Oostende 09 - the Morgana perspective!

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Well, what a trip!

I'm told that Saturday night was great fun.... darned if I can remember!

Followed by some 'interesting' sailing afterwards.... including a trip up to Middelburg in a widely forecast 6kts, where we saw 35kts apparent at one point, and had the clew explode on us while close hauled and right on our ear... quite a bang!

All made better by the sailmaker in Middelburg, who repaired clew, along with several other patches, all for the princely sum of 60Euro, at 4 hrs notice.... if you ever need a sailmaker in Zeeland, I can recommend Scaldis sails... you would have laughed at me taking the main the 3 miles to the sailmaker on the back of a folding bike!!!! (he would have collected, but being Dutch, naturally he cycled to work /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

But generally... what a great weekend... really good company, and a great atmosphere too.... thanks all!

 

[Slow_boat]

Swmbo was very pleased to meet all there, especially Mrs Morgana. She's very excited as it was the first time she has sailed to foriegn parts.

How were the lakes, Neil? She's dead excited about them, too.

Very excitable girl all round, really.

 

[BarryT]

35 knots apparent then into Middelberg ? You were lucky !

Based on a similar forecast - a rain shower expected but not especially strong winds, we left Middelberg and were moored on an island in the Veerse Meer having a nice BBQ when the sky suddenly changed and we were pinned to the outside of a landing pontoon with 40-50 knot winds per the Netherlands wind data. Lightening all around for hours - not nice. Couldn't leave in the morning as wind too high and water too shallow - ran aground a couple of times going in - finally escaped to Kortgene when the wind died down in the evening.

Weather was reported as a once in 5-10 years event and not forecast. See here http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?...history_state0=

Slowboat, don't let that put you off going over there, the rest of the time was fine - anyway with a shallower keel it would have been possible to clear out much more quickly.

Sorry I couldn't stay longer in Oostende (and would have escaped the above!) but it was good to meet up with people there and put some faces to names. I just hope I can remember who was who.