Lady Martina - North Sea Passage Return 2019

Details: Category: North Sea Passage Return 2019; Published: 09 July 2019; Hits: 5137

Tuesday 16th July Ref: 2019/23

A successful day, navigationally, as we cruised from Beverwijk through the IJmuiden Klein Sluis and across the North Sea to Lowestoft, but it was long and wearing day of endurance for Kathleen and I made more uncomfortable by a one metre beam swell and concerns about getting the mooring upon arrival. Lady Martina performed well without complaining, apart from a GPS failure on approach.

I was awake at 4:30am local time, getting dressed and preparing Lady Martina for an early departure from Beverwijk on a fine and mild, if dull, morning. I put the kettle on whilst I was getting myself and the boat ready and had taken the precaution of shipping the fenders on the starboard side to save time. I had the equipment turned on and functioning, the engines running and had slipped the mooring ropes after I had given Kathleen a mug of tea.

I set off back down Zijkanaal A, and turned to starboard along the Noordzeekanaal towards Ijmuiden. I called the Klein Sluis bridge keeper on channel 22 VHF, well ahead of time, and he prepared the lock ready for us; as was witnessed by the red and green combination of lights as we approached and the green light as we arrived. I moored the boat on the port side, using our existing deployment of fenders and we were soon through the lock and entering the Ijmuiden outer harbour.

Our progress was temporarily restricted by a huge cruise liner, going astern into the dock on the left-hand side but, once it had cleared the channel, I set off towards the harbour entrance. I had to decide whether to stick hard over on the port side, together with another yacht as is one custom, or to cross the channel make my way over to the starboard side in the same way. In the end there were 2 to 3 larger vessels inbound and so stayed fairly central and passed them port-side to port-side and made my way out to sea.

All had been going to plan with our progress and Kathleen had completed most of the other tasks inside Lady Martina, for I had already closed and locked the windows, put away the laptop and screens from within the saloon and did as much as I could before waking her. Once we were beyond the harbour moles, we started experiencing the swell, which was to plague us for most of the day. It was over a metre or so and of a fairly short wavelength coming from the north-east and, at first, was also combined with short sea; but both of them were forecast to decay after the calm weather had arrived, but this process was to take much longer than I anticipated. As I was committed to navigating the boat at 1300 revs, for fuel economy, and, even though this was delivering some 8.5 kn rather than the 8 kn expected, this was to result in a long and uncomfortable passage.

We approached this phenomenon quite positively to start with, having our drinks and eating sandwiches; even though this process was very difficult, but experiencing this all day led to our brains feeling quite ‘addled’ and bodies tired and disorientated! The wind calmed as forecast, to almost 0 kn at times, the wave component disappeared and the swell did eventually moderate. Also Kathleen did get some rest and several periods of sleep, but she became very tired and uncomfortable by the end of the trip. Although I continued to manage the boat throughout this duration of some 15 hours, I was also on the limit of tolerance for me. I had judged that, whilst a moderate improvement in speed would have cut an hour or two off of this passage, and even a large increase in speed would have only reduced our time by 3-4 hours from the time; neither would have made Lady Martina behave better in that swell.

The swell was not affecting Lady Martina's fuel consumption or performance and it made no difference to her structure/equipment, which was generally fine, it was the crew that were unhappy! As we approached Lowestoft, and reconnected with mobile phone signal, I could confirm my Great Yarmouth Haven Bridge lift request for 3:30pm tomorrow and could resume contact with the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk yacht club about mooring in Lowestoft for the night. I had called them yesterday and learnt that they should be able to accommodate us, but they had requested that I contact him again when ‘on my way’ to confirm, but this latter request was difficult when I was approaching from sea and not from along the coast!

By the time I was within phone signal range, their situation had moved on and the moorings were going to be very busy but, they still agreed to accommodate Lady Martina, if we were prepared to raft up. On the VHF radio, I was hearing lots of other yachts calling in upon arrival at Lowestoft port with request to enter the marina and the radio operator responding that space was limited in the marina and that the hammerhead had to be kept clear for a booking, Kathleen and I were therefore becoming worried about getting in at all and starting to review our options which included a Bascule Bridge lift into the Haven.

Once we entered the channel, my main GPS satnav navigation set failed which added to the tension, but I used other instruments to successfully enter the port and proceed to the marina. The main visitors moorings were already fully taken with boats rafted up but I went astern in front of the clubhouse to come alongside a very nicely kept Broom 44, whose Yorkshire owner did not have any fenders down and did not seem to be overly keen but I moored there anyway.

The evening was spent recovering and putting the boat back together, tracing and overcoming that GPS fault and showering ready for bed, as Kathleen went ashore and thankfully used the facilities.

Details: Category: North Sea Passage Return 2019; Published: 09 July 2019; Hits: 2562

Wednesday 17th/Thursday 18th July Ref: 2019/24

A busy and tiring day, as we had a change of plan and struggled to accommodate it. We had studied Lady Martina’s service manuals and realise that it was a good three, nearly four, years since she was out of the water and so, by now, her hull would be in need of attention. As we were in Lowestoft, I made enquiries and concluded that we would leave the boat here at a suitable contractors, Sealake Marine, to get the boat lifted out the next day and would leave her for a month and drive home. This entailed me going off by train to collect the car and Kathleen loading in anticipation and both proved to be more difficult and envisaged.

A good day followed, passing through the Lowestoft bascule bridge at 9:45 AM, as requested, and cruising up to the boatyard where the operative Dan met us and quickly and efficiently hoisted out Lady Martina such that we could vacate the boat and leave it in his hands. Then his colleague gave us a lift back to the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk yacht club, where we collected the Range Rover and drove home to Horning.

After breakfast on this first morning, Kathleen and I got into a discussion about how long ago it was since Lady Martina was out of the water for attention and maintenance for her hull. Kathleen thought it was more recent than it actually was and, when I checked on a maintenance records, I established that it was 3 ½ years ago!

I then started phoning around and enquiring about what facilities that were in the Lowestoft Lake Lothing area for lifting large boats out and, I took the opportunity to phone our cleaner Lucy and then her partner Phil (who was still in the Netherlands) to find out more. He put me onto the owner of the yard who had a large gantry and were tolerant enough for work to take place within his yard once the boat was out of the water.

It was also explained that his charges were more modest than some. I ended up contacting the Sealake Marine yard at his suggestion, after finding the telephone number of the owner. He put me onto his man, Dan at the yard, and it was established that the best thing would be for us to wait until the next day, pass through the Bascule bridge with Lady Martina at the 9.45am lift and then the tidal conditions and his own availability will be suitable for getting the boat out tomorrow morning.

This meant that we were to spend the rest of the day in the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk and extend our overnight stay by a further day. I had to take the train back to Horning and collect one of the cars and bring it for us to load up at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk and then we would get some transport back from the yard tomorrow and be able to drive home.

Happily, this also meant that, as Ikon and its crew were arriving today, we could have that farewell dinner that we had anticipated but not had the chance to enjoy before. I then set off hurriedly to the station, bought a new Senior Citizen’s Railcard, together with a train ticket through to Hoveton and Wroxham railway station; all for a price of less than 6 pounds! The connections worked well and I telephoned Horning cars to collect me at the station and take me home to Horning.

In the meantime, I had to cancel the Haven Bridge lift that I planned for Great Yarmouth for 3:30 PM the following afternoon.. My trip home went very well, I found the work had progressed equally well on both my own riverside quay heading and that of my neighbour, Gordon, who I telephoned to exchange notes and experiences. I then went inside Heronshaw found the whole mound of correspondence and things to do with before I then emptied the Range Rover of all of the forestry materials and other clothing such that it could be used for transporting our belongings back from Lowestoft.

The Range Rover was in such a state that I felt I should get it cleaned and I combine this with a trip to my Range Rover garage nearby, as I was also concerned about noise from the exhaust. The engineers pronounced my Range Rover to be fine and so I then went to get the Range Rover cleaned.

During the journey, I then found the air conditioning was no longer functioning effectively and so I then went to the garage next to the car cleaning depot and got that dealt with as well. All this meant it had taken much longer than anticipated to get back to Lowestoft, only arriving about 6:30 PM which was time when our friends had arranged to meet up for a drink!

Kathleen and I agreed that we would have to load the Range Rover afterwards and so I quickly changed and joined her on board Ikon and we then went and out for a meal at a nearby pub. Upon completion of our meal, Kathleen and I then went back to Lady Martina, changed and frantically loaded up a full heavy trailer full of belongings and then struggled up the pontoon slope to load them aboard the Range Rover.

Upon returning to the boat, Kathleen was doubled up in excruciating with digestive pain as she had eaten a large meal. In the end she went to bed leaving me to get on with things and, after printing out some more pages for my log, I completed the job of loading up all of our possessions had been prepared onto the trolley taking it to the Range Rover and loaded them aboard.

To bed, tired but pleased that we were in good shape for the morning

Together with the crew of Ikon, we went through the 9:45 AM Lowestoft bascule bridge lift the following morning and then cruised gently to the boatyard, where operative Dan was there to greet us and direct us through a winding channel to his 26th-tonne lifting gantry.

Together with his assistant, who is based at the boatyard and helps him, he very carefully adjusted the strops and then lifted Lady Martina gently. Once the strops are taken her weight, Kathleen and I got together the rest of our possessions and climbed ashore watching as the lift continued and the transport of Lady Martina away from the Dyke began.

We had a discussion with Dan about what to do with the boat and both noted that the hull seemed to be in a very good condition, considering its recent neglect, but the starboard propeller, in particular, had been bent due to our grounding this year.

They would now clean it off with a pressure washer and transport it to its resting place for the next month, during which time we would agree on what type of sandblasting and re-antifouling will take place and which anodes and other stern gear maintenance would be undertaken. We were grateful for Dan’s assistance in giving us the lift back to the Norfolk and Suffolk yacht club

Beverwijk via IJmuiden to Lowestoft

Tuesday 16th July Ref: 2019/23

RNSYC Lowestoft to Sealake Marine Lake Lothing

Wednesday 17th/Thursday 18th July Ref: 2019/24

Dutch Waterways

Broom Owners Club

Journals of David A Broad