Parkhaven Middelharnis – The Gray Route

First time anchoring!

Saying goodbye to Middelharnis

May 22nd 2019

Middelharnis to anchorage near Hellevoetsluis: 6 nautical miles

Today it was time to leave again.

The newly installed lamp had started to have a mind of its own during the night, switching on and off on its own account. So Jeroen dismantled the whole thing during the night. Something to look into another time.

Around noon we untied the lines and left Middelharnis. We had favourable winds and the jib was working again so we decided to sail to Hellevoetsluis where we had planned to anchor. In the meantime we noticed that the transducer was still not working. Had we put it back the wrong way round? Another chore back on the to-do list again…

Although we felt that it was time to continue our journey, it was actually a bit hard to leave. We really felt at home there in that little marina. Even Captain Fluffy enjoyed himself there, frolicking in the high grass. We now understand what a friend of ours meant when she said that you should take your time when you travel. Not only to enjoy every moment and not to over hasten things, but also time to say goodbye. Naively we thought that we only had to say goodbye when we started our journey. We hadn’t realized that travelling is not only discovering new things, but also saying goodbye over and over again.

After a nice sail we approached the spot we had picked to anchor. It was the first time ever anchoring for us, so we experienced a fair bit of anxiety. We wanted to try the anchor in a familiar place first, so we picked a spot in an area we knew, that was relatively sheltered, and if we would be so unfortunate to break loose that we wouldn’t crash into something immediately.

Engine on, sails down, time to anchor!

After sailing towards the wind first, we backed away slowly mostly by the force of the wind, dropping the anchor at the same time. The depth was 5.7 meter , so we lowered 30 meters of chain which would presumably be enough for wind force 3 to 4. It seemed like the anchor was holding, so we shut down the engine. Fingers crossed! We wrote down the GPS coordinates and started a anchor watch app that we had recently downloaded. The app causes an alert to go off when the position of the anchor changes.

We had used mooring buoys before, but never an anchor. We always thought that they were preferable above an anchor, because they looked so sturdy and seemed safe to use. But on the internet you can find a fair bit of warnings against those mooring buoys, that in fact they aren’t safe at all, especially with high winds. And you never know for sure when they were last checked or hauled out for maintenance, so they might be in a dodgy state. Here in the Netherlands they take the mooring buoys out of the water in winter for maintenance, in that sense their durability is checked regularly. The buoys were still on the hard in the depot when we were in Middelharnis because it was still early in the season. And actually it was rather unsettling to see how small the concrete blocks were to which the buoys were attached. We now can imagine that they wouldn’t be able to hold the weight of a sailboat in a storm.

The mooring buoys with their concrete blocks on the hard

It was still quite warm and a refreshing dive would be welcome, but the water temperature was still around 13 degrees Celsius. Way too cold for a swim. But fear not! There is always a solution. We had bought a solar shower, an filled it up yesterday with the intention to try it out. But we has completely forgotten all about it, until this moment. So we got out the soap and tried the shower. It might need some tweaking, but it works reasonably well. It holds 20 liters of water, but we hadn’t even used half of it.

Refreshed by the shower we had a lovely dinner with asparagus when the wind started to pick up. The forecasted 3 Beaufort turned out to have become a steady 4 with gusts up to 5. As we were still a bit nervous about our first time ever anchoring, and the app was a bit dodgy, we installed 2 more anchor watch apps to notify us if we were dragging.

The wind was increasing ever more, so when we went to bed it felt more like being in a cocktail shaker than a comfy v-berth. Captain Fluffy was also not amused and jumped up with every big jolt. And with every crash or creak there’s this little voice in your head that says “are you sure we’re still securely anchored? You can imagine that we didn’t have a good night’s sleep…

Boat chores galore

Getting ready for the next passage

April 21st 2019

Another sunny and warm day, a perfect day to work on the safety net for Captain Fluffy. We unrolled the net we had bought and fastened it in a makeshift manner to the sea railing to see if we had enough and how we would attach it permanently.

By doing this we encountered 2 problems. The first one was that part of the net had to be removable, so that Captain Fluffy could jump on and off when we are in a marina. The second one was how to deal with the jib sheet. The line now crosses underneath the sea rail into the genoa track. But if we would fasten the net, the sheet had to run through or under the net, both not very desirable options. We couldn’t think of a sensible solution, so in the end we decided to tackle project safety net another time, and check out how other people have done it first.

On to the next task then, cleaning the water tank. Not that complicated, just put some food grade oxi (Sodium percarbonate) in your tank, fill her up and wait for 30 minutes. Then empty the tank, fill her up again and empty again. Jeroen got the idea to clean the bilge at the same time, something we still had to do if you remember that the bilge pump went completely berserk 2 weeks ago. We have a foot pump to operate the water tab, and emptying the water tank takes ages this way. But by disconnecting one of the hoses that run from the tank to the tab, the water -with the Sodium percarbonate- runs into the bilge minimizing our effort and cleaning the bilge at the same time!

Captain Fluffy is lending a helping hand in cleaning the bilge

Then there was another chore that needed to be done. A very scary one. We had noticed that the display wasn’t giving any readings of our speed. We hoped that with a few days sailing the moss or whatever was stuck to the transducer would dissolve or something, but it didn’t. The only thing left now is to pull the transducer out of its socket and clean it manually. The scary part of this story is that once you pull the transducer free from its socket, you basically create a 4 centimeter diameter hole in the bottom of your boat below the waterline. That means water will come gushing in. Now you have a sort of plug that you need to shove in the hole immediately after removing the transducer, but it is still rather scary to make a hole in your boat on purpose while it’s in the water. After cleaning the water tank and the bilge we knew for certain that the bilge pump was working, so after few deep breaths it was time to pull the plug. The water started to squirt out the small gap, when the transducer was unscrewed which was rather alarming, but when the whole thing was out of its socket it went more like …gloop…gloop…gloop. It wasn’t gushing in like we were expecting. Of course you shouldn’t put on a kettle to make tea after you have unscrewed the transducer, but there’s enough time to push in the plug and screw it down. As it turned out a family of tiny shrimps and some small mussels had made the wheel of the transducer their home. Sorry guys, but it’s time to relocate. We gently pried them loose and released them in the water again. A quick scrub, and the transducer was ready to be plugged back. It all turned out to be not that scary as we were expecting.

We also installed a new lamp at the chart table, so the to-do list is definitely shortening. That is, if you’re ever done with chores on your boat.

We concluded our last day here sampling some home-made beer and cider with our harbour masters Arthur and Saskia on their boat and shared more adventures. They told us about how they ended up as captain and host on a 80 foot classic charter yacht, the Vixen II, in the Mediterranean and how they participated in regattas like the Ibiza Gold Classic with this majestic ship (see movie). It was great to have met this inspiring couple.

Tomorrow we’re leaving to test out our anchor for the first time!

A sunny day

Ice cream and solar yield

May 20th 2019

Yesterday we installed the solar panels. And since it was going to be a warm and sunny again, it was a good day to test the yield. And it looks promising! Today is a really sunny day of course, but it looks like we generate more watts than we use. So that is perfect!

It looked like the whole country was getting into their boats to spend the day on the water, so we were actually quite happy with this a quiet and secluded spot here in the marina. And tomorrow and Monday most people will have a free day, so it will be even busier. We might indeed put off the next trip till after the Easter Holidays.

Time to enjoy the glorious weather. Captain Fluffy’s opinion of enjoying the sunshine was running around in the grass, and make us chase him. We disagreed, so after the impromptu exercise we thought we deserved a refreshment so we took a short walk to the beach without Captain Fluffy and ate ice cream in the sunshine.

Sun and solar panels

Finally finishing the solar panel project.

April 19th 2019

Securing the solar panels to the life lines

It was promising to become a really warm day. Funny that just four days ago we sailed with thermo underwear to this marina, and now we’re walking around in swim wear.

The beautiful summer weather was ideal to finish the solar panel project. The new connector had arrived, so we could finally connect the last cables and install the panels and monitor permanently.

It was way too hot to do more chores, so while Captain Fluffy was making new friends with Pepper, the harbour master’s dog, we enjoyed home made beer in the sunshine.

Fixing the jib

Twiddling and rummaging with penetrating oil

April 18th 2019

A Great Crested Grebe had set up a nest near our boat

We decided to stay another day longer in the marina to get some work done, and we needed to fix the problem with the jib. The harbour master started to laugh and said “Why don’t you stay till after the weekend? It’s free of charge anyway on Sundays. The owner of the marina is a deeply religious person, so working and getting paid is not allowed”. Well we might just do that. We really like this marina. It’s small, quiet and really sheltered between the high dykes of the canal. It feels like a cosy hobbit burrow, like you’re in a secluded space where no one else comes. And the few people that are here are really friendly. Plus we could finally finish the solar panel project and put up a safety net between the toe rail and the sea rail for Captain Fluffy who is not always sure footed.

Together we looked at the stuck jib and he remarked that a bit of grease would probably help. After twiddling and rummaging about and with the aid of some penetrating oil the furling genoa worked again. But we might have to dissemble the whole reel at one point, there’s a lot of grit accumulating there.

We also created a longer electricity cable by cutting the the cord off the electricity reel and attaching marine plugs to both ends. Now we have 25 meters of cable, let’s see if this proves to be enough.

The weather was still amazing, so we concluded the day by having home made beer with nice nibblies in the cockpit.

Operation car retrieval

эксплуатация автомобиля поиска

April 16th 2019

Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish and Russian language guides

Busy day today. We’re going to retrieve our car which is still in Stellendam. The car rental was only a short walk away from the marina, just over half an hour walking distance. Hmmm…are we already getting used to the whole walking thing? Normally half an hour walking we would definitely haven’t called short.

Thus began operation car retrieval. Collect the van at the rental, then drive to Stellendam to pick up our car. With the car and the van we drove to Carmen’s parents place where the car will stay for the coming months. When we had ordered the new connector for the solar panels we had them delivered there as well, and they had arrived just in time. We also had ordered handy language guides in Danish, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Russian. These ‘Wat & Hoe’ (What & How) booklets contain useful sentences like “Where is the supermarket?”, but also sentences like “If you don’t leave now, I will start to scream”. You can imagine we already have had a lot of pleasurable anticipation with the booklets before we’ve even set foot in those countries.

Of course we made use of the opportunity to pick up some groceries and diesel before we said our goodbyes and drove back with the rental van again. In Middelharnis we dropped the diesel and groceries off at the boat first before returning the car to the rental place.

And there we found ourselves, walking in the middle of nowhere back to our boat in the dead of night. No car anymore to conveniently drive you home. Feels like we’ve really untied all the lines now.

Punctual people

Sailing to Middelharnis

Willemstad to Middelharnis: 13,8 nautical miles

April 15th 2017

The next stage of our adventure! Today we leave for Middelharnis. Not to the municipality marina in the city center, but the ‘Parkhaven Middelharnis’ which is a commercial marina. The reason we choose a marina far away from the old city center, is that this marina lies just over a kilometer away from the place where we’re going to rent a car tomorrow. Well a van actually, they were out of cars. Our car is still in Stellendam, so we need to retrieve it.

It was going to be a sunny day again, slightly warmer than yesterday but still cold. So after putting on all the sail gear minus the Ushanka hat, we untied the lines and left. First we had to cross a traffic lane with big container ships bound for Germany or coming back. Always a bit intimidating to cross those traffic lanes. Their appearances are deceiving. They look so plump and slow when in fact they go over 20 knots per hour, where our maximum speed is 6 knots. So the rule of thump is, if you can see them, they are crossing in front of you.

After the crossing we had to tread water again whilst we waited for the Haringvliet bridge to open. Always funny to see the massive traffic jam caused by a few tiny boats bobbing about.

After we had cleared the bridge we had the wind in our back and the current with us, so we unrolled our genoa and shut down the engine. It is so peaceful sailing with the wind in your back. No noise of the engine, only the soft sounds of the waves you’re surfing. There was something wrong with the jib though. It wouldn’t unfurl completely and furl in completely again. Like it was stuck somewhere at the end. Despite the problem with the jib and the light winds that varied between 9 and 15 knots, we still had an average speed of 4 knots so were making good time.

After a great sail we approached the lock of Middelharnis. Right behind the lock lies the Parkhaven. The harbour master was already waiting for us. We called earlier to asked for an available slip and gave 5 o’clock as estimated time of arrival. And it was exactly 5 o’clock when we entered the marina. “Punctual people aren’t you”, he joked. It must be obvious that we actually aren’t. Parkhaven is a lovely small marina with friendly harbour masters, Arthur and Saskia. They have seen a thing or two during their own sail adventures in the Caribbean and Mediterranean where they’ve worked and sailed for years, so it was great to have a chat.

For the first time this year we were able to sit in the cockpit till evening. Summer is coming!

Our trip to Middelharnis