16-11-2008
Gran Canaria her we come
After 2 days in Oeiras we were ready to take off. The stay had been short, but sweet. It had climaxed in our epic “Capture the Flag” and we were definitely ready to feel the wind grab a hold off the sails again.
We set sail in the afternoon when the wind was most favorable. It was nice to finally have the forecast kick in. We motored for less than 30 minutes, before we shut off the engines and hoisted the sails. The awesome thing was that we didn’t need to power up the engines again for propulsion before we got to Gran Canaria.
Trond and I decided that we would sail conservatively, so that we wouldn’t rip any sails or have any other mishaps. This really paid off, because nothing broke on the way. The only downside was that we perhaps didn’t push the boat as hard as we could.
The trip was a true joy. The first three days passed in normal fashion, where we basically sustained ourselves on bread, apples and biscuits, but late on day 3 Trond cooked up a storm with a very tasty pesto chicken pasta. After that it was no turning back. We enjoyed all the food we had brought and could finally feel our bodies properly adjusted to the motion of the ocean.
The wind was surprisingly a bit challenging, because we got it straight from behind. Add in modest sized waves and both we and Otto (the autopilot) had to get a bit creative. The main sail and genoa saw the most amount of work, because the waves were a bit too big to fly the gennaker safely. The wind was also a tad strong, so it was bordering on when we would take the gennaker down had we been flying it, but we still let it feel the air for a few hours when the wind was not as aggressive. In essence we decided not to fly the gennaker if the apparent wind was bordering 15 knots. When we were in the vicinity of 15 knots of apparent wind, we normally saw from 23 – 28 knots of true wind, which could have been a pain if something had gone wrong. During the last 24 hours we had decent sized waves, so we opted to drop the main and just use the genoa. It worked like a charm and let us sail doing 6 – 8 knots in a very relaxed way. When we got to Gran Canaria the wind died, so for the last few hours we had to fire up Judas to get us to Porto de Mogan. I would have liked to have gone to Las Palmas, but with the 250+ boats sailing in and around the ARC staying there now, it was better to head further south to a place we could chill and be comfortable.
All that remains now is to wait for the crew members that will sail across the Atlantic with me … and get the boat ready … oh and naturally enjoy some MUCH NEEDED summer and sunshine …
10-11-2008
Past Trips
In order to make it easier to keep track of trips I've done, I've put them into chronological order. This way you can scan down on the list below until you find a trip you want to see, then you click on the picture and off you go.
A beach trip to the Philippines
09-11-2008
A day for the iron top-sail
Peniche wasn’t a bad place, but with no wind and no waves there was no point in sticking around there. It’s true we could have waited there, but I was advised to head further south, where the wind is more predictable and steady. The fact that there was no waves meant that we couldn’t do what my brother suggested: Go surfing. In fact a big competition was cancelled the day we sailed in, because of an utter lack of waves.
We though we’d only stay in Peniche for 2 hours, so the authorities didn’t make us pay any mooring fees, but when we spent the night there, we made sure we left before they would come descending on us in the morning. So at 06:26am we cast off leaving the waveless surfer paradise behind us.
We were able to take advantage of the morning breeze and sailed for the first hour, doing an impressive 7 knots in 8 knots of true wind. That was however the only time we were able to sail without the iron top-sail. For the rest of the day we had to motorsail, because the wind never exceeded 5 knots, but stayed between 1.5 and 5 knots. This gave us plenty of time to read, solve Sudoku, talk … and eat. The trip went very well. We headed down to Oeiras, which is located right as you start the sail-in towards Lisbon.
As soon as we got in, we checked the forecast and from the looks of it Tuesday will be our day. The wind looks very promising from then and through the rest of the week. So now we have 2 days in the most expensive marina I’ve ever stayed in: €54 per night!
Having said that it’s probably the nicest marine I’ve ever stayed in, so I’m not complaining to loudly. We’ll chill here till Tuesday and then set off. I can’t wait to finally sail in optimal winds. Hopefully it will pan out.
08-11-2008
Povoa de Varzim to Gran ... Peniche I mean
I was planning to set sail as soon as my latest crew member Trond came down from Norway. Unfortunately the winds wanted it otherwise, so we ended up spending two extra days in Povoa before we finally cast off. The winds were going with us, but at strengths of 2 – 4 knots, we had to hoist the iron topsail to make any meaningful progress. We quickly calculated that we’d be using a lot of fuel, just getting down to where there wind was forecast, so instead of shooting straight for that, we aimed at Peniche (130nm south of Povoa on the Portugese coast), so that we could top off our tanks and download a new grib file (A grib file is a weather file, that certain programs allow to download. They are great for seeing when and where winds will blow.)
The trip down was very uneventful, except for a school of dolphins that came and played with us a few times. Magical animals that you felt were observing you, just as much as you were observing them. We came into the harbor in Peniche fully intent on staying an hour and then shooting off again. Alas that proved to be too ambitious. First of all we couldn’t get diesel for another hour and any internet place opened 2 hours later. These people start work late, have a few hours of siesta in the middle of the day and even leave early … What a great life!
We did a break-neck diesel filling at a tiny pier with a shallow right in front of it. Then we downloaded the grib file and to our disappointment it promised no wind at all. So instead of sailing on, we’ll stay here till tomorrow, then we’ll hopefully sail, if not motor down to Ceicos, to wait till Tuesday when real wind will finally kick in …. Unless the forecast changes … again.
05-11-2008
Kicking it in Maryland and D.C.
When Knut and I arrived in Povoa de Varzim, I knew he was going home to work, before rejoining me on Gran Canaria in November, but I had no idea if anyone would be able to join me for the sail down to Gran Canaria from Portugal. That particular sail is around 850nm long, so it would be tough to do on my own. This meant I had a few days on my hands to figure out what to do. I put up a notice on couchsurfing.com and wrote a crewing site, but nothing materialized. I was getting a little worried and decided the best therapy would be to do something completely different.
Lauren really wanted me to come and see her … So I decided: Why not? You only live once! This was a perfect excuse to not think about the crewing problem. The next day I boarded a flight and flew to Washington DC, where I was picked up by Lauren in her sweet ride … granted her Jeep Cherokee has the World’s most dangerous tires and breaks … but it still gets you from a to b. In the coming days it proved to be a real workhorse.
We stayed in her mom’s awesome apartment and used that as our base of operations while we were exploring the vicinity. We managed to cover a fair share of things in the 10 days I was there. Downtown D.C. was only 30 min away, so we went down and had a look at the sights: The Lincoln Memorial, The Reflecting Pool, The Pencil (I forget what it’s really called), The Vietnam Memorial, the WW2 memorial (a lot of memorials to be honest), the White House (which will soon be inhabited by Obama :-)and last but definitely not least, we went to the Smithsonian. I LOVED it. We didn’t have a chance to see even a fraction of it, but I got a tiny overview. It was cool to see the dinosaurs, the Hope Diamond, their under water exhibit and my first IMAX movie “Deep Sea”. It was a winner! Everything in between was equally impressive, so I need to go back and do it proper justice one day.
We also went to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum out by Dulles. This was hands down the coolest museum I’ve ever seen. My favorites were the SR-71 Blackbird that set the record from LA to DC. It did it in 1 hour and 4 minutes. They also had the original Enola Gay bomber that dropped the a-bomb on Hiroshima. The also had a Concorde and lastly a space shuttle. On top of these amazing planes they had a couple of hundred other impressive air crafts. It was a stunning collection and very impressive to see. We also went and saw a new IMAX movie, this time we saw “Fighter pilots”. If I had seen that movie when I was in my teens, I know I’d be a pilot today.
October 31st happened to swing around while I was there and what better way to celebrate Halloween than at a house-party. We met up at a friend of Lauren’s and partied properly, all of us dressed up in costumes. It was good fun. Of course earlier that same day, I did my first pumpkin carving. Lauren did the sketching and then I did the carving. Lauren also proceeded to fry the pumpkin seeds in her own fashion, resulting in an interesting taste that only she enjoyed. At least no one will steal them from her!
On a particularly nice and sunny day, we drove down to Annapolis and enjoyed a good day walking around in the sun looking at the old town. I really liked it and what really made the visit was the awesome chilidog I got a diner. Yummy!
Besides these things, I also met most of Lauren’s family and got to hang out with some of her friends. On one of my last days there, we drove down to Salisbury and met her brother Erik and hung out with him. I learned to play beer pong and to my surprise I wasn’t completely crap at it.
The 10 days flew by. It was nice to get a little break from the sailboat and it was a lot of fun to hang out with Lauren. My crewing problem solved itself, when a guy who had called me a month earlier inquired if he could still come to sail to Gran Canaria. So when I flew back to Portugal, he was flying in on the same day.
22-10-2008
The Bay of Biscay
We stayed in Falmouth for a total of 4 days. It did however feel like a lot longer. Not because it was a boring place, but because we accomplished so much. We made a number of new friends, tried out most of the nearby (and some of the not-so-nearby) pubs, dug into the hearty local cuisine, downed more ale than we both care to admit and even had space for a cider or two (or possibly three). They stay was a success and re-charged our batteries and made us hungry for new sailing adventures. We were ready to set sail across the dreaded Bay of Biscay.
The Bay is an undertaking not to be underestimated at the best of times, so we prepared properly. We got our food shopping done, got the boat in tip top shape and were mentally prepared for hardship. The forecast indicated that the wind would be on the light side, but we decided to err on the side of caution, so we took nothing for granted. In the first 24 hours we saw good winds that helped push us away from the UK and towards France. The trajectory wasn’t perfect, but it kept us moving. Right as we were passing France, the wind died down and we had to motor for almost 24 hours, before we could again hoist the sails and enjoy some splendid sailing. The Bay gave us more wind and higher waves than what had been forecast, but both we and the boat were comfortable. The whole trip across was going remarkably well, when we got a twist in the gennaker and it split with a heart wrenching tear. We got it down and into the bag. We wanted to hoist the main, but it was too windy to get up against the wind, so we turned and motored towards Portugal. At this point in time the waves were between 4 – 5 meters, so it was a tad uncomfortable to try to go against the seas, but when we were sailing towards Portugal, we got them hitting our rear and then everything was excellent. We were surfing down waves and enjoying life. As soon as we rounded the tip, the wind completely died and the waves vanished with it. It didn’t take long before a group of dolphins came up and started playing around us. They never cease to amaze me and this was no different, we were spellbound the entire time they were around us.
They left shortly before sunset, which was when we were getting very close to our destination: Povoa de Varzim. We had intended to go farther, but when I heard that this place was the cheapest and also one of the best marinas in Portugal, I set my course straight for it. We tided up just as the sky darkened and night fell upon us. Our timing was perfect and I’m very happy that we got there before dark. An night approach to a new harbor is no fun.
Povoa de Varzim was everything we were promised and more. It is a perfect place to stop and get properly ready for the sail to Gran Canaria. I took stock of our trip from Falmouth. We had sailed around 580nm. To accomplish this we had spent a total of 86.5 hours. This gave us an average speed of 6.7 knots. I have to say that I was surprised, because it felt like we were going faster.
The best news is that now we’ve braved some of the toughest areas of the trip to the Caribbean. Though I don’t expect an easy time after this, it feels good to move forward with confidence after having sailed through the English Channel and crossed both the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay. Doing this in summer, can be hard … doing it in late fall like we did …. Not recommendable … This of course just adds spice to the tale.
11-10-2008
Going to Cherbourg … or wait a minute!
We woke up early and maneuvered alongside the fuelingship. The night alongside the fuel barge had been short and uneventful. With freshly topped off tanks and 100 liters in jerry cans, we hurried into the marina in IJmuiden to do the last few things. The last few things included picking up the sails Patrick (the sailmaker) had fixed, hoisting the new genoa and finishing off the bilge pump repair. We topped hoisting the new genoa off by pulling the starboard pulpit out of the deck. I’ve never been closer to crying, but it worked out. My friend Rob showed up and did some emergency repairs that will allow me to sail until I decide to get it fixed, probably in the Caribbean. Though it was a shock and it looked worse than it was, it was still a big blow. With the pulpit stored safely in the dinghy and the holes sika’d shut, we cast off. Patrick waved us off and we set a south-westerly course straight for Cherbourg.
As is normal, we had basically bought the wrong things to eat, because as soon as we were on our way, our appetites vanished and we focused on two things: standing watch and sleeping. Basically if you weren’t doing one, you were doing the other. We did 3-hour shifts and though we had lots of tasty nibblies, speaking for myself, getting food down was like a second job. It’s not that it was particularly rough, but I just wasn’t hungry. I did drink a lot of water though, so the body seemed happy.
What was clear was that we were making very good progress and when we were looking at the map and the wind indicator 2 days later, it was clear to us that it would make much more sense to continue for another day and go straight to Falmouth on the south western extremity of England. We spent about 10 seconds discussing it, before we traded French cuisine and red wine for pub grub and ales. What a great choice! Some really good friends of us studied in Falmouth, so we had a complete run-down of where to go and what to do before we hit the harbor. This looked very promising.
Of course before we could even think of entering Falmouth we had to cross one of the busiest shipping lanes in the World: The English Channel. I’d like to say that it was stressful and scary, but we followed the rules and made a straight line across. This minimized the danger and made crossing the high-traffic separation zones a speedy affair.
When we arrived in Falmouth we entered on cue as the sun was supposed to rise. It didn’t and when I was thinking the World was going to Hell, I realized that we had forgot to set our clocks one hour back. This ensured that we were sailing around Falmouth in the pre-twilight. We did OK and found a perfect spot in the guest harbor, happily aided by Meme a friendly South African lady who popped up as we were about to tie up. She gave us all the info we needed to ensure a happy stay in the guest harbor.
The trip had taken us 62.5 hours. In that time we covered 440nm miles. This gave us an average speed of just above 7 knots for the entire trip. Not amazing, but pretty damned good. We were certainly happy and ready to enjoy Falmouth.
09-10-2008
Amsterdamming
Having arrived safely in Amsterdam, Lauren and I set out to enjoy ourselves in town. Though I had a long list of things I wanted to do with the boat, Lauren only had a few days before she had to return home to the US, so I took the time “off” to hang out and have fun. Taking time “off” is a strange concept when I in truth don’t really have any work to do, so I’m technically speaking always “off”. Any boatowner will however tell you that this is not the case. When you have a boat, you’re never unemployed and you’ll never run out of things to do, fix or improve.
What was good, was that we were able to move the boat from the marina in IJmuiden, which lies an hour on the bus outside of Amsterdam, into the center of Amsterdam. Going through the locks was a bit of nerve-wrecking, since we had no idea what to expect … or what to do, but it worked out. Staying in Amsterdam with the boat gave us a great starting point to explore the town… and explore we did. Her last days flew by and before I knew it, I was driving her to the airport in the Worlds smallest car. It was amazing that we were able to fit all her luggage inside. Though the Smart car is tiny and not particular fast, I still managed to get two speeding tickets on the way. Damned speeding cameras.
With Lauren on the way home, I started working on the boat. I had a long list of things that needed to be done, first on the list was getting the boat lifted out of the water. This was done with a mobile crane, which weighed my boat in at 10tons. Again I was more than a little nervous, because the crane seemed to puny and my boat so big, but in the end we encountered no problems.
With the boat firmly on land, I was just about to get cracking when Knut walked around the corner. He was joining me for the next three weeks and to be honest I was very happy to see him. Not only because it meant I had someone there to help me with the work, but also because the boat became very empty when Lauren left.
Knut and I went to work and hammered away at my do-list, which included: raising the anti-fouling by 10 cm (this so that I would be prepared for the heavier loads I’ll no doubt carry in the future), we swapped the old 15m anchor chain and 45 meters of weighted line, with 100m of stainless steel chain. We also marked the chain every 5 meters, so that it’s easy to count how much chain has been dropped out. At the end we took off the 23kg CQR anchor and put on a brand spanking new 33kg Rocna anchor. With the brand new bridle, I’ll be ready to anchor anywhere around the globe. Finally I’m confident that I have a good anchoring system. Now the rest is up to me.
I also cleaned the propellers properly, removing a ton of chalk and growth from them. We did the same on the whole bottom. Let me just say that cleaning the bottom hull of a boat is a time consuming endeavor. I finally changed the non-operational bilge pumps, which was a relief after 2 months of disappointments. In short, we kept ourselves very busy. Having said that we enjoyed some fine meals in Amsterdam and onboard and even received a very nice visit from Edvard and some classmates of his.
When we were finally back on the water, we topped off our water tanks and re-pulled the snapped halyard, before we shot away from Amsterdam and headed back out towards the sea. We had arranged to pick up fuel in the morning, before we would cast off for Cherbourg. Though I had a great time in Amsterdam I was VERY ready to put it behind me and get moving south. The longer I waited the worse the weather would get and my chances of getting a good weather window would lessen. It was in high spirits we tied up along the fuel barge, to spend the night there, so that we could get off early the next day.
25-09-2008
Second attempt at IJmuiden
We spent a good weekend in Egersund reading, eating good food and relaxing, while we waited for good northerly winds, scheduled to arrive on Monday. We did get a bit of bad news, because Frode had to return to work, so it would only be Lauren and I that would make the passage down to Amsterdam. Lauren was a bit apprehensive about it, because the only sailing experience she had was from the first attempt at getting to Ijmuiden, which had been no fun at all. In the end she agreed and we changed her ticket, so that she we wouldn’t run into time constraints. She was supposed to fly back to Maryland on Thursday, which could have been tough if no wind materialized or if we had another mishap. She moved her flight to the following Monday, which would should be enough.
The Monday started exactly like the one a week earlier had: We went grocery shopping, topped off the diesel tanks and motored out to sea in search of wind. I was keeping my fingers crossed that September 22nd would be the date I actually managed to set sail from Norway. The date is actually very special to me, because it was the birthday of my grandmother Ingrid, the person I was closest to when growing up.
We left Egersund at 10:30am and met a very docile North Sea. Tiny waves and no wind. It continued in that fashion till about 7pm, when I decided to put up the gennaker to see if we could utilize the almost non-existent wind you could feel on deck. With the sail up and engines off, we were doing between 3.5 – 5 knots in 4 - 7 knots of wind. We weren’t flying, but we were moving and any movement without engines is welcoming. The sun set at 7:30pm and though the night the wind and waves gradually grew bigger. I didn’t want Lauren to be outside at night, because a boat can be tough to handle on your own in daylight if you’re new to sailing and leaving it in her hands at night wouldn’t have been fair, so I had a LONG nightshift. The wind and waves were working with us this time, so we were able to point directly at IJmuiden. Progress was good, the wind peaked at around 15 knots and we were sailing at around 10 knots. I opted not to use the mainsail, because I lack enough experience with the boat, to confidently handle the main and and gennaker efficiently. Sailing wouldn’t have been a problem, but reefing or taking down one or both at the same time, by myself, could have been tough. Soon I’ll have that confidence, but not right now.
I was very happy that I only had one sail up at 11:50am the next day, when a loud whip-like crack rang through the air. I looked forward and saw my brand new gennaker slowly disappear away from the boat to lay down perfectly in the North Sea. The halyard had snapped. The sock started sinking and it looked like it would take the sail with it. I let go of one of the sheets and managed to winch the sail in with the remaining sheet, and then pull it onboard once I got a hold of some fabric. All in all I was lucky and only got a small tear in the gennaker and an even smaller one in the sock. I think the holes happened when I pulled them onboard, but if the choice was between loosing them and making a small hole, I'd make a hole any day.
My spirit sank a little, because my percentage now is 100%. On every longer passage a sail has broken. The big gennaker ripped with capital R when I was sailing to Norway, the jib on the first attempt to get to IJmuiden and now the second gennaker on the second attempt to IJmuiden. I fired up the engines to see what speed I could attain. Doing 2750 rpm I was able to do 7 knots. I was happy with that and set the course for IJmuiden and let Otto take care of the rest.
I haven’t had much luck with my sails. In my … or their defense I have to repeat what the sail maker here in IJmuiden said about them when he went over them before I sailed to Norway. My main and jib are racing sails. They are awesome for that, but they need to be treated like gold. Prior to me buying the boat they had just been hanging on the boat all year round for 3 years, which is kind of like leaving a dog in your car with all the windows closed during the peak of summer. The sails were hurting badly and the sail maker said that they could last one trip or a year or two, but he doubted that they would last longer. So it was in the back of my mind when they tore, but it’s still painful when it happens. The gennaker that went for a swim is brand new and with the exception of the little hole it got now, is in perfect condition and should last me a few years. I do however need to go over my halyards to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. The new jib I’m getting is in Dacron and to supplement my other older gennaker that ripped on the way to Norway, I’m buying a brand new one in the same size. The older sails I’m planning to repair and have as back-ups while I use the new ones as my working horses. It hurts to spend so much on sails, when I have so little money to spare right now. Still, I can’t let a broken sail or two (or three) bring me down too far, I need to roll with it. Lauren says that I’m good at making lemonade out of lemons and this has been a good confirmation of that.
To get back to the trip to IJmuiden: After I started the engines we motored straight down to the Netherlands, aided by waves, wind and current. I was actually surprised at how swiftly it went. Otto managed beautifully the whole time, so we spent most of the time inside, keeping watch from there. It’s great that we have full visibility from inside in all directions. It made the passage enjoyable, because we could chill out and relax while the nautical miles clicked by. We even watched Return of the Jedi while we were motoring along the Dutch coast. At 11:30pm, exactly 61 hours after setting sail from Egersund I jumped ashore on the dock in Seaport Marina IJmuiden and tied us up. We had traveled 365 nm and our average speed was 6 knots. I was unhappy about only sailing for 16.5 hours and motoring the rest, but we got here in high spirits and aside from the hole in the gennaker and the torn halyard there’s little to complain about. Now I’m docked in position: N 52°27.592 E004°33.708. The plan is to spend 1 week in IJmuiden. I’m putting on a new anchor (a Rocna 33), new anchor chain and a new bridle. I'll also be fixing the broken halyard, the bilge pumps, along with some other stuff that needs to be done. Lastly I’m going to haul the boat out of water to give her a proper scrub underneath, change the zinc anodes and find out how much she really weights (this has been a big discussion on a forum online). I have my work cut out for me, but first I’m going to enjoy today and tomorrow in Amsterdam, because it’s something I didn’t really do the last time I was here. It is after all much more fun to party with someone, than go at it alone.
19-09-2008
Prekestolen (The Pulpit rock)
With the boat tied up in Egersund, we decided to do a bit of hiking in the area around Stavanger. One of the most visited places in the vicinity is called the Pulpit rock or Prekestolen in Norwegian. I had to show Lauren what proper Norwegian nature looks like and Prekestolen never fails to impress. Frode was supposed to come along, but he hit the town the night before with Iselin (my half-sister) and was severely hung-over and in no mood or condition to go hiking.
We grabbed a pair of bikes and rolled down to the ferry terminal. When I say we grabbed a pair of bikes, we really did. Lauren borrowed my mom’s and I, well, I “borrowed” a bike from one of my mom’s neighbors … but the neighbor never knew that I borrowed it. Hey, if you don’t lock your bike … Anyways, it was returned in a better shape than when I found it, because I filled the tires with air, so no foul.
We were lucky with the ferry we caught, because it corresponded with a bus that drove us straight up to the Prekestolen hytta or a hostel that lies at the beginning of the trail. While Lauren waited for the bus I biked like a madman to the nearest store to buy some supplies for the hike. Had I taken a minute longer we would have missed the bus, but I didn’t, so we had both water and a bunch of pastries and rolls to snack on. We grabbed a coffee at the hostel and started on the 2 hour hike to the Pulpit. We were lucky with the weather, because it didn’t rain and with no fog either we could really enjoy the views the trail offered.
The Pulpit is breathtaking and even though I’ve been there a number of times it never fails to impress. The crazy 600 meter drop straight down looks amazing when you lie on your stomach and pop your head over the edge. There was a cold draft at the top, so we didn’t stay long, but we did get all the obligatory shots.
We managed to dodge the crowds as we made our way up and down and had a great hike. When we returned to Stavanger we headed to my mom’s apartment and made an excellent dinner. My mom was out of town and kindly let us borrow her apartment. We were able to chill out and get back on top of our game again. The forecast was looking promising for setting sail on the 22nd, so we returned to Egersund to spend the weekend there.