Mile builder day 1

Hessel van der Maten

We left Scheveningen just before noon with the intention of crossing the North Sea to England. Once offshore we encountered a fresh and very gusty westerly to northwesterly wind and a lively, uncomfortable sea. We reefed the sails and continued west for about four hours, but the combination of the gusts and persistent waves made for demanding conditions. Three of the six people on board became seasick. With a long crossing still ahead of us, we decided that continuing to England was no longer the sensible option and altered course for Stellendam. We reached Stellendam around 20:00 and moored outside the Goereese Sluis while waiting for the next lock passage. At approximately 23:30 we transited the Goereese Sluis and continued into Marina Stellendam, berthing around midnight. A useful lesson from the day was how little the mean wind speed alone says about conditions at sea. Even with winds that might not look particularly exceptional on paper, the combination of gusts, sailing into the wind and waves, and an already developed North Sea made the motion considerably more demanding. It was also a good reminder that passage decisions are about the combined state of the weather, sea, vessel and crew, not simply whether the boat itself can continue. Not the Channel crossing we had planned, but a valuable day of reefed sailing in a lively sea, adapting the passage plan to the condition of the crew, and finishing the day with a night transit through the lock and final approach and berthing in Stellendam.