Jun. 11, 2009 - It’s Not Always Plain Sailing!

Having caught the 4.00pm ferry Friday night, our arrival at the boat around 9.00pm was very leisurely. However Saturday morning we were faced with quite a strong easterly wind which made the exit from our berth particularly difficult. We decided to warn our rather unfriendly neighbour on a Contessa 32 that our stern might come over towards him but, as with some Belgians a year or so back, he took it as an invitation to take over, shouting instructions, which Wendy does not appreciate!  Having decided that we would go in a lull in the wind, Wendy was faced with Kim letting the bow line off and our neighbour pushing us.  To make matters worse, she had forgotten to check that the wheel was unclamped so had no steerage for a second, by which time we had been blown over to the other side.  In our neighbour’s defence, he was only trying to be helpful, but he only made matters worse and was very intimidating. He did, however, clamber over other people’s boats to fend us off and for that we were grateful. Eventually we exited the Landbouhaven but were both rather rattled so as the wind in the Veerse Meer was particularly gusty we abandoned our decision to go out into the Oosterschelde and head up to St Annaland, in favour of a more relaxing trip to Veere.

The sail up to Veere was brisk and we tied up to the visitor jetty outside the Kaai even though it was a bit bouncy. In the evening we went over to the Yacht Club and had an excellent meal – starters, main course and beers for €46.25. We didn’t sleep too well – Wendy was fretting over our departure that morning and a mild case of the “slappers” didn’t help.

Sunday we decided to head over to the Goudplaat – all of 1½ miles! Our departure from the visitor pontoon proved hairier than we would have liked, due to some lunatics in a dinghy hurtling in front of us onto the jetty just as we had let go all the lines!  Wendy was on the bow and reported that their boom missed us by inches!  There were two boats on the Goudplaat when we arrived, including a British Westerly Solway that had just come over from Eastbourne, but we soon had the place to ourselves.   Within the space of a few hours, we saw the wind go through 180 degrees twice and experienced, complete calm & torrential rain:-