After a very nice sail from Sassnitz and a beautiful quiet night at anchor just outside the Ryck, we arrived at our home port in Greifswald this morning after 13 months and just over 14,000 nautical miles.
We had Brian’s champagne and Zoe’s cuban cigar for a small celebration. I will write more later…
Zissi and I are sailing from Sassnitz towards Greifswald. There is a light breeze just enough to sail. The sun is out and it’s warmer than it has been for weeks. We had left Rødvig on Monday night and were able to make it to Sassnitz in 16h between two fronts. I had dived and cleaned the hull in Rødvig in the (for me) ice cold water and that had helped a good deal.
I had been wanting to write about Zissi’s and my trip home from Lemvig. I may still do it later but the weather has been keeping us on edge for so long that I haven’t found the time and right now I am in no mood to write much.
We have been changing plans every day since I arrived after crossing the North Sea. Zissi arrived one week later and we spent a nice sunny and calm Monday in Lemvig. After that the weather turned to shit. We took off on Tuesday with forecasted 30kn gusts. Our anemometer recorded 50kn gusts and then broke off the mast. We made it into a fairly protected anchorage where we experienced thunderstorms and 35kn gusts all through the night.
We left Brightlingsea on Friday morning. The sail out of the Thames Estuary turned out to be easy. We were met by one cold front on the second day that left us tacking on the spot for a few hours but passed fairly quickly. After that we had one great sail across the North Sea all the way to Thyborøn where we entered the channel and continued to Lemvig. Here we will wait until Zissi arrives on Sunday and then continue together. I made a short film about the crossing.
I had been sweating terribly all through the night. I wasn’t feeling very bad but definitely not good but I decided to go ahead anyway. I was guided to the eastern entrance by Dover Port Control over the radio and then motored along the cliffs into the sunrise which was beautiful.
There was still a bit of a wave outside and the wind was blowing force 5. Since we had the waves on the beam it was a bit uncomfortable but soon got better as wind and waves diminished towards sunset. We went past Brighton and Beachy Head. Then it it became dark but the moon came out. It was a lovely sail. I had expected having to motor for at least the second half of the night but we were able to sail all the way to the western entrance of Dover harbour.
I am beginning to believe that the weather is trying to make fun of me. Friday had been a great sunny day with no clouds. I wasn’t even out of the harbour when it began to get dark, foggy and rainy. We had to motor against the wind but with the tide out of the Goulet de Brest but were going to have a nice wind on the beam when we turned the corner and sailed the Chenal du Four between Ushant and the coast. Of course it didn’t turn out that way. What we did have was no wind and fog that was so thick and moist that it felt like rain.
The Harbor Festival was in full swing. I borrowed a bicycle from the harbor office to make a run into Brest and have a look. There was a huge crowd and hardly anything to see. Most was taking place out on the water.
I went to the local Decathlon store and bought a pair of deck shoes. My old one had disintegrated in the UV light. For the next day I had an invitation to go out sailing with the Altensa crew from Wales and I didn’t want to show up with those rags of shoes of mine. We went out around noon and I think I’ve never seen so many ships in one place.
I had originally wanted to make another movie of this passage and I do have a bit of footage. In the majority of the shots you would have seen me whining and complaining about the weather. So I decided to write about the trip instead and try to be a bit more matter-of-fact and less emotional about it.
I left Angra on Thursday, June 27 in the afternoon for the 1200 nautical passage to the Scilly Islands in England. I had gone for a swim at the city beach, the weather was beautiful and I was ready to go. I had said goodbye to Andi and Kudi who had left a few hours before and to Gerrit and Manuel who were staying.
We were going to have the wind on the nose for quite some time. That much was clear but I was hoping to be able to sail against it without too much tacking and the weather didn’t look like it was going to get any better soon.
I am in the marina in Angra waiting for the Customs officers to check Amy and me and give us permission to travel to England. Our plan is to leave today in the afternoon for the Isles of Scilly.
The sail over here from Horta was rougher than expected and I arrived very tired on Sunday around noon. The harbour master was very friendly and told me with a smile that because of the celebration week of San Ioannis there would be no sleep possible between 12 midnight and 6am for the next week. I thought he was joking and happily accepted being overjoyed to get a berth in the marina despite the huge fiesta.
