On the way back to Schotland

Now at Gatwick. Flying to Inverness in 30min. Nice day. Happy I went to Pauls service.

Ullapool

On Monday, we first organized Jos' trip to the Netherlands for Paul's funeral on Wednesday. We then decided to weather 15-22kn winds on the nose to get to Ullapool as our basis for the next couple of days.
Leaving around 13.00, the ride was a bit rough. Sophie and Ann coped very well, as did Hartendief, but Julia fell seasick. We rested at anchor for a couple of hours at Horse Island where everybody recovered in glorious sun with soup and swim and we then continued our 'roller coaster ride' to Ullapool where we arrived at 20.00.
Ullapool initially was unpleasing because of the howling wind, grey sky and impressive, barren mountains. Also there was no berthing for yachts and we had to take a mooring. With Jos off to the Netherlands and our dinghy too small for Ann to comfortably ferry herself and the kids to and from shore this was a problem. We did have a quiet and peaceful dinner at our mooring though and all slept fine.
Today, Jos dropped the family on shore. Ann sorted things out with the harbourmaster (nice, mainly preoccupied with fishing boats) while Jos tied Hartendief back to its mooring and rowed to the shore. After a family breakfast in a friendly sandwich shop we all went our ways. Ann found a pleasant B&B for the duration of Jos's trip and Jos took a ride from a very friendly Ullapoolian - Ian - to Inverness to catch the plane to Gatwich and then to Amsterdam.
Tomorrow, Ann and the kids will visit the Isle of Lewis. We are looking forward to continuing the trip on Thursday. Luckily, it appears that winds will be more favorable then.

Lochinver stop

Ann and the kids arrived yesterday. Today is terrible weather day. We will do some reading and have checked into a B&B to enjoy the town. It is pretty here. Just behind the town (200 souls) civilization stops...
Yesterday we cleaned the boat and fiddled about a bit to stop a small deck-leak and prevent the chute from catching in the standing rigging. With all the sun, two walks and a 'nature swim' we had a great time.

Loch Inver

Wonderfl environment with impressive view of Suliven mountain. We had
a smooth ride here. The town depends on fishing. Big trawlers 'owned
by the French supermarkets' bring the fish onshore here. The fish is
put in cooled trucks that drive to France the same day. Apperently no
fish gets sold here. 'You have to know people to be able to buy
lobster'. Luckily we struck a good chord with the local fisherman at
our pier, so just let us know what you need and we'll get it for you!!
This evening Ann and the girls arrived afterf a long drive. The
weather will be bad tomorrow, so we will hide out in the local B&B. It
is called the rose and owned by a Dutch couple!
We had a beautiful walk throurgh the woods, quite rare in the
highlands and took some time for visiting the local village. At eve we
went for another walk and did some swimming in a wonderful loch. Early
to bed this night, for a nice journee back.

To lochinver

After a peaceful night it was time to move on.
The weather changed, at departure good wind, rain and coldness. High
waves to take and break through! Later on the wind dropped and changed
its course, happy we have dieselpower also. Seen a lot of missiles,
not from the submarines, but real bird attacks on the fishpopulation.
In groups they dived vertically in water, really as missiles hitting
there targets, impressive..
Now sailing again in a peaceful mood, passing a gsm-mast, that was
planted on shore for us, as we are not aware of any other users. With
2 hours to go to Lochinver where we will checkin for the night.
Tomorrow the last trip of this crew.
Sleep well!

Magic and Sadness

We are softly rocking at anchor in the magically beautiful ''kyle of
Tonque". The ocean is roaring just 200meters away from us, but there
is a drying sandbar keeping us out of its reach. This is magic, we are
enjoying life.
And just now we get the news that Paul has passed away today. We are
still struggling to let sink in what happened. Such a fantasticly
cheerful, strong, bright, warm and friendly man will always remain
part our world - if only as a great example. What a sad day.

Pentland Firth

Passing the Pentland Firth in quiet weather (3 bf NE). Sea is smooth,
but with eerie wirls / tidal rips that make it clear you should not be
here when tides run fast in bad weather. We are just after dead tide
and have 4 knots of current with us.
Now entering the North Atlantic Ocean; under spinaker!! To the nortgh
is Hoy, one of the Orkney's. To the SW is Dunnet Head. This is a dream
of a sail.

Queen of Tarts arrives in Wick

Wed july 22 we arrive in wick at 6pm. Set out from peterhead 4am with
tide after night sheltered from storm. Bound straight across moray
firth into heavy fog. Pass ratry head old homestead of friend peter
cumyn back in quebec. Wind 10 kts beam reach enough for halfling
spinnaker. Soon lose wind have to motor all the way at 6 kts. No
Dolphins today but many seabirds. Tonite ther is talk of poker and-or
scoth. Tomorrow we battle the heavy tides to the orkneys, jos will do
his homework well. Spirits are high in anticipation of tomorrows next
adventure. Love to all. Slang!

To Wick

Wed 0400 UTC: Front has just blown over (strong wind and torrential
rain) now all clear for departure to Wick.

Peterhead

We arrived in Peterhead around lunch. Peterhead lives of fishing and
service to the oil rigs. Both industries are clearly hurting. We had
very smooth and beautiful sailing, but the 'foute boel' bad news about
Paul Cuperus dims our spirit today. Paul was hoping to join the first
team on the trip but turns out to have cancer and the cancer turns out
to be much harder to treat than anticipated. Let's all hope Paul now
gets a lucky break for a change.

Stonehaven

Monday 1900 UTC: we arrived in Schotland! The ride was fast with 4, 5
and 6bf SW winds, but also with a vere rocky and confused sea making
us slightly uncomfortable.
Arrival made up for that though. We anchored underneath Donmorran
Castle and went for a swim in 15degree (...) water. The view could not
have been more dramatically Schottish. We are now readieing for a
pubdinner in Stonehaven - a vere pretty village.
Tomorrow winds will shift east, so we will probably push ahead at
first light get the tide and the remaining SW wind and make it to
Peterhead while we easily can. From there to Wick is NW journey and ok
in E-SE winds.

When crab hits the fan

Whitby is een alleraardigst dorpje aan de monding van een klein
prutriviertje. Links en rechts staan hutjes met souvenirs en oude
boeken en een abundance of pubs. We scoorden allengst ein zweital
krebsen und ein homar und die haben wir heuteabend in Das Boot
aufgegessen, wobei die Moewe die Resten aufgefressen haben im fluss.
In York gab es heuteabend torrential rains aber hier war es trocken.
Wir tranken ein Australian weiswein und hatten ein heftiger discussion
uber Katholusche kirche (und alles was dabei falsch ist, oder nicht),
Entwikkelungswerk, fascismus, das innere, Geburtstagbeschraenkung und
sustainable development. Der Huaptman fragt ob ich erwaehnen koennte
das wir bestimmt nicht ueber bestimmte themen geredet haben. Wir haben
auch bestimmt nicht ueber ex-en gesprochen. Dieses Dorf hat auch ein
Gottische kirche, aber ohne Dach. JW hat erklaert wie die geologische
Schichten entstanden sind und was wir dafon lernen. Morgen ist es
leider wieder vorbei.

Whitby

Thu 2100 UTC: safe arrival Whitby.

Dreigende berichten over galeforce winden en gierende geluiden in de
staglijnen deden vanochtend sombere gevoelens ontluiken. We moeten
echter verder, want anders komen we deze week uberhaupt niet meer
verder dan Lowestoft. Verderop deze week zijn de voorspellingen
namelijk nog slechter, tot windkracht negen. Dus als 's middags de
wind luwt vertrekken met de wind achter ons. Inmiddels zeilen we zeer
comfortabel langs de kust, met een pastaatje, aardbeien en koffie. Het
lijkt wel feest! Normandische torentjes en klokgelui van de wal. Het
lis zomer.

Lowstoft

We reached midpoint between IJmuiden and Lowstoft at 0600 on
Tuesday...! The weather was beautiful with the crew fallling into an
easy routine.
Our previous try early on Sunday had shattered on heavy seas, head-on
wind and our self imposed trip limit of 24 hours to reflect our small
and unexperienced crew.
After reaching the shipping lane, we retired to Texel and pondered our
options. We decided leaving with the tide again on Sunday to make a 14
hour nightly dash across the IJselmeer to IJmuiden to benefit from the
fair weather and southerly winds forcasted there for late on Monday.
This worked fine and provided a good night sailing drill for the crew.
We departed IJmuiden around 1900 on Monday night. It was a beautiful,
quiet night, with perfect 10-12 knot S winds and a calm fluorescent
sea - a dream ride.
The second half of the leg had wind increasing to 20 knots which made
for a 'sporty', but smooth arrival through the Stanford Channel into
Lowstoft harbour around 1530 local time - a 21 hour run.
Lowstoft itself is no high point. The town is clearly past it's
glory... Still, we feel pleased about our sailing and the team is
doing great. We went into the first pub in full sailing gear and
enjoyed cod & chips...

Yesterday we left Enkhuizen at 0800. First showers, but later nice
and sunny. We caught a great tide to Den Helder and arrived at the
stortemelk at 1500. There we did 2 hours of practice turns to 'drill
the crew'. We were in good shape. Today we caught the tide out at
0400. Winds will be W to South max 6bf. Destination is was Lowestoft
for Monday, but we aborted the effort when hitting the shipping lane
at 0800 and concluding that winds had far too much west component in
them to render Lowestoft feasible. We turned back and arrived in Texel
after.a 9 hour sail.

Hartendief Departed: Saturday 11th July 09.00

Yes..

Hartendief has departed today for the Great Adventure 2009: Round Great Britain.
Conditions very well. Departed from Den Helder and will go up North in due time to Scotland!

See these wonderfull photos.

Stay tuned for further announcements.

First weatherforecast

The weather for Saturday is now expected to be fairly favorable. With winds around 10 knots (3Bf)... We would prefer wind from the East though...

Website fully operational!

Added wind and fotos to the site. Isn't it great?

Our worklist is mostly completed. Remaining actions are attaching sprayhood, integrating map plotter and creating UMTS link between phone and laptop for obtaining grib files.
Other than that it is time to start passage planning. There is a low crossing the northern North Sea towards the end of the week, giving strong NW winds up Norh and seak SW in the Channel. Not ideal, but winds will weaken Saturday and possibly allow for a smooth passage to NE England. To be continued....