A Beneteau First 36, A Moody 31, and enough booze to sink both of them. What a weekend!

North Sea Sunrise

When I stopped in Bradwell Marina I met Alan, a jester challenger who has completed a round trip to the Azores… solo!

Not only did he lend Kudu some much needed equipment and gave even more advice, but invited me to an East coast sailors meet in Oostende the following weekend. The chance to charge across the north sea on his Beneteau First 36, with 6 other like minded nutters was just too appealing to turn down, so I didn’t.

Having “parked” Kudu on a buoy at Wolverstone on the Orwell, I was due to meet up with them on Friday. Lindsey, co-skipper to Alan’s boat, and apparent sailaholic, arrived at Wolverstone to give me a lift back down to Shotley marina. The trouble was the marina was 1/4 of a mile down the river and I had a very heavy kit bag with me. I wasn’t sure if I was going to end up floating down the river with my clothes and camera kit in ruin, but having little choice in the matter, I jumped into Condom, my inflatable kayak, and sat the bulky kit bag on my lap. Kayaks are not the most stable modes of transport, so this little trip was interesting, to say the least, with my expression flickering somewhere between determination and panic.

We arrived at Alan’s boat, Mr Tinkles, and went off to sleep, after the requisite visit to the marina bar, of course. The only snag was that departure time for the 15 hour North sea crossing to Oostende was 2AM. I’m not really a fan of hard labour during hours that don’t have two digits, but I hoped to be able to top up my 30 minutes sleep on the way over.

We set off in the pitch black night, following the buoys out of Felixstowe, unable to see anything but their flashing lights and sailing away from a backdrop that is the illuminated industrial monster of Britain’s largest container port.

The wind was all but nonexistent so we motored for about an hour before the wind appeared and we got the sails up. Once you have managed to get your way out of the sand banks of England’s East coast, the first real event comes in the form of the TSS, or Traffic Separation Scheme. This is an imaginary road that runs up the north sea that keeps large ships in lanes of the same direction. You have to cross the TSS at right angles to make your journey across it as fast as possible. The ships will not move out of your way, and probably won’t even see you, so the onus is on the crew of the small yachts to keep well out of there way.

Being amongst ships of that size is pretty nervy at first, but once you’ve gotten used to identifying a risk of collision well in advance, then it’s not at all worrying since a small change in course early on means you will pass well away from each other.

Tiredness got the better of me at this point so, with the boat pitching and rolling in the North seas finest weather, I went below to put my head down. I fell asleep within seconds, and stayed like that for about an hour. In turns, all the crew did the same. It was important, vital, that we didn’t arrive in Oostende in dire need of sleep since there was a lot of drinking to be done upon our arrival.

The sunrise at sea, by the way, is a awesome thing to witness. When you’re well out of sight of land from any direction, and a bit on the chilly side, the arrival of this warm and friendly orange ball is an uplifting start to the day. The day went on to be quite a good one and we had some great sailing, crashing through the black North sea at over 7 knots for a lot of it.

About 2 hours before we arrived in Oostende the cloud appeared. At first it was just haze, but then it started to get a bit more sadistic until finally, an hour before Oostende, it start raining, chucking it down in fact. Great, especially as I was on the helm while the others cowered below citing a need to navigate. I likely story

As soon as we arrived in Oostende, the beers started flowing. There were already a load of east coast sailors in there since they had either set  off earlier than us, had faster boats, or set off the day before. Either way, that number of like minded people was a recipe for a piss up, and so it was.

The following day we all went for a walk around the town and found a place to eat. One of the boats that came over was shorthanded, with just two crew. One of the crew was very seasick on the way over which meant the owner had to singlehand for a lot of the passage. For a 15 hour sail this is a bit much really, especially with all the traffic in the North Sea, so I was asked if I could come back on his boat to help out incase the same happened again. I agreed, but later that day I was dropped with the bombshell that he planned to set off at 2am, which meant a 0115 wake up time. Oh well, he we must, we must.

I downed my last large glass of wine at 2300 that evening, then crawled into bed on my new crewing position, Roger’s Moody 31. As yacht’s go, it’s a bloody nice one. As promised the wake up call came far too early at 0115, and I reluctantly rolled out of the bunk. We had a quick bight and finally set off at 0236, into the engulfing darkness of the North Sea.

Upon seeing the sunrise, out of sight of land, I realised the early start was worth it. Which a marvel to witness. As the day progressed we had a fantastic sail, and it wasn’t until we were on the English side that the weather started to turn. Of course, being a bank holiday over in Blighty, it was no surprise that the weather was going to be crap, although we managed to just about stay ahead of the thunder storm as we charged our way back into Harwich.

I’ve had a fantastic weekend, nothing other than amazing. I have met even more unforgettable people, and learned a lot more about sailing since I had a great deal of experienced yachtsmen from which to sponge knowledge.

I am now back on Kudu, sat on a bumpy mooring on the River Orwell with the bow of the boat occasionally dropping under the water. It’s going to be a long night, but hopefully the weather settles enough for me to go a bit further North, to the River Deben tomorrow morning.

Thank you to everybody I met this weekend. I hope I can do it again sometime.

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