Off to the Baltic

Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Thu 11 Jun 2015 11:14

Our position is 51:14.038N 02:55.383E

We finally got away after delays for bike rides to be organised, boat jobs to be done, storms to pass, cars to be returned to home, shopping, etc., etc. There was much concern at home about the quantity of stuff to take and whether it would all fit in one car, but with the use of the bike rack and the roof rack a very laden Ford Focus made it down the M5 to Starcross, and by  making the most of various high waters we were able to ferry everything on board by dinghy. The new pontoon at the club proved extremely useful later as we were able to bring the boat alongside to return the hard dinghy to the shed and also meet the  train after the journey home to leave the car.

Because of the delays we had to commit to sailing non-stop to Ostend in order to get there ahead of forecast strong North Easterlies, a passage of just under 250Nm, but we set off at 7.30 on Saturday 6 June and once we’d made it out of the river against the tide, we were beam reaching in a force 3-4 with the tide and made the tidal gate round Portland Bill comfortably.

Finally leaving Starcross

As passages go it was pretty routine – things broke and were fixed, the radio reported sinkings (a speed boat near Portland, all crew rescued), groundings (an embarrassed tug skipper who had put his tow aground somewhere in the Dover Strait and was waiting for its owner’s surveyor to come out and assess the damage) and endless dive boats; Dungeness seemed to come and go without too much problem; at times the sea was rough and at times calm, and the shipping wasn’t too heavy in the separation zone. We made good progress working 3 hour watches and were off the Belgian coast a bit earlier than we had planned. The passages through the coastal sandbanks were so well buoyed that, in the dark, it was hard to decipher the lights in order to determine which were the ones marking where we wanted to go and which ones we could ignore. We slowed down to avoid arriving in Ostend in the dark but the wind had already come round to the North East and was blowing up, so the last part was unpleasantly rough and tough. We were very relieved to tie up at the Royal North Sea Yacht Club pontoon at 5.45 on Monday morning.

Moorglade in the Royal North Sea Yacht Club –overshadowed by the American motor yacht (also a CA member going to the Baltic)

We had hoped to move on by Wednesday but the strong North Easterlies continued and everyone coming into the harbour reported very rough seas so the time was spent doing the boat jobs that there had been no time for before leaving and recovering from the lack of sleep, as well as huddling below decks – it was anything but warm. We were also able to give the Bromptons an airing – a somewhat scary experience as we had no idea what a lot of the road signs were indicating and it appears that bikes can go the wrong way down one way streets (or at least I hope that’s what it meant!) 

  Rough seas outside Ostend Harbour    Sand blown off the beach

 

  Views from Ostend

 

  Bromptons proving their worth for fetching supplies

 

The plan now is to leave on Friday, when the wind should have gone round a bit, and make it to Vlissengen with the tide and get into the canals before the strong North Easterlies return – and this is supposed to be summer time!