Log: 210nm
Engine: 391,7h
Location: Wendtorf, Germany

Alright, I guess the prologue is about to end and we’ll enter story-mode soon. The last couple of days were spent with daysailing, training, socializing and getting stuff done. The training part is also the explanation of the increase in engine hours, the baltic is mostly “box” berths, so no jetty in parallel to your boat.

box berth

It’s funny, I loved this kind of berths in training because with crew, you can hardly fail if you know the right line handling manoeuvre. No it’s taking me quite some time to get used to them because single-handing these is kinda tricky and my boat is kind of special/different with quite some prop walk and the very narrow stern.

Talking of training. I did two training trips this year, one with a very nice instructor and one with one I hate. Not my kind of guy, some stuff he teaches is ok, some is haphazard or dangerous. Oldschool drill Sargent, if you don’t succeed he yells at you until you give up or succeed. Some crew broke into tears. Totally unacceptable. Luckily that guy skippered the second trip so I had decent training before. Bad luck for the other crewmates because I had to do all tricky manoeuvres “because I did it before”. Or the skipper took over because he thought we were not skilled enough. Anyways, I liked him best when he was under deck and I was not. And him being lazy he was under deck a lot. So one day I see a boat with the ensign of my sail school. Hmm, looks like the one I did my training on. Shoddy sail trim, nobody on deck looks like an instructor, it’s Thursday so the course is almost over. Might it be W.  So I turned and ensured my sail trim was ok. And I started gaining.

looksie! That’s the boat I mastered my license on…

and then I overtook them. Leewards. Easily.

When I was alongside W. finally came up and we exchanged some pleasantries. At least he knows his sailboats and correctly identified my iw-31.

Some kind folks gave me very comfy cockpit cushions and one of my neighbours even fabricated some mounts for the windvane for me. Thanks guys! Hanging out in harbours is kind of weird. Seems sailing (or boating in general) is not too common for folks of my age or younger. There are few, most folks you meet are 50+ and are sailing their whole life. So I feel kind of lonely and well entertained at the same time. Sometimes it’s sort of looking at different possible “feature me”. Sometimes it’s just plain awful, like today, sitting at a bar, eating horrible food and listening to old people talking about death and different funeral options. And my phone’s battery was dead. I really hope I’ll die on my feet doing something I like. Or maybe lying down and doing something I love. Whatever, as long as I won’t just spent my days waiting for death. I hate waiting.

kiel lighthouse

So yeah, did I finish all work on the boat? Nope. Is the boat ready to go? Kinda, sorta… Do I feel ready to tackle this adventure? Not really. So yeah, all in all it’s time to go. If you wait too long you’ll never get started. Having problems along the way gives you a good incentive to approach folks. Spilling the guts of whatever technical on your deck makes nice folks stop by say hello. After all travelling is the name of the game, not holidays.

(Disclaimer: I put a month worth of work and a good amount of money into the boat, mostly on safety related stuff. The vessel is a sea-worthy offshore cruiser-racer, CE Category A-rated (meaning it’s able to withstand winds with more than force 8 and waves over 4m height). People crossed the Atlantic with this thing. I’ll do short leisure sails in good weather. I’ll be fine.)

This time with more wind (4-5bft) and competent crew, another first! Some friendly local who is sailing for his whole life and really into the iw-31 volunteered to show me the ropes of both the ship and the local waters. That really helped a lot, especially concerning sail trim.

And I again realized: I really like this boat! There were some bigger boats which should have been faster. But if their crew made some slight mistakes like shoddy steering or running a little too much canvas and bam, the little iw-31 was either onto them or got ahead. I hope I’ll soon learn to get her dialed in nicely as well, the puzzled looks on the other, much more expensive vessels seems well worth it.

But before that she needs some love. The main sheet traveller gave up and under close inspection I realized the sheet winches where attached with pieces of rotten plywood. Seems she hasn’t seen heavy weather for a while. So I took off the winches and the traveller is to follow. She is not ready for sailing anymore 🙁 As soon as I am back to hamburg I’ll have to throw some money at the right folks and put in long work hours… But these issues are neither very complicated nor expensive so I just have to pull through…

I did the first sails on the Elbe. Alone as well as with friends. I think I did ok. And I no longer consider the Kieler Förde crammed.

We already established the high density of traffic on the elbe because of the Port of Hamburg. So yesterday we thought “hey, lets catch the last hour of the rising tide to go in the direction of Hamburg and go back when the tidal current reverses”. What we didn’t know was that the grand opening ceremony of the 826th harbour anniversary was scheduled for the same afternoon. And since tidal streams are something like train-tables to the tidal-aware sailor EVERYBODY was on that rising tide train to the city, including the honorary guests.

The green one (Alexander von Humbold II, famous for Becks Beer commercials) and the white sailing vessel (Dar Młodzieży) actually took the lead of the parade. We caught them both on the way to party, so to speak.

As a kicker the wind came directly from the city so we had to tack up the river, (crisscrossing the waterway). Plenty of folks were doing exactly that so watching them gave me a feeling of what is ok and what not. The only mishab on my side was a ferry captain who used his loudhailer to inquire if I had been drinking. Nope, I was sober and that was too close. My mistake for sure but all he had to do was to ease the throttle a bit to let me pass. So nobody was harmed or threatened.

After hoisting the sails for shits and giggles for a couple of times I actually used them for their dedicated purpose for more than a couple of minutes being all alone aboard. That was a definite first. And quite entertaining, going upwind you have to tack (crisscross) over the waterway. This needs a careful timing because the large freighters are fast, and can’t break nor steer in time to avoid a collision.