An active holiday

18 October 2013

A voyage with the ‘Oosterschelde’ is an active holiday, but I think we took this on this voyage to literally. The race started with strong winds, reefing, shaking the reefs and taking away sails, and now the race is ending with light weather and lots of setting and taking away of sails. Everyone is tired physically. It took us almost two days to replace the mizzen and schooner. On a swaying ship it is difficult working with the swinging booms and gaffs. Working with the sails is only possible with little wind and in daylight. And now that everything is installed the wind is gone. Every time we set all the sails and then take them away again disappointed. The ‘Oosterschelde’ sails well in light weather, with this swell it is impossible to keep the booms and gaffs steady and when they start banging everything breaks and we can’t afford having more damage to the sails.
With the ‘Lord Nelson’ (with damage) and the ‘Young Endeavour’ retired we are the last ones in the races. We are also the last one to finish. ‘Europa’ and ‘Tecla’ have finished already and the ‘Spirit of New Zealand’ is about to. In the end we lost the race when we tore our sails. We did still have a speed of 6 knots but the rest was racing away from us doing 9 to 10 knots. And when the wind then disappears it is impossible to come closer to the other ships. We are now unlucky with the strong current here, almost don’t have any speed at all and we are waiting for the change of current. The only thing that brings us comfort is that the other ones missed this beautiful day at sea. The sun is shining and with a much more comfortable swell it feels like a real holiday for the first time.
The forecast says there won’t be any wind tomorrow either, so we probably will decide to retire from the race just like the ‘Young Endeavour’ and start the engine to arrive tomorrow night in Opua.