Middleburg to Veere. Mike's Birthday

Mike was feeling a little fragile from the night before, so I went shopping alone for fresh bread and to see Middleburg. My toe was still hurting, so I sprayed it with more anti swelling stuff and had a good morning wandering round town.

Classic boats were gathering from the Dutch Classics regatta next week, and Nancy Blackett was tied up in the Binnenhaven arm of the harbour. Clytie appeared in the harbour just as I got back there, so they were invited to the party at Veere and Mike got a call that Wendy and Phil from Spare Rib had just arrived at the Middleburg train station. We had been going to leave, but waited until they reached us (complete with cake), thenPhil joined us in Elfreda while Wendy went on Victoria.

We chugged through a wide canal, eating rather sumptuous Belgian cakes and meringue. There were no bridges on this section, but we had a long wait to enter the lock to lock out into the Veerse Meer, so we ate lunch. Mike sliced up the smoked eel we had bought in Oostend with the new knife I gave him for his birthday, and it went very well with the fresh bread from that morning.

There are minimal docking aids in the Veerse Meer lock, just four large metal rings with ropes strung between them. We were first into the lock, so had the dubious privilege of tying up on the wall. I was glad Phil was with us to help! The lock got really full behind and beside us; it would have been possible to walk all the way across the water on the decks...

It is not far from the lock to the harbour entrance, so we did not hoist the sails, just motored round past the castle and into the harbour.

The marina at Veere gets really busy, and the harbour master is very strict about where boats go. Luckily he was expecting us, having been briefed by Brian and Lorna Hammond who had come by car, so he put us on the main pontoon, with Victoria and Clytie rafted up outside.



Mike served Veuve de Vernay and snacks on board Elfreda that evening, then we headed to the Yacht Club for dinner where Mike got a selection of presents, including some pasta to make up for the meal he "missed" in Middleburg last night....

The yacht club doesn't have a DJ, but they do have a great selection of music and after dinner we had great fun dancing, including Lorna and Wendy who ended up dancing on the table with a local Dutchman.....

Boats attending:

Elfreda
Victoria
Clytie
Nancy Blackett

With crew from

Avola

Charm
Spare Rib
Robinetta

Oostend to Middleburg

Refilling the fuel tanks and cans was the first task of the day, so Mike, Howard, and I went to the petrol station just across the road from the Yacht Club with our empty cans. I stubbed my little toe badly on the bottom of the ramp going down onto the pontoon on the way back, and it swelled up too much for me to wear anything except the flip flops I had on at the time. I sprayed it with some anti swelling stuff that Mike had with him for his knee, and took ibuprofen.

Mike took me sightseeing round Ostend for the rest of the morning. We went in by tram, then we had coffee in the Royal North Sea Yacht Club before an early lunch in a frituur by the Mercator Yacht Harbour and the tram ride back to Elfreda. We cast off at 1300, just after Victoria, but she was on the outside berth, not a finger one and got clear before us.

Ostend is a busy ferry port, and other shipping is controlled by stop lights when the ferries are moving. I noticed the stop sign was lit just before we went past, so we hung around for about 15 minutes until it went out and we could follow Victoria.

By the time we cleared the harbour entrance Victoria was a dot in the distance with top sail and geneker set. We had got our sail up before we left the harbour since the wind was right, so it was just a case of turning onto our course and unfurling the jib. I had the helm, and aimed at the end of the Zeebrugge mole, so we were much further out than most of the other boats. We made between 2 and 3 knots, quite close to the wind, but there was still a little tide against us and when the wind failed we had to motor again, soon passing Victoria.

Zeebrugge is huge and ugly and they were dredging the entrance, but the tide turned strongly in our favour there and we belted along at 8 knots!

We reached Breskens and hung around waiting for Victoria. Going in there was the back-up plan, but Sue phoned to say Victoria was making good time, so we headed over to Vlissingen and locked into the Walcheren Canal. We turned the engine off and drifted around in the canal basin for about an hour until Victoria joined us. We then motored up to the first bridge, tied up, and waited for it to open which it did at 2030.

The canal was almost empty and we chugged along, towing a bucket so as not to break the speed limit, and playing tag with Victoria and 5 bridges. The one before Middleburg took ages to open, then it did just before 2200 (when bridge operations cease). Once through we turned off the canal and into the Middleburg harbour where we tied up on the shopping pontoon.



It was 2215, and Sue and Howard checked out the Yacht Club about food. Mike wanted pasta, but the kitchen was closed and all they could offer us was steak and chips from the grill. We were too hungry to go hunting for anything else, so we went in, and had beautifully cooked tournedos of filet steak with dill butter, garnished with fresh salad and served with freshly cooked double fried chips. All this from a yacht club whose chef really just wanted to go home! Two bottles of wine and several beers washed it down very nicely....

Brightlingsea to Oostend

The alarm went off at 0345 and we were dressed and ready by 0405. Mike turned the navigation electronics on, and the autohelm started beeping an alarm. There was a slight panic before we decided we did not have to have it for the crossing, then Mike tried to start the engine. No joy. He'd left the batteries switched to "both" and had the fridge on when the engine wasn't running.

Luckily Mike knows how to pull start the engine, and we were motoring away from the pontoon by 0420. Victoria was well ahead of us, and we could hardly see her in the distance, but there was enough light in the sky to see well, and none of it felt like sailing in the dark. We were well wrapped up though, with plenty of layers, sea boots, and oilskins.

We had a double reefed main on leaving, but had full sail up by 0630, and were motor sailing to try to catch Victoria. We were through the now un-buoyed Foulgers Gat before we caught sight of her with her spinnaker up....

We had a little chat then bore away and put our spinnaker up at 1000. By 1100 there was not enough wind to fill it and the motor went on again, as did the autohelm. Hand steering while motoring in a flat calm is to be avoided if there is any alternative! We overtook Victoria soon after that, but despite making a steady 5 knots the Thanet Wind Farm stayed in view to starboard for a very long time. I could see the Galloper wind farm way to the north as well. In weather like this it was almost possible to navigate by wind farm....

The tide took us down Channel so we crossed the shipping lanes close to the Foxtrot 3 LtV, where ferries cut across. We had little waltz with a ferry who seemed very aware of us and tried to keep away; good, but unexpected. The tide was still sweeping us down, and we passed close to the Hinder 1 safe water mark just before 1500. We relaxed a little once we were in the separation zone there, but Mike suddenly bolted down the companionway and turned off the engine. He'd heard a change in the exhaust note (I didn't) and realised something was blowing.

There were several large ships around, but nothing to threaten us.... yet. We were at a confluence of 3 shipping lanes in a narrow safe zone with a 2 knot tide sweeping us out of it (in the direction we wanted to go now, but not without power!) and virtually no wind. Mike turned off the autohelm (which can't work without steerage way) and asked me to try to sail Elfreda while he fixed the engine. The main just flogged so I had to sheet it in tight again, but there was just enough wind to fill the genoa and let me point the bows at the safe water mark to try to keep us in the separation zone. We managed to make 0.5 knot towards the mark while the tide kept sweeping us away. We were actually moving at 1.5 knots backwards while sailing .5 knot forward.

Meanwhile Mike threw water on the engine, which turned to steam immediately. The engine was horribly close to blowing up and setting fire to Elfreda. The overheat alarm had failed to work, so superhot steam coming out of the engine and melting the first plastic fitting it met was the first sign of something wrong.

The initial problem was the belt driving the cooling water pump. It had slipped off its fitting due to age, and Mike easily fitted his spare once the engine was cool enough to touch. The melted plastic exhaust elbow was more of a problem since the spare was in Maldon. Fortunately Mike had been talked into buying some NASA developed tape, guaranteed not to melt at under 8000C. He wrapped what was left of the plastic elbow in this, and turned over the engine. Success! There was no other damage to the engine! Mike then turned the engine off again and checked all the other exhaust connections for damage, primed the water pump, and off we went. The only obvious problem was a trickle of water from the just mended joint, but wrapping it in what was left of the roll of tape reduced this to an occasional drip.

We had lost sight of Victoria before we reached the shipping lanes, but she was in sight now, passing the Hinder buoy, so we motored back to give her an extra 10 litres of petrol.
She only carried just enough fuel for a motor crossing and if Elfreda had more problems we wanted her back up...


10 nm from Ostend Mike made me a Pimms and had a beer to celebrate the crossing and we had a substantial snack. We entered Ostend harbour with enough light to see by, and were approaching the Royal Ostend Yacht Club by 2115. The friendly harbour master called across to take any vacant finger pontoon, and once we were tied up came and told us the security code so we could head up to the Club house. The kitchen was closed (this being 2230 Belgium time), but Mike had kept us well fed during the crossing so it did not matter so long as the bar was open.

After about half an hour Mike thought he saw Victoria coming in, and went down to help her dock. He decided he'd been mistaken and came back to the bar, only to be followed in 5 minutes later by Sue and Howard, who mentioned this familiar figure on the dock who walked away just before he could take their lines....