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.