Sailing Manokwari to England

Tedp - very nice pictures and clip indeed. It always amazes me how tame seas seem in pictures and film compared to the actual conditions encountered, so I can imagine what that was like. How busy was the channel when you crossed? I hear it is like a busy highway most of the time, except the big ships need several kilometers to turn or stop.

To answer your questions and remarks: It is indeed difficult to judge the actual sea state from a video or a photo. We had some pretty tall rollers from behind, but the boat rose well enough before them. We did roll ourselves, whipping from 25 degrees on one 'ear' to 25 degrees on the other. The boat tends to yaw quite a bit as well, although I was surprised the autopilot managed to keep us on course. Unlike the other boat in the video we had only the three-quarters unrolled foresail for propulsion, without a pole. The mainsail was kept stowed. I did some sailing before the wind in a force 5-6 with the once-reefed main and no foresail and this worked all right provided I set a preventer line from the boom forward.

The SO32 has proved to be a good seaboat, although we had a few breakers on the foredeck when we were hit by a line squall with a force 8 and a short and steep 2 metre sea coming from straight ahead. I expect the 33i wouldn't be very different at sea. By the way I had a chance to see one at close quarters recently, it seems an excellent boat and very well finished too.

Finally, the shipping lanes in the North Sea and the Dover Strait. If you cross them at right angles there is no problem provided you keep in mind a cargo ship runs very fast. It's not always easy to check on the bearing of an approaching ship - will it cross my bows or will it cross my stern? The best method is checking it against its background and estimate its relative movement. Having been in cargo ships myself I'm not unduly worried.

Although we were involved in one potentially disastrous incident when crossing the approaches to Rotterdam. This crossing is performed at a 45 degree angle under shore radar control, but they slipped up and allowed us to continue right into the path of a cargo ship that came up on our portside quarter, out of a low sun. Somehow I had missed that ship coming up. I had taken a short look in the chart below deck, and when I came back up I had one look behind us, then went for the rudder.

From the ensuing VHF discussion with the traffic controller and the pilot on board the cargo ship I concluded that neither of them had noticed the situation. The shore controller apologised profusely, but the pilot cold-shouldered his mistake. So I asked him why he hadn't used a sound signal to draw our attention. End of discussion. Which proves the end responsibility is yours alone. Luckily we didn't make the headlines. ;D

Hi Ted.......may have been somewhere near you in Chatham if you were there June 9/10 time We stayed on the long Victory pontoon though and not in the Marina. Interesting to hear your experiences with the SO 32 in those conditions. I raised 'seaworthiness of jeanneaus' in another thread before I went down to Chatham fro,m Harwich.
We too ran into F8 winds for several hours crossing the Thames estuary between all the banks. It was right on the nose in the end, F8, pelting rain and not forecast. The sea was surprisingly rough very quickly with 2-3m waves some of which we took over the foredeck but I was happy with the way the boat handled the weather and it answered some of my questions re seaworthiness.
Where do you reckon you might fit your traveller cockpit or coachroof?
I'm hoping to go to Belgium soon do you know if the Belgian authorities are making any problems with red diesel still?
All the best Ron

Hello Ron, good to hear from you. We were in the Chatham marina on the weekend of June 11th, having arrived late afternoon on the 10th, and not on the pontoon in the river. When did you have the heavy weather in the Thames estuary? We had bad weather in the weekend following the 16th, when we were stuck in Bradwell, and later in Ramsgate on the 19th-24th, and on the Belgian coast. Much like you write, the boat was OK in such conditions, but there was no question of controlled sailing. I often used the foresail, as it is easy to roll away, and the engine had to be used quite often.

The mainsail should have a traveller as it's quite big and difficult to trim in a blow. To answer your question, I plan to fit it on the cabin roof. I have seen many cruising boats with this arrangement and the sail can be flattened to lee as much as if you'd have a cockpit mounted traveller. I saw a 33i fitted with one on the cabin and it looked quite good. In addition I'm unhappy with the single line reefing. On my previous boat I had a snap hook on the gooseneck and a reef line to the leech cringle, which made for easy reefing and a well set sail.

Finally, the red diesel. If you fill up your tank with red diesel and have them make out a receipt stating it is to be used for 100% propulsion, with the full duty on it paid, you can show this to the Belgian customs officer if they inspect you. There is a letter from the European Commission to the RYA explaining this. It is on the RYA website: www.rya.org.uk/infoadvice/boatingabroad/Pages/reddieselabroad.aspx. Also keep a careful log of sailing and arrival times in various ports, and where you filled up with diesel.

Hope this helps you along.

Best wishes and have a safe voyage

Ted

On the 9th we had sunny weather but 30-35 knots of wind after we tried to get out of Calais. We turned back that afternoon. You must have been in the same rain front followed by a thunderstorm we had when entering the Medway on the 10th. The day afterwards was sunny but we were in Chatham, then on Sunday the 12th it was very wet. It has been and still is some summer ,isn't it?

Regarding the diesel, the 40/60 split will definitely lead to trouble if they check you, so my advice is to fill up the tank with 100% propulsion and keep the invoice. I would advise against having red diesel in spare tanks. It's best to fill them with road diesel.

It's all caused by a political squabble. Yachtsmen are being used for leverage against the practice of selling red diesel along the water in Britain, which the EC partners don't like. It's the same in France, Belgium and my own country - they will be after you if you don't have the right paperwork. Better steer clear of it.

So in the USA they actually check on your hull valves. Well, at least they don't take half measures! But still the law is quite out of proportion to the actual problem. Bureaucrats