Tag Archives: Holland

Sailing in The Netherlands

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Next stop was Hindeloopen in Friesland out of IJsselmeer and we looked forward to visit there again. Alexandra was built there on the Aluboot boatyard in 1989. Sailing from Harlingen, on the 16 of July, to Hindeloopen was an easy ride with good weather, following the other boats threw the narrow sound in the  Waddensee to the Lorentzsluizen. We spent 3 fairly relaxing days in Hindeloopen and this time Lars had time to see the charming village. Lars made a very important finding, a reason for our problems with starting and stopping the engine. After changing the expensive starting key and holder, he found out that changing a fuse, underneath the day-tank, that he did not know existed, was solving a lot of our problems. The last evening there were harbor feast in the old city so we got ice-cream and draft-bear when listening to live music.

Hindeloopen

From Hindeloopen we sailed to Amsterdam on 19/7-2015 08:30 and arrived 19:30. We had the wind against us so went for motor except for a short time close to Stavoren were we sailed with stay-sail. Enkhuizen with its sport lock we passed with no trouble. It was different to pass the lock into Amsterdam because of motor trouble. That was solved by Lars alone but he had contact with Bjarne on messenger though the problem turned out to be the same as last summer in Göteborg Sweden. Also  getting service of the water-maker by the man that had installed it in Alexandra in 1989 was made possible by contact with Hans, the former owner of Alexandra. Another thing that trouble us was finding a place to fill up our to gas-tanks we had on Alexandra. It turned out to be very troublesome and we ended up buying a camping-gas tank just to have something and it can be exchange all over Europe but we wanted something to be used all over the world. The last day we took a commute ferry to the city and enjoyed a few hoers walking around finding a marine bookstore to update our pilots. Amsterdam marina was a good harbor to stay at not forgetting the bathtub with a view. We stayed there for four nights until 23/7 when we sailed to Scheveningen to meet Hans and Mariët, the former owners of Alexandra.

  Q

It turned out to be nice 36 Nm of sailing to Scheveningen, close to den Haag. After a bridge opening and a lock we set main sail and jib and sailed nice upwind all the way to the harbor entrance and arrived in the early evening. The next day we got on a tour to Rotterdam with car, tube and walking around the beautiful city ending up in the almost newly built central station, guided by Hans and Mariët. Also, on a stormy Saturday evening, enjoying being invited to dinner and meeting interesting dutch all a round the world sailors. We ended up staying in Scheveningen until 30/7 because of the rainy stormy weather, fixing a lot around the boat, shopping at the to marine shops and provisioning in the inexpensive dutch supermarket. The most important event was Lars got connected gas to the new gas stove. The oven were so tested by baking sand cake, white bred, rye bred and rhubarb pie. Also, an LPG gas tank was delivered to Hans and he came with it to us on Alexandra. Now we have a gas tank that we can fill up our self at a gas station.

 

 

From Danmark to Holland

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First we want to say thank you Marie, Jamilla, Mathilda and Henrik i H-boat for farewell on the water. First stop was Helsingør were Selden had to fix a couple of things in the top of the mast on behalf of Lopolight  before we were very satisfied with the rigging Job.

Second leg was to Hals in the North of Jutland and this leg turned out to be the best leg sailing wise. We had a lot of wind from the preferred direction and the current with us most of the time. We sailed fast and enjoyed the sundown and the sunset. Arriving in Hals after approximately 14 hours at 04:00.

Third leg was from Hals through Limfjorden to Thyborøn passing threw four bridge openings and underneath one bridge. The latter bridge at Sallingsound was scary because the bridge were 26 m high and Alexandra’s mast are  23 m. It was very  foggy the whole day except for passing  Aalborg and the two bridges there, se pictures. After passing beautiful Løgstør we could set sails. It took approximately 16h and we sailed out in the fjord at 04:15 in the early morning.

We stayed in Thyborøn for a week because of strong winds and the next leg had a long distance. Good though that Lars had time to install compressor and evaporator to refrigerator and freezer boxes and a compressor to a little refrigerator.

Forth leg started early in the morning 05:04 UTC 11 of July from Thyborøn. It was our longest leg but not the toughest. We were so happy to be sailing again so we tried with all means to sail for sail. The wind shifted all the time in direction and strength. A dove took an over night free ride on aft deck so it was not so bad. After 163,37 Nm we arrive at 11:53 UTC the 12 of July at Helgoland and moored outside two boats, as is common at Helgoland, after a 30 hour long sailing leg.

Fifth leg started the next day after provisioning at the high quality Spar and off cause a couple of bottles of Gin extra strong at a tax free shop at the harbor. Also bunk up with lower price diesel. Now we had a tough leg to sail for the engine against the wind and a lot of rain. Sailing into Borkum in the middle of the night with very bad visibility, because of the constant rain, and high traffic of small fishing vessels trawling in the canal, was very tiresome. The leg took approximately 20 h for Engine. We arrived at 6 in the morning. During the day we solved the fresh water leak problem and filled up all three tanks. We also pumped air through the overflow pipe to make sure they were working. We also checked the steering weal and greased the chain. The village should be nice but 4 km away so nu time for a visit.

The six leg started  at 4 in the morning by weakening the boat owner outside as we had agreed. It was a lot easier to sale out sf the sound close to sunrise then in the dark night. Soon we got over to the Dutch side of the sound, but also on this side we had to hold track of the small fishing vessels trawling though it was much easier now in daylight. With one reef in the main sail and a jib we sailed towards Harlingen in very bad weather and visibility most of the day Sailing into the Waddenzee we had to take down the main sail but could role out the jib once in a while. Lars find out that some of the beacon were moved so a little tricky to sail here when you are not used to it. Lars had red about it so he was prepared for it. When reaching Harlingen the weather were wonderfully warm and sunny for the first time. Provisioning and relaxing in the beautiful town and harbor stood for the rest of the day.