Our adventure continues!  The themes of the past weeks or so have been lousy weather, lousy weather and lousy boat issues!   But also resilience, perseverance and making the best of things!   For most of our summer here, we’ve been experiencing day after day of bad weather, caused by strong low pressure systems coming across Northern Europe.  As a result, we’ve been wind-bound (stuck in place, waiting for a change in the wind) more often than not.  First we were stuck in Marstrand for a few days.  Then we made the best of a mediocre weather window and (with help from our friends Timo and Hilari) made it down to Kiel, through the canal, then to Borkum and then Vlieland.  Some good progress that week.  But then progress stopped, as we were stuck in Vlieland for four (or was it five?) days waiting, waiting, and waiting.  Then this past Sunday, we were stuck in Breskens with 30 - 40 knots winds and torrential downpours. 

Despite the delays, we’ve been weathering it well and our spirits are high!  We have managed to explore each of our stopovers and have found numerous ways to enjoy ourselves.   One of my favorite days was our last day in Vlieland, a beautiful barrier island in the North Sea.  We rented bikes and cycled down dirt roads in the forest and then along dunes and the sea, finding a cool hotel bar for sweets at the end of the path, before returning back to the marina on the other side of the island.    In Borkum we found the annual fisherman’s festival, with amusements rides and a huge street party.  We found a traditional dutch pancake house for dinner, and I had a “beef stew marinated in beer” pancake.  (not my favorite!).

The past few days have been particularly trying, as we’ve discovered some boat issues that will put us a roughly five to seven days behind our rough schedule, potentially forcing us to breeze through some of the stops in the UK that we were most looking forward to.   Some context...  We’ve been dealing with some water ingress in the stern section of the boat since the long leg from Cuxhaven to Borkum.  At the time, we did some diagnostics but didn’t find the source.  It happened again on the leg from Borkum to Vlieland and once there we doubled down on our leak testing and found what we thought was the culprit – some holes through the stern of the boat through which screws protrude but HR had neglected to apply any sealant around them.  The result is that when water ran down the stern of the boat it poured into those holes.  We also found a few other areas of leakage, but nothing as significant.  Our friends at HR sent us a package at our next destination with the caulk necessary to make the repair, and we took care of this in Scheveningen.  

But then on Saturday we had a long upwind leg to Zeebrugge and when checking the lazarette after an hour of sailing, we discovered a new source of water – that of the starboard lower rudder bearing.  When we were under sail, heeling on the starboard side, a small but steady stream of water came in.  Because there is no drain in that area when heeling, this meant that we needed to stop sailing so we motored.  This made us sad for several reasons, the biggest being that we were otherwise having a beautiful sail, averaging 8.5 knots while sailing close hauled, 45 degrees to the wind in 15 knots of breeze!  

While underway, we reached out to our friend Martin at HR, who has stepped in for our normal contacts there during HR’s month-long vacation shutdown.  Martin put us in contact with Paul Hameeteman, HR’s Dutch dealer in a town called Bruinesse with the thought that we could stopover and make repairs there.  When I looked up the town, it was only 20 miles away, so we felt incredibly fortunate!  But then I learned that in order to get there, we had to actually go another 90 miles because of bridges and locks that are under construction.  Not so fortunate!  But better than 500 miles away!  Given the time and remaining distance, we planned an overnight at a town called Breskens, near Rotterdam. 

But back to the crappy weather… this turned into two nights in port due to a nasty storm.    So Monday morning we were up at 5:30 am for the 45 miles to Bruinisse.  5:30 so that we could catch the incoming tide, which allowed us to get there in around seven hours (including time waiting at bridges and locks), as opposed to what could have been ten hours if the current was against us.  Quite the navigational challenge, with two locks, a canal, four opening bridges along the way!  I was proud of Guillemette and Seth for their ability to drive, navigate and manage the lines at each lock and bridge.  Upon arrival in Bruinisse, we were welcomed by Paul and team who helped us get set up in a nice marina.  

In the meantime, Martin at HR-Parts had scoured the HR facility to find many of the parts that we needed to make our rudder repairs, shipping them out overnight to Bruinisse.  And Paul, with great contacts at our other vendors, made arrangements for a new bow thruster motor, a new autopilot computer and a new wind sensor.  All of which are to be delivered overnight this week!   

Today Saltair was hauled out of the water and Paul and team dropped the starboard rudder out of the boat to investigate the water intrusion.  They found what is likely an error in the installation of the rudder bearing and were able to replace the critical component.  We also identified a possible cause for our other water intrusion challenge and Paul’s colleague Remi made that repair. We are incredibly grateful for Paul and his team at Nova Yachting International for everything that they've done for us this week!  We literally appeared on their doorstep and they've dropped everything to get our challenges sorted and us back on our way!

We're sleeping in Saltair out of the water tonight and we hope to have her back afloat tomorrow by midday.  Of course we’ll have a look at the port rudder to ensure that we don’t have the same problem there!    With the boat out of the water, we’ll take the opportunity to clean off some of the growth and change a few corroded zincs.   With luck our other parts will arrive tomorrow and can be installed by the end of the day, allowing us to get back on our way on Thursday or possibly Friday.  It will take us a full day of locks, bridges and a canal to get back to our point of diversion, but then we hope to be all set for the trip to the UK, France and beyond!  We’ve known from the start that this trip would be an adventure, and every adventure has it twists and turns.  The past few weeks has given us our fair share for sure!

Some pics from the past few weeks:

The love of my life and  my partner in crime before a wonderful meal in Vlieland.

Exploring the endless fine white sandy beaches of Vlieland

Seth doesn't like the smell of eggs, so he improvised a smell-blocker for dish duty!

Movie night!  Can you name the movie?  (in the comments, please!)

Vlieland biking fun!

The North Sea is full of wind farms.  Here's one of them.  You can sail between the towers, but are required to keep 50 meters away.

A very cool old race boat in Breskins.  If you look carefully, just in front of the mast you'll see an actual "pit" for the pit team!  I suspect that is where the name came from!

The able crew of Saltair navigating lines in a lock on the way to Bruinisse.

And our friendly, talkative and quite helpful lock keepers!

After a long day of locks, bridges and a canal, we were greeted with a beautiful sunset.    Saltair is at the head of the dock.

And the workday began early!  Seth has become accomplished at using the electric drill / driver.  You might not believe it from the photo, but he was concentrating and working hard to remove the access panels for the steering system in advance of today's rudder bearing work.   

Leaving the steering system exposed (or at least the starboard half of it, in this picture.  There is another, similar setup on the port side.  )

Saltair, no longer afloat.  (I've been waiting a long time to use that line!).  She's a big one for sure!  Not a lot of room on the sides of the travel lift!!

Oh yeah... we found this random bit in the bilge when we went to remove the sonar transducers.  It was supposed to have been attached to a pipe but came detatched along the way!  (repaired today)

Paul's guy hard at work dissassembling the rudder system.  

The crew of Saltair on the way home to our land yacht for the evening!   

Tomorrow is another day, with more adventures to come!