Advertisement
Published: October 28th 2013
Edit Blog Post
On Duty Again
This crossing to the UK started off with a beautiful sail. Sometimes you just get lucky. Today’s plan (October 6) was to cross the North Sea from the Netherlands to the UK. We got up at 6AM for a 7AM departure. As is always the rule we started the engine to let it run for about a half hour before we left. Everything was, set, we were just about to cast off the lines when the engine stops. No strange sounds, just silence. We tried to restart, no luck. First thought was no fuel. Last night Bob had switched from fuel tank # 1 to fuel tank # 2. We thought that tank #1 was low & might not make it all the way across as it looked like we were going to have to do some motoring today due to light wind. When Bob checked the fuel filter he saw water.
Luckily
1) we kept with our rule of starting the engine early before leaving
2) we switched tanks before we left the dock
3) we have a duel filter boss fuel system so it is easy to see when there is water in the fuel and you can easily switch to a 2
nd filter. Another advantage
North Sea Platforms
The first of many that we saw on this trip. of this system is it is easy to drain the water off the filter while the engine is off and the pump in the filter boss system is circulating the fuel through the filter. (kind of like fuel polishing).
Bob started to empty the water off the filter and in short order had pulled close to 2 gallons of water out of tank 2. After about 3 hours of work all the water was out of both tanks 1 and 2 (1 had very little in the bottom).
You might be asking yourself why we consider this lucky.
It didn’t happen in the middle of the ocean or pulling into a harbor. It happened when we were safely tied to a dock where we could fix things easily.
We were able to figure it out quickly and take care of it ourselves (well, Bob was able to take care of it thankfully)
Next day October 7
th – instant replay but this time without any problems from the engine. We started off at 8:05 am with some good winds and light seas so we were off to a great start. We were treated to a beautiful
sunrise and eight great hours of excellent sailing. The wind then started to die so we had to motor sail. We had to cross a couple areas of the TSS (traffic separation scheme) where the “big boys” ply the waters. Fortunately having our AIS (automatic identification system) we could see where they were as well as details of their speed , heading, destination, size and boat name. When there were times that it looked like we might be getting close we could call the ship on the radio and confirm that they saw us and in most cases they told us they would change course for us which was always appreciated.
We made such good time that as we approached the coast of England we realized we would get there too early. We slowed her down and proceeded for several hours at 2 to 3 kn. We were hoping that as we approached the coast the wind would move to a more westerly direction and we would be able to turn and head for the Thames estuary. Unfortunately that never happened so we continued on to Harwich. This part of England is extremely shallow and you have to negotiate
A Closer Look
at one of the platforms located in the North Sea in this area. several substantial sandbanks. In addition there is a 1 to 2 knot current running parallel to the coast. As we approached the harbor entrance the chart showed a sandbank directly in our path it indicated that we should have no difficulty passing over it. However as we got closer the waves breaking over the sandbank made us reevaluate and run parallel to the sandbank until we reached deep water. Entering the outer harbor is a bit of an ordeal because there is a very large container ship port located there. The charts give you a very specific location where you can cross the traffic lane which must be done at a right angle to ensure you are in the lane for the shortest time possible. Luckily there were no ships in the channel and we passed with ease. After about 30 hours we pulled into the Suffolk Yacht Harbor and were given a slip. The crossing took longer than we had planned, but overall it was a good one. We were glad to finally make it to the UK!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.136s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 34; dbt: 0.0556s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb