Towards the Netherlands

Saturday the 29th of June - Monday the 1st of July

Saturday Morning 28th of June. Dieter does a 180 degree turn between the peers to turn our bow towards the Solent. She turns like a retired balet dancer. Slowly but gracefully. She can turn on her toes nearly on a penny. Considering her long keel, Hamburg VII seems surprisingly agile. When I ask Dieter if you can steer her in reverse, he says you can but she decises where she wants to go. Sometimes Alter Lady does what you want, sometimes she has her own mind and own plans.

No Mans Land Fort
Strange looking ship
Border patrol leaving us
The North Sea

Just when we were out of the Solent, appeared a British border patrol vessel on our side, slowed down to eye us. A man came on the deck and lifted up a big sign "VHF CH 17". They wanted to talk to us.

Border Patrol asked over the radio how many we were, from where were we coming and to where were we sailing. Our answers were not enough. They took a fast looking RIB over to check us. Nice fellows all of them. The didn't say why exactly we were so interesting. We did understand that they were looking for a boat named "Hamburg". They asked detailed questions for two hours, checked our passports and chatted with us in the cockpit. In the meanwhile a couple of the other fellows checked Hamburg from the inside, questioned what trips we had done during the past 20 years and even wanted to take a peek into the fresh water tank. They were satisfied when water started to splash out from the loosened maintenance hatch.

I asked if I can take their picture. They said yes, but only of their backs when they were leaving.

The interview slowed us down and soon it was the evening. During the night we needed to be alert to watch for the other lights in the darkness. Especially the fishing vessels moved here and there unpredictably like pike swimming after a bass.

During early morning Ylva passed Dover while we slept. The town next to the famous white cliffs was covered in gray diesel smoke. From this far from the sea the cliffs don't look adequately impressive.

We passed an uncountable number of wind mills. There are about the same number of windmills at the Eastern end of the English Channel as there are sunflowers on a field. Impressive objects. We think they are far more beautiful than coal plant smoke stacks.

In the evening the Nort Sea reminded us about its character. The wind was from the aft and at best about 15 meters per second. GPS claimed our speed to reach 10 knots once in a while with a small piece of genoa. Hamburg VII took it calmly on the new sharp short waves. For us there was enough to do and look and I didn't take many pictures. The wind from the aft makes sailing in this weather tricky. We were also in the area where we had traffic lanes for ships both on the left and right. One is smart to stay away from them during the day and in the dark it is good to keep distance. We stayed the course.

It became dark and cold.

Marina and I started our shift at 2 am. The wind was still brisk and the waves sharp. We could see ship lights right and left. In the distance ahead we could see a really bright set of lights. I had been at the wheel about a minute when I noticed, behind the sail, well above the horizon a dim red light. A ship! The light was so high that the ship had to be close. Very close. One cannot tell the distance to a spot of light. If you need to look at one upwards, well above the horizon, it is too close. Much too close. Rudder to styrbord. The ship had to be going in front of us from right to left because I could see its red port light. At the same moment a cloud shifted from the front of the moon and the red light disappeared and turned into a much bigger light. The red light had been the moon behind a cloud so that only a small part of it was visible and the light appeared red coming through the cloud. The light wasn't that close after all. It was at the safe distance of 400 000 kilometers.

The North Sea had many spots of light. The dense set of lights turned out to be a gas drilling platform. From a distance, we thought it might be a cruise ship that was sitting still. Cargo vessels usually showed only the navigation lights. On the left side of us was a traffic zone. We saw at least one container ship that was over 300 meters long on the way to Rotterdam. Even from one mile distance it appeared like a sea giant with more than 10 000 containers tied to its back. For a while we thought that the light we saw far from the red port light to be the aft light. It turned out to be an open door, where we guessed the chef's aid was secretly smoking. It was still a long way from the door to the aft of the ship. A big container ship in the night is like a shadow, a bit darker than the night around it, covering the stars and a weakly visible horizon. The black metal island moves at a respectable speed of 20 knots and it makes one feel that nothing could stop it. Others better stay out of the way.

Windmills

From England to Finland 2013

Hamburg VII 2013