Crossing to the other side

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Up nice and early for a 7am departure from Teddington Lock, only for our first hiccup of the day with a minor delay waiting for Stefan (our pilot) to join us for the crossing.  Great start though – it was a beautiful sunny morning for us as the UK suddenly found itself with a mini heat wave. The forecast for the crossing was also very good.  Fingers crossed.  We were following the outgoing tide so progress was fairly rapid and the barrier was still up at Richmond despite the slightly delayed start.

The sun shone as we travelled downstream, and we got to see all the well-known sights from a very different perspective, and a few friends managed to give us a cheery wave as we passed under the Millennium bridge.  The river was definitely getting busier now, and it was surprising how choppy it got with all the traffic on the water.  As we headed further out and into the estuary though, the scenery changed and became a little more bleak and as the sun began to set, it felt like it went on forever!  In fact by the time we were out of the estuary it was already dark.

Although supposedly ‘flat calm’ we still seemed to move around a lot at times.  Stefan had his chart plotter with him and we had the AIS (Automatic Identification System) to keep track of other vessels, although there seemed to be very little about.  That was great when we could see the vast expanse of sea ahead but once it got dark, we seemed to be staring into oblivion and just trying to maintain some sort of course – easier said than done, when your eyes are as old as ours, and that really did become a problem a bit later on.

As we got to the channel motorway lanes, the AIS was showing all the other ships somewhere out there, but in the dark we did struggle to get any kind of visual aid.  Stefan would ask us to head for a specific buoy with its flashing light but we could not even see any light so he would keep it on track until we could make it out and then we would take over, trying to keep the historical track of the GPS going in the right direction, which got a bit interesting at times.

Once in the open sea we picked up more swell and a bit more of a breeze, and we began to rock and roll quite a bit , twisting and turning at times.  In the past I have not been a particularly good sailor and had taken travel tablets but at no time did I feel sick; on the other hand, Nicki, who never seems to have a problem, spent a fair bit of time chucking up – fortunately she was able to rest for most of the night crossing though.

By about three in the morning, tired and ready to drop, we were closing on Nieuwpoort harbour, a tad behind schedule, and I had just managed a short nap leaving Bob to take over steering (Stefan was also napping at this point).  But on going back to the wheelhouse I found Bob struggling to keep us going in the right direction.  Stefan, also now awake, quickly took over and got us back on track before checking on his phone app to see the  course we had followed …. Bob had only been going round in circles for ages making a corkscrew approach to the coast!!!  That really did set us behind schedule, and we were still going, exhausted but getting there.  Finally, we began our final approach to Nieuwpoort Harbour with dawn breaking.  All the leisure fishing boats were making their way out as we trundled in.  At this point we were all so tired, but with the end approaching there was a new surge of energy as we could actually see around us again (a huge plus) and we had had more focus for getting into the canal system.

Because of the earlier setbacks, we were only just in time to get through the sea lock, and from there into another lock to access the marina and the local river.  The lock    keeper checked our ship’s papers and sorted out a licence for us – luckily we had just enough cash to pay, as it turns out that Belgium really has very little interest in credit cards.

Through the lock, I then contacted the harbour master, Daniel, who directed us to a quay mooring between two pontoons – he seemed to think we could moor our 19 meter barge side on into a 20 meter space!!  Fortunately for us, Stefan was in charge of that particular manoeuvre and he made it look so simple.  I think I would have been too tired to try!

So job done, and we are now in Belgium for the foreseeable future.

After virtually no sleep we were all fired up and active all day sorting things out, such as hosing down the salt water off the barge after the crossing, setting up the bimini, etc.  A lovely couple (Jo and Tim) stopped on their way past the barge to say hello, they were staying a little further along the canal and had seen a facebook post that we had arrived so thought they’d pop by.  (They now have the dubious honour of being our first visitors in Belgium!!)

After a busy day setting up all the necessary requirements, we were just ready to rest for a bit when Alec and Stuart turned up with their friends – bizarrely, and before knowing our plans, some time ago Alec had arranged a group cycle ride to Bruges, actually passing Niewepoort on their ride.  So it was really handy for them to stop off and have Nicki prepare food for all eleven of them, some with quite specific dietary requirements.  They all seemed very happy, albeit tired (they don’t know the meaning of that word!) and hot, but after a brief rest and refuel they went on their way towards Bruges where they would be camping overnight before returning to the UK the next day.  After they had left it turned out that they had eaten ALL the food Nicki had prepared – she had hoped that plenty would be left for our own meal that evening, but had forgotten just how much young, active people tend to eat!  Anyway, that was a very enjoyable interlude for us all. By that time I really was running on empty and after a short walk to look around the area, followed by some food, I had had enough and had to get some zzzzzzz’s.  The others followed a bit later, and our first day came to an end.

About Post Author

Andrew

ahphillips@talk21.com

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