To the Netherlands aboard Emmelène

I plan to sail to the Netherlands again this summer.

Last summer I enjoyed some relaxed sailing around the Solent in tandem with Chris Boxer aboard Emmelène, his split-rigged Coromandel. My health was (and still is) very limited by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and I spent what little energy I had on sailing rather than recording all my adventures and blogging. Sorry about that!

Chris explained that he’d very much like to sail Emmelène to the Netherlands, as I did in 2015, and asked if I’d be able to sail in tandem with Tammy Norie. I had to decline: I have to spend an average of 16 hours per day asleep, keeping me from making solo voyages. However, I felt I could go along with Chris aboard Emmelène as mate, to keep an eye on him and help him with any trouble. And so we hatched a plan.

Unfortunately, the summer of 2018 was almost windless.

But we’ve revived the plan for this year. If there’s any wind at all, we’ll be sailing from the Solent to the Netherlands between 2019-07-15 and 2019-07-28. Our goal is to deliver Emmelène to Lauwersoog, home of Marco and his Wharram catermaran Stern with whom I sailed on my last trip. Emmelène will stay there until next year, when perhaps Chris will take her in to the Baltic.

Maybe by then I’ll be able to catch her up in Tammy Norie, or set off in an entirely different direction. We’ll have to wait and see.

I’m hoping to visit a number of old friends along the way. Let us know if you’d like to meet up!

To Netherland

I have quite a lot of video from my Netherlands cruise, but not much where I’m talking about the journey or the boat. So I’ve decided to put together some “flavour” videos to frame everything. Here’s the first, with highlights of the outward journey.

Music is the excellent Flying Journey by Reasy.

More to come.  I do have some talking video too and I’ll edit that too.

Setting off for the Netherlands

I’m setting off this Sunday morning for my Netherlands cruise.

High tide at Fareham is at 07:06, so I can be out of Portmouth on the ebb by around 08:15.  The tidal streams will be helpful for most of the day.

The winds don’t look so great.  PassageWeather.com shows light westerlies until Tuesday, veering into northerlies and then westerlies later in the week.  I may get stuck in a few days time, but there’s nothing I can do about that except get off the boat and enjoy wherever I am.

On Saturday I’ll be making last-minute preparations:

1. gluing together the trunk of the Hebridean self steering gear
2. mounting the antenna of my new VHF so that I can get AIS warnings of approaching ships
3. buying food

I’m not going to be able to make detailed posts with photos or video until I get back, since these are all edited on my desktop computer, but I hope to make short posts and show you the occasional photo.

Netherlands Cruise

With the self steering almost complete, it’s time to plan my summer cruise — to the Netherlands.  I have plenty of reasons to go there — several sets of friends, islands, inland waterways, lovely people, and cheese — but also, Antoine Maartens (often seen commenting on this blog) is stepping the past of his Coromandel Siksin this weekend.  Siskin and Tammy Norie will meet.  Sister ships and birds together.

I’m hoping to make about 45 nautical miles per day on the prevailing westerlies, with overnight stops in ports. I was making 40 to 50 NM days last summer without too much difficulty. Of course it will all depend on conditions. I might get ambitious and try a longer leg while sleeping on self steering, but I’m not keen to do that in the English Channel, still the worlds busiest seaway with over 500 ships per day.

Here’s my outline passage plan:

1. Fareham to Brighton
2. Brighton to Rye
3. Rye to Calais
4. Calais to Ostend
5. Ostend to the Rhine delta

At this point I’m in the Netherlands.  Since the coast between Rotterdam and IJmuiden looks quite boring, I’m interested in trying the inland waterways to get to Amsterdam via Leiden.  Then it’s around the corner to Edam to meet Antoine on Siskin, and off across the inland Markermeer and IJsselmeer to the Waddenzee, and the islands of Frisia, with no fixed plan.

I need to be back at work before the beginning of September, when my Swedish clients kick off their new work year. My plans for returning are not fixed, but roughly in order of preference, they are:

1. Passage from Den Helder to Ipswich (140NM) or Lowestoft (115NM).
2. Leave Tammy Norie in the Netherlands.
3. Sail back to Fareham.

The long passage, done solo, would be a good warm-up for the Jester Azores Challenge 2016.

I’ll set out this coming weekend, as soon as conditions are favourable.

If you’d like to join me for any part of the journey, or meet me somewhere, please let me know!

Summer sailing plans

Tammy Norie’s summer is coming together.

2015-07-04/05 is the Junk Rig Summer Rally at Warsash.  Last year I kicked off my east coast adventures at the East Coast Rally and some Cambridge friends came along for the ride. It’ll be great to meet the south coast folks. Various members of my family including my nephews and niece are coming along too.

2015-07-10/13 I plan to sail Tammy Norie to meet her sister Sinobee, recently bought and being restored by Jake McLewee in Brighton. Jake came along to Tammy’s launch and a day sail and is learning rapidly about Coromandels and junk rigs. That is also the weekend of the Brighton Kite Festival. I’ll have to pack and bring my collection of fighter kites!

2015-07-23/24 is a meeting of the Small Sailboat Club at Ashlett Creek in the Solent. I’m looking forward to meeting James Hall in his Paradox Microcruiser.  The Paradox and Enigma are fascinating designs, and I think they’re just crying out for a junk rig.  James has been thinking along these lines and I’ll be discussing it with him.

2015-08 has no specific dates yet, but CUYC will likely be sailing Puffin to Bruges. I’d like to rendezvous with Puffin, then take Tammy Norie to meet her sister Siskind at Edam and explore the Netherlands. Siskind is being restored by Antoine Maartens who you’ll find commenting quite often on this blog. I think that will be my big trip and main holiday this summer. It’s a chance for some passagemaking and coastal exploration in good company!

As always, let me know if you’d like to meet or join in with any of this!