Fram's Voyages

Final Stretch Home Log

 

We had a pint of the favorite beer in Falmouth, Skinners, which was blah. Tasted like stale beer, but the pub was nice and full of history. We were told it used to be the Mariners' Hotel which was where all the sailors hung out in the old days. Now it's called the Chain Locker. They had free wifi so we checked our mail and I tried to put in some photos of our passage to Falmouth but the signal was too weak and it took too long. While I worked on the computer Dan walked around the pub and looked at all the memorabilia from years gone by. There was a photo of Robin Knox-Johnson who had a room booked at the Mariners for his return after having made the first nonstop single hand circumnavigation of the world in 1967-68, which he did in 313 days. It is hard to believe when looking at the photos and the newspaper clippings that this event happened in our life time but it also reminded us of how much has changed in 43 years. The boats, the equipment and clothes, not to mention navigation,  is so much improved allowing Ellen McArthur to repeat the same feat in only 72 days.

 

From the pub, we went looking for a good English “fish n chips” restaurant and found Harbor Lights which specialises in Fish and Chips. We sat by the windows looking out over the water and had a super dinner. Dan ordered Cod “fish n chips” and I ordered Haddock “fish n chips”. They were both delicious but we agreed that cod makes the best “fish n chips” and that the soggy chips, or freedom fries as we like to call them, have much room for improvement.

 

We returned to Roam exhausted from all the walking at 21.30. There is a new gale coming through from the Atlantic tomorrow so will stay one more day in this lovely place. We still have the Maritime museum and the Polar Exhibition to see. We leave for Dover on Friday, weather permitting.

 

10 July 2011

 

N 51 07.084 E 01 18.569

Dover, England

Distance travelled: 272 NM

Total Time at Sea: 59 hrs 30 min

Sailed: 49 hrs Motored: 10 hrs 30 min

Weather: Day 1: some sunshine, mostly rain squalls, wind Beaufort 5-6 SW Day 2: Sunshine, wind Beaufort 6 WSW

 Day 3: Sunshine wind from Beaufort W 0- 6

 

Day 1: We left a Falmouth encased in misty rain, we sailed out of the harbor on our jib and once we rounded St Anthony's lighthouse, set a course of 90 degrees. The sun came out occasionally but mostly it was overcast and rain. We had our cockpit tent up so that we stayed dry and warm through all the rain squalls. The wind was a good stiff breeze off our aft quarter so when the current was with us we made 6-7 knots, but when it turned we did only 2-3 knots. It was pretty chilly out, not more than 14C. We looked at each other and nodded, "yep, we're back in the north....."

 For dinner I made chicken and rice with tomatoes. So far, the curse of chicken while underway has not affected us. I took the first 3 hour watch rom 21.00 - 00.00, Dan took the next watch and so on until 09.00 in the morning when we are both up and share watches. No fun dolphins, not many birds and only a few tankers and one or two sailboats. In 24 hours we sailed 110 NM.

 

Day 2: We had some sunshine today but the wind was pretty chill. At 06.00 we put up the main sail and butterflied the main and jib. Before Dan managed to get the preventer put on the boom for the mainsail we jibed and the main sheet tore over the cockpit tent shearing the canvas and rendering our lovely protective shelter useless. Total bummer. We took it down and put it away until we get to Dover and can have it sewn. The barometer jumped up from 1004 to 1014 so we didn't have to worry about rain for a while. For dinner we had a ready-made shepherd's pie that we bought in Falmouth. It was lovely, but took a long time to heat in the oven. The strong winds continued today and the waves were very steep and short making for an uncomfortable ride. We surfed down the waves and at one point we reached a speed of 10.4 knots! We passed Isle of Wight at 16.45. Took down the jib and sailed on the main alone. We saw more boats during the night and had to move to avoid collision with a ferry. Ferry pilots are not very accommodating, certainly not as nice as tanker pilots. We made 112 NM.

 

Day 3: Totally overcast all morning and no wind so at 06.30 I put on the engine and we motored until 13.30 when the wind came up again. The sun came out in the afternoon and it was a nice day, a little bit warmer than yesterday but not so warm as to want to take long underwear off. The wind picked up to about Beaufort 6 W and we had the current with us for the last few hours so averaged about 6 knots. We sailed along the coast looking at the famous cliffs of Dover. We weren't overly impressed as we have seen the same cliffs at Møn island in Denmark. When we were about a half mile outside Dover harbor at about 19.00, we took down the sails and I went on the radio to ask for permission to enter through the west entrance. We got clearance right away and started motoring in. However, as we got closer, the waves got all crazy running every which way buffeting us all over, and the current was running really strong from west to east so right across the entrance. We had the engine on full power but could not make enough speed to clear the entrance as we were pushed by the current towards the east breakwall. We had to abort and go out to sea and then come in again. We set the jib so that we could get some extra speed and then watched a few other sailboats struggle to get in. Perhaps the locals knew better how to approach the entrance in these conditions. One boat (about our size) approached from the west and looked like it was going to crash into the break wall. As he turned to get inside the breakwall the waves pushed it so hard that the mast almost dipped in the water. The crew was hanging on for dear life. Dan checked his iphone for the tide and current for Dover and we waited about half an hour till the current lessened a bit before trying again. Once again I radioed for clearance and then with the jib well sheeted and the engine at full throttle we eventually made it in. It was slow going though, the current was about 5 knots. We finally burst through into the harbor and could breathe a sigh of relief and make our way to Dover’s Granville Marina. We were docked and completely knackered at about 21.30. Registered at the harbor office, took showers and had a well-deserved dinner of Spaghetti Carbonara. 

 

13 July 2011

 

Dover Marina, Dover, England.

Weather: Overcast, chilly 15C, Wind Beaufort 5 NE (Feels like a blustery fall day)

 

We have had this weather since Monday evening and have stayed here as the wind would have been directly against us if we had sailed on to Holland. Instead, we have immersed ourselves in English history by visiting first Dover Castle and then Canterbury. We hiked up to Dover Castle yesterday and delighted in the new exhibition of the war tunnels from the Second World War as well as Henry II's Keep. It was truly fascinating. The war tunnels are in 3 levels. We were able to see the 1st and 2nd levels. This first level was a hospital from 1942-1945.

They have refurbished it to exactly what it would have looked like back in 1942, complete with sounds, lighting and smells. It really did smell anticeptic like a hospital and we went through the tunnels with the dim lights and viewed the reception, hospital wards, mess, kitchens and operating theaters. All the while there were sirens indicating wounded incoming or bombing raids. We followed the action from the voices of doctors talking to nurses as they operated on both English pilots and German pilots shot down over the English Channel. The next level down was called the Casements and it is where troops were housed as well as military surveillance over the channel. There were quite a few WRNS here handling radio communications and de-coding. It was extremely well done and our guide took us through the several miles of tunnels inside the Dover Cliffs, including the balcony where Churchill was photographed standing looking out over the Channel with his officers. Dover Castle was no less interesting with a wonderful exhibition on Henry II, Eleanor of Acquitaine and their children. The keep has been refurbished to look exactly as it did during the 1200s. One is allowed to wander freely all over the castle, up on the casements looking out over Dover and the English Channel, through Henry and Eleanor's bedroom and right down to the kitchens with lots of clanging of pots and pans and sides of beef and pork hanging from the rafters. It was raining when we came out and we briskly walked down to the town of Dover again, nipped into the supermarket and then came back to Roam for tea time.

 

This morning we were up early and on a train taking us to Canterbury, 20 minutes away, at 09.00. The train was exactly on time and we took off through the countryside of Kent for the short journey to Canterbury East. We walked across the bridge and through the John Dane part to the town of Canterbury which is a charming cross between medieval stone buildings and modern shops like Zara and Vodafone. The Cathedral of Canterbury towers over the village with its Gothic turrets and towers and was our destination of the day. It was worth every penny of the 9 GBP per person. We saw the amazing building itself, the Nave where pilgrams gather, the tomb of Edward, the Black Prince and, perhaps most importantly, the shrine of St Thomas Beckett. This cathedral happens to be a bigger pilgramage destination than even Santiago de Compostela, if you can believe that. Thomas Beckett was saintified only a short, (and unheard of) 3 years after his death (murder by HenryII's knights)in 1170, mainly because of the huge number of miracles that occurred here after his violent death. Unfortunately, his shrine was destroyed by Henry VIII when he accused Thomas Beckett of treason towards Henry VIII's ancestor, Henry II. Since Thomas Beckett never showed up to answer the charges of treason (duh, he had been dead for 300 years), he was duly convicted and thereby all his property was seized by the crown. It just so happens that Thomas Beckett had a shrine worth millions in jewels, gold, silver, etc that was buried at Canterbury Cathedral with him. It took a total of 24 wagons to haul off the goods to Henry VIII's treasury and not long before it was all spent on Henry VIII's wars. Thomas Beckett's remains were apparently taken and burned and then strewn to the winds, but rumor has it that the monks at Canterbury retrieved his remains and buried them in a secret location somewhere on the premises. Today in the Trinity Chapel, there is a candle eternally lit over the spot where his shrine used to be. As you can see, we spent a fascinating few hours. By now it was lunchtime and I insisted on eating lunch at an English pub. Dan was somewhat dubious but humored me. We chose a pub called The Cricketer. I thought the sports connotation would interest Dan. Unfortunately, not only did the food leave much to

be desired, there was not a single reference or picture of Cricket in the entire pub. Together with the fact that they didn't have WIFI, it was a total bust. We stopped at several bookstores on our way back to the train and got back with aching backs and feet at teatime.

 

Tomorrow's weather does not promise to be much better in terms of sun and warmth, but at least the wind is supposed to go over to NW and W which will allow us to sail directly to Ijmoudin, Holland where we hope to be able to meet up with Madeleine and Marcus.

 

 

15 July 2011

 

N 52 27.523 E 04 33.861

Ijmuiden, The Netherlands

Distance Sailed: 161 NM

Total Time at Sea: 32 hrs 25 min

Sailed: 22 hrs 25 min Motored: 10 hours

Weather: Overcast, chilly 15C wind Day 1: Beaufort 6 NW Day 2: Beaufort 6-3 W SW

 

It was another overcast windy day in Dover. After 4 days, however interesting, we were getting impatient to continue. We studied all the weather sites and Grib files closely and could see one Atlantic low after another coming over the UK. There was a brief window of opportunity between Thursday morning and Saturday before the next low was forecast to come through. So we paid our bill at the marina, got the boat ready and left the marina, informing Dover Port Control that we wanted clearance to leave through the west exit. The current was with us this time so motoring out with the jib was a piece of cake. Our speed was 7-8 knots, most of which was accountable to the tidal current. We headed east out

of Dover straits and into the North Sea.

 

The sea was a steely cold gray with white caps spraying off the tops of the waves. The swells grew steadily until we were out of the straits and in the North Sea proper where they were 3 meters high. Apart from these swells coming from the northwest, there were cross swells coming from 2 other directions which tossed Roam about so that we felt like we were in a washing machine. It was impossible to stand or sit without legs and arms out to the sides and wedged to keep one's seat. Roam valiantly climbed up the big northerly swells and then would get hit on the side by a cross swell. It a very lonely and unfriendly sea; murky and dark. One solitary dolphin showed up and seemed as happy to see another living creature as we were. He stayed with us for about an hour when he tired of us and went off to find other amusement. We wondered what he was doing in such rough seas. For dinner I heated up a can of French Cassoulet de porc. Elegant eh? Not.

 

We made alternately great speed (with the tide) and snail's pace speed (low tide). But we managed to cover 122 NM in our first 24 hours so all in all pretty good. A string of rain squalls poured over us for the first 6 or so hours and the wind freshened to Beaufort 6. During the night, we saw lots of lights from ships out in the shipping lane. We were running parallel to it on the west side. But they still managed to cross our path and we had to change course for some of them. One shined a spotlight on Roam as we passed by in the night about 300 meters off our starboard side. Our navigation lights are on the pulpit and in high seas not very visible to other boats, except when we are up on top of a swell so perhaps we surprised him with our presence. I had him on AIS so knew our courses would not intersect. It was pretty chilly during the night watches; we had long underwear, fleece sweaters, jackets, life jackets and harnesses as well as hats. I kept my hands tucked into my jacket sleeves for warmth.

 

A full moon came up early and provided some light on the dark seas. The skies slowly cleared and by morning we had a clear blue sky and blazing sun which warmed things up a bit. The wind went over to W and then SW and went down to about Beaufort 3. We ran the motor a couple hours so that we would not get into Ijmuiden too late. The Netherlands are so low that we did not sight land until less than 10NM out. The marina lies just inside the harbor to starboard. We were directed to a berth at the far end of the marina and had to walk about a km of docks to get to the harbor office.

 

Tomorrow we take the Noordzeekanaalen to Amsterdam to see Madeleine and Marcus.

 

 

17 July 2011

 

Hoorn, The Netherlands

Distance Travelled: 23 NM

Total Time at Sea: 5 hrs 30 min

Sailed: 3 hrs 30 min Motored: 2 hours

One lock, one bridge: Oranjesluizen to get out of Amsterdam

Weather: Overcast, rain and Beaufort 4-7 S

 

Madeleine and Marcus arrived at the boat yesterday afternoon. They had to take a ferry from Central Station across the water to Six Havens Marina, the most crowded marina we have seen yet. A teeny tiny entrance to the marina and then we managed to find a slot blocking 3 boats in slips. Don't look at us, the harbor master sent us there! We made the short trip from Ijmuiden to Amsterdam in the morning on the Nordzeekanaal.

 

The idea was to sail to Hoorn yesterday, and on to Harlingen today. But the rain did not let up for a single minute all afternoon and evening so we stayed put at Six Havens and spent the afternoon catching up. Madeleine brought her knitting so we worked on getting her back on track. Had a nice dinner on Roam. This morning the sun was shining though there were threatening clouds everywhere. After breakfast we had to get moving as one of the boats we were blocking wanted to get out. So off we went towards ranjesluizen which is the only way out of Amsterdam. Several boats had the same idea so by the time we got to the lock, we were about 12 sailboats jockeying for a spot in the lock. Madeleine and Marcus took the ropes and fended us off the sides of the lock. Once through the lock we had to mill around for about 15 minutes before the bridge opened letting us out in the Iselmeer. The wind was on our beam and there were no swells! No big waves, just wind. Really lovely for once. We sailed on the jib alone in order to keep a relatively even keel for Madeleine so she would not get seasick.

 

A couple rain squalls came over us with winds up to Beaufort 7 but they only lasted 10-15 minutes and then the wind went back to Beaufort 5. Marcus and Madeleine took turns steering and then helped with our docking when we arrived at Hoorn and Grashaven marina. The sun came out briefly as we took a walk into the town to have a look around and check train schedules for their trip back to Amsterdam. We had to duck under a cafe awning once or twice on the way but otherwise was OK. Hoorn is a lovely little Dutch town with very traditional Dutch houses all leaning slightly outwards towards the streets with great big windows. There's a statue in the town square of Jan Pieterzoon Coen, who was the first man to round Cape Horn and dutifully named it Cape" Horn" after his home town. Hoorn was one of the Dutch East India Company's regional offices and enjoyed a booming trade era in the 1500-1600s. 

 

Madeleine and Marcus bought cocktails and dinner which we had on the boat before walking them to the train for their trip home. It was so nice having them on the boat and catching up and chatting about the wedding:) Madeleine has been our most frequent visitor on the boat since we left last year. She left the boat with half of my sailing gear and a new knowledge of sailing terms including the ability to make a bowlyn knot in preparation for a 3 day sailing regatta in Sweden at the end of the month. She will both look and act the part of a seasoned sailor!

 

It's late at night now and the rain continues to pour down. I have tried to publish our log but the wifi connection is too weak. Wifi very difficult here in Holland.

 

 

19-22 July 2011

 

N 55 24.990 E 12 49.745

Skanörshamn, Sweden

Total Distance: 412 NM

Total Time at Sea: 82 hrs 51 min

Sailed: 44 hrs 51 min Motored: 38 hrs

Weather: Consistently terrible. Windy, rain and cold 14C or there abouts

 

Day 1: We left Hoorn harbor at 06.00 on a very overcast chilly and windy Tuesday. The Iselmeer was murky muddy and brown-green. The gale from the day before had almost blown itself out, though it was still around Beaufort 5 SE. We rounded the bulge of land on the western side of the Iselmeer and were able to enter the lock at Enkhuisen as soon as we arrived at the gates. There was just one other boat, an American sailboat called Oggi. The drop was only about 20 cm, hardly worth all the trouble it seemed. After leaving the lock we went in to Enkhuisen's marina to fill up on diesel and wienerbröd. After 20 minutes we were back on the sea with full stomachs and a full fuel tank. We sailed nearly the rest of the way to Laurentz lock which would let us out of the Iselmeer and back into the North Sea, hardly our favorite sea...

But 2 hours from the lock, at 13.00, we put on the engine so that we would make it to the lock and out through the Freisian Islands' shallow waters and into the safer deeper waters of the North Sea before dark. We had to wait about 20 minutes for our turn in the lock. As usual, commercial vessels go first and as we were waiting 4 big barges came so we had to wait till the next lock trip. While we were waiting about 10 more sailboats showed up and milled around the waiting area. Now, in our experience, locks work on a first-come-first-serve basis for pleasure yachts. So when it's time to enter the lock the boats that got there first get to go in first to ensure that they get a place. But here, no such consideration was taken; some of the Dutch yachts just barged their way ahead piled into the lock. We thought it was pretty shameful. One of the boats that had been waiting as long as us, almost didn't make it in to the lock because of the line-cutters. Just as we were all getting settled, a big ship came and we were told we had to make room for it, so we had to scrunch up even more and some sailboats were forced to go to the middle and raft on to boats to make space. Finally we were all in and we were lifted about a meter. The lock gates opened, and here again, the line cutters wanted to get out first at all costs so they just zoomed ahead of the barges up front. Outside the lock, there was a bridge that was just opening and we all had to squeeze past that opening too before we were out in more open water. It was sort of nerve-wracking because we didn't have very good charts for this area and everyone went in all directions when we came out so our ploy of "follow that boat" didn't work. Dan eventually figured out that there was a channel that we must follow eastwards to Harlingen before taking another channel northwards through and out of the Freisian Islands. Our charts, which are not the newest, showed a very shallow channel with some depths of 1.5m on the northbound channel. We draw 1.6m...the advice in the book was to wait until just before high tide to ensure safe passage, but upon checking to see when high tide was, we learned that it was to be at 01.30 in the morning. Hmmm. Not really sure what to do, we continued towards Harlingen and decided we would go in there and wait till about 23.00 before taking on the channel. But when we got up to the turn off, we could see lots of boats in the channel, big boats, ferries, sailboats. The channel was also much better marked than our charts showed. It was like a highway with markers every couple hundred meters. So we made the left turn and happily entered the channel. As luck would have it, the current was with us for almost the whole way so we made great time completing that part of the passage of 25 NM in just a few hours, doing speeds of up to 8.3 knots, and well before dark. The depths never got less than 7 meters so some kind of dredging must have been done here in the last 5 years since our pilot book was written. The waters were calm as the wind had died down considerably so it was great for making and eating dinner, but on the down side we had to motor. I made canned ham risotto for dinner with cream and parmesan of course.

 

Still motoring once we got out into the open sea, we started our night watches; Dan took the first watch from 21.00-00.00, then I took over and so on until 09.00 in the morning. There was a lot of traffic with a TSS (traffic separation scheme)to our immediate north and a smaller shipping lane running parallel but closer to land, south of our course. We stayed in the middle between the two. The phosphorescence was really pronounced during the night. Roam was surrounded in a ring of neon blue-green caused by her cutting through the water. When it started to sprinkle a little bit, the raindrops made neon sparkly glitter on the water's surface. It was amazing. By now there was not a breath of wind.

 

Day 2: came at about 04.30 and by the time I started my second watch at 06.00 it was perfectly light out. Sailboats started appearing, most of them coming from the east. By 08.00 there were lots of them, all Dutch and all traveling towards the west. I saw something strange in the water, all gray and round. I thought maybe a bird, maybe a fish pot marker. With nothing better to do, I picked up the binoculars to have a look and zeroed in on a seal looking right at us. It had eyes just like Vilda's. It quickly dipped back down beneath the waves after getting a good look at us. I did not know that seals are so far south and certainly not in the vicinity of a major shipping lane.  At 09.00 it was still overcast but not so chilly anymore; about 16 C. The wind was about Beaufort 2 N. We had the sails up all night catching whatever little bit of wind came our way and by 09.30 were able to turn the engine off and sail for a while, albeit slowly. The wind slowly picked up during the day to Beaufort 4 N. For a while we had the current/tide with us and then we would have it against us. There were a lot of sailboats out, mostly Dutch but one or 2 German boats. As we neared the Elbe River where the Kiel Canal opening is, we started seeing a lot of ships coming and going into and out of the TSS. We had to dodge around a couple of those rascals that cut the corner to make a shorter route into the TSS right in our sailing path.

 

We approached the entrance to the Elbe River through a channel that leads to the Kiel Canal just as it was getting dark, around 22.15. There were so many ships! Coming, going, inside the channel, outside the channel, cargo ships, freighters, some sailboats and even fishing boats darting across the shipping lane and trawling down the outsides. Some of the cargo ships were enormous. We've never seen such big ones and so ugly; like giant shoe boxes. A couple were big as aircraft carriers and looked like the pods used in the movie 2012. They didn't all obey the rules of the road and then it became very chaotic for everyone, not least of all us in our tiny sailboat as everyone shifted around to make room for some idiot who decided to drive down the left side of the shipping lane instead of the right side just to save a couple minutes on the curves. This was particularly threatening to us as we are so small and relatively slow compared to them. For some reason, blue-boarding isn’t used in this part of the world. As it was dark, we had only other ships' navigation lights and the channel buoy lights flashing the dark to go by and had to learn how to pick out the boat lights from the

channel marker lights and sometimes we missed a ship that suddenly loomed up behind us which totally freaked us out. The AIS was a fantastic help in identifying and seeing the ships in the dark. One of us stood down at the navigation table and monitored the AIS and called up instructions while the other steered; "incoming behind us, 1 NM away and doing 15 knots!

Move over to the right edge of channel!" At one point there were 7 boats in the channel; 3 going west, 4 going east including us! The boat indicators on the computer screen were red yellow and green with bells clanging whenever we were on a collision course with one of the other boats (red). We had to do some fancy rudder work a couple times to avoid being run down, like when a tanker came shooting out of a side canal into the shipping lane at 15 knots and out onto the side of meeting traffic, where we were puttering, figuring we were safe from everyone since we were not in the actual shipping lane. At the same time there was a ship behind us also wanting to be on our side outside the shipping lane. At the last minute, when we could see that neither one of them was going to move, we took a quick decision and raced pell mell for the opposite side of the shipping lane to safety. Whew! This channel we were in is 33 NM from start to finish, so it's a long way to be on your toes, alert and prepared for any eventuality, and doubly so when it's through the entire night.

 

Day 3: Finally safely arrived at the entrance lock to Kiel Canal at 05.30 on Thursday morning. We were so glad to be finished with that river channel! We had to mill about for a while before we could enter the lock, they have no place to tie up and wait. But were let in along with 2 other sailboats; one English and one Polish. The drop was about 2 meters. The Kiel Canal is 98 KM long and has only the entrance lock in Brunsbüttel and an exit lock in Kiel. The drop at Kiel lock is not more than about 10 cm. It was built betweën 1887 and 1895 linking the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. This canal saved ships 250 NM by ending the necessity to sail up and around Jutland, Denmark in storm-prone seas. The trip down the canal was totally eneventful, just a relatively straight stretch with high trees and foliage along the sides so you couldn't see the landscape around the canal. There was some tanker traffic and a lot of sailboats. Only 1 other Swedish boat going towards Brunsbüttel.

 

We were out of the Kiel Canal by 17.00, stopped briefly at a marina to check the weather reports before doing the very last leg of our 15 month sailing journey. The weather report didn't look very good, but it was nothing worse than we've already done and worse weather was coming in Saturday/Sunday so if we didn't go now, we would have to hang around Kiel for 4 days. Not happening. We ate a quick dinner of bangers and mash and then motored out of the bay and set our sails with the main on the first reef and our course NE into the Baltic Sea. It was already blowing pretty nicely from the NW. This gave us a good beam wind and we were soon skimming along at 6+ knots. The rain started coming down in a light drizzle as darkness descended upon us. I took the first watch from 21.00-00.00 and had a mostly uneventful 3 hours. We were traveling parallel to a shipping lane but there was almost no traffic there. The wind increased a bit so we now had Beaufort 5-6 NW. The waves grew in height but nothing like the Atlantic. They were hitting us sideways and once we were in the wrong place at the wrong time when one wave hit us knocking us sideways and just as we were coming up another one loomed up and knocked us again with great force. This time we went about as far as we can go without the mast touching the water. I threw myself down onto the floor of the cockpit and held on for dear life. There was some noise of things falling down below, but Dan was safe in his bunk on the low side. Dan went on watch at midnight and put in the second reef on the main and furled in the jib. Even so, we were still doing 6 knots. At 02.00, he woke me to monitor the AIS so he could steer us across the shipping lane just north of the German island of Fehmar. From the occasional ship passing during my watch, there were now about 20 boats in our proximity in the shipping lane that we had to negotiate across. They all travel at about 12-20 knots per hour so they come up on one pretty fast. Dan steered and watched the boats while I watched them on the AIS and could tell Dan exactly which ones we were on collision course with and how far away they were, what speed they were traveling and what their course was. As soon as an opportunity presented itself I told him "Go!" We crossed over the first lane, then he steered us down the middle of the shipping lane until I could give him a go-ahead for the next lane. It was so scary looking out the porthole and watching a ship move past us only a hundred or so meters away! As we were crossing the second half, a ship suddenly appeared from the north, also crossing the shipping lane and coming right at us and we had to swerve out of his way. After about 20 minutes we were across and could exhale and get back to sleep or watch. 

 

Day 4: Overcast, rain and more wind still from NW. We were really hoping for a veer to the W as had been forecast but it didn't come so we were beating to weather when we rounded Gedser on the southern tip of Denmark at about 08.00 and headed NNE. It was really chilly out and our foul-weather gear was drenched as the rain did not let up. Everything down below was starting to feel damp and I kept looking at our speed willing it with all my heart to go faster so we could get home. The wind started gusting pretty strong and now that the waves were coming at us off the port bow, every once in a while we would get a splash that hit the cockpit spot-on and whoever was sitting there. We took down the main and put out jib about half-way. The wind picked up to about Beaufort 7 NNE for about 3 hours during the morning before settling back down to 5. The skies were so gray and showed no sign of breaking up. By the time we were level with Møn Island with its lime cliffs like Dover, the wind had decreased substantially and we put the mainsail back up and pulled out the jib completely. Our speed went down to 2-3 knots. Ugh! After an hour of this, we both got fed up and started the engine and motored the rest of the way to Skanör, which was about 5 hours. Once we entered Öresund, the wind died completely and the sea calmed to flat and the rain stopped. I tidied up as best I could down below, emptied the fridge, and hung up all our wet gear. As we sailed along the Falsterbo-Skanör coast a light wind came up from the SE, of all places, so we sailed the last 5 NM to the harbor. When we motored in to the harbor, we saw first 2 familiar faces; Caroline and Peter. We pulled into our slip, A34, and they took our lines. As we were tying up, 4 more familiar faces appeared; Stephanie, Kimberly, Vilda and Fredrik. Stephanie and Kimberly had champagne and glasses with them and they all clambered onto the boat and we drank champagne, laughing and talking all at once. They were the most beautiful sight to us. How we have missed them! We locked the boat, leaving everything as is, and drove home to the house for dinner. 

 

And so ends our adventure. We have had an amazing 15 months, seeing incredible places, and meeting wonderful people. We have learned things about ourselves and each other, gaining a new respect for each other's abilities to function under pressure. We have a more confident attitude towards sailing and achieving our goals. Roam has been a super boat that has kept us safe in all weather and seas. Never once were we worried that she wouldn't be able to manage in the seas we've been in. We've gone from living in 200 square meters to living in 9 square meters for over a year without feeling crowded or uncomfortable. I have lived without shopping for anything more than food and getting by with very few clothes:) We've lived without TV and the constant flow of world news and found that we haven't really missed anything. Lastly, we have realised how important our children are to us and that we want to be around them as much as we can (or as much as they will let us).

 

Since March 11 this year, we have travelled 4,502.7 NM, we have been to 12 countries and we have been out at sea for a total of 65 nights. 

 

We would like to extend a big Thank You to all of you who have followed us on this journey. It has given us a very warm feeling to know that people kept track of us. I hope that you have enjoyed it and that it has inspired you to take the leap and do what you have dreamed of for years but not yet done. 

 

Until the next voyage, whenever that might be!