Monday 9 April
Having dropped a couple of possible overnights off the schedule, we had left ourselves a relatively easy last leg of this stage of our delivery cruise, but it still turned out to be an eventful day. First the mist dropped suddenly just as we were preparing to weigh the anchor and depart, so we followed our inward track back out with the help of the chart plotter and radar.
For a while, foghorns could be heard from the commercial vessels in the nearby shipping lanes, but to Mate’s great relief, it lifted as quickly as it had come in, opening her circle of visibility from a couple of boat-lengths to several miles. Before long, today’s passenger arrived in the shape of a slightly bedraggled pied wagtail. This visitor wasn’t as impressed by my ambience, and soon disappeared again.
Even in the mist there was a good breeze, so Skipper had set full main and genoa, and I was enjoying reaching at six knots and more. After a while, Mate decided I was heeling too much, and requested a sail change down to the staysail, which provided no less speed but a much more comfortable ride. The wind increased and our relative angle altered as we changed course to follow the shoreline, and Mate called for second reef, by now feeling less than happy, cold and wet from a couple of full-face ‘greenies’. [An observer may have said her face was that colour by now anyway.] Typically, no sooner had Skipper sweated to bring the mainsail under control than the wind dropped right away, and I was down to four knots with over 20 Miles still ahead of me. Obligingly, he shook the reef back out and I went back to full main and around five knots, a more respectable speed and less unpleasant motion.
The sun tried valiantly to shine all day, but with little success and no noticeable warmth. As we began to pick out the line of towers marking the edge of drying sandbanks, outside the main shipping channel into the River Elbe that leads to Hamburg, we slid carefully over a very shallow patch before slotting neatly between probably the busiest shipping route I’ve ever been near, and beaches of basking seals.
Inbound fishing vessels were trailing their prawning nets across each side deck like ballgown drapes, and a small convoy of yachts accompanied us towards Cuxhaven Yacht Club marina. Clear yellow signage allocates berths according to boat length, with red/green cards on the pontoon at the head of each berth indicating availability. Power is available from the tower labelled for your berth number, and water hoses are plentiful.