the main came down and we rolled our way through the night. Not so comfy.
Going back to the day we did spot breaching whales on the horizon. We were not sure of the size of the animals but it was a long way away, which, coupled with the disturbance caused, would indicate these were the larger whales. A pity we were not a little bit closer.
Our final sms to the shore, Lat+36.754033 Lon-007.749983 Alt+29 ft (1s ago) 13-Aug-2015 17:09:23 UTC
http://map.iridium.com/m?lat=36.754033&lon=-007.749983:
At 06:00 on Friday we entered Puerto Sherry, final destination.
Struana was safely deposited on the concrete and the crew dispersed, back to The Netherlands & Switzerland. And so, as I write this back in Zurich, looking at the sailbag of the No3 lying spread out on the floor in front of me (it ripped due to old age, so is now getting dismantled to 'reverse engineer the pattern' and to make a new one, together with a myriad of other winter tasks) and thinking of the adventures ahead, I can already be extremely grateful for the adventure so far, from Haderslev to Cádiz:
wishes fulfilled, indeed.
