Quick Update

It has been a long time since I wrote anything, not because there was nothing to write, but mainly because there was too much going on. Let me just update every one on what has been happening and I will have to catch up later with the details.

On August 23-24 I moved into my new apartment in Brussels.  It was not easy and I spent the next three weeks unpacking boxes which had not been unpacked by the moving company.  There is a good story behind all that which I will write later so I will not go into details now.  Enough said that I am now settled with only a few things still needing to be done, mainly carpets that needs to find their final place and paintings that still need to be hung.

In early September, I went to England for meetings at the Fawley Plant.  Leave Wednesday evening and get in to the hotel at 8PM; work all day Thursday and half of Friday and get home Friday evening late.  You know the routine – the fun of business travel…

Mid September, I spent a week with my parents in the South of France.  Now that was fun!  The drive in my new car was a thrill; I was very glad to see them again and spend some quality time with them; the weather was nice etc, etc… 

Early October, I went to the US on a business trip.  First to Houston and then Baton Rouge.  I spent the first Saturday with Belgian friends who live in Galveston.  Their house survived Ike, just; their boat did not!  All is fixed now so we spent a quiet afternoon talking, talking, eating and drinking wine, and more talking.  In Baton Rouge, I saw Lee and Dave as well as Bee.  Lee and Dave came to see me at the hotel as we could not find another time to get together.  It was great seeing them again.  Bee was involved in our meeting but I saw her outside as well.  She seems to be enjoying her life here!

The last Saturday, I had lunch with Su Li and Han Wa in Kemah.  What a coincidence to run into Singaporean friends in Houston.  The weather was cold but we still had a good time.  I do hope that Han Wa did not catch the flu as he refused to wear a jacket even though the temperature was only around 15-16 C

Last week-end, I had a “friendly” regatta on the North Sea organised by the company where we have been renting boats for the last 15 years.  Nick was our skipper – we know each other well, even though we had not sailed together since 1997.  I did not know any of the other members of the team.  When I arrived in Zeebrugge, the wind was blowing in excess of 30 knots (for those of you not familiar with what a knot is, it is almost 2 km/hr therefore the wind was blowing in excess of 55 km/hr).  On the docks, it was at times hard to stand still.  The next morning, not much change and therefore the races were delayed in the hope that the wind would decrease somewhat.  It did, down to 25 knots before noon so we went out in out 37 foot Oceanis called Foxtrot.

We started with the Race Briefing.  I think this should have told me that it was not a good idea to go out! When you have to wear full foul weather gear on the docks, there is something wrong! Don’t we all look miserable?

The first race started at 1 PM while the wind was still blowing hard and the waves were more than 3m high.  Nick steered the first race and it was hard work, especially since we could not find the windward buoy right from the start.  So we headed for the ‘judges’ boat as we figured it was going towards the mark to see how the boats managed to get around it.  It was rough moving around out there… I am not on this picture because I am already struggling to keep my breakfast down!

After a while, we got word from ‘race control’ that the buoy had been blown away by the wind and therefore the “W” channel marker near the judges boat would be the new windward mark.  We were the first boat around it and won the race easily.

When the waves are 3 meters high, it can really shake your boat, and get you interesting views of what is happening.  No, we are not sinking, we are just behing a very big wave.

and since we cannot go through a wave, we have to go over it

What goes up ….. must come down

The second race was just as rough, with a new course again as the wind had shifted.  Michel steered this race and once again, we are the first to find the windward mark and lead all the way to the finish line.  As soon as the start is given for the third race, it is now 4PM, the wind died.  So we are drifting with 5-10 knot winds and 10 foot seas – not pleasant.  Two other boats have already given up because half of their crew is sea sick; half of our crew of six (including me) is also sick, but we struggle on for a while.  After a while, without wind, the third race is cancelled and all boats are advised to return to base. 

At the end of the first day, we are in the lead with 2 wins.  there are two boats tied for second (Reggae and Bolero) right behind us.  We have dinner together with other participants: Mussels and Frittes!

On Sunday, the weather is much better.  15-20 knot winds and the sea is much calmer.  Our crew is down to four, so more work, but easier with the lower wind.  We make a mistake in the first race getting to the windward mark and the low winds are not in our favor on the downwind leg so we finish third despite Philippe’s good efforts steering.  I had the pleasure to steer the second race of the day. 

We made a bad mistake on the windward mark again and let Reggae (who already won the first race of the day) take a very long lead on the downwind leg.  However, they make an even bigger mistake and totally underestimate the speed of the tide.  Nick reminds me to pay attention to that and the lack of speed of the boat and I end up steering almost 45 degrees up-tide of the mark just to stay even.  Our actual track is directly to the buoy and in slow motion, we round the mark in first place.  Now, into the wind back to the start line.  The wind is low so it is a constant struggle to head into wind as much as possible while still maintaining boat speed.  We are barely gaining on the tide and therefore  are moving almost sideways.  Reggae recovered from their mistake and are just behind us – they seem to be able to consistently head to wind better than we can and with a smaller boat, they are better able to take advantage of the small gusts of wind when they come.  They slowly gain, but we are able to keep them behind us until the finish – we get line honours, but we suspect that with corrected time, they will actually be placed ahead of us in that race too.  Bolero is far behind and actually has to motor to finish the race, so the fight is now between Reggae and ourselves with two victories each – only one race left…

Nick is steering the last race.  We manage to beat Reggae to the windward mark and they do not make the same mistake on the downwind leg so they are right behind us round the last mark.  There is still not much wind, so we are having a slow motion head to head race less than 100 m between the boats.  This time, their ability to  head to wind better is too much and they nick us at the finish line.  We have given it our all, but we know that we are in second place overall.  Here are the results

Notice the results of Racve 4 – We beat Reggae by 1:16 across the line, but they beat us by only 53 seconds on corrected time – 53 seconds between first and second place!  We also have the fastest time overall.  So a lot to be happy about.

Still, it was quite an experience and reminded me of the previous times that I has sailed on the North Sea.  I will continue to participate – I am not sure yet if I am ready to actually skipper a week-end (I will have to make sure that I can control my sea sickness before I can do that), but I will certainly go regularly as ‘experienced’ crew.  When I finally made it home on Sunday evening, I ate, went to sleep two hours earlier than usually, and slept the whole night in a very deep sleep – I guess I was tired from all the excitement!

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