Weather

If we are to believe the updated prediction from xcweather.co.uk , which is now giving us predictions for up to Sunday, I am starting to think that it might be an idea to head out on Wednesday evening as the light NE2-3 on Wednesday evening are due to back to the N overnight and back further to be NW by Thursday lunchtime, although the forecast on the buoy in the North Sea is giving completely different wind directions than those at Peterhead. It does look we are going to get stronger N's at the weekend picking up through Saturday and reaching N5-6 by Sunday. Not sure how these will feel in a small yacht on the North Sea so am keen to err on the side of caution and try and get across beforehand if possible. We'll need to chat tonight and try to reach a decision.

Peterhead

Subject: RE: Weather
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:30:19 +0100

The trip to Peterhead was extremely easy. left Port Ed at 6am on Sunday, in Stonehaven at 7.30pm. Left for Peterhead at 9am yesterday and arrived in Peterhead about 4. All under motor. Nothing more than a force 3 from the north for about half an hour on Sunday and most of the way out of the Forth there was actually a westerly, though only about force 1.

Peterhead is on a lee shore from the north-east, so I don't think the seas would have been much worse in the middle of the North Sea. The most we saw was about a 4 foot swell on Sunday, but very long and gentle and didn't slow us at all. Just a gentle rise and fall. It had been rough in Stonehaven the previous night, but the swell died away so quickly that I suspect it was a relatively local phenomenon and there wasn't a strong NE wind all the way across the North Sea.

With the benefit of hindsight and given there's still no wind in the North Sea and today's shipping forecast for South Utsire is W 3-4, if we'd have left on Sunday morning at 5kt directly for Norway we'd be there at 4am tomorrow morning. However now it looks like the low will fill and we'll get stronger NE winds on Wednesday and Thursday.

I've left Zophiel in Peterhead and come home to work, rather than spend a large part of my annual holiday in the fleshpots of Peterhead..

I've been trying to phone round others who are doing the trip, as well as Guthrie who has a lot of experience in the North Sea I understand. Not getting many people in but will keep trying. Charlie Hussey says Mary et al on Mrs Chippy are still planning to leave on Thursday night, though it looks about the worst.

The problem with Ian's idea of tracking down the coast and doing a short crossing in the SW winds around the Channel, it seems to me, is that in order to get there we'd have needed to pass closer to the low and batter through the long section of it in which the winds as all from the south.

I suppose the question is, do we wait for a complete change in the weather pattern to a settled high and westerlies, which could take a month, or do we wait for a gap when the low fills and we get very little wind, such as we've had since Sunday, and go with a very gentle E, N or NE forecast? At the moment the latter looks likely on Friday and Saturday.

One option would be, in a N or NE, to sail/motorsail due east, or as close to that as we can get, until we pick up the southerly air flow a bit nearer to Denmark. This would then lift us to Norway. This was Charlie's suggestion and seems sensible to me. From Peterhead Bergen bears 53 deg (275 miles), Tananger (near Stavanger) 69deg (240 miles) and Mandal, on the southern tip of Norway bears 85deg (295 miles). The last was recommended as a landfall by a 86 year old bloke on another Vancouver I met in Peterhead, who's now heading for St KIlda!

I will continue to canvas the views of crusty old seadogs with more North Sea experience than me. In particular on how difficult it would be just to motor into a gentle to moderate wind. I suspect that even in quite a strong wind we'd get nothing anything like as bad as the wind-over-tide on the Forth on Saturday!

Martin

Shortest cruising log ever

After the forecast became clearer and it was thought that the north easterlies that have been lingering for days were due to die down, it was decided that Ian, Pete and Martin would leave Port Edgar on Saturday at 6am to catch the favorable tides to head up to Anstruther or Stonehaven on the way up to Peterhead, from where we hoped to leave for Bergen on Monday. It didn't quite go according to plan:

Subject: Shortest cruising log ever.
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:56:16 +0100

Hi guys,

The abortive start to the supposed trip to Peterhead and on to Stavanger. My family have been ending themselves laughing for the past 48 hours so I might as well share!

Fridays forecast was NE 5-7 expected to fall to 2-3 by Saturday afternoon. On Weds the forecast for Saturday on the BBC 5 Day was 2mph from the North. We decided to leave on the spring ebb and expected to have a long motor into light easterlies!! but make it to Peterhead Sunday evening after an overnight in either Arbroath or Stonehaven. Then wait for a weather window to head to Stavanger.

Saturday

0600 Port Edgar we convince ourselves the wind is dropping we are seeing single figure wind speed and the sky is brightening to the East

0630 Under the rail bridge apparent wind 35 knots and the waves knock the SOG back to 3.5 knots despite 1.5 knots of tide. And the sky is not brightening!

0700 Decide to go on to Granton or Aberdour. Apparent wind touches 40 knots

0730 On Mooring at Aberdour. Bacon butties all round. One crew member seasick. That was a waste of a vegetarian bacon buttie.

0830 One crew member decides to use heads before putting oilies back on. Heads outlet hose blocked! That makes the decision we have to go back to PE

0900 Broad reach under double reefed main and Staysail. Hull speed exceeds 6 knots apparent wind touches 35 knots and we are running away from it!

1000 Back on the berth at PE hoping the people who see us come in think we are returning from a night passage.

Wives are phoned, some - but not all - of whom express relief.

There is follows a great deal of fannying about including some drama when a pontoon finger on D breaks an anchorage point and inverts ( no boats attached) It has to be cut free with an oxy acetylene cutter and towed away.

1200 Jon goes home - he has to be at work on Monday

Martin continues to try and fix the toilet. Ian makes suggestions gives advice (well what would you expect)

1330 Ian makes lunch then heads round to Psyche for a sleep. Martins efforts continue.

1600 Anna arrives with pressure washers, drain clearers etc. Martins efforts continue.

1630 Coffee and biscuits. Toilet still not clear.

1700 Ian heads home "I'm not going to Norway on a boat whose toilet doesn't work!"

2100 Martin phones Ian to say he has sorted the toilet.

Sunday

1100 Ian phones Martin. Turns out he and Anna left at 0600 and are currently motoring past Anstruther.

1900 David Dougal phones Ian. Martin and Anna are currently off Stonehaven in the fog. Planning to go on the Peterhead on Monday.

What next:

The weather window we are looking for is not opening. Increasing NE winds are forecast for the next few days. 250 miles with a force 4 on the nose doesnt seem too good and idea.

Ian

North Sea Crossing

Subject: Eschew the Jacuzzi
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:41:00 +0100

Anyone fancy a trip across to Norway sometime in June? If so, why go on Erin, Grand Slam, with their twelve double bedrooms with en suite jacuzzis, saloons with full-size snooker tables etc? Instead, cross the North Sea at half the speed and suffer genuine discomfort aboard Zophiel.

I'm looking for a couple of crew with a decent amount of experience who can stand watches for the crossing, probably around mid-June given a suitable weather window. There may be the possibility of taking the boat for a bit of a holiday out of Stavanger afterwards, as I'll probably have to fly back home for a week or two.

Zophiel is a Vancouver 27 and whilst 27 feet isn't huge for a boat to cross the North Sea, the Vancouver 27 is a very seaworthy long keeler, with a comfortable motion, designed for ocean crossings. Zophiel had a new engine 18 months ago and I'm kitting her out at the moment with new standing rigging, mainsail, lifefraft, EPIRB, etc. She's got wind vane self steering and can pretty much sail herself if you tell her which way to go.

I'll probably take her up to Peterhead first to shorten the crossing and I'm sufficiently wimpy that I'm not intending to go when there's contrary winds, gales etc forecast.

Cheers
Martin

Back in April I responded to the email above, sent out to the mailing list of my local yacht club seeking crew for a North Sea crossing. A number of more experienced sailors responded but fortunately for me, that number dwindled to the stage where my name made it onto the final list.

Being from an east coast fishing town, I have grown up beside the North Sea and have been keen to sail across it ever since I got back into sailing 4 years back. In many respects, the fact that you can sail to 'proper' foreign countries is the only advantage about sailing on the east coast of Scotland as opposed to the west.

Martin has spent a lot of time preparing the yacht so that it is ready for the crossing: getting paper and electronic charts; replacing the standing rigging; buying an epirb, liferaft, flares, lifejackets and safety lines; filling every available space with 400 cans of beer (that's the kind of ballast I like).

Now that we are starting to get forecasts for the coming week, the plans are starting to take shape and it looks like 3 or 4 people are going to be on board to sail Zophiel, a Vancouver 27 up to Peterhead over the weekend, leaving on Thursday or Friday, and beating into a NE force 3. It sounds like this will be done as a series of day trips, getting into Peterhead by Sunday. Unfortunately, I'm a bit too busy to do this part of the journey so will join the boat up there. Departure for the next leg is dependant on the weather. Although it looks like there are no major storms on the way, we will wait for favorable winds for the sail across to Bergen in Norway, which possibly means that we will be departing around the 20th. It's about 280 Nm to Bergen from Peterhead so it should take us about 3 days to get there.

We'll be keeping a close eye on the synoptic charts from the Met Office for the next week and will hopefully be able to plan sufficiently far in advance to book flights for the journey home before they get too expensive. I must remember to pack my passport!