Aug 1st, 2020: Andijk-Urk: 29.3nm, 9hrs, 3-4Bft W/NW, 0.5-1m sea, single-handed
https://boating.page.link/daTJodNLrv6usqHi9
Aug 2nd, 2020: Urk-Andijk: 30.6nm, 8:15hrs, 4-5Bft W/NW, 1-2m sea, single-handed
On July 31st, I've went shopping for a 10kg Rocna anchor, 50m of 6mm chain and 40m of 12mm lead anchor line, to improve on the existing 2 folding grapnel anchors with around 7m of rode each. One of the grapnel anchors also has 2-3m of 8/10mm heavy chain. I've tried to store the whole setup in the aft cocking locker, but the anchor is simply HUGE, so I'll have to improve on that. The initial idea was to launch the anchor aft and then drag it to the front - but more on that later.
On the same day I've also replaced the old diesel filter, which was full of slime, and I've cleaned the glass bowl underneath. The whole construction is sort of shaky: metal bottom with dripping valve -> rubber ring-> glass -> rubber ring -> diesel filter -> rubber ring -> upper metal/fixed construction, all being hold together by a long screw. And all these components have some playroom, so I'm really not certain if it's installed properly/leak-free or not...
I've forgot to close the lid to the diesel tank over night, and it rained, so... I'll really have to figure something out. I've tried siphoning from the bottom of the tank into a bottle, but it was all diesel - not sure if I've reached bottom tho. And no idea how much it rained, and how much of that rain got thru the tank hole.
I've left Andijk the next day, on a beautiful sunny day with 3-4Bft W-wind, with the intention to do a circumnavigation of Ijsselmeer and drop anchor somewhere for the night. I've sailed beautifully on a broad reach parallel to the shore, past the De Ven lighthouse (Vuurtoren) - one of the oldest lighthouses in NL - all the way to Enkhuizen. Only incident is that my Ijsselmeer chart was blown off by the wind in the lake - stupid me, I've left it on the sprayhood while taking a short binocular sight and couldn't reach for it fast enough. After passing the De Ven lighthouse, I've set SE course to sail parallel to the dam/street separating Ijsselmeer and Markenmeer - a street that I've often driven on, but I wanted to experience it from the lake too. Unfortunately one cannot sail too close to the dam between Enkhuizen and the small island of Trintelhaven, situated middle-distance of the dam, because of a low-depth area signaled by buoys. I still managed to cut a corner when I've seen others do it. It was close enough to see the cars and bicicles on the dam, so I'm happy. I've continued to sail till the Secl Houtribdijk light, which signals the entry in the narrow channel leading to Lelystad and the lock there. The Lelystad tower is really impressive, I think on a clear day it can be seen from any point in Ijsselmeer! I could read almost the whole way there, while Susie-the-autopilot did all the work, so really enjoyable! I also changed the lines a bit, brought the dirk/topping lift back to the cockpit to better trim the mainsail. Weather was so nice that one guy I've passed was even scrubbing his deck while sailing. Good idea, actually, did same!
I've turned NE, hugging the shoreline, past a lot of windmills, a power station (which is actually an island, at least on the chart), more windmills and finally getting to the bridge at Ketelmeer. It was already 4-5pm and I started thinking about a good place to anchor, especially since the sea starting building up. I think this SE region of the Ijsselmeer is especially unprotected because of the whole fetch area for the N/W winds. Unfortunately it also seems that this area lacks any sort of protected anchorages - apart from the Lelystad canal leading to the locks, but I only came to this idea on the drive back home, seeing sailboats being anchored there. Actually wanting to test the new anchoring gear, I've decided to give it a try between Urk and the group of windmills right of it. Conveniently positioned was a group of pollers, as so many at the edge of the lake, that I could use as a reference for checking anchor dragging. I've motored to the height of the last poller, I've dropped the Rocna aft of the boat and around 10m of chain and realized how hard it was to hold on to the chain after the anchor held - by this time, the waves were really furious and the wind just as well. Playing the chain out of the aft cockpit all the way over the handrail did damage the gelcoat on the side of the cockpit, a really pity! Also, connecting the chain to the cleat, over the handrail, was quite a struggle. After everything was setup, I realized that getting these waves on the quarter is unbearable long-term, so I've came up with an idea to connect a mooring line to the chain, to let more chain out, thus to let the mooring line hold the whole boat in the wind, with the chain being a good backup. I've first used a small 6mm line to make a bowline-knot on the chain, to which I've connected the port mooring line, and let more chain out. Boat straightened shortly into the wind, after which it went back to being connected only by chain. What the heck!??! Took the mooring line out of the water, and realized the 6mm connecting line was simply tore apart. So, took back 10m of chain, connected the port mooring line again to the chain, this time with a shackel. The boat turned nicely to the wind and waves, but the movement was -still- so violent, that I was afraid it'll break the mooring line, the cleat or whatever. Definitely not a way to spend the night, especially with the shore 30-40m on the lee. So, took up the by now 40m of chain and that was quite a training - and all over the handrail, whose plastic cover got damaged in the process. The anchor was extremely hard to get out, which speaks for the anchor but not for the process at the moment. The whole process left marks on the gelcoat on the port side... I tried to clean the anchor and chain up a bit in the cockpit, after which I've stowed everything away and left by motor.
Now what? Well, it was 6pm by now, so it was either getting at 10-11pm back in Andijk (very optimistic, as the next day will show), or find another spot to anchor (only island - de Kreupel - being also 4-5hrs, again very optimistic, away), or just head into the harbor that was already visible. Quick decision, let's go for Urk! Tried calling the harbormaster multiple times and from both devices on VHF 12, no answer, but VHF traffic was to be heard. Anyways, let's try it, worse case we turn around. Getting in the harbor was really hopeless, there were sailboats turning around everywhere, no spot available, some boats double or even triple-moored to one another. But the harbormaster in his dingy came by, and replied "sure" when I asked if he still has a place available. I've followed him all the way to the back of the harbor, where there was a box wide enough for almost 1 1/2 Vegas. I could moor up easily, even with a help of a fellow sailor (btw, the "one" flag, signaling single-handiness, on the backstay works wonders!). I did a short walk thru Urk, by the lighthouse, the old church, by the fishermen-monument with a list of dead fishermen (2 in 2020 already!) with a nice view over the 2 rows of windmills in the water, and then back to the boat. The helping neighbor and his wife were really nice, they came from somewhere close to the DE-border, both retired and enjoyed sailing around the Ijsselmeer. The guy used to work in the car industry, so had the chance to get on a Volvo Ocean Race boat - nice, but nothing for everyday! They also told me that the most dangerous waves in IM are in Rotterdamse Hoek, probably because of its position and the ridge for shipping in front of it, and that every year a couple of boats sink there. After the nice chat, I've had dinner in the cockpit with a christian concert 5m away from me on the pier (I was the 3rd boat).
Unfortunately I've noticed a LOT of diesel in the motor tray/bilge, and cannot figure out where it comes from. I've checked the newly replaced diesel filter (best guess), but the bottom was relatively dry and the towel under it as well. I've checked the bottom of the tank, but it was also dry. It is also a possibility that it rained so much the previous night (with the tank lid open), that it pushed good diesel thru the upper valve... Or it's simply one of the jerry cans leaking - that's hopeful thinking right there!!!
Next day, I tried desperately to get hold of the harbormaster to pay the fee (every other boat had the yellow tag of proof). I went to the Havenkantoor house, but on the schedule they said it'll be open by 10 on Sunday, which was definitely too late for me. So I made the whole walk back around the whole east, west and probably north harbor, and I stopped to chat with a guy from Karlsruhe. I've previously seen his beaten down boat (registered in KA) in a corner of the harbor and all surrounded by an oil-spill floating barrier, and later his Hymer with KA plates on the parking lot and I've seen him walking to the boat, so I figured he's the owner. His story is really a sad one: Vagabund, a 31ft (960?) van de Stadt design, was the 3rd sailboat he bought just a few months back and he wanted to sail it to the Caribic this autumn. He brought it to the Ijsselmeer, anchored near Urk - where I wanted to anchor - and worked on his boat for almost a week. The weather got heavy, and one night the anchor dragged and he landed on the rocks. Whole underbody was damaged from the up-down movement. Rescuers told him it was blowing a force 8 that night... so here he was, trying to salvage everything from the boat so that he can scrape her. And it seems he also brought misfortune to the whole harbor, 3 other boats sank IN THE harbor since he got there, one of the a beautiful big motorboat with no reason to sink! I wished the guy good luck, learned my lessons from this conversation and carried on.
I could left the dock easily (slow is better!) and went out to face the furious weather outside the harbor. The wind was howling and the waves were even higher than the night before - good thing I went for cover! It took 10mins of gathering courage to put the sails up with these waves, and even so I've noticed that the older couple leaving the harbor with me weren't any faster. I still had to do 2 trips to the mast, since the flag halyard (too damn long!!) got tangled in the main sheet and wouldn't let the mainsail out past an inconvenient 3m above the deck point. Finally managed to put both sails up and to start beating into the wind when Susie-the-autopilot died on me. It made noises, it showed numbers, but wouldn't move the arm. So I had to hand-steer all the way to Andijk. Against the wind. For over 8hrs. And not let the tiller out of hand for one second. And worry the whole time about how I'm going to take the sails out. Anyways, I've zig-zagged all the way to Andijk, and noticed that one tack (port) was much more violent wave-wise than the SB-tack. And it was the port-tack on which I could advance, Sb-tack was only for horizontal moving. It was blowing a good 5Bft from NW and the sea was so violent that I got two boxes flying over down below, without being able to do anything about it. And the short waves of Ijsselmeer drove me nuts, I really learned the meaning of "beating into the wind". Boom-2secs-boom-2secs-boom... It was so bad that the main shrouds where completely slack after the trip, you could move them 10cm in every direction. They were hanging really loose on the lee side, and were really tight on the windward side. But the lower shrouds were tight, to the mast was really bent at the spreaders - visible to the bare eye.
Long story short, I was going W all the way to Houdribdijk, then N/N-E, then back to Enkhuizen, then N/N-E again, and so on until I made it to Andjik. The forecast of NW backing to SW didn't come true. But the sea state did get better the more N I got, and also the wind got lower on the N side of the Andijk/Enkhuizen peninsula.
The dreaded moment in front of Andijk of taking down the sails was rather unspectacular. I've read that you can reef by heaving to, so this is what I did. Got enough W so there's enough space to drift, hove to, let the mainsheet completely out and put the main down. A lil tricky since the main "hangs" over the handrail and over the water, but who cares about esthetics at this point? I could tie the sail close to the mast, got the main sheet back in, and tied the rest of the sail from the cockpit. And when I looked around, I was amazed to see that I was quite close to the shore, past the harbor entrance - so heaving to wasn't really slowing me down. I also took the genoa down - while heaving to, which was a bigger piece of work than the main, but I could do it and it landed mostly on the deck too! So, a complete success - almost better than under motor + Susie-the-autopilot! Next time I need to remember to plan more sea room tho. Getting in the box by this time was a pleasure, nothing could stop me now.
Unfortunately, I found -again- quite a lot of diesel in the motor-tray/bilge, with no idea where it came from. Bottom of diesel filter - dry, the walls of the engine room - dry, bottom of diesel tank - dry, diesel jerry cans - almost dry, motor in general, especially around the diesel pump/filter - dry. Next time I'll have to check the diesel return hose...
Fortunately, I could repare Susie-the-autopilot: one small gear wheel slid on the motor shaft, no idea how. Also, no idea how it's supposed to be attached to it "normally" without sliding, since they're both just round. I'll have to try applying some glue or locktite or ... Anyways, the insides looks really good and new-like, so I'm happy.
I've also tighten the main shrouds and used the counter-nuts on the turnbuckles on all shrouds, hope it holds the next 5Bft better!
Total: 1568nm, 176nm single-handed