Were we ever at sea?

Sitting at my laptop, deep in the Finnish countryside. We finally arrived the day before yesterday and already, after having got the boat moored in, emptied and cleaned and slightly celebrated the achievement, it all feels somehow like a distant dream. We sat down last night to look at some of the photos and it felt like the first part of the trip that only started a little over two weeks ago, was ages ago.

But arrive we did on Saturday the 13th and with some style! The storm which was due on Sunday and was the cause of our slightly rushed schedule arrived a day early. So, all of a sudden the wind changed from NE to SW and after a foggy morning and some careful monitoring of the radar, the sky cleared and the wind picked up. We took in one reef and continued. After a while it became evident that the wind was getting stronger - at this point we did not yet know that the storm was early. Statistics of Finland's biggest and very popular annual off shore race, the Suursaari race tell the tale of what we got through - out of 113 boats that started only 18 finished. The conditions were the toughest ever for this race and fortunately there weren't any serious injuries, just torn sails and seasickness etc.

The main came down to the 2nd reef and I took out the no 3 jib altogether. Soon that proved to be a good call. We were travelling downwind at somewhere between 7-10 knots and the waves were as big as you'd probably ever see in the Baltic, about 6-7 metres. The sun came out and that lifted the spirits for the final challenge. Slender Delta showed what she was made of and carried us through the weather really well, and I guess we all felt that we'd be able to deal with anything now.

Against the howling wind, we moored into the friendly and safe harbour of the Finnish Yachting Club, Suomalainen Pursiseura in Sirpalesaari Island, right off the Southern coastline of the Finnish capital, just a stone's cast or a two minute ferry run from 'terra firma' proper. The Viking Quest of the Slender Delta and our little adventure was over...for now.

Ha-harr,

Ahab

Refuelling in Helsinki

Visby, Gotland

North Sea Sailing

North Sea views

North Sea Oil Rig

Through the Sealock to the North Sea

The Caledonian Canal

Scottish lakes

Scottish waters

In Bangor Marina

Masthead views

Boat interior

Launch, Killyleagh

Last leg under way!!

Arrived in Visby around 6 am. Not a soul in sight for a moment. Found the gest harbour without difficulty and moored in. The free watch, Fuss and Consultant carried on sleeping, Law, I and Chief Eng snapped a few photos and walked over to the passenger terminal of the Visby - Stockholm ferries for a cup of coffee and a sandwich. The café opened at 0630 as the ferry was preparing to leave around 7.05 and the terminal started getting busier.

The others woke up and Fuss added to our sandwiches with a fry, which upon our request was a little smaller than usual. Soon the services opened too and we rushed for the showers and refuelled 74.9 litres of diesel, confirming the consumption of our trusty Yanmar 3GM 30F at about 2 litres per hour, mostly driven at 2200 revs. Very reasonable against the winds and waves that we had pushed.

It would have been rude not to have a look around Visby, and the old part of it with medieval walls and beautiful churches and narrow alleys, so Fuss and Consultant went on a walkabout and Chief Eng and I hired bicycles for an hour, snapping photos as we went. Chief Eng then gave his bike to Law for half an hour to ride, so everybody got a feel of this place, well worth seeing.

Then we bought takeaway lunches and giving our chef a rest, enjoyed the lunches onboard. Law showed solidarity to Fuss and did the dishes and tidied up in the pentry too. Cast off was called at 1200 and without delay we set sail finding a North-Northwesterly beat at 340 degrees against a 30 degree NNE wind, which was blowing at 13.5 knots. After a couple of hours of fun sailing it became evident that until the NNE wind changed our progress would not meet the demands of the timetable. We tacked, started the engine and set a 53 degree course towards the Gulf of Finland.

Soon we will lose the mobile network coverage and will not be able to post updates until much closer to Helsinki, where we’d like to arrive on Saturday afternoon, the latest. It will be a tough ask with over 250 nautical miles to go, but we will give it a go. The wind direction should change by Saturday the latest, so we hope to finish the Viking Quest with our sails up, in a South-Southwesterly breeze.

There will probably be one final chapter in this blog in Helsinki and some photos posted a few days later. Life at sea isn’t too bad when you’ve got a great crew, good provisions and very importantly a great yacht, like Slender Delta. So the toughest task ahead will be settling back into reality and forgetting about Moby Dick for a while.

Variable winds and expectations

Variable winds and expectations

Wed 9 June. Went through the night again, as we would. The wind picked up towards the evening and kept going long into the night. Did some fabulous sailing, managing over 6 knots with only about 10 kts of wind - reasonable ratio. The Kevlar main that we put on in Helsingör is working really well with the no 2 genoa. Some fog during the night and the visibility severely affected as a consequence. Chief Eng and Law fortunate had the radar on to avoid a potential hazard in the form of an oncoming ship, which would more than likely have detected us but had we not seen it and pushed in its way, who knows what could have happened!. We decided the second hand instrument had proved its worth and paid for itself.

Arrived at the Southern tip of the Öland Island in the morning and enjoyed a lovely omelette with lumps of meat in it. A real protein pack for a rainy day, which this 9th of June unfortunately turned out to be. Well, some half-decent wind again and never mind the cloud cover and the wee drizzle. The Easterly breeze that was carrying us along the East coast of Öland would start to turn into a North-Easterly one, Mr Mountain phoned fresh info from Helsinki, so we decided to motor out to North-East to be able to sail a long leg North past the Northern tip of Öland with a wind that is getting stronger, just nicely. If the winds really turn against us, we will still have about 20hrs worth of fuel, which will easily get us to Visby for some more.

At 15.30 which is just about now, got reef no 1 in on the main as the wind is about 15 kts, more in gusts, and cruising along at 6 kts, Speed Over Ground. With a little bit of luck we’ll get past the tip of Öland on this bearing of 24 degrees and will not need to tack again.Our expectation is still to be in Visby by the morning.

Thanks to all mermaids for their encouragement. Seamonsters comments are welcome too

Time is of the essence

Tuesday 8 June. Out to Trelleborg before breakfast to find a cash machine - the Pro wouldn’t take cards. A friendly bus driver understood the situation and gave a free ride to town.When I got back to the boat the new part had already been fitted and everything was working like never before. Cast off at Gisloev Laeget at 11.30 and out to sea.

Made a phone call to the Swedish military info phone to hear that there was no shooting on the coastal range areas, which allowed a shorter course along the coast. The military didn’t seem particularly amused about a suggestion about them having run out of budget provision for ammo, but appreciated our joy about sailing through their area. Mr Mountain, our trusty weatherman and naval colleague in Finland had given us very accurate info about wind force and direction, so the sails were pulling nicely but not quite at the desired speed, so we decided to do motor assisted sailing.

Chief Eng and Law took the first 4-hour-watch and I plotted the route all the way to Oeland Island where we’ll reassess the course with the wind speed and direction in mind. Doing motor sailing, we’ll need to be conscious of the fuel situation and although we’d like to push on as fast as we can, we’ll probably need to refuel around Gotland, the latest. Fuss and others too wouldn’t mind seeing Visby, the main town of the beautiful Island in the middle of the Baltic, so we might well decide to pop in.for a couple of photos, souvenirs and some diesel. The weather is quite nice with the sun peeking through some high shreds of clouds. Things are looking up again!

The 13th of June will possibly be borderline stormy with 40 knots of wind on the Gulf of Finland, so we're now dreaming of arrival on the 12th some time. Will not bother to plot all the way through but ain't gonna be wasting time now.

Ahab

Change of plans - A Wet Welcome to the Baltic and a delay

The night time voyage was very smooth to begin with. Too smooth in fact with no wind. Well, we settled the duty roster and started again to motor on in shifts. Fuss, who was promoted First Officer upon the departure of Dynamo took on Consultant and Chief Engineer joined forces with Lawyer. A change of shifts happened nicely just as we passed under the fairly recent famous structure, the bridge from Sweden to Denmark, over the Flintrannan, so everybody got to see this monster of a construction and its huge, well lit pylons as they are at night.

By the morning the wind picked up. The Baltic was trying to match the North Sea with regard to wind speed. First 20 kts, then 25 and increasing. On top of that lashing rain was in our faces and the wind was dead agains us. We were struggling to keep Slender Delta on course and after a couple of hours of very little progress, increasing crashing into the waves and decresing speed, Fuss was suggesting plan B be put in place.

So we headed for the Swedish South Coast and found a nice little marina called Gisloevs Laege. The place was neat and tidy with nobody in sight. We moored in and went on a reconnaissance walk. Found nobody around but showers etc. facilities available and open. There was also a pizza restaurant nearby, that was promising to open at 1100. We had a long nice pizza session, headed back for the boat and decided to carry on, weather permitting.

I got an excellent weather report from a Naval Officer colleague in Helsinki - the home port of the best pirates in the Baltic and it looked like we would be sailing into the night with good speed. The wind had turned into our favour over a long pizza session. Just needed to refuel and we'd be away.

Well, again we were unlucky but fortunate: the gear shif lever, that Consultant had in the heavy sea going accidentally rammed his body into, failed to operate. We decided it was time to call in the pro, whose number we got from the fuel guy who was only a phone call away. The Pro came, saw but did not conquer. He said we'd need a new part and it was too late today. We did not argue with him - without the engine we would really struggle to meet our deadline. The Pro said he'd get the part from Malmo and be back first thing in the morning. Lucky we had got into the harbour before the problem demonstrated itself.

So here we are, stranded in Southern Sweden, missing our loved ones in the miserable grey, rainy weather, with a broken gear shift lever. We need all the ingenuity of the multi-talented crew to pull us through. Consultant is already working on various options and Lawyer is considering their legal implications, that means they have found a carton of red wine. Fuss is cooking something special and somehow I think we will survive. Flaming Sambucas, survive we will! We owe it to all our loved ones, fans and supporters.

At the door of the Baltic Sea

Both good news and bad. Having rounded the nose of Denmark, Skagen, we sailed again overnight at good speed. Had to reef twice not to be over-powered by the howling wind which again blew at 25 knots. Well, that suited us as we wanted to be sure to be in Helsingoer early enough to get the Lawyer and the Consultant. The instruments showed again top speeds of 8.4 knots and the boat was very steady on the waves.

Kattegat, as expected had a lot of big ships that were passing us on both sides, coming and going. However, the visibility was good and even at night there was no need for the radar, which was on standby. Perhaps it was the radar, perhaps the fridge but we hadn't needed the engine at all as the wind was so good and so the battery no 2 had not been charged for a while and ran flat - how did we discover this? Well, at 0300 in the morning the gas alarm went off and as the bottle had been carefully closed, it did not take us long to figure out the gas alarm had to have a warning about losing the primary power source.

Well, we turned on the engine to charge up the battery but weren't as careful as with the gas bottle...forgetting to open the cooling water seacock. Got the engine overheat alarm tested too! We let the trusty Yanmar to cool down properly before restarting it. Saved! It worked as ever.

Going was good through the morning and so we arrived in Helsingoer slightly ahead of estimates, around 4 pm. Got together with our friends and started frantically to rearrange the space onboard. Decided to take the kevlar race main out put the trusty dacron main in storage as it required less space. At this point Dynamo, to our great regret decided to pull out and fly home from Copenhagen - he had always kept his options open and not bought a return flight. Our warmest thanks to him for a brilliant effort, invaluable input and good camaraderie. So, slightly sombre moods for losing one crew member but wishing him all the best and a well deserved good night's sleep, where-ever he puts his head down next. I think he'll sleep very well in deed.

We've eaten well, stocked up the provisions and will now head into the night for Bornholm on the Swedish South-East coast. The Viking Quest continues!

Land Ahoy!

The potentially challenging part of our passage, the North Sea crossing started well. At first there was the sailing along the Scottish coast from Inverness from early Monday evening through the night. So back to our 4 hour shift routine, but this time there would be no land in sight for days. The nights are quite pleasant actually. You start to lose the sense of time. Shifts follow one another and you plot your position on the chart, make wind strength and direction and other possible observations if there's anything to see, take turns at the wheel, change sails or just trim them. You fiddle with the radar and GPS plotter and of course log all of this in the logbook. Two men sleep heavily, sometimes snoring, as you work away in the eerie glow of the instruments. On deck, not many words are necessarily exchanged, but sometimes thoughts are shared and conversations had as well.

On Tuesday morning we finally started losing sight of land. The promised favourable wind was carrying us along nicely and we were looking forward to this experience.

Time flies when you’re having fun. The dreaded North Sea, knowing what it can be like was very kind to us for a day. Then we started losing wind, which was totally contrary to all the horror stories of this area but naturally happens here too. So, the crossing was going to be sailing, motoring and motor sailing, depending on the wind conditions.

The first oil field wasn't too far off the coast, in fact the shore was probably just about still in sight when we spotted the structure. Imagine what we build in search of the black sludge that is now destroying marine life on the coasts of Florida. I would ban oil drilling tomorrow, but I guess it would mean giving up some nice cars, and it is kind of reassuring to have the diesel engine onboard this vessel too.
The VHF radio fell silent and Dynamo was concerned that it had failed us. I suggested that it was the fact that simply wasn't anybody within tens of miles using it. We had had our electrical gremlins before, though, so I was looking for an Albatross flying overhead but saw just Kittywakes.

Kittywakes follow trawlers, so on Thursday we saw some fishing vessels. Thursday morning the wind wasn't again giving us the set minimum speed of 5 knots, so we had to motorsail to get the desired speed. Gradually the wind started to pick up. For a spell we had the spinnaker up but started sensing stronger winds were coming. We changed first to no 1 genoa and then a good call, said Fuss, to a smaller no 3.. We also reefed the main and surely enough soon there was 15to 20 kts wind speed and the swell was growing. It would have been a lot harder work to change the sails any later. Not so much for the wind but the big waves. But this was more like the North Sea - fun and sport, the stuff that the stories are made of, something to brag about. The wind grew stronger and by the night we had taken the main down to reef no 2 and still had the no 3 jib. The night was fairly hard work as we and the boat were slightly tested. Chief Engineer and Dynamo's shift got the most of the winds gusting over 30 knots and they were clearly wet and tired coming off - a couple of big waves had broken over the cockpit with a big splash but hadn't broken their spirits!

Not a soul in sight for a day and a half, other than oil fields that we passed during the day and night time, when they looked like xmas decorations in the horizon. We didn't pass any closer than about 7nm. And then, not even the oil fields. The rumour about mobile phones working in the proximity of the oil rigs was proved wrong, other than on one occasion near a Norwegian rig the mobile phone rang all of a sudden and I got to reply to a question of removing a satellite aerial on top of our office building, as it was in the way of some work. A phone call from another world - a strange feeling.

Having lost the sight of land on Tuesday morning we knew, plotting on, that by Friday night we'd have Denmark in our sights. Increasing number of big ships and cumulus clouds in the horizon were the first visual give-aways. The wind died down again and the engine neutral button got stuck. Chief Eng pushed the gear in place from inside the hull so we could motor on but as the weather was sunny and calm I called a halt to see if we could repair it properly - after all we would soon need both the gears and neutral, if we were going to moor in in a strange harbour - the fuel had run low and the men needed a good night's sleep so the decision was made to overnight in Hirtshals on the Danish west coast near the tip of Jutland.

Moored in in the darkness and got a nice welcome from the Harbour Office by VHF. Onto Sydkajen and soon we were asleep. No wake up call, just got up when we felt like it, around 9 o'clock. Then Fuss's excellent fry, some provisions and a 100 litres of diesel. The harbour master, Jens, brought it by car in cans as they had no pump for visiting boats. There were some friendly Norwegians moored in in a new Bavaria 44 and maybe about 10 other boats but that was all there was room for. Jens said the place was getting more popular as a stop-over and new berths for visitors would be in the cards for the autumn.

We got a nice new set of cutlery from Hirtshals, as Fuss, doing the dishes asked me to empty the used water overboard, without telling me the cutlery was in the bottom of the bucket. Well, I have to give it to him, he did not ask me to throw the cutlery out, just the water. Harr, harr, so no keel-hauling for him just yet...

The good weather continues. We left Hirtshals today, well rested, showered etc. at around 14.30 to head downwind towards Skagen, the northernmost point of Denmark (obviously not taking Greenland into account), which we just passed, turning on a great reach, steady 7.5 knots, towards Helsingoer, where we should pick up Lawyer and Consultant sometime tomorrow evening. Looking forward to getting them on and figuring out where we'll put them with all the sails and other stuff now occupying the fore cabin...Well, if we continue to work shifts, that is the answer, I guess.

So, thanks to this great crew, the North Sea crossed, into the Kattegat now and onto the Baltic. A bearded greeting for all our readers.

Ahab

North Sea here we come!

'Flaming Sambucas', says Captain Ahab,'We're at Sea again!'

A cloudy morning in Fort Augustus after a beautiful day and a nice quiet night on the canal mooring. Good showers and facilities on this canal. We got up again at sevenish, only to learn that the lock wouldn't open until 9. Well, on a boat there's always something to do, organising and of course checking weather forecasts and planning ahead.

The first leg was pure joy. We descended onto the famous Loch Ness and after a short while realised that there was quite a good wind directly from behind. That meant of course spinnaker practise. The purple and white chute shot up really fast and before long we were cruising down the loch at little over 8 knots at the best of times. Just as if to celebrate our lone passage through the lake with no monsters but the bearded crew of our boat, a couple of RAF Tornados flew over really low and a bit over 8 knots, we estimated. Quite a sight.

After the loch we started motoring down the remaining locks and the weather picked up and hey, presto! Another beautiful, warm day! Some of us had to do a bit of writing, though and remain inside. A few locks down, arriving in Inverness we decided that the toilet seat needed repaired before the North Sea passage and additional crew from Denmark. I got off at the lock and took a taxi to the nearest Chandlery, called 'Gael Force', pun intended, surely.

Found new hinges for the seat and of course some other odds and sods, bits and bobs, like a sea anchor or drogue to slow down in case of severe downwind surfing. And duct tape, of course! How could have we got so far without it? Meanwhile Fuss stocked up the provisions at Lidls and ChiefEng and Dynamo fuelled up the diesel and filled up the drinking water. The diesel consumption of the Yanmar 27hp was a bit of a shock! A positive one! Instead of the estimated 2.5litres per hour it would seem that the solid diesel only burns about 1.5 per hour! Incredible! Total engine hours in Inverness about 31. There's a few hours of idling too to keep the batteries charged and fridge ticking etc. and of course the laptops charged for writing blogs and some other important scripts.

It took surprisingly long, however, to clear the passage to Inverness partly due to oncoming traffic and partly the traffic across the swing bridges and at the last two locks a train that was quite a bit late and certainly frustrated your humble narrator, who was particularly anxious to get out to sea and on the way with the ebb. High tide was at 16.30 and the locks closed at 1800. On this occasion they decided to do a bit of overtime to get us out (it must have been because I was staring at them through the hole of my Lucky Irish Connemara stone, that turns enemies into friends, and we finally, snapping photos, pushed down into the sea at 1830. All were in good spirits and to dot the i and cross the t Fuss cooked a lovely pasta with succulent pork in a tomato-onion sauce.

The last lock gave us a really good forecast for the North Sea, so my estimate for a time of Arrival in Helsingor, Denmark would now be on Saturday 5th some time. It is now 22.50. Dynamo and ChiefEng will do the first watch until 0100. Fuss is already asleep and I should rest too, before we come on. Soon we will lose the coverage of the UK mobile network, unless some of the North Sea oil rigs have aerials. Pity also, that I haven't managed to post any pictures into the blog, partly just being too busy and to a large part, the slow connections that do not support uploading big photos - servers time out, you see.

Harr, harr, harr

Ahab