Friday 21st June Ref: 2019/6
A slightly uncomfortable, but straightforward, cruise across the North Sea with the 8 to 12 knot force 3/ 4 fresh breeze leading to slight/moderate sea conditions. Coming from the West and veering West North-west, it enlivened the sea as it was across the prevailing tide. We eventually met up with Ikon off IJmuiden and then cruised inland along the Nordzeekanaal to the town moorings at Beverwijk for a quiet night’s recuperation and rest.
I had made arrangements for us to leave very early and we managed to slip our moorings and head out of Lowestoft Harbour by 5am British Summer Time, which was an hour earlier in GMT. We immediately found sea slightly uncomfortable and, with a breeze of some 12 to 13 kn from the West and the tide running North/South, it was leading to a slight/moderate sea in a troubled fashion making some awkward movements aboard Lady Martina.
As a trial, I decided to keep the vessel on a constant heading and allow the ebb tide, passing northwards up the North Sea, to carry us further north and then, later on, the flood tide to carry us back again on course. In this way, I hoped to take best advantage of the conditions and consume less fuel as we would not be fighting against the cross tide all of the while. This plan worked quite well until later on when there was far more flood tide energy than ebb tide pressure such that I had to go on the autopilot for the final approach.
We cruised at about 8 to 8 ½ knots, allowing the boat engines to turn over economically at some 13 to 1400 revs and we organised our normal distractions of flasks of tea and coffee plus sandwich and snack breaks every half an hour or so to break up the possible monotony. Even so, it was a long day cruising and with over 12 hours later before we approached the Dutch coast, entered into IJmuiden harbour, and linked up with Chris and Maggie Cole on their boat Ikon.
We then made our final approach into the Klein Sluice south lock (as the normal Northern lock was closes for maintenance) and then into the Nordzeekanaal. At my suggestion, both boats turned into the first canal on the port side and made our way to the town moorings at Beverwijk for a quiet night’s recuperation and rest after we had had our customary social drink together to celebrate our achievement.
16-25degC; RH 69→38%; 1014→1016mb→1019mb rising; slight/ moderate seas with fresh 8-12 knot breeze , mainly Wly; and fair visibility
