20/04/08

Norderney on ‘Prospero’…

I wasn’t going to dwell on this too much as I didn’t think it was appropriate to the w2n project. On reflection though, the short-handed delivery of my friend Nicholas’ 30’ Husar Prospero to the Baltics was an interesting exercise from which I have learnt many things… most of which, the hard way!

The plan was to sail across the North Sea to the Frisian Islands and then on to Cuxhaven before heading through the Kier Canal to the Baltics. It didn’t quite work out that way as we were denied by the NE winds and flew back leaving the boat safely berthed in Norderney.

Lesson number 1 - Embarking on this voyage the day after running in the London Marathon! Ok, so it wasn’t the aching legs that were the problem – it was the combination of extreme cold and a battered immune system. I had been advised (too late) that trying to run three marathons in quick succession would play havoc with my immune system. Perhaps, with hindsight, April was a little early in the year to be attempting the North Sea crossing as predictably, the increasing wave height and plummeting temperature were inversely proportionate! Prospero is a well balanced boat and coped well with the F6 gusts and the steep, confused waves. She’s smaller than Canasta though – 30’. As such, despite arbitrarily agreeing on a 3hr watch system, neither Nicholas nor I was able to sleep while the boat lunged and crashed through the waves. That first night was, to say the least, uncomfortable and inevitably, as soon as the following day I was showing the tickly throat and runny nose symptoms of imminent man-flu!

Lesson number 2 – Despite planning to spend my foreseeable future floating around the world, I am not immune from sea-sickness! Indeed, embarrassingly, I suffered briefly from the dreaded ‘Mal de Mer’ during that lumpy first night. It didn’t last long fortunately but the same thing happened last year whilst crewing Zanzibar from Porto across the Bay of Biscay and I’m starting to think that maybe I should consider swallowing my nautical pride and with it, some medication!

Lesson number 3 – AIS rocks! Ask anyone where the busiest shipping lanes can be found and they’ll tell you “The Dover Straits or more generally, The North Sea”. Fortunately, visibility was good throughout our passage but the number of ships (for ‘ships’ read ‘tankers, ferries, cruise liners, fishing boats, trawlers and oil platforms’) was absolutely astonishing. Now, I sail regularly in the Solent and the amount of commercial traffic there comes as no surprise. In the middle of the North Sea though, at night, I was staggered by the amount of traffic and equally staggered by the efficiency of Nicholas’ AIS system. If you don’t know, AIS is now a statutory requirement for commercial shipping and transmits a digital signal containing information about their name, destination, position, direction, speed, weight, number of crew, and most helpfully, the distance at which they will pass if both courses are maintained. It’s not a legal requirement on smaller vessels but with a simple receiver connected to the regular GPS plotter, it’s possible to see at a glance the entire local commercial shipping population – brilliant. AIS is now top of my shopping list.

Lesson number 4 – Local knowledge is far more reliable than charts! I refer to our early morning passage into Norderney. On paper it was pretty straight forward and well buoyed. In practice, it was challenging – and dangerous. It was early in the morning and was not yet light. There were two approaches to the harbour and coming from the west, we naturally chose the western approach. The irony here was that Nicholas was cautious and would have preferred to wait until daylight. We had averaged about 7 knots through the night though and despite lying hove-to while we cooked and ate a splendid dinner, we arrived early - in the dark. I couldn’t see the problem and felt Nicholas was worrying unduly. The first problem made no sense at all. From the fairway buoy, our approach followed a series of unlit port-hand posts to a lit green with the characteristic Fl G (2+1) 15s. We could se it, clearly, in completely the wrong direction. It was there clearly flashing twice then once every fifteen seconds but it was nowhere near where the charts indicated. Only after several minutes of indecision, Nicholas then spotted amongst the glow of streetlights, another lit green with identical characteristics. It was much less bright but was on the correct bearing. Confusing indeed. We headed for it keeping a careful lookout for the unlit posts and fought a strong cross-tide to stay on our bearing. Past one red post – no problem. Past another. I was below checking the charts when Nicholas called me on deck to the sound of breaking waves and the urgently beeping depth alarm. A look forward to the lit green and a glance back to the fairway buoy suggested we were only metres from our transit but it was enough to run us up onto a mercifully sandy shallow patch with the North Sea swell breaking around us. We were aground. Thankfully, the swell that was threatening to bump us further up onto the shallow ground was large enough to lift us clear with the engine hard astern. It was an anxious few moments but we found deeper water and continued our approach without further incident. We never did find the third unlit post but by then it didn’t matter – the sunrise revealed a clear, well buoyed channel around the west side of the island and into the harbour entrance. Then, exhausted, we slept! The following day, Nicholas spoke with the Harbour Master and was told that the Schluster channel was notoriously sketchy at the best of times but that this season had seen it rendered virtually impossible. How right he was!

You can read Nicholas’ blog at http://www.channelpilot.info/blog.php.