TURNING `THE OTHER WAY'

Judy Fish

(Unfortunately Judy's account of their 1994 summer cruise couldn't be fitted into the last issue, but I don't think it's lost too much by being held over. Ghida is a Victory 40, in which Harold and Judy have already circumnavigated).

After many years of sailing south in search of the sun we decided, on the instigation of our Swedish daughter-in-law and her family, that we would do some exploring in the `frozen north' -- the Baltic Sea. Being 1994 it seemed appropriate to start off by an involvement in the D-Day events so on 23 May we left our mooring on the Dart and headed east for a nasty Channel-rough passage to Lymington. With sundry RNSA veteran friends, including an ex-coxswain of Calshot lifeboat met in Darwin where he now lives, we anchored to watch the `sail past' of the Royal Yacht in the Solent.

We left for Ouistreham once the gales had eased and sailed overnight on 5-6 June. It wasn't a pleasant passage and made more interesting by the great number of large ships also on the move -- the George Washington, QE II, Canberra and of course Britannia herself, as well as several frigates etc. After a fast passage we anchored outside Ouistreham lock at 0130 and had several uncomfortable hours to wait for daylight. The entrance is well marked but the buoys are unlit -- there is a pontoon just inside the entrance if the lock should not be open. Once through the lock, Ouistreham Marina is vast with a good clubhouse and welcoming members. It is possible to motor up the river to Caen, but when we visited the city by bus the inner marina was full to overflowing.

Ouistreham and Caen were crowded with veterans, both American and British, and it was surprising the number of young Americans there with wartime jeeps and even ambulances -- all in combat wear. The shops and buses were decorated with signs reading `Welcome to our Liberators', but as one Welsh veteran remarked, they hadn't lowered their prices for us! We found the whole visit very moving -- another Welshman had collected a bag of shells from Sword Beach `to take back to those disabled friends who couldn't manage the journey'. To walk on that vast flat Sword Beach was to appreciate in only some small way just how it was fifty years ago. A dear little French lady we met in Caen Cathedral had lived through the war and explained to us how the Cathedral had been reduced to ruins -- now it is a wonderful building. She had me in tears with her repeated thanks for the liberation of France at that time.

On our way north we visited a number of harbours -- Fecamp, Dieppe, Boulogne, Dunkerque (where we found superb new marina with wide pontoons and a good clubhouse), Zeebrugge and on to Shevenigen in Holland (a unique experience in the yacht club here -- a free drink for skipper and crew when the marina dues are paid). We had planned to leave at 0600 for Ijmuiden but the morning shipping forecast was not too good (west-north-west 4-5, occasionally 6) so we did not leave until 0800, to find a lot of wind but reasonable seas once outside the rough area surrounding the harbour entrance. It did, however, get rougher the closer we got to Ijmuiden, all of 6-7 and the usual rather shallow water. Even with just a jib and mizzen we were doing 7 knots. On reaching the harbour entrance the discomfort was aggravated by a Scandinavian Seaways cruise liner only a few yards from us on her way in. Inside the breakwater we dropped the sails and motored into Seaport Marina, just to starboard of the entrance. This was a fantastic sight -- room for 650 boats but only about 50 there. We were fortunate to have some help, as in the very strong wind it was not easy to moor up between the piles.

The bus stop almost outside the marina was useful -- we took a ride into the town, which we found interesting if quiet. With a forecast of force 7 for German Bight we decided to stay put and rang our Dutch friend, met originally in Panama in 1986, to say we would visit him in Vlieland when the weather moderated. In the afternoon we took the bus to Amsterdam -- a `green' city with lots of open spaces and trees and the fascinating canals. We found the streets dirty and unswept and a great deal of graffiti, with lots of Americans and American flags everywhere. A second two hour bus trip took us out to the suburbs and back to Seaport. The yacht club provided a very pleasant supper with friendly people while the laundry coped with our washing.

With the forecast promising lighter winds we decided to leave for Vlieland at 0530; in fact there was no wind and a very calm sea. It took lO 1/2 hours of motoring to reach Vlieland, but the last three were horrendous. The tides were running very fast, around 6 knots, and at one time we were doing 9 knots over the ground in a maximum depth of 6 metres. We were very thankful for the Perkins. The tide across the entrance was as fierce as the book said and it was good eventually to be rafted up in the small and crowded harbour. Our friend Ton came to see us and fed us right royally, and we admired the beautifully kept town with its treelined cobbled streets and huge dike.

Ton is chairman of the local Historical Conservation Association and was involved in arranging for a memorial to be made for the captain and officers of the Lutine, which was wrecked just outside the town and whose bell hangs in Lloyds of London. Lloyds had paid for the monument and it was to be dedicated the day after we left, with a Lloyds representative and the Amsterdam Naval Attach' attending the ceremony. There were a number of bodies washed ashore on the island and buried next to the church. The churchyard also has a War Graves area and it was heartrending to see how young were the men of every nationality whose bodies were washed ashore -- mostly naval and airforce personnel. We had some interesting walks along the dike, where wooden `washboards' have to be inserted in the concrete walls when the tides are at their highest.

Midsummer's Day, ha ha! Cold, and a forecast of south-west 5 increasing 6-7. Along with many of the other boats we decided to stay, and we were glad we did. By l300 it was blowing 45 knots and then increased to over 50 knots across the deck. The small harbour had lines in every direction -- we had six to the pontoon ourselves and the wind in the rigging was awesome. The local boatmen were wonderful, helping any boats in trouble -- a trimaran which had been anchored out in the bay was brought in by the local lifeboat as were several other small boats. The big Dutch working barges were managed with great skill in such a small harbour -- we were told that one of them aground on a sandbank was `sleeping'.

Next morning dawned fair and somewhat calmer -- only north-westerly force 5 -- so we decided to go. It was very calm at the entrance but once in the channel we took a lot of spray and it was quite bumpy. Then the wind veered north-easterly and fell very light, and we ended up motoring for 27 hours. The GPS had been programmed carefully and we were able to go buoy-hop overnight -- all the buoys were well lit and could be seen from 1 to 1 1/2 miles away. By 2330 it was dark, but with a beautiful moon and a calm sea, and even the rolling wasn't too much. It was light again by 0330. The traffic increased with the daylight, and while we tried to keep out of the main shipping channel we had to cross it at one stage and had to keep our nerve on a couple of occasions. Finally we followed a Dutch yacht (who seemed to know where he was going) well outside the shipping channel and made our way up the well-buoyed channel of the Elbe. With no wind, we motored up through the plethora of buoys, ships and polluted water to Cuxhaven, moored alongside the pontoon, washed the salt off Ghida and paid our dues (about œ12).

Once through the lock and into the Kiel Canal we had a most interesting passage -- lots of shipping and many yachts. We stopped overnight in Rensburg before continuing into the Baltic. During the next two months we sailed -- or rather motored as there was little wind -- northward visiting Bornholm, Gotland and the ﾏland Islands of Finland. Later we sailed to Stockholm, then south down the east coast of Sweden inside ™land Island and round the southern tip of Sweden and through the Falsterbo Canal en route to Dragor in Denmark.

We chose to go to Dragor, a busy fishing harbour, as it is convenient for Copenhagen airport where we were to pick up two friends who would stay with us through the Lymfjord and down the North Sea. We enjoyed our short stay in Dragor -- a crowded harbour near the town and a big marina just a short walk away. The little town has everything one needs and the small supermarket delivered our order to the boat within an hour.

Next stop was to be Helsingor, with `Hamlet's castle' waiting to be explored. Again the harbour was crowded but we found a place alongside a wall and near a super beach where we were able to swim and cool down in the rather excessive heat. The castle was everything we had expected and the tapestries and paintings were magnificent. But by mid-day we were on our way again for the overnight sail to the Lymfjord which cuts off the north end of Jutland. It was a wild and bumpy night up the east side of Denmark, with thunder and lightning before we came in the dawn to the channel leading into Als, the fishing harbour at the entrance to the channel up to Aalborg. Although very shallow in parts, the channel is well marked with buoys and the occasional stick and we found more than the charted depth most of the way. Though parts are also very narrow, there is usually room to pass even the bigger ships and several Danish yachts were tacking up. On both sides the fishermen have sticks marking their fishing nets and here it obviously is very shallow.

In the approach to Aalborg we passed through the commercial area before reaching an open space where we, together with several other vessels, had to wait for first the road bridge and then the train bridge to open. Once through the bridges there are several small marinas. We were on our way by 1000 next day and thoroughly enjoyed the route through some wonderful inland scenery. It was warm and sunny and the countryside was sparkling -- very peaceful and open on each side. There were hundreds if not thousands of windmills on the shores, and we saw myriads of birds and even some seals. Another opening bridge and many little villages with white square-towered churches and we were mooring up in Nykíbing, nose to the pontoon and between the usual posts. This is a delightful spot with its small marina surrounded by cafes.

We were now only thirty-five miles from the North Sea and once through the last opening bridge had to steer a compass course for Thyboron, so vast was the lake. With the hot sunshine and a fair wind we had five sails up and were making nearly 6 knots -- wonderful, except that we were beset by thousands of small flies which seemed to stay with us all the way back to Dartmouth!

Thyboron, at the North Sea entrance, is a busy commercial port with few facilities for yachts though we picked up some water and the fuel barge came alongside by arrangement. The town is not very interesting and when, after a hot and sticky night, the heavens opened and we had a bad thunderstorm we were not sorry to be leaving. The forecast was slightly better -- south-west force 3-4 -- and we had also promised to tow an engineless Danish yacht out of the harbour.

Alternating with periods of no wind, the next four days saw some sailing in poor visibility and one thunderstorm during the 207 miles down to the Goodwin Sands. At one stage there were panic stations -- there was a good deal of rubbish in the water and the engine began labouring, but going astern and ahead eventually showed up a large piece of plastic sheeting and after that all was well. My dawn watch was fantastic -- a pink and gold sky and sea with the fading sickle moon and flat water -- that's what sailing is all about! Shipping was not too bad as we were mostly inside the traffic lanes, the overfalls off Beachy Head and again off Portland were no problem, and we finally motored into Dartmouth Harbour at 0630 on 7 August after nearly eleven weeks away. The whole trip had been fascinating -- it's a wonderful part of the world and well worth visiting. But, as ever, while we enjoyed (nearly) every minute it was still good to be home.