I had wanted a weather window like the one when I had sailed to Scotland with winds from the east, a blocking high reaching across Ireland and pretty much nothing to worry about weatherwise.
It was not to be. The best I could come up with included leaving Tuesday afternoon after the storm had just abated but nasty waves were still to be expected. Then being hit by a cold front on Wednesday to Thursday night and getting into harbour on Saturday as early as possible because of another low creeping up the channel and making for nasty weather.
But at least with winds from the west to northwest (northwest was never to be as it later turned out) I would be able to sail southwest. Very close hauled but not needing to tack my way upwind.
But first I had other stuff to do in Lemvig. Go for a walk to check out the town. Get rid of the sandbox that used to be part of the playground next to me but thanks to the storm was now located on my boat ( I had been waiting for the kids to come and play but that never happened). Take apart and clean the windvane. It had been immersed in sand too. Check the engine again and voilà… another problem… the stern gland was leaking. Very fortunately John from the yard in Littlehampton where my brother and I had bought Amy was able to help via WhatsApp and we got that problem sorted out.
Then went grocery shopping. Preferably canned and dried food because I already had a feeling there wouldn’t be any great chef’s experiments on this passage.
I had also found a name for our new crewmember, the windvane who was tirelessly steering us to whatever direction to the wind we desired. His name is now Wayne the vane. Welcome on board, Wayne.
We cast off the lines on Tuesday around noon and battled our way under engine against a fierce headwind and a nasty small choppy wave for the last 15 miles to Thyboroen and the open sea.
I set sails while still somewhat protected before going out to sea. Afterwards I think I would have never dared to go forward. Those waves were still humongous (for others they might just have been waves but for me they were like something out of the “Perfect Storm”.. for midgets probably… but still very impressive).
We tacked our way into the waves for a couple of hours with the engine running full throttle as support just to get away from the coast and the breakers. For a while we were accompanied by three dolphins who looked like they had a lot of fun. I had a lump in my throat but just looking at them made things easier.
It got much better towards nightfall and I left the helm to Wayne.
The next day the sea was almost smooth and it was great sailing except for the fact that we needed to stay so very close hauled and therefore the boat was healing over so far that every movement on board involved climbing on all fours.
But we now had some nice weather and I took a few pictures and even filmed a little bit.
Friday morning brought some thunderstorms and squall lines. Some with lots of wind under them some without any increase in wind. This kept me constantly reefing and unreefing. I was finally able to get a forecast via the HF radio and it didn’t look good at all for Saturday so I started saying goodbye to my plan to sail to Ramsgate and found another place near Harwich. The night had confused winds and slow progress and by early Saturday morning I received the first gale warning via the vhf. It became clear I wouldn’t make it to Harwich either.
So I started to turn around towards Lowestoft. Unfortunately the tide had just turned.I was going with a nice 2kn current towards the south. Going back, I now had this current against me but we made it into Lowestoft around 9 in the morning with no difficulties and a perfect spot to put Amy alongside in the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club.
Almost five days of going hard to windward turned out to be very strenuous and although the wind was probably never more than a force 5-6 gusting 7 it felt like it was too much for me.
There were some very nice and easy periods on this passage but they were overshadowed by the pounding and crashing into the waves and my fear that I was actually breaking the boat.
The yacht club is very friendly and nice (they have a dress code which I think I’m not fitting but nobody seems to notice) and while doing the laundry the next morning after a good long sleep I talked to John who invited me on his river barge for a Gin and Tonic in the evening. I had a great time.
