Overseas

As you can read in the blog “When will she leave for Holland?“, from the beginning of May, we have been keeping a hopeful eye on the ferry cards from the Atlantic. The current owners, along with a friend from Holland, were also sitting there ready to go. If a good time came, they could leave. The friend from Holland has the whole month of May, so no problem….or at least…

After 2 or 3 weeks we conclude that the weather is still too changeable, with strong storms what in this time of year “usually” not so bad, but yes 2022 is just a little different. The friend from the Netherlands has to go back by plane, the weeks have gone by without a positive result.

But then what? Fortunately, the current owners know someone (Rob) who would like to come along, he only has to “just” fly over from Canada … Fortunately, he is willing and has plenty of time, so we are one step further. And then May 30, I look at the map and I see 2 predictions that both give a positive picture. I ask in the App group what they think and they have come to the same conclusion. Thursday, June 2, they leave. Everything arranged, just under 1700NM to go and the mooring lines are untied.

The first 20 hours the engine is on continuously because there is no wind. Now that is not a problem, but when there is a high swell, the boat swings quite a bit. Hans (current owner) really doesn’t like engines and is very disappointed. We can follow Rob and Hans remotely via MarineTraffic until the boat doesn’t seem to move anymore. What is going on? Have they had bad luck? It all turns out to be not so bad. MarineTraffic doesn’t pick up all the signals. If you are too far from the coast, there is no more update. Fortunately Carla (Hans’ wife, not Roelof’s wife) updates us every day with coordinates. Every day she gets a short text mail from Hans with the status. Linde has an SSB-radio with which you can send short text messages via radio-waves very slowly.

This way we hear that Rob is seasick because of the enormous swell. By now I know that anyone can get seasick, even if you sail all your life. Unfortunately, it is happening to Rob now. This means that Hans has to take over some of Rob’s tasks.

The weather is very changeable. They have had long periods of rain, and it has also been cold. So cold that gloves and scarf have been used.

Eventually we get the message that they expect to be in Brest(France) after a week. That sounds fantastic close by. Eventually the wind turns out to be different and they will not be in Brest. They expect that they will have to refuel in England or the Channel Islands.

For those of you who are wondering about fuel, water, etc., there is usually not a very large fuel tank on a sailing boat. What is common is that you fill jerry cans with fuel and attach them to the deck. In this way you can spend many hours on the engine, but at some point you will run out of fuel. The same goes for drinking water. The tank is a bit bigger, but that too will be empty. Fortunately, Linde has a water maker on board. It can turn salt water into drinking water.

But anyway, the canal. In the meantime Carla has given us an url on which we can follow Linde ourselves. Via the SSB radio the gps coordinates are sent to the internet. At the moment they are in the canal I see that they are doing 9 knots through the canal… about 17 km/h! I don’t understand for a moment, but by now Hans is also back online in the app group. They are close enough to the coast to have a signal with the mobile phone. Through the channel, they have a current and a nice wind. That goes well.

Because of the amount of miles they make in one day, they decide not to stop at all and to sail directly to IJmuiden!

Tuesday, June 14 they arrived in IJmuiden. The engine was on a lot the last few days as well, so Hans quickly looked for a harbor in IJmuiden to turn it off. Rest.

After a night’s sleep, the men leave for Marina Amsterdam. That’s where Linde is now. And what to do next? Tomorrow Carla and I will go to Amsterdam and have a blind date with Linde, or a Married at First Sight or what exactly. Tomorrow we will see her and spend the night with her. Saturday we are going to sail Linde from Amsterdam to Lemmer together with Hans. During that trip we hope to learn a lot about the boat from Hans. We are taking cameras and microphones with us, so that we can watch and listen to everything Hans said later on. I think this will be a lot of information.