A Super-Fast Cat
Expecting an open-armed warm welcome, three men appear on the deck looking a bit perplexed at our arrival, what with our kit and bags. Even an explanation of our presence seemed to confuse the guys on board.
Log
The Ship’s Log covers journeys undertaken by sail or canal boat, and includes general posts not covered by the Travel category.
Crew: Brigand
The petrol head from Manchester who now lives in Abersoch, Wales. Dave has owned more cars than I’ve had hot dinners, and he’s owned as many boats as he’s owned cars, so he’s got through more engines than I’ve had hot AND cold dinners. In fact he’s owned so many sea-faring vessels he can even boast to owning a pedalo. Until someone nicked it.
Back Where I Started!
Tim and I continued to chase our dream and as I type the latest plan is to fly back down to Portugal and catch a ride on a cat over to the Canaries. I’m not saying any more than this at the moment as it could all go tits up, but it would be fantastic if we ended up doing this: I got off in Portugal in the first place, so to continue from Portugal would be perfect.
Back Where I Started! Read Post »
Five Down! That’s It! Jump Ship!
And that was it. The three remaining crew members packed their bags and we hailed a passing boat and got off Voyager. I shook Paul’s hand and wished him luck, vaguely guilty that we had had a good working relationship, but I knew I had done the right thing.
Five Down! That’s It! Jump Ship! Read Post »
Three Down, Two To Go
When we got on board Jason helped himself to a beer, which Paul took from him and put back in the fridge. “Where’s my beer gone?” Jason asked. “I’ve put it back in the fridge”, Paul replied. Well, I think you can guess where this one’s going. Before we knew it a huge argument ensued and the skipper was once again screaming at the top of his voice and speaking to Jason as if he were five.
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Two Down, Three To Go
We headed into town and found a Wetherspoons, which was being frequented that night by the locals, dressed as porn stars. This was a visual treat and like a group of school kids we sat there ogling girls wearing nothing but stockings, suspenders, knickers and bra (see what happens when the only female leaves the group?).
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Drunken Shenanigans In Falmouth
Although never part of my original plan I was really looking forward to seeing my folks who had driven down to Falmouth for the week. When I finally spoke to them on the phone they were upon the hill by the harbour, trying to spot Voyager!
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Searching For The Ship’s Cat
With pontoons costing a lot of money we opted to moor up on a floating buoy, which took us about 20 minutes to sort out, fiddling with ropes and boat hooks and spot lights. Eventually we had to hold Jason over the side by each ankle for him to hook the rope through the rusty hook on the buoy! The reason for Jason’s keenness to volunteer for this task had been obvious
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Playing In The Shipping Lane
The weather continued to amaze us as the sun set in the west and a huge orange moon rose in the east. On the one side was the Kentish coast and on the other Dunkirk, with huge great ships lit up dotted around in-between. We celebrated with a Thai red curry (cooked by yours truly) and ate it outside watching the sunset before us.
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Crossing The North Sea In A Force 8!
The weather was getting progressively worse but everyone was itching to get going and finally hit the open waters. When the green light indicated our turn to enter the lock the sense of nervousness and trepidation increased as the conversation dropped. Once the gates had closed behind us we had a fifteen minute wait as the lock filled and rose to sea level. We were all looking at the red traffic lights and waiting, wondering what the open water had prepared for us.
Crossing The North Sea In A Force 8! Read Post »
An Accidental Tack On The Ijsselmeer
Back on the Ijsselmeer we continued to get to grips with the boat. At one point I accidentally tacked, which in stormy conditions can be the end of the boat since the boom can swing round the wrong way and put too much pressure on the wrong side of the mast, which could snap it in two. Mistake number one!
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Sailing Across The Ijsselmeer
Although Ijsselmeer is only three metres deep it behaves very much like the sea. With fairly strong winds we unfurled the mizzen, the sail at the back of the boat that’s used to stabilise it in strong winds. With the slashing rain we were the only sailing vessel on what is normally a busy bit of water, and when the storm that had been predicted by the weathermen finally came over the sh!t really hit the fan!
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One Down, Four To Go
Sunday was chill out day, our first day off since we started work aboard Voyager last week. This was spoilt, however, by the news that Esther would be leaving us due to some issues between her and the skipper. Not wanting to embarrass Esther I won’t go into the details but the term “a kid in a sweet shop with no money” was used by the skipper with regards to the situation.
One Down, Four To Go Read Post »
Dutch Coffee Shop. An Obvious Purchase!
The crew was ordered to buy Chinese for the guests so off we went into town again, via a bar for a quick drink. Putting the 180 Euro bill on Michelle’s credit card we took the Chinese back to the boat and served it up to a very ungrateful and unfriendly bunch of Dutch f***ers.
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Bad Skippers. A Lesson Learned
My early sailing career taught me a lot of things about life at sea. Perhaps the biggest lesson was how to get on with fellow crew members. It’s something I’m still learning. Occasionally, however, there are times when one comes across certain types of people whose behaviour is beyond one’s control. No amount of swabbing the decks or slaving in the galley will ever make life easier on board and this can be compounded by a long journey where getting off the boat is not an option.
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