Naia Comes Sailing. I sail to Ramsgate & on to Oostende

26^th August

More peoples today and even more joy if that was possible.  I have just returned from a sail with my beautiful daughter Hannah, her lovely partner Dominic and their gorgeous baby daughter, my youngest granddaughter, Naia.  Naia in Greek refers to a mythological water nymph.  Basque translates to wave or sea foam.  Hawaiian means Dolphin or “to flow”.

How to keep a little one safe on a boat?  Ask the Pennington family!  Actually, a 19 nautical mile sail from Suffolk Yacht Harbour, down the Orwell and up the Stour to Wrabness is hardly the North West passage, but Naia did terribly well, including taking her nap during the nineteen tacks, under main only, to return us back down the Stour to Shotley.  Thereafter we set the stay sail and after briefly venturing past Harwich shelf sailed back to our berth in Suffolk Yacht Harbour.

11^th September

I felt discombobulated today. Clumsy. Unbalanced.  Like the first sail after a long winter ashore.  But I suppose it’s a month since we have been at sea.

Today we sailed to Ramsgate in south westerlies that veered westerly as forecast.

It rained overnight. Hurah!  My goodness we need rain but we might not be saying that after the winter deluge that’s forecast by the Met Office.

When we set off at 0400 from Suffolk Yacht Harbour the rain was almost through.  By dawn, tricolour off just after 0600, the skies were clearing and ‘Talisker 1’, ignoring my antics, was eating the miles under stay sail and full main.  Through Fisherman’s Gat we set the genoa and furled the stay sail and predominantly on a beam reach, we closed on North Foreland.  Only one ship was inbound to the London River.  I’ve never seen so many ships at anchor off North Foreland.

Engine off Ramsgate Marina at 1100.

I might sail to Belgium tomorrow.

I popped in to Ramsgate RNLI and chatted with the reserve Coxwain.  One of the few who is actually employed by the RNLI.  The Coxwain was unassuming and self effacing. I just wanted to tell him that I will be an offshore RNLI member until I die.  My grandchildren are all Strorm Force members too.

The greatest fear is RNLI crew members who have been identified by ignorant thugs. What times we live in!

50% of the time an RNLI crew do not know what they have been tasked for until they are at sea. The RNLI will endeavour to help and save anyone who finds themselves in difficulty at sea.  They are also non judgemental.  They are tasked by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, not by themselves.

The vast majority are volunteers.  It is not always the relief they feel when they save lives.  Sometimes it is grizzly and at the end of a shout, however long, short, distressing or demanding it has been, their work is not over until all their equipment is serviced, washed and prepared and ready for the next shout.  And it’s not just the RNLI boats, but the thousands of highly trained and equipped life guards that man our beaches around the UK to keep US safe.  It could be any one of US.

12^th September

Ramsgate Marina £45 for the night!  No internet and loose cleats and floats on the fingers.  Prices are going up.

It’s 2320 CEST and me n ‘Talisker 1’ are in Oostende after a swift passage from Ramsgate today in predominately south westerly F 5 to 6s, gusting 7s.  From Sandettie it was windy all the way.

I was much less discombobulated today after yesterday’s rehearsal.

The ebb would end at 1800 off Oostende and I was determined not to have a foul tide for the run up to Oostende.  Slack water was from late morning. Our speeds over the ground regularly reached 9 – 10 Knots.

It was nteresting to be called by Channel VTS.  We were about to enter the SW TSS just south of Mid Falls PHM.  Three ships were going to pass well ahead of us, the fourth’s CPA was a little less certain and I was in the process of making that judgement.

Channel VTS asked me to go Channel 11.

“I see you’re about to enter the TSS.  What are your intentions regarding the four ships?”

I was a bit taken aback as I’ve never been contacted like this before.  I wonder if more and more people are making trouble with limited experience.

I said I would pass astern of all of them and be well ahead of the fifth.  There was a fifth.  I was asked to keep a listening watch on Channel 11.

Most of today’s passage was under a reefed main and stay sail with a hankerchief of poled out genoa set forward.  This works very well indeed.

Royal North Sea YC was packed solid with rafted vessels.  I called Simon Munters, the harbour master, who told me there was no space but then I remembered Pieter was away sailing.  I assumed visitors were allocated berths of absent residents but no … that is not the case.  And nobody was in Pieter’s berth so here we are.  A beautiful Swan our neighbour.  It was the ONLY empty berth.

15^th September

Very sad news yesterday from Fred Larkman.  Mum Dawn died on Saturday.  She was 89 and actually sailed with Fred at Waldringfield a week or so ago.  Larkman’s Ltd took me under their wing in the winter of 1998 and to say the boat yard holds a special place in my heart is an understatement.  The family have only just parted with the yard and taken a deserved retirement.  Dawn was always extremely kind and very smart.  She observed and listened.  A very wonderful lady.

My chum Ray (Belgian SV ‘Drunken Duck’) is not well.  I will not see he and Anne this week.  Ray is undergoing tests in Hospital.  My fingers are crossed for them both.  They sailed far and wide each year, under the radar, never telling anyone where they were going, before returning each year to Oostende and quietly, and without fuss, going home.  I’ve been lucky enough to count them as friends since ‘Talisker 1’ and ‘Drunken Duck’ sailed to Shetland in 2016.  Ray’s supportive, seamanlike warm emails to me during my cruise into the Atlantic in 2018 were golden.

When I first sailed to Oostende in the early 2000s I used to see the immaculate yacht ‘Drunken Duck’.  The name alone was unforgettable.  It was years later I met her crew.

I’ve had a nice catch up with chums.  Johan, Greet, Aster and Amber with baby Anna and grandmother Mieke.  I hope to catch Pieter down channel as he returns to Belgium from Brittany.