01/03/2009, Yarmouth
Quinn, the winchman per excellence.
There was ice on the deck when we woke up this morning. I was skidding a bit when hoisting the flags. Clear blue skies as far as I can see from my vantage point on deck, on the river Medina at Cowes.
Quinn prepared breakfast for the crew after having brought me a cup of coffee in my bunk. Another first for him! Brendan pointed out that we had "boat eggs" (boiled) rather than "cafe eggs" (fried) for breakfast.
Under sail in the Western Solent gybing down towards Yarmouth in the Easterly breeze. It is cold, but beautiful. Elliott has been good at helming and Quinn at winching (not using the hydraulics!).
The darkness is falling over Yarmouth, but there is still a greenish and orange tinge in the sky towards the South West. The wind is blowing straight into the cockpit as I write this. It is going to be minus three degrees Celsius tonight, but the cabin will be heated nicely.
We skipped the idea of a river anchorage for two reasons: the difficulties involved in handling the anchor in the cold and lack of internet access. Internet access is favoured by both the children and myself. I am finally doing well (after some absolutely pathetic days) on the virtual Vendee Globe Race and I do not like the thought of not being online and maybe dropping in the rankings. Having past the West Pacific Gate, I am currently doing 19 knots under gennaker; this is quite a bit faster than our six knots maximum in the real world today!
This evening we enjoyed dinner by the glow of the oil lamp. It had been prepared by Quinn and me. Quinn also did the washing up assisted by Elliott doing the drying. Another first! We finished off before bed with all four of us watching Amy MacDonald music videos and everyone bumping their heads in the process!, in my bunk.
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01/02/2009, Cowes
Elliott, today's helmsman.
It is the second of January 2009 and we are on a winter cruise. The crew is made up of the children 8, 7 and 4, as well as myself and various teddy bears. We came down to the boat on New Year's Day and set out this afternoon. The sky had cleared just before departure and we set out in good conditions, albeit cold!
It is quite a handful to look after the needs and safety of the three children, as well as the boat and myself. Elliott took the helm for most of the crossing to Cowes. Quinn wanted us to set sail, but I thought motoring was adventurous enough on our first day. We waited for three quarters of an hour at the mouth of river Medina for Cowes Yacht Haven to find somebody to help us with the lines. Brendan was braving the cold conditions uncomplainingly and commenting on everything he saw from his good vantage position in the cockpit, while the older children were on computer games below.
We spent the evening dining on Tortellini, pasta sauce and cherry tomatoes, listening to Amy Macdonald. We were following the progress of big ships leaving the Solent on the computer and from the cold winter night on deck. Quinn had a couple of firsts today; making lunch for the family and drying the dishes. Now only Brendan is awake reading his light house book. Time for the bunk!
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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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