Rainy day in Nordeney

Friday 14th July - Nordeney

I bet the Kaiser insisted on better weather than this for his visits to his beach resort. The basket chairs on the beach would be pretty soggy for his imperial derrière by the end of today.

It was sunny all morning in fact and we did get some jobs done. "Poor me" laboriously typing my blog into the phone with one finger, and Howard working on the wind vane self steering. Followers of this blog since the beginning will know that considerable work has already gone into bringing this very useful bit of kit (which should steer the boat when we're sailing) back into commission. It was incinerated in our workshop fire in 2009 but has slowly but surely been reconditioned and reassembled like a phoenix from the ashes. A highlight of this process, if you haven't been following, was the casting of the lead counterbalance - blogged back in May (post on 1st May called Alchemy if you are interested and can be bothered to look it up). 

Back in the canals, at Dokkum I think, Howard had created a sort of 'plug' of Sikaflex at first one end and then the other of the paddle of this device (which he'd filled with expanding foam back at home). So now in Nordeney he fixed it in position and sorted out an experimental first rigging of the system ready to test out tomorrow.

Then the rain started. We guessed at 2 and a half to 3 inches in our bucket on deck later, but for now we took refuge below. The oil lamp lent a bit of cosiness as we could barely hear the radio playing above the drumming  of rain on the deck. 

Paddle ready for deployment


Comments

Post a Comment

We've set this up so anyone can comment - though we'll see your comment before it's published on the blog - please comment away!

Popular posts from this blog

Inland Schleswig-Holstein

Image
Wednesday 19th July to Thursday 20th July - River Eider inland Reasons to take the River Eider route to the Baltic: 1. It's easier to get to from Heligoland (in the right conditions). 2. You avoid travelling (and crossing) the River Elbe with all its traffic and strong current. 3. You avoid the massive ship lock at Brunsbüttel where we have heard of yachts having to wait as long as 4 hours out in the Elbe before locking in. There are some issues with the locks and they are not all operating. 4. There's no commercial traffic, till you join up with the Kiel Canal 5. Once in, it's more interesting to travel along a river with small towns to visit than 100km of straight ship canal. So, Tönning was our first town with its small harbour a feature in itself overlooked by houses and cafés. When the tide went out overnight we didn't see the mud, we just floated in almost no water.  On Wednesday we moved on to Friedrichstadt, just 10nm further on, a pleasant short trip with withi
Read more

Denmark. Mission accomplished!

Image
Thursday 27th July Schleimünde to Sønderborg - 18 nm The final leg to Denmark is achieved under sail. Goose-winged to start with (from 7.30am) then pole down as the wind veered.  9.45: into Danish waters, time for a new courtesy flag. White cross on red ground duly hoisted. 11am: tied up on Sønderborg quay, prime spot with great view of the castle (Slot). We left the east coast of England back in May with the aim of cruising "towards Denmark" and now we're here. Mission accomplished. We've travelled about 830 miles, mostly with the assistance of the engine, especially inland in the canals, but we've also had some great sails on the way. We've enjoyed visiting Kent, northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands including the Wadden Islands, the German Watten, Heligoland, Schleswig-Holstein and now we're in Denmark.  Sønderborg on the island of Als seems to be the current mooring place for the Danish royal yacht so we're in good company. We've still
Read more

Sussing out the Schlei

Image
Wed 26th July Laboe to Schleimünde via Kappeln - 28 nm Thank goodness for a better day! We set off out into the Baltic Sea.  Wind is 16kts from the North (of course) but at least it's sunny and dry. We don't sail all day but we do enjoy a few hours of peaceful zig-zagging without the engine before motoring into the River Schlei. This is it!  This is Bonify's new cruising ground.  From now on we're on the lookout for a winter berth. We want a secure boatyard where she can be lifted out in September, mast still standing, and covered up until we come back again next spring. We're looking at transport links, prices (of course) and also hoping to find a place we like the feel of. There are some big marinas out here which feel a bit impersonal - small yards are often friendlier places, much more our thing as long as they have a crane or hoist big enough for our 12 tons. Smaller places tend to be cheaper too. The River Schlei has a few places for us to check out, an
Read more