Leg 5, 2001: Gothenburg, Sweden; Denmark; Germany; Holland; Southhampton, England
Click on photos to enlarge.
Hallberg-Rassy Open House
Since our last update on Aug. 17, we had a busy week, managing
three coats of varnish on the caprails and four coats on handrails
and interior trim around the galley and stairs. Amanda enjoyed
daily lap swims at Hotel Sjogarden, next door to the HR boatyard
and I ran the hills and woods around Ellos each morning. I was
still vacuuming when the show opened at 10 am Friday morning,
but Mahina Tiare was looking tops! Some of the comments we had
during the show included, "Are you just taking delivery
of this boat" and "Oh, I didn't know that HR did refits!"
(They don't, but we work hard to keep her looking like new!)

Mahina Tiare at the HR open house
The show was a packed-out success with
over 25,000 people from around the world attending. Our slide
show Saturday night was sold out long ago and we were delighted
to share a table with Tom, Dalton, Claude, and Karolina from
Leg 4, plus Tom and Karolina's spouses and Emil from Leg 5, as
well as Christoph Rassy and extended family. Our slides of Spitsbergen
arrived just before the show and it was breathtaking to see them
projected on a large screen. By Sunday night we were both exhausted
and many of the boats had already moved out of the harbor. Monday
it was blowing 25-30 and as we completed our minor projects we
watched the HR salesmen take dozens of people out for test sails
on the demo boats. Particularly popular was the brand-new German
Frers HR 43. Sporting an identical mast to the HR 46 and a more
modern stern and underbody, rumors were flying that she is just
as fast as the 46! It is a cool looking boat, and I can't think
of a better design for two people. Fast, sleek, long waterline,
sexy stern, tons of storage. Oops, I'm sounding like a salesman,
which I am not!

New HR 43
Monday afternoon saw winds
gusting to 45 knots as we surfed south to now familiar and favorite
Marstrand, the lovely old resort island halfway to Gothenburg.
Breaking seas to 18' (no joke!) at the exposed three mile stretch
made for some overly exciting sailing, and after we tied up a
three-hour long thunder, lightning, rain and wind storm clobbered
the island. Tuesday brought winds in the mid-40's and we were
happy to arrive and tie up in the exact same spot next to the
Gothenburg Opera House by 1300. It was strange to be in the same
slip that we departed from for Spitsbergen on May 15th.
August 31, 2001 56.30N, 11.03E, Log: 46,758 Baro: 1008
Beam reaching at 7.5kts in 16kt easterly winds
Leg 5, Gothenburg-Southampton crew arrived yesterday
at noon, and by 1600 we were motoring down the river for a quiet
night and visit ashore with our friends Lars and Susanne in Hjuvik.
This morning we set sail at 0600, planning to sail 60 miles to
Anholt, a Danish island in the middle of the Kattegat. With beam
winds of 18-22 knots and steady boat speeds of 7.5-8.3 knots,
it became obvious that we could sail on, closer to the entrance
of Germany's Kiel Canal, still making landfall before dark. Grenaa,
a historic seafaring harbor was 24 miles further, and is now
8 miles ahead. This will be the first visit for most of us to
Denmark, and we are excited about it.
DENMARK
Grenaa u Djursland Penninsula Aug. 31 56.24N 10.55E
82 miles
We arrived in Grenaa around sunset and with strong winds, limited
turning and dock space, and no bow thruster had our work cut
out for us docking.
In the marina we found a rack of free loaner bikes, with a map
saying drop them off at any one of four locations. What a neat
service of the town! In this historic ferry town we found wide
boulevards, cobblestone streets and brick and timber houses,
of a much different architectural style than we had seen in Norway
or Sweden. Our time in Grenaa was short as we left at 0600 in
order to make as many miles toward the Kiel Canal entrance as
possible.
Korsor - West Sjalland Sept. 1 55.9N 11.7E
After leaving Grenaa we struck headwinds and had to motorsail
awhile, but later the winds clocked to the NW and we had a great
reach in 18 knots. We sailed under the Great Belt Bridge along
with a whole string of ships, and then turned to port to moor
in Korsor, on the south of a Naval basin. Once moored, Kurt Petersen,
who sails his HR 36 Tessa with his wife Gitte came by and told
us how much he had enjoyed our slide show at the HR Open House
dinner. Korsor, 60 miles form Grenaa, is a quaint town with 19th-century
church and interesting houses that we enjoyed viewing.
GERMANY
Holtenau Lock u Kiel Sept. 2 54.22N 10.8E
60 miles
Our early morning departure started out with a nice sail that
turned to motorsailing in choppy 25 knot headwinds with wind
against tide. 60 miles later we arrived in Kiel to be greeted
by a rugged lot of sailors. They were racing flat out on cold
rainy Sunday with rails in the water and going for it! The traffic
in Kiel Harbor was intense, and we were relieved to pull into
the little Holtenau Yacht Haven at the entrance to the Kiel Canal,
a quiet, tree-lined spot with a dozen Dutch sailing barges and
sail-training schooners. Soon after tying up, Amanda and I went
for a run, exploring the locks and meeting the friendly lockmaster
who explained how the locks worked and told us that they average
2,600 ships passing per month. He proudly announced that their
locks were able to accommodate longer ships than the Panama Canal.

Leg 5 crew at Keil Canal entrance.
Over the past year we had made tentative plans to meet up
with Lore Haack-Voersmann, a German psychologist who is joining
us on Leg 1-2002, from Panama to Hilo. To our mutual amazement,
it worked our for Lore and her husband Peter to join us and our
crew for dinner at a fascinating 1800's grain warehouse-converted
into a restaurant, a short walk from the canal entrance. We had
an excellent dinner while looking at Lore and Peter's photos
of their just-completed sailing trip from Norway to Fair Isle,
the Orkney, and ending in Scotland's Caledonian Canal on their
53' steel ketch with their four teenagers. Lore, with over 60,000
miles sailing experience, much of it on square-riggers has to
be by far the most experienced person yet to join us for an expedition.
Keil Canal Transit Sept. 3
70 miles

Mahina Tiare in Holtenau Lock.
At 0700 we stood by in front of the small lock opening, soon
joined by two German yachts. The massive gate opened, the lights
started flashing and we motored into an immense lock before the
gate closed behind us. Once Mahina Tiare was secured, we ran
up to the control tower to pay the equivalent to $34US, take
pictures of the locks below and chat with the lockmaster. Unlike
Panama where a considerable amount of paperwork is involved,
here they didn't even want to know the name or nationality of
the yacht. We were told not to exceed 8 knots, that we could
sail as long as we kept the engine running, and to make sure
that we stayed well over to the side when large ships passed.
The countryside was bucolic with grazing sheep and cows and dozens
of swans gracing the shoreline. Amanda taught rig maintenance
and our keen crew stripped the squeaking mainsheet winch to bits,
cleaned, lubricated and reassembled it while I steered and Amanda
helped.

Crew stripping squeaking winch.
There was a nice town we could have stopped for lunch or overnight,
plus a lake that we could have anchored in, but we chose to push
through past Brunsbuttel at the far end and 15 miles further
to Cuxhaven,53.52N 8.42E. Located on the Elbe River entrance
to the North Sea, Cuxhaven, with its distinctive architecture,
large rolling grass sea walls, iron flood gates, tree-lined lined
streets and friendly yacht club marina was an enjoyable stop.
The harbormaster answered my myriad of questions on North Sea
conditions and pointed out that the club provides free loaner
bikes for visiting yachties. My preconceptions of Germany went
out the window. Everywhere we met helpful, friendly people, the
food was excellent (especially the bakeries) and the architecture
was impressive.
Before deciding to sail the following day on the high tide
we examined the weather. We'd been watching the procession of
lows with gale force winds on the North Sea on the weatherfax
charts for months. Detailed customized weather forecasts from
Commanders' Weather, www.commandersweather.com as well as Leon
Schulz (husband of Karolina (from Leg 4) relaying weather from
the Dutch, German and Danish websites twice a day gave us highly
accurate forecasts. Commanders' Weather (as usual) provided the
most accurate and precise information. How they can consistently
do a better job of forecasting than the official government forecasts
when they are in Nashua, NH continually amazes me!
We motorsailed down the Elbe River to where it meets the North
Sea with a shallow river delta containing shifting sandbanks,
dredged channels and breaking bar conditions with wind against
the tide over Force 5 (according to the harbormaster). The German
Bight of the North Sea is shallow with a high concentration of
shipping, fishing, oilrigs and nasty weather on treacherous lee
shores. The prevailing wind conditions are SW, which would mean
headwinds for us enroute to England. However, we learned that
when a cold front passes, the wind shifts to NW or even North,
usually of gale force, for a brief time. We got lucky!
A cold front with Force 7-8 gale warnings was due to pass
the night of September 4th, with NW to N winds 20-30, gusts 35-40.
Fortunately the winds hadn't piped up yet when we smoked down
the Elbe with 2-3kts current carrying us along and at the entrance
we had 7 knot winds and no breaking seas. By midnight the winds
increased to 30, gusting 34 knots and the seas occasionally broke
over Mahina Tiare, but our solid crew never complained. We navigated
buoy to buoy, along the outside of the busy shipping lane and
were thankful for our dependable Raytheon 24 mile radar. We had
considered stopping at Ijmuiden, Holland to rest and explore,
but with a forecast of another day of NW winds, followed by SW
winds, we decided to push on another night for England.
ENGLAND
Ramsgate Sept. 6 & 7 51.19N 1.34E

Remsgate Harbor Front
We arrived at Ramsgate, England at 1520 on September 6th, having
covered 360 miles in 48 hours. Situated near the entrance of
the Thames river, 60 miles east of London this historic 17th
century harbour, with seaside resort town containing Victorian
architecture has a history that includes fishing, smuggling,
numerous shipwrecks and trading. The guest harbor was well laid
out with excellent facilities and we found a fascinating maritime
museum featuring several of the boats that rescued thousands
of allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunquerque.
Brighton Sept. 8
60 Miles

White chalk cliffs near Brighton
To be assisted by the tide we left Ramgate at 5am and motorsailed
along the southeast English coast admiring Dover's famous white
chalk cliffs. The new Brighton Marina complex complete with canal
apartments, movie theatre and mega stores also treated us with
a visiting Normandy French market in the middle of the Venice-like
fountain square. We all went crazy buying, bread, olives, cheeses,
pates and tortes, while enjoying the cultural exchange and tasty
free samples.

Chriss and Emil at the Normandy
Market
Cowes Sept. 9
In the morning we visited the tired seaside city of Brighton,
where most young residence were nosily returning home to after
a night on the town and motor bikes were doing English speed
record trials along the stony beachfront boulevard.

Cowes Waterfront
Looking for a quieter scene we sailed on to the Isle of Wight
and the traditional sailing town of Cowes. We met up with the
delightful Jill Baty on War Baby and heard her high praises of
the Jubilee Regatta. Jill said that she would pass on doing another
Cowes week due to the commercialism, but that the Jubilee turned
Cowes back into the yesteryears of sailing, when you walked down
High Street and knew everyone and that respect was always present
for boats and fellow sailors. Crew enjoyed wandering the trendy
sailing stores (pink is in) and talking their way into all the
prestigious yacht clubs to admire their trophy rooms.

Jill Baty who taught our San
Francisco seminar aboard yacht War Baby (ex Tenacious)
Beaulieu Sept. 10
Afternoon class was man overboard practice and crew battled the
infamous Solent winds and tides to cut circles around newspaper
headsaall were recovered.
Amanda and I are now craving a quiet anchorage, but no such luck
in this neck of the world. Digging into her memory back of past
Solent visits Amanda came up with Beaulieu River in the New Forest
between Lymington and the Southampton Water. Winding our way
at high tide up, the narrow river through marshland alive with
water foul we arrived at the historic shipbuilding location of
Bucklers Hard and paid yet another $40 for a nights berthage.
This time though we are in idyllic surroundings and an evening
stroll down bramble lanes had me chasing crew away from the Bucklers
beer garden to gather blackberries for a pancake breakfast.

Bucklers Hard
Yarmouth, Isle of Wight Sept. 11
This morning 6 out of 8 of us hiked or ran four miles along the
river to Beaulieu to rent bikes and explore the scenic countryside
of the New Forest. What a treat to be zooming down country lanes
with cows, horses and tame wild donkeys all over the place, and
to stop for lunch at a 250 year old English tea shop. After waiting
for the tide to come in, we sailed on one tack six miles to Yarmouth,
a small historic seaport village. Tomorrow we have intense teaching
lined up for our final topics: splicing, cruising communications,
sail repair, deployment, warp and drogue and storm staysail,
plus going aloft for rig check, before sailing to Southampton
to see the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly Whitbread Around the World)
boats and finding our slip in Hamble Point Marina.
Here's our sturdy Leg 5 crew:
Meara
Clark, 34 retired two years ago as a Bank of America's
VP of Regional Government Affairs to become a Site Manager for
Team Read tutoring program in Seattle. She and her husband,
Brad
Clark, 31 who is Liquidation Manager for Amazom.com
just sold their Cal 34 which they sailed on Puget Sound because
Brad has applied to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School.
Emil
Finch, 57 is escaped from Yugoslavia at 19, eventually
making his way to Kansas City where he became an orthopedic surgeon.
Recently retired, he signed up for Legs 5 & 6 and is considering
buying his own ocean cruising boat.
Chriss
Mitchell, 50 and her husband Mark (who joins us on
Leg 9) left the madness of Hollywood where she was a film producer
for the mountains near Lake Tahoe, where they sail a Cal 34.
They are excited about the Nov. 2002 delivery of a new Amel Super
Maramu and introducing their daughter, Alex, age 11 to cruising
in tropical climes.
John
Holton, 50 is VP of Marketing for a food ingredients
company and singlehands his Freedom 30 out of Chicago.
David
Holton, 56 is John's brother and used to be in the
insurance business. David sails his Mason 33 out of Connecticut.
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