Picture of Pauline at the helm, wind was F6-F7 from the SW. (pictures never do it justice!!)

We had been stuck in Cuxhaven for two days, time was pressing due to work commitments for myself and for John. On the Wednesday morning we got a weather forecast from the harbour office F4-F5 possibly F6 Later. The BBC was saying F5-F6 possibly F7 Later for German Bight. Again, a classic mistake was made. I accepted the best of the forecasts and discounted the worst one as the BBC 'over estimating' to be on the safe side.

I decided that we should go.....we had the tide with us to get us well clear of the Elbe estuary. As we started to untie, our German neighbour gave us his latest Navtex forecast, F6-F7 Possibly F8 Later!! I should have stopped and tied up again but I didnt ! We were to get a pasting..................................

As already mentioned, the Elbe estuary is a dangerous place if the wind and tide are wrong. It is also very busy with commercial traffic. On the way out we had a close call with a ship that kept steering for us even though we had taken avoiding action. We tried to radio her but did not get an answer.

Anchored ships that you assumed you had passed and were now safe from would 'up anchor' and become a problem.
It was already very choppy in the estuary, but I thought it would improve when we cleared the shallow water.

I managed to get the evening forecast on my Xda (small hand held phone and pc, like an early iphone - great bit of kit). BBC forecast was now F7-Gale 8, seas rough to very rough!!, I knew that we could not turn back as wind against tide in the estuary is dangerous. It was as though a door had slammed shut and the word gotcha sounded in my head. There are very few harbours of refuge. I felt like I had walked into a trap.

As the night went on, the wind strength picked up to 16 metres per second on average, which is F8. I knew we had a solid boat and a fit crew so I thought we would be okay. We were reefed right down but sailing (bashing) into the wind. They say that a gale will find weak points in most boats and sure enough as the seas built up, they started.

The First problem was as we went down a wave, the port side navigation light was floated off its mounting and was smashing against the toe rail on the end of its wire, it also fused all of our lights. We were running on navigation lights, not tricolour, as we did not have one fitted as yet.

I was using the Xda as a hand held plotter to navigate. I had memory Map charts loaded, these were large and small scale charts and a blue tooth GPS giving us our position on the hand held plotter. When I saw the lamp smashing about I tucked the Xda into my pocket, picked up some tools and went forward to fix the lamp. With a leatherman and some insulating tape, I managed to fix the lamp, but I did not secure it (with a cable tie). Nevertheless our lights were working again.......

When I got back to the cockpit I noticed the 'bluetooth' light on the GPS was no longer communicating with the Xda. At first I thought I had been out of range when I was at the bow fixing the nav light. I soon realised that I had lost the Xda over the side and with it, my phone, large scale charts to get us into any harbour of refuge, and future weather forecasts. We now using Imray C26 (1:345000)

At about 02:00 I heard a loud bang, with that the genoa unfurled and I knew that the furling line had broken allowing all the sail to unfurl. Again I left the safety of the cockpit to try and rectify the problem.

When I eventually got to the bow, there was only about three metres of line. I managed to wrap a few turns around the drum and pull in some sail, but this still left us way over-canvassed and unable to point into the wind.

With too much genoa out, we could no longer make much to windward. We just tacked in and out every 10 miles or so making very little progress towards our destination. Worse was yet to come........................

As dawn broke I thought that it would lift morale but it was the darkest dawn that I have seen. It was raining and the wind was still getting stronger now on average 18 metres second, gusting to 21m/s. We could also see how big the seas were. Sleeping was impossible although we did try. The floor was the most feasible option.

At this point I must say how dry the boat was, as no water at all had come into the boat, with seas breaking over her and into the cockpit. Even behind the screen and sprayhood stayed dry

Later in the morning we tried motor sailing. We had taken the main down to try and make progress as we kept accidentally tacking. I think we were desperate to try and make good some miles to windward. It was during this time that I heard a crash from below as we 'fell off' a wave. I looked down the companionway to see John face down against the cooker, he managed to pick himself up but was not okay.

He had fallen across the boat and smashed the galley footpump lever off with his shoulder. John is a hardy person, and I knew we had a problem when I asked if he was okay. He said he didn't know because he could not move his arm or feel his fingers. I had been on the helm for about 4 hours and Pauline before me for 3 and a half hours which caused neck and shoulder strain from helming in such heavy weather. In retrospect shorter stints would have been better.

Then, following another large breaking wave the port side lamp and flag staff both broke off completely!!

We discussed our situation,and although I was for staying out and pushing on to Den Helder, it was clear that we had taken enough punishment. We had been out for about 30 hours, John was hurt, we had no lights for the coming night and with the genoa almost fully unfurled we could only make north into the shipping lanes, or south towards the frisian islands and we needed to go west.

We decided to put into Borkum. Looking at the chart and how the wind was blowing I said that we may surf a little getting into the Ems Etsuary. An understatement to say the least. We were heading for a lee shore in a severe gale. We planned to use the Westrems Channel, however we only had a small scale chart to get us in. We entered some way points into the GPS, one to get us to the SWM (Rifgat), and the next to get us into the buoyed channel. When we reach the buoyed channel we should be okay to get into the Randzegat.


Once we got to the SWM, we turned on to the course to enter the channel, but we couldn't see any buoys or the channel. Shortly after, a huge wave picked us up, and we were now surfing, out of control. I looked at the speed we were doing -18 knots!! I was sure that we would broach. When the wave ran out, it felt like the next one would hit us. I could not get over the speed we had done, or the amount of foam that was at deck level. There was also a loud roaring noise, which wasn't the wave. It was something in the boat. Then we were off again, sailing fast with far too much sail out for the conditions however there was no chance of getting forward to drop it.

John was down below with Pauline and shouting that we were way off course. I was following the rolling road on the GPS, but he and Pauline were adamant that we should be steering a different course.

It went through my mind that there could be alot of cross track error. Then we were picked up again, and it was all I could do to keep the boat in a straight line, I was shouting down to them that we may broach. Again the roaring noise but this time I noticed that the engine was revving. I guess the prop was driving the engine. This surf lasted for about 30 seconds but seemed to go on and on. I was totally out of control but desperately trying to keep the boat straight. John still shouting at me to get back on course as we were heading straight into the shallow water of the Borkumriff.

Then it happend again we were picked up for a third time, again the speed was 18+ knots with no control. I was screaming.
"We could broach this time. Hold on."
Towards the end of the surf the depth gauge went to 2 metres!!! Then I shouted.
"We could ground at speed. Hold on."
I was sure that we would hit the ground. In hindsight this may have been a false reading due to turbulance or speed or both.

Pauline at this point put out a mayday distress and the lifeboat at Borkum reassured us that they would only be a few minutes. Within the next minute I spotted the channel marker. What a sight to behold. Then a few minutes later the orange lifeboat became visible.
We were still sailing too fast, but now we knew where we were, we called the lifeboat to tell them we were out of danger, but they insisted on coming to us and even deployed a small rib which we followed in.

When we got closer to the harbour entrance, John and I managed to drop the genoa and drag it unto the deck. Once inside the harbour, the lifeboat crew took our lines and we moored up next to them. After stepping off the boat we had a group hug and realised what a close call it had been.

The lifeboat crew were very understanding and said that we were right to send the mayday because sometimes they end up recovering bodies rather than performing rescues. They did wonder why we were even out there. I was lost for words. We gave a 100 euro donation as a thank you to go into their personal kitty and they were happy. They do a fantastic job.

It was later when we debriefed that we checked the GPS and the waypoint had been entered incorrectly. We did allow for tiredness and double checked the co-ordinates, but the process of entering the digits is where I think I made the mistake. That evening we had a really nice meal in the local restaurant and slept very well. We were so glad to be in safely after our ordeal

We did see one other boat come in. It was a Najad 40 or 42, that had ripped their main sail. The in-mast furling system had jammed and somehow one crew member nearly lost two of her fingers. Their boat was pretty wet inside, as one of their hatches and the sprayhood leaked. They maintained that they had never been in seas like it even after two Atlantic crossings!!

For the next two days it was blowing a gale, so we had time to sort out the navigation lamp, repair the sail at a local furniture maker, restock with food, beer and water, and put on a new furling line. The furling drum had dropped and chafed the line, so this also had to be fixed.

I am sure if there had been a ferry running my crew would have taken it, but after a couple of days waiting for the strong winds to drop we started planning to get to Ijmuiden. We were back on track and raring to go.

Lessons learned;
Before we left I remember saying to Pauline if we have trouble it will be on this stretch.
I should have had large scale paper charts.
Never take the best forecast ,always assume the worst.
I am not sure what I could have done to stop us surfing so fast, and perhaps having too much genoa out helped keep us straight. It was no time to be streaming warps etc as it was too shallow.
Perhaps I should have been a stronger, less popular skipper and stayed at sea??