I've been a bit delinquent in blog writing and contact from an old friend who would love to see pictures of our travels has given me a gentle nudge..... so here goes. We have been on board lots since we brought Laurin over to the Netherlands.... perhaps I'll go back and post some pictures but for now I'll focus on this trip.
As we had northerly winds forecast early in our trip we decided to make the most of them and head for Oostende with our Dutch friends. Although Martijn had been in the past, the rest of the family hadn't so we were looking forward to sharing one of our favourite places with them. Unfortunately this meant moving a little quicker at the start of our trip than was probably sensible. We cleared customs at the ferry port reasonably quickly, got to Laurin and unloaded the car. I then left the rest of the family to unpack and start to get her ready whilst I went shopping for groceries. There was very little room to move on Laurin once we'd loaded all the food and drinks on board and it was baking hot so we ate ice creams and then started to tackle the carnage. Eventually things looked a little more ship shape and we agreed to meet the Dutch at Wolphaartsdijk the next day.
01/08/26 Den Osse to Wolphaartsdijk
Day one didn't go exactly to plan..... all ready to go... kind of and when we turned the key to start the engine all the electrics went dead.... both engine and domestic. Doh! We'd had the same problem at Easter and everything had sprung to life when I waggled the battery cable to our common negative switch in the engine bay. We'd got some new terminals and a new tool but chose "not to mess" with it during our trip at Spring half term as everything seemed to be working and we had guests on board. This now came back to bite us. This time no amount of wiggling the cables would get it started and there was a crazy amount of black powder on the switch so we got out the new tool and fit a new terminal. In less than an hour we were back in business and on our way. Next up it was the Dutch's turn to have engine troubles but eventually they were on their way too and we both somehow managed to make it into the same lock at the entrance to the Verese Meer. At this point Martijn explained that Lynan didn't seem to want to idle. His engine was either in forwards, backwards, or stopped. Once we got into Wolphaartsdijk alongside the hugs and Radlers, we also brainstormed possible causes and solutions to the engine problem... and with some tinkering managed to increase the idle speed to something that kind of worked.
02/08/26 Wolphaartsdijk to Vlissingen
Onwards to one of our old favourite yacht clubs at the south entrance to the Middleburg canal. We had a bit of a nice sail on the Veerse Meer... even Esme got involved. It was a lovely day and it reminded me a little of 2 years earlier when we delivered Laurin to her new home in the Netherlands with our friends Steve and Dee on board. The Veerse Meer was one of the only bits of the Netherlands they got to see.
AJ did a great job of helming through locks and bridges and soon we were in Vlissingen. There had been changes at the club and they now used QR code based payment which was nice and easy. A quick restock of fresh food at Lidl and we were ready for the coastal trip down to Oostende the next day.
03/08/26 Vlissingen to Oostende
An early start to catch the tide and then a lovely trip down to Oostende. Not much wind so a lot of motoring but we did get a bit of a sail in towards the end.
It was great to be back at the Royal North Sea Yacht Club and the kids were pleased to see Simon was still harbourmaster..... they still remember him feeding them sweets after their first North Sea Crossing on Laurin.
Sadly there was no space at the Royal North Sea Yacht Club for Dinner so after a rest for some, and a swim for the girls, we took a walk along the seafront to find another source of Moules!
04/08/26 Oostende to (unintended) Blankenberge
The following day we had time for pastries and a spot of shopping before a lunchtime departure which was supposed to be for Vlissingen... and perhaps catching the "blue wave" up to Middleburg.
Unfortunately we very quickly had a call from the Dutch to say their engine had given up completely! There was very little wind so they changed to their light headsail and made slow progress while we stood by and waited for Martijn to investigate. What he found was the low pressure fuel pump was leaking considerably. A number of phone calls later Martijn had found out that North Sea Boating in Blankenberge (7 miles away) was the only place he could find a spare pump.... but it closed in just over an hour. We quickly took Lynan under tow whilst figuring out the rest of the plan.
More phonecalls to a marina at Blankenberge and it was arranged that he would pay for the pump and the harbourmaster would collect it for him. There was a hammerhead pontoon free which I could tow them on to. We discussed alternative plans for getting Lynan alongside the pontoon.... I was assuming we'd switch to an alongside tow at some point in or before the harbour entrance which would allow much better control in close quarters but Martijn hadn't done this before and preferred the idea of me towing him behind and doing a loop to pull him alongside the pontoon where the harbourmaster would be waiting to catch lines. I was a bit concerned about not being able to control Lynan's speed but Patrick suggested Martijn could drag buckets if needed to help with this. The entrance was a little more "exciting" than I'd hoped as there was a lot of cross tide and I was ridiculously grateful for us oversizing our engine slightly when we fitted it over 10 years ago. In the end I almost had to ferry glide us in complete with Lynan towed behind. luckily the breakwater sheltered us from the tide just before the channel got too narrow for the both of us but not before some locals gesticulated wildly causing me to second guess our approach. It soon became clear that there was a LOT of tide even once we approached the marina and so Patrick soon figured out that Martijn's plan for me to do a wide loop and pull him neatly to the hammerhead was clearly not going to work. I had to once again ferry glide us through the entrance and then just get Lynan as close as possible before dropping the tow line. Luckily Martijn is an awesome sailor and managed to glide Lynan onto the hammerhead. A couple of pirouettes later and Laurin was tucked in in front of her. Big sighs of relief and hugs all round!
