Tag: Sailing

Posted in Travel

The Florida Keys

Posted on by pierreo

 

I cannot count the number of times that I have thought about going to visit the Florida Keys in the past.  I always ended up not going as I was not sure what there was to do there and I did not look forward to the drive from Miami all the way to Key West.  These are all the wrong reasons for not going somewhere!

That all changed in 2019 as Bee and I talked about it more and more and I discovered that there were a lot of good reasons for going there.  We did so in January 2020.  We flew to Miami and rented a car from there.  Our first stop was at a Cuban Restaurant in Little Havana where we had an excellent lunch.  After lunch, we drove onto Route 1 and left the mainland USA.

Our first stop for the night was at Marathon Key where we stayed at the Hampton Inn (we are frequent users of Hilton chain hotels as they always treat us really well).  That evening, we had an excellent meal at The Island Fish Company, across the street from the hotel.

We had all day to go from Marathon Key to Key West so we decided to do some sightseeing on the way and stopped at the Curry Hammock State Park where we did a coastal trail on the North side of the Key.  Nice trail but very much in lush greenery all the way and therefore not much to photograph.  Here is an example of the typical trail we followed.

It was a very pleasant walk that only took us about 1 hour and we seemed to be the only people on the trail.

We arrived early at Key West and checked into our B&B called the Old Town Manor (details at the bottom of the post) – I would certainly recommend this B&B as it is beautiful, with very nice rooms and a great location.

The first order of business was to finalize our plans for the next day, when we were scheduled to take the Yankee Freedom to the Dry Tortugas.  This is an all day trip to the very last key, one that cannot be reached by car but only air and boat – we chose the boat.

And it is coming back from the Ferry Docks that we really lucked out!  In the main marina, I saw this boat which I thought was just gorgeous!  This poor picture does not do it justice.

As we got closer, we noticed that it was available for local cruises – a bit more discussion and we found out that the Sunset Cruise will be leaving in 1/2 hour with only 15 passengers on board.  We quickly signed up and almost ran to the B&B to get warmer clothes.

It turns out that this is “America 2.0” a replica of the yacht “America” which beat the Brits around the isle of Wight to win the very first “America’s Cup” on 22 August 1851.  It is not a perfect replica as it is made in modern materials but made to look like the original yacht.

They asked for volunteers to help raise the sails – no modern conveniences, such as electric winches here – it is all done with arm, and leg muscles.  I was only tailing, and trying to help a bit the person actually lifting the sail…

Here she is, almost fully rigged.  The wind was just perfect for a good sail and she sailed very well.

I even got to steer her!  Am I happy or what!

The two photos above with me in them are courtesy of Bee… Continue reading “The Florida Keys” →

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Posted in General

The Amerigo Vespucci in Antwerp

Posted on by pierreo

One of my favourite sail boat is the Amerigo Vespucci – the Italian Navy training ship.

It was built in 1931 and has been part of the Italian Navy ever since.  The lines and the multi coloured hull make it unique amongst the large sailing vessels that regularly visit different ports.

I first saw it and photographed it in New York, on the Hudson River in 1986 when it came to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty.  Here are the pictures from back then

and another

When a friend called me to say that the Amerigo Vespucci was in Antwerp for a day, I decided I had to go take a look.  I started in Linkeroever, on the opposite side of the Schelde from the city hoping that I would be able to get a full view of the ship, and I was not disappointed.  It was moored right in the old docks, in front of the Cathedral and the older part of the city.

We went under the river in the pedestrian tunnel and came out to take a closer look.  At the front, several sailors were clearly not “keeping up appearances”  as they were texting with a technology that was totally unknown when the ship was first built.  However, it is their time to relax when they are off-duty, so we have to give them a break.

A general view from the front gives an better idea of the size of the ship – the people on the side of it look so small!

Contrary to the reputation that Italians might have, the figurehead is a man – Amerigo himself!

A composite of several photos showing one of the  masts, also showing the number of ropes that are used to control the sails.  Every single rope has a unique name!

Even from the back, it is a very impressive vessel – and it is clear that the crew had made a special effort to make sure the gold and brass was shining at its best for this visit.

Not often you get to be chis close to such a magnificent sailing vessel.

If you are interested in more information on the vessel, and more photos, follow the link below detailing her visit to London just before she came to Antwerp:

http://thamesvessels.blogspot.be/2013/08/italian-navy-sail-training-ship-amerigo.html

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Posted in Sports, Travel

Sailing in Holland

Posted on by pierreo

At the beginning of July I went sailing in Holland, on the Greevelingenmeer.  This is a big moment for me as it was the first time that I am skippering an outing with the EM Sailing Club.  I started sailing with the club in 1995 and that is what gave me a taste to go for more.  However, I left Belgium before I could get my license and only now did I get back and get another opportunity.

The Greevelingenmeer is actually fully closed and should be very calm.  However, I have never sailed here, so I am discovering the area as well as the new function.  We also have a small and inexperienced crew with two members not having sailed before.

The weather forecast calls for low winds so there should not be any problems.

We set out at a reasonable time on Saturday and immediately everybody got a chance to steer.

Janice was very quick to learn how to enjoy steering.

The wind kept increasing making it more and more difficult though, so I decided that we should stop for lunch.

We had a great, uneventful sail up to the point where we could stop for lunch.  Unfortunately, our landing was not as uneventful – we survived, and so did the boat, and there are  no pictures to show the excitement…

We had a very leisurely lunch on an island (here are Dave and I relaxing…) and then set back for the return trip to Bruinisse.

We ran into a beautiful old (restored) canal boat.  These have a flat bottom so they can sail in tight to the edge and use movable side-boards on each side to stop drifting.

On a broad reach, we were doing over 8 knots but very relaxed.  The wind was just perfect so we also rigged the boat for “wing-on wing” and were able to maintain that rather well on a few tries.

Not a very intense afternoon!  Only one person doing any work as the fourth member of the team is taking these pictures…

We ran into one flat bottom boat under sail too…

Continue reading “Sailing in Holland” →

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Posted in Sports

Channel Sailing Regatta

Posted on by pierreo

I interrupt my trip to Slovenia again to relate another experience I had recently.

Middle of October is the time when Channel Sailing organises its annual regatta for clients.  Channel Sailing is the company where we hire the boats that we sail with during the year.  Every year, at the end of the season, they organise a regatta for their clients.  It is competitive, but it is also friendly and offers an opportunity to those who are not used to race to get a little excitement in controlled conditions.

Well, controlled conditions is maybe not quite the best way to describe what we had again this year.

As usual, we arrived on Friday evening to take possession of our boat for the week-end, in this case Foxtrot, a 37 foot Jeanneau

By the time Nick and I get everything organised, it is drink time.  First we have to have some snack, so we dig into the lunch supplies for cheese and salami

Nick brought some excellent Rum.  Since the beer is not cold yet, and Xavier has not brought the wine, we have no choice!

Allan and Annemie joined us later and we went for a very nice dinner in Zeebrugge.

The next day, Saturday, the wind has picked-up significantly and it rains occasionally.  Sailing will be tough! After the briefing, at about 10:30, we sail out of Zeebrugge into the North Sea.  Even this close to shore, the waves are high (3+ meters) and because of the harbour and shore, are not very regular.

Since we are running with the wind, Nick asks Allan and I to set up the spinnaker pole to hold the genoa.  It is a struggle as we have not done it for a while and make a few mistakes, but we get it done.  Unfortunately, both Allan and I are now a little seasick and with the weather and waves, there is little chance to recover…

As we approach the committee boat, we manage to take down the pole and sail normally.  There are only 4 boats today and we get ready for the first race.  Nick is steering and we all help as we can.  I am still coping, but Allan is looking greener by the minute.  On top of that, it is getting colder and we are all struggling to stay warm.

We get a good start and head for the windward mark – with the high waves, we can only see the mark when both it and us are at the top of a wave, so finding it is not easy.  However, at least we have a rough idea where it is, so we head in that direction.  As we get closer, we finally spot it and head for it.  We are second as we round the mark and head on a reach toward the next marker that we expect is to the left of the first mark.  After several minutes, we see nothing.  We head upwind to search there with no success.  the rest of the fleet seems to be mystified as well.  One by one, the boats give up and start running back to the committee boat and the leeward mark.  Nick does not ask us to set up the spinnaker pole – good – I feel woozy and that would spell the end of my breakfast.

We find the leeward mark but then the committee boat cancels the race.  We find out that they could not set the second mark and therefore we should only do an up and down, just like the America’s cup.

Is is now noon and we have not had a complete race yet.  We get ready for the first race again.  Good start, we now know where to find the first mark which we reach in second place.  Back  to the leeward mark, which we almost missed until Allan saw it than the finish line and we come in second! Good result.  I am surviving (just) but Allan is very cold now.  We have a long debate but decide to do one more race then stop regardless of what the organisation does.  Over the radio, they indicate that the next race will be just start-windward mark-finish, no leeward mark. We ‘survive’ again the last race, finish second again and then head for home … which will take more than one hour since we are heading into the wind and into the tide.

As soon as we arrive inside Zeebrugge harbor, I feel better!  We finally tie-up at about 17:00.  The rest of the fleet is right behind us as there was no additional race – wise decision.

The next day, the wind is down, the sun is slowly coming out, but the temperature is even lower.  It is only 5 C and with wind still at 20-30 km/hr, the windchill is very low.  We are fortunately equipped for it as demonstrated by Xavier and Nick.

We do five races on Sunday.  we win two, finish second, third and fourth in the other three.  We all get to steer a race.  For mine, we take a terrible start as I am blocked away from the start line by the other boats and have to do a 360 at the last second.  We start last, but are able to come back to a credible third place (which is later corrected to fourth as the boat behind us has a better handicap).  Races done, it is time to relax and head back to Zeebrugge.

It is still very cold!

Back at the West-Hinder Marina, we pack up our stuff, clean the boat, put everything in order and wait for the announcement of the final results.

Overall, we ended up in second place, same result as last year.  A good result considering.

Two and a half hours to drive home and I get there absolutely exhausted.  I was in bed before 9PM!

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Posted in Culture, Travel

New York City

Posted on by pierreo

About a month ago, I spent a long week-end in New York City.  I realised that I had not been there in over ten years, even though I would drop in regularly when I was living in Connecticut.  I arrived on Friday noon and stayed in the Millennium Hilton, just across from the construction site of “Ground Zero”.  Downtown is the area that I knew the least, so I decided to stay there. 

I spent the afternoon roaming the area, going to Wall Street, visiting Trinity Church and resting around South Street Sea Port.  I am always fascinated by the Brooklyn Bridge.

It is an engineer’s dream and to consider that it was built in 1883, more than 120 years ago before computers, calculators and many other machines that make today’s life “easier” (???).

There are several sailboats moored as South Street Sea Port.  This is one of the smaller ones but which I found attractive.

The main exhibit is the Peking, a clipper ship from the golden age of sail which has been reconstructed in parts to give an idea of what sailing on it was like.  I am lucky to discover that, on Friday, admission is free so I go and spend an hour on board.  Later on, I discover that you can sign up for a sunset cruise on a sailboat around the Statue of Liberty.  I cannot resist and sign on.  This is the boat arriving to pick up the passengers for this journey.

It is a recently renovated 1900 schooner, with the original design of mast and sails and no modern conveniences such as electric winches or anything like that.  Only ‘modenisation’ is a diesel engine for maneuvering.

We left soon after 7PM and the crew (us) had to help to raise the sails.  It is hard work, but with 10 of us on the Main Sail, we had it up in no time.  We glided away with the Manhattan skyline disappearing in the distance.

Continue reading “New York City” →

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Posted in Sports, Travel

Zeebrugge-Dunkirk-Zeebrugge by sea

Posted on by pierreo

On Monday, I met Rob, Zuzana, Machteld and Filip. We are part of the crew going sailing this week-end and this is the one and only meeting for us to organise the outing.

On Thurs, Rob is enthusiastic about the week end, where we are going and the weather – here is the note that he sent out (the underlines are mine):

“All,

As we get closer to leaving, the forecast is looking good for Sunday, but a
little more unsettled on Saturday.  Depending on which weather forecast I
look at, I would summarise the current position as:

Wind force 3-4 SW going W on Sunday
Chance of showers on Saturday, with some maybe harder.  Looks like the
weather will get better during the day as a low front passes away.

Looking further at locations, if we cannot get to Gravelines on Saturday
night, I think that Dunkerque may be a good option.  There are a number of
marinas open to all states of tide, and (at least from the websites) looks
quite pretty.  I will do some more research tonight.

Don’t forget to bring enough dry clothes.  See you all tomorrow evening. “

It turns out that this weather forecast was not far from the truth – the problem will be the direction in which reality will deviate from forecast. But once again I am getting ahead of my story.

We left for Zeebrugge on the Friday evening after work. Rob was driving and I was navigating. We did not have too many problems with traffic until we came close to Gent where we lost about ½ hour because of road works. We arrived at the boat and Machteld and Harry were already there. Zuzana and Filip arrived soon after and so we started organising food, drinks, personal stuff etc. It always takes quite some time to checkout the boat too, and do a full inventory so that we know where everything is.

For this week-end, out home will be Swing, a 37 ft Jeanneau from Channel Sailing. I have sailed on her sister ship, Foxtrot, last year and I know she is a good boat. Annemie arrives later – she was stuck in the office later than anticipated, and so with a full crew, we decided to have dinner at a local restaurant at about 21:00.

When we get back the the boat, there is an annoying alarm and we do not quite understand what it is for. We are able to silence it, and since it is late, we decide to deal with it tomorrow.

By 6:00, most of us are already up and eager to get started. The weather looks great and I decide to wear normal clothes to start: long pants, warm shirt, sweater and a windbreaker vest. It may seem like a lot for the middle of summer, but with the wind and the cold water, it is just right. The wind feels like a good force 5, or somewhere around 20 knotts (about 35 km/h).

Since the alarm is still on, we call Carlos to discuss what to do. He indicates that this is because the second battery is running low on power. We figure that as soon as we turn on the engine, it will recharge and the alarm will clear – nothing to worry about.

We leave our mooring a little after 7:00 and start motoring towards the mouth of the harbour. It is a rather long way in Zeebrugge and after 20 minutes, I call Port Control to get permission to get out – it is granted immediately.

Unfortunately, we discover that Battery 2 is still not charging and therefore we are not able to clear the alarm. This could be a problem as it is already low and all the electronics on board run off that one battery. We decide to go on, thinking that we will figure out a solution later.

Once outside the harbour entrance, we raise full sail and shut down the engine.  The wind continues at about 20 knotts in a Southerly direction. Since we needed to go South West, we were beating as close to the wind as possible, doing a good 5 to 5.5 knotts with a slight tide against us. We take turns at the wheel, changing about every hour or so. Most people have done it before so it goes without problems.  Here is Harry at work, while the rest of the crew relaxes.

Continue reading “Zeebrugge-Dunkirk-Zeebrugge by sea” →

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