3rd June
We had a good night’s sleep but the wind was still blowing, rocking us through the early hours. We woke at about 7.30 am and slowly got ready for the crossing to Vlissingen. We had plotted our route the previous night as, although only a few miles across the sea, it is very busy with shipping from Antwerp.
We left as planned and with the wind still blowing 20 – 25 knots, we knew we were in for a bit of a bumpy ride across. As we turned out of Breskens we encountered a large dredger operating just outside so we had to alter our course to pass it astern. We continued to follow our course and about half way across I offered Carole the helm to get us in Vlissingen. As Carole moved back, a large wave rolled the boat and unknown by Carole engaged the autopilot. I grabbed the helm as we had altered course by 90’. Not realising that the autopilot was engaged I pulled hard on the wheel but it was locked. Then I realised what had happened, so disengaged and put us back on course. (Note: Skipper made crew aware of error.) Unfortunately this had moved the rudder quadrant and restricted our ability to turn fully to starboard. Nonetheless, we carried on to the lock at Vlissingen. Here, there are two locks, one used for large vessels and the smaller one for pleasure craft. However, we were informed by the lock control that we would be going into the large lock as there was a fuel barge following us in. No pressure then!
We tried a new technique in getting our lines attached in the lock, particularly as this lock has high plain walls. Carole managed to get a spring line (rope attached to the middle cleat) onto a ladder and then I added my stern line to the same ladder and we had a perfect mooring. Once the lock filled we were sent on our way. My first priority was to make a repair to the rudder system. We found a waiting post just before the first bridge and quickly made a temporary repair which would keep us steering in a straight line as we made our way through the bridges towards Middelburg. The weather had improved with the sun shining and the wind easing slowly. We turned into Middelburg and stopped at the Harbourmaster’s office pontoon to ask for a berth. We then waited for the small bridge to let us into the town box moorings. Again we had a plan as we had not done this before with just the two of us. The plan worked well, especially with the help of a very nice Dutch couple who took our bow lines at just the right time!
We had made it into The Netherlands and the sun was shining. What more could we want!