Jun. 30, 2009 - Day 3 - Back to the Veerse Meer

The weather forecast last night had been for sea fog, on and off, all week, but suggested today might not be too bad. So given that we didn't like the marina - noisy gravel processing plant next door and smelly toilets/showers, we decided that we would consider leaving first thing provided we could see all the buildings on the seafront and it looked as if it would be okay. So we waited for the traffic sign to indicate the all clear to exit the port.

On the way down we had played the tide, getting speeds of eight and a half knots over the ground. In order to do so on the way back and to minimise the foul tide entering the Westerschelde, we needed to leave about 05.00 hrs. Waiting for the okay to exit the harbour delayed us by about half an hour.  Nevertheless, we exited into the North Sea in clear visability, blue skies and sunshine.

An hour later we were entering the fog again, this time, really thick. At Zeebrugge we again radioed for clearance to cross the harbour entrance, but now we had to wait for a bulk carrier to exit the port and two container ships to enter. This meant circling in the thick fog, a couple of hundred meters off the western mole, bearly able to see it. We got a morale boost when we were joined by a similar sized Dutch yacht. Then the radio crackled into life and we were given the okay. Our Dutch companion gestured in our direction "full steam ahead" and we blindly charged across the entrance!

We were now considering contingency plans to spend the night in Breskens rather that try to cross the Westerschelde in the fog. But listening to the radio we heard several reports that visibility in the Westerschelde was over a kilometer and this was comforting news.

By the time we approached the Westerschelde the fog had cleared and it was turning into a really pleasant afternoon. Our early start had paid off and we still managed to keep up about 4 knots. We locked through into the Walcheren canal at about 13.00 hrs having decided to go all the way back to the Veerse Meer in one hit. We just wanted to get back to our home waters! At 17.00 hrs we were tied up on the Goudplaat.

So, we got to Oostende! Going, there was no wind and coming back what little there was, came from the North East, so we motored all the way back. Given that Emjaytoo was motored across to Vlissingen from Harwich two years ago, we still have not yet "sailed" in the North Sea. The whole experience was not particularly fun, but we coped with the appalling conditions, by doing the correct thing and keeping well out of the shipping channel and staying in shallow water. The GPS chartplotter was a saviour. Without it, we would not have been able to continue. We had, in total, four seprate chartplotters available to us. We used the main Garmin plotter, plus a Garmin handheld and a PC chart plotter. In reserve we had a PDA with it's own bluetooth GPS chartplotting software. 

Overall it was an experience that was good to gain, but neither of us will be in a hurry to do it again!