November 2nd, 2021 - Our First Sail

Leaving the Marina

It’s a Tuesday in November, we wake up early not having had a very nice sleep. We’re in the V berth with our Border Collie Archie and as lovely as he is, he takes up a lot of room. It’s also been cold outside in the night so there’s cold condensation dripping on me every now and then from the hatch window. I awake at 6.30, it’s still dark so I force myself to go back to sleep but I’m starting to feel nervous. I drift in and out of sleep for the next half an hour, going through my head the events for the day. We need to get up, sort out Archie, get diesel, get the boat next to us moved, and finally sail Albatros to her new home in Port Zelande. All of this (apart from getting out of bed) was a worry for us. It was going to be the first time we sailed Albatros and we wanted it to be smooth sailing (pun intended!)

We also each had our own worries. Matt being a very experienced sailor wasn’t too concerned once we were out on the water but casting off and mooring at our dock the other end of the journey left a bit of trepidation in him. For me, I have NEVER, yes never sailed on Albatros before! I am worried about nearly everything. Will I get seasick, will I be able to cast off and get back on the boat, will I have enough balance, will I be able to help when needed, will I fall off the pontoon at the other end (earlier in the week we watched someone on Instagram disembark on a pontoon and fall into the water the other side, I didn’t want that to be me!), will I fall over (I always fall over, so I feel it was pretty much a given that I would at some point). We got up, walked the mile to the petrol station and filled up a jerry can with 30 litres of diesel and trudged it back. 30 litres is heavy. Not that I would know as Matt carried it, but it sure did look heavy. We were hoping it would be enough to fill Albatros. She has no fuel light and so we really weren’t sure how much diesel she had. Might have been full for all we knew. She wasn’t though and we managed to get about 15 litres into her tank. She was officially ready to go!

Navigation system is ready

We each donned our salopettes and sailing jackets boy, did I feel the part, at least I looked it anyway! Matt sorted out all the ropes, making sure he was happy with them and making casting off as easy as possible and I was sorting out below the deck, making sure everything was packed away and nothing would fall over and break. After a few minutes, nothing more left to do, she was ready. We’re not sure when Albatros last sailed. She had been sat in the Marina for at least 2 years before we bought her, so we had our suspicions it had been a while. We turned the key for her engine and she fired into action chugging away. We were at Brouwershaven Marina and they have started to dredge the marina and remove all the pontoons but where we had been placed, there was a lot of silt at the bottom and as a result the rudder of Albatros was stuck in the mud. We weren’t sure how deep she was stuck so we wondered to ourselves if she would need a tow out. We also didn’t know if the keel was stuck, being deeper than the rudder there was a good chance. As we untied the ropes, I had nervous knots in my stomach. With a good shove off the bow of the boat, luckily we were free from all the mud and silt at the end. Matt soon acquired his position of helmsmen and I was at the front to be his eyes for any vessels coming into the marina.

The entrance to Brouwershaven Marina has a very large lock gate. It isn’t in use anymore but it is a one way entrance and exit into the marina and the harbour master controls traffic lights according to who’s coming and going. These lights weren’t on. We weren’t sure if its because were out of season or if due to the work going on, the harbour master is taking some time off. But as we approached, it was very difficult to see if there was anyone coming into the Marina. I was stood as far forward as possible to keep an eye out. “no one coming” I shouted to Matt and he put the boat into gear and we motored out onto the Grevelingenmeer.

There are lots of buoys to navigate around when exiting the Marina and some parts of it are too shallow for us to sail in. We strictly followed the buoys and also Navionics which we downloaded when we were back at home and we were off. We could see roughly the direction we needed to head in but with lots of islands it was tricky to see which exact channel we needed to take.

Sailing!!

The wind was blowing up, it was starting to rain but we didn’t care. It felt quite emotional being out on the water after such a long build up and anxious waiting for months to be finally able to get Albatros out of the Marina. Matt loves how she moves in the water. Even though we were motoring, so he could get a feel of the rudder, even in 20 mile per hour winds she was solid. Her steering was quite stiff but attentive and the motor was doing a fantastic job. For me, i needed to feel safe, like I wasn’t going to fall off at the slightest gust of wind. I defiantly didn’t feel like that. Albatros is a solid blue water cruiser and apart from a couple of gusts that wobbled my balance, she felt very sturdy.

There were no other yachts that we could see on the Grevelingenmeer, there were some fishing boats, which we think are hauling up lobster pots or catching oysters in the depths and there was a dinghy school out. We motored the whole way to Port Zelande. For my first sail on Albatros, Matt didn’t want to overwhelm me with sails and he wanted to know exactly how she handled before we tackled them. Our main aim was to simply get the boat (and us) safely to Port Zelande.

After about half an hour, we could see the harbour entrance. Gosh we were excited!!! The spot we have chosen is right on the edge of the Marina and we’ve been to check it out a few times so knew it was perfect for us. Now just to dock. We went through the harbour entrance, and slowly around the break water. We then needed to come down the other side of it and into our row. It was a lot of twisting and turning but Albatros’ tiller was so responsive, we were there in a jiffy. Now to find our berth. Its quite tricky from the water to find the right berth. I knew which boats were our neighbours which made it a bit easier. As soon as Matt could see the space, he turned the tiller and we drifted in, nice and slowly.

Albatros at her mooring

Albatros sits quite high out of the water and the pontoon was about a meter below her deck. I grabbed a rope hoping to be able to jump down to moor us up but Matt had done it quicker. “I’m down” he shouted. The movement of him getting off then made the Jess Obligatory Fall over happen. I was on my butt. Luckily only on the deck though. I got up, threw Matt the ropes and we were moored! We both breathed a massive sigh of relief. “We’re here!!!” we both shouted.
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