18-08-06

First I would like to start this log entry by again excusing for the gap between our adventures.. There are so many reasons for this that I won`t begin to bore you with them or fill up this log with them. This entry will be about our adventures so far in Ireland, the other two are about the Volvo Ocean race and the cross over.

After our cross over we have made trips from Cork to Bantry, form Bantry to Dingle and from Dingle back to Bantry. This week would have been our Bantry ­ Bantry trip.

Ireland is a land with a lot of different faces. The country looks totally different as soon as the sun starts shining, and we have had a lot of beautiful weather so far! But even when it does rain, the colourful houses and green hills light up the surrounding.
Every day is another adventure I don’t know where to start. For example:
¯We sailed out to see Fastnet Rock and the lighthouse on top. This would have been the last bit of Ireland so many Irish people would have seen as they sailed to America to seek their fortune.
¯Up to now we have caught about 4 dozen Mackerels and twice we have prepared them for dinner. So we where self-sufficient for a bit..
¯ We have seen even more dolphins, a whale and a few smaller whale types, a lot of seals and even the occasional puffin (those are my favourites!!)
¯ We have seen the Skelligs up close, twice! A few hundred years ago there was a monastery on one of the Skellig Islands. The Moncks lived up on the rock more then 200 meter above the waterline. But after a few hundred years they left. Now nobody lives on the island anymore. But on the island just across from it there is a Gannet (jan van genten in het Nederlands) colony. The noise they make!; you can hear it from a far!
¯Gijs and me have made an attempt to surf, twice but didn’t really succeed. No good waves so far..
¯ almost every evening we go at anchor in a beautiful bay, go to shore with our rip (small tender boat) and see Ireland from a view you hardly get the chance to see anywhere els.

But then there is the sad part of the story. Some might have already heard but we are not allowed to finish our sailing season in Ireland. Irish Government does not except our Dutch Papers and so we are not allowed to, commercially, sail in Ireland. This is a dispute between the Dutch and Irish governments and does not actually concern the Tecla. But unfortunately we are in the middle of all of this.. Therefore we have chosen to go to England and finish our season there. Of course we are currently busy to get all the papers in order so that, next year, we can come back and sail here like the Tecla has done for the last 8 years!

For now I hope to keep you up to date a bit more often.

Greatenings,
Deckhand
Jet Sluik

Cross over to Ireland 16-06-06 to 27-06-06

Day one, Saturday the 16th. Our new group arrives, total of 5 guests and a crew of 5 people. The wind is weak but the weather is good. We leave in the afternoon and start working in shifts as soon as we leave the harbour. Because of the number of people on board we decide to defied the group in two and work a 6 on 6 off shift. Jan and Jannette do the 6 to 12 shifts and Gijs, Loes and myself do the 12 to 6 shifts. The guests (seeing as it is their holiday) get the choice between the two and so the morning and evening shift consist of 6 people and the night and afternoon shift consist of 4 people.

Day two we see the French coast and on the other side of the water we think we see the white cliffs of Dover. But still there is no wind and we have to use the motor to get moving.. we have to get to Ireland!! Slowly all of us get used to the rhythm of the shifts.

Day three we decide it is time to take a rest. We have crossed the Canal over to the English side and head for the Island of Wight. Although you may not write it the same way, the island of Wight actually looks white from a distance. We stop in Yarmouth, a small town on the island and the first thing we do is walk the dogs! We have got two Friese Stabij dogs and they where so brave, never seemed to complain during the whole trip that they deserved to set foot on land first. The night watches seemed to get to me, so I went to bed early, we would leave again the next morning!

Day four, finally WIND!! We set sail just before the Needles and tack our way out of the narrow waters onto open sea. Ireland is where we want to go, but maybe we will stop somewhere along the English coast first..

Day five, and so we do, we stop in Dartmouth. As we approach the entrance of Dartmouth harbour, rain and wind set up. With waves from the side and rain that seems to fall/blow horizontally we try and find the lighthouse that is supposed to be there, somewhere. Steady we sail in and as we pass some pointy rocks we see the light straight ahead. And the further we go, the calmer the sea and the weather get. And out of the blue we see houses build up the hills in as many colours as the rainbow seems to have. With a slight drizzle and hardly any wind, we tie up between two moorings where we will stay the next day or so.

Day six is a rest day. Some of us go for a long walk and others stay in Dartmouth and enjoy the beautiful weather. In the evening we go ashore to see the football match between Holland and Argentina.

Day seven, we leave early and set sail to go to Ireland. We have decided not to visit the Scillies or another part of England, instead we will try to stop in a few Irish harbours.
Shifts stay unchanged and so after setting sail, I sleep even though I just got out of bed, I might need it in a day or so.. Then in the evening after dinner there is a lot of rumour on board, we get hoisted out of bed as the evening shift screams DOLPHINS!! Our first sighting of these beautiful creatures. Unfortunately they don’t stop to play with us, but we did get some nice pictures!

Day eight, again we sail on during the night and I love it more and more every time. There is so much to see during the night that you don’t see during the day! For example, at night the sea seems to light up. On the side of the boat and especially in the bow waves the water seems become a totally different universe. The algae’s light up like stars and fill the empty hours of the night. On the aft of the Tecla you see the airstrip under the keel filled with little lights. The clear blue water looks like the water you find in tropical swimming pools. Steadily the Tecla sails over the waves and without the sound of the motor the world sometimes seems to disappear.

Day nine, we arrive in Ireland and on a misty morning we enter the harbour of Kinsale. There is no room for us to moor on the side, so we throw anchor a bit further up the river. After a small nap some decide to go a shore. For me the time to go a shore has not yet come, I am content just guarding the ship.

Day ten, we are close to Cork but are not all that anxious to go to the big city. Courtmacsherry is our destination for today. After a short sail trip we enter the harbour. The harbour is small, but there seems to be an open spot on the quay. We asked the local fisherman whether it was possible to moor at the quay and he said it would be possible if we would tie a rope around the mast and attach it to the other end of the pier, oh and the quay was a bit crooked so we should be careful not to capsize inward…So again we threw anchor. That evening we went to the pub to see the Holland Portugal football match, we lost and the whole Courtmacsherry population mourned with us.

Day eleven, last sailing day with destination Cork. And as if they knew it was our last day a group of dolphins showed up just ahead. They came towards us and played with the bow for almost 15 minutes. We went up the river on to Cork and for the first time during this trip we felt like we where heading for the “civilised” world again.

The next morning our 5 guests left us and went home.
For me it had been a beautiful and impressive trip. Now Ireland lays before us and I can’t wait to see more!

Deckhand
Jet Sluik

Volvo Ocean Race 10-06 till15-06

As the Volvo Ocean Race boats made their way up to Rotterdam, we made our way down from Enkhuizen to Rotterdam.
We where scheduled to sail with guest on day/evening trips during the festivities of the sail in. Our first daytrip was on the real sail in on Saturday the 10th. To make sure there would be something to do during the day, the organisation organised a race just outside the Rotterdam Harbours. With about 30 or 40 commercial sailing vessels (varying from boats like the Tecla to the Stad Amsterdam and the Swan fan Makkum) and at least 100 small private boats we sailed out to the leg to look at the Volvo Ocean racers of last year.
Winds had decreased to a wind force of 2 or 3 bft witch caused a delay in the arrival of the boats of this year, we did not expect to see them come in, but as we arrived on the race course somebody yelled ˝Look there is the ABN ambro ONE˝. Everybody thought that the ABN One had finished long ago and had proceeded to the harbour, but there she was. As fast as the light all the small boats went up to the ABN One to welcome her home and congratulate the crew with their finish and first place.
Second to arrive was the Pirates of the Caribbean (my personal favourite) and third was the Brunel. And to avoid total chaos in the harbour the boats had to wait before entering the harbour. This gave us the opportunity to take some pictures and look at the boats up close. And even with a wind speed of almost nothing we had difficulties keeping up with the racers on full speed.

In the evening we had another trip, with a new group. This time we stayed in shore and went to see DJ Tiësto on the Erasmus brug.
DJ Tiësto arrived on an old version of the race boats totally decorated with light strings and music equipment. The bridge was packed with people and on the water again there where a lot of boats to see the show. As the music started the sun went down and the light show started. On the surrounding buildings you could see a projection of Tiësto and in the end there where fireworks.

During the rest of the week we prepared for our trip to Ireland and had one more daytrip. Luckily we had beautiful weather all week long, up to the last day, it rained during the sail out. Again we where scheduled for a daytrip, in shore. We sailed to the Vissershaven, where the racers where and saw all of them leave. Although it was great to be part of a spectacle like the sail in and sail out, I must say, my mind was constantly busy preparing for our own sail out the next day..

Deckhand
Jet Sluik