10/04/2008, London
Queen's Ransom in misty Flom, the turning point of our voyage
Queen's Ransom covered a distance of 2,044 nautical miles during her Norwegian fjord exploration. A bit longer than the 1,750 miles during last year's Iberian adventure. The distance is actually greater than an Atlantic crossing from the Cap Verde Islands to Barbabos, which is a mere 2,014 nautical miles!
We spent eight days on non-stop crossings: Lowestoft-Stavanger, Stavanger-Vlieland and Den Helder-Dover. The rest were day sails; 13 days in Norway, one in Holland and five in the UK.
Overall we had good weather. There was relatively little motoring during our crossings, but we had to motor almost all the time in Norway. The toughest parts were the gales we encountered as we left the UK for Norway and we also had to tack West in the English Channel, as well as the breakages of the head sail furler and spinnaker.
The most serious incidents were the manual hydraulic back stay and vang system failing already on departure, the head sail furler breaking down outside Lowestoft and the spinnaker getting wrapped around the forestay as we headed South across the North Sea. The hydraulics system was repaired in Lowestoft and at the end of the day the furler could be temporarily fixed by lubricants, but eventually it will need to be sent to Selden in Sweden.
Smaller but annoying problems were the computer, which is brand new, keeping crashing and sometimes difficult to start up again, the cockpit screen intermittently malfunctioning and the loss of cooling water for the engine outside Fedje. Towards the end of the trip, leaks of the sprayhood, companionway garage and one of the galley port holes had developed. We were getting unnecessarily wet!
I set out singlehandedly in glorious weather on a Saturday morning in July. The first two days were a mix of motoring and sailing, but I sailed the whole last day of the first leg from Ramsgate to Lowestoft. I even raised the cruising chute while singlehanding!
Peter, Barnaby and I were weatherbound in Lowestoft for two days as a low pressure headed South East across the North Sea. We got got to know Lowestoft quite well! We set sail on Monday morning in gale force winds. That was a bit too early! It was rough, even with the prospects of the wind abating. Our track was a bend to the South East of the straight line as we kept the wind on the beam to counter the conditions. On the second day we started to recoup and even finally enjoyed a glass of water. The wind dropped and the sun came out making the second half of the crossing most pleasant. The North Sea crossing was 459 nautical miles covered just under three days (69.5 hours) which meant an average speed of 6.6 knots.
We arrived in Stavanger with a delay to meet up with Tim for a whirlwind tour of the Lysefjord and Hardangerfjord up to Bergen. The weather was glorious, but no wind. We covered many miles under engine and had little sleep. We enjoyed beautiful anchorages among the rocks and islands.
Crew change in stunning and laid back Bergen with Imelda, Quinn, Elliott and Brendan joining. The heat wave with temperatures of 30 degrees started to take its toll. After visiting beautiful Fedje in the archipelago North of Bergen, the fjord adventure in Sognefjord started. It was many miles of motoring which I partly did before the rest of the family had woken up in the mornings. Sognefjorden become more and more impressive as we headed inland; steeper mountains, more snow and glaciers
One of the highlights was Fjaerlandsfjorden with its glacier at the head. The water turned glacial green and the water temperature fell by some five degrees. Only the children were brave enough to go swimming. Naroyfjord took the price of most beautiful scenary. I initially spotted this place with its beautiful wooden church in Jan-Erik Osterlunds book of his fantastic yacht and voyage;"Exploring with Adele".
Anders joined and the family left in Flom, the weather took a turn to the worse. We set out in the only fog of the trip. We traced back to Naroyfjord again and thereafter heading out of Sognefjorden and South to Bergen. Stavanger was also a delight with the best restaurant meal on the trip and a beautiful summer rain.
The crossing to Holland in fairly strong Northerly winds and sunshine was excilirating. We reached the speed record for Queen's Ransom III of 12.3 knots. However, the snag was that the stuck spinnaker stayed up the whole crossing; most probably assisting the speed record. We covered 370 miles in 50 hours; i e an average speed of 7.4 knots or 178 miles per 24 hours.
Anders and I left Queen's Ransom, Captain Hastings and his crew in Holland for a few weeks in the cosy confines of Den Helder Jachthaven. The boat served as a base for the family visiting Oma (Dutch for grandmother) for her seventieth birthday.
Hans and I set out on a Saturday morning for the last leg of the cruise with fantastic weather and following winds in our crossing to Dover. We covered 184 nautical miles in 30 hours; partly with the cruising chute as our only remaining downwind sail. It was followed by a hardship beat in gale force wind to Eastbourne. Her summer cruise came to an end as Quinn and I two weeks later took her the last 60 miles from Eastbourne to Gosport.
Queen's Ransom will now get some well earned tender, love and care in her home port. I am sure she is dreaming about her next longer cruise. The destination is still to be decided.
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09/14/2008, Gosport
Quinn and big brother Tiger in front of Beachy Head
It is 1030 in the morning on a sunny early Autumn day or very specifically the 14 of September. Quinn and I are heading East having just passed Beachy Head. My previous memories of this cape includes a starry night spinnaker sail with the first Queen's Ransom passing this headland some ten years ago.
Quinn and I woke up in Souvereign Harbour in Eastbourne and baked some bread ("pre-baked") in the oven. This was a father and son adventure that started last night with a late train arriving in Eastbourne after midnight. We cleared the lock this morning. Quinn helping with the ropes, though needed to go to the heads mid lock duties.
I can now see the Isle of Wight through the sun mist. Quinn is coming out to get another cracker bread. We have spotted a pirate ship; Dutch sailing vessel Artemis leaving Portsmouth. We try to get everything packed up under way so we can get to London quickly tonight. We are already delayed. It is fitting conclusion to Queen's Ransom's 2008 Norwegian Fjord Adventure.
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09/02/2008, Eastbourne
Dreary Souvereign Harbour lock in rain
Awful conditions followed fantastic conditions. We set out last night in what the inshore weather forecast was predicting to Force 5-6. Shortly after we had departed Dover, there was a gale warning for all the English Channel. We had then to beat against the tide and a steady Force 7 (occasionally 8) to the never appearing Dungeness and Eastbourne. One of our beats resulted in a for a little time a position closer to Dover (not Eastbourne) than the previous one. Sailing like this is not comfortable and hardly a pleasure! Hans is a great guy which took all this in his stride; absolutely non flappant, even when he hit his head on the mug holder.
It says something that we only drank coffee once in 15 hours and the normally careful log writing got very neglected. Not only the motion and healing of the boat were issues, but also the continuous rainduring Tuesday. Quite soggy writing the log. By now Queen's Ransom is suffering from a number of defects that are irritating, There are some leaks around one of the opening port holes and the housing for the companionway hatch, the sprayhoood is letting through water. In gale force conditions that is causing a lot to get wet! The number of equipment failures in one way or the other is also huge: Navtex, SSB radio, computer, cockpit screen etc. Time for many reasons to go back to Gosport.
This leg from Den Helder to Eastbourne have had all kinds of weather, wind directions and conditions. Overall, I shouldn't complain as the Southern North Sea crossing was beautiful and Hans and I enjoyed ourselves.
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