FOR SALE - Linssen Grand Sturdy 500

It's all over bar the shouting - and there has been quite a lot of that

Wednesday 12 August

We rushed off to the supermarket after breakfast for some provisions as we were aware that the Atlantic was on its way to Vlaardingen and due to dock by 11 a.m and that we would have a great view from our hotel room which we had to check out of by 11. And it was so exciting watching the ship sail past with Sequel on the deck.

The Atlantic - look closely for Sequel

It took half an hour to walk from the hotel to dock 635 and we got there just in time to watch the Atlantic reversing into position. There were only three other boats on the top deck and another catamaran below the deck by the end of the voyage. We had a bit of a wait with the other excited owners but there was no health and safety involved and we were allowed on to the ship while we waited for customs to be cleared and the Load Master to start off loading with Sequel first.

Going overboard 

Once back in the water we assessed Sequel for any damage suffered after 21 days at sea to find that although we had covered the roof and the doors some of the straps had torn loose and others had worn right through the paintwork. We were told that the Atlantic had encountered strong winds off the coast of Western Ireland and were surprised that they were surprised. Inside a few things had shot across the floor of the boat and I had trouble getting into our cabin as a stool was blocking the door but no serious damage. Unfortunately    a large container of oil had fallen over in the engine room and spilt which had to be cleared up before we left and we finally did at 2 p.m.

It was very busy around the port with many large ships and barges. We had determined to get as far as possible before nightfall but we were travelling up stream and the water was against us. At one point, quite late on, the speed dropped to just over 4 knots, which is very slow.

Noah's Ark along the Vaal River 

Large container ship being pushed out by a tug

We left the river Vaal via a short canal and our first lock and finally reached a marina where 

we had stayed five years ago but 10 p.m. by this time.

Thursday 13

An earlyish start to get to Maasbract now on the Maas. Our log book told us that this could take at least 12 hours but a brilliant day and very warm so very happy to spend our last day on Sequel this way. We encountered five locks and at one we saw hundreds of leisure boats (or it seemed like it) waiting on the other side to go down the river. The Dutch all go on holiday in August. We had no problems with the locks and after all we have encountered over the years they seemed quite easy now!

We saw cows in the water too - cooling down

One of the many car ferries along the Maas

Waiting for the lock gates to close

Through another large lock

A heavily loaded barge, very low in t he water

We finally arrived at the Linssen yard at 8.30 p.m. and time for another egg and tuna salad - hope not to have this to eat for a while.

Friday 14

We spent the day packing up, which was a little like moving out of a small house and I lost count of the bags we filled with rubbish, the boxes we packed in the car and we filled two one cubic metre containers supplied by Linssen to store for us until we return to collect them in due course.

In the evening we treated ourselves to dinner in our favourite restaurant, Da Vinci, which we found ten years ago with the family one Sunday night whichwas amazing then and still is now.

Saturday 15

More of the same, didn't quite finish yesterday, but pouring with rain again now so time for a break and my very last blog from Sequel. Home tomorrow through the tunnel - absolutely no room for any other passengers of any nationality. Bruce now handing over to the lovely Ed Houben, Sales Manger for Linssen Yachts. Not sure if I am feeling emotional, may be as we leave tomorrow but if I could have a euro for every time we have been asked if we are going to buy another boat we would be ordering one now!

Rotterdam or anywhere - Liverpool or Rome

Monday 03 August
Still at home

We have finally heard that Sequel, aboard the Atlantic, is now due in Rotterdam on Tuesday 11 August.  We will leave next Monday, via the Channel Tunnel, and drive to Maasbracht in the Netherlands. We will leave the car at the Linssen Yachts yard and catch a train to Rotterdam on Tuesday 11th to collect Sequel when she is unloaded from the ship.

Atlantic at Port de Nice, France - 28 July 2015

Great shot of the Atlantic (courtesy of Starclass Yacht Transport copies from their Facebook page) loaded with many different boats, leaving Nice for Gibraltar and today it is about to arrive in Killybegs, Donegal, west coast of Ireland.  Before arriving in Rotterdam the Atlantic will go to Roervik (Norway?!) and Cherbourg. We, too, are completely puzzled by the route the ship is taking but I am delighted it isn't going to arrive in Rotterdam until 11th as I want to visit Solihull to celebrate Henry's 2nd birthday on Thursday and Bristol at the weekend to visit Matt and Heather and, weather permitting, to see the Balloon Festival.

Once we have collected Sequel we will travel up the river Maas to Maasbracht and to the  Linssen yard where we are hoping she will be sold by Linssen.  Before that we have to pack up all our belongings too numerous to mention and get them back to the UK.

On the Atlantic!

Tuesday 21 July
At long last Sequel is on the Atlantic! Picture below courtesy of Starclass Yacht Transport's Facebook page and another way to follow the progress of the ship back to the Netherland's which may not get underway until Thursday.

Sequel loaded on to the Atlantic - at last!

Sequel is in the middle of ship - looking quite small and with her blue winter cover on the hood. 

Next post from Rotterdam - but still no idea when.

Alongside the Atlantic

Monday 20 July

We spent the weekend 'enjoying' the very hot sunshine, mostly hiding under sun umbrellas and driving around in the air-conditioned VW Up we have hired, and even swam in the sea once and then today, finally, we took Sequel alongside the Atlantic.

Sequel was returned to the water with the least amount of fuss and it took less than half an hour to cross to the port of Split. We soon discovered that the way off the boat, which had been troubling me, was to climb on to Sequel's rails and up and over the rails of the ship.

Now suffering from a massive feeling of anti-climax having waited so long for this to happen and still without a clue as to when the Atlantic will reach Rotterdam. But home tomorrow to cool down and more following 'vessel finder' avidly every day to see where the Atlantic is.

Approaching Atlantic 

Alongside, note the crane at the front of Atlantic and where to climb off Sequel and on to the ship

Aboard the Atlantic

Three boats on deck, room for Sequel and a large catamaran

Split, Croatia

Thursday 16 July 

Up at 3 a.m to fly Easyjet to Split. Gatwick heaving with holiday makers even at 4 a.m.  but enough staff on duty to get through security in good time and landed a few minutes early at Split airport which is actually nearer to a place called Togir and where we had decided to stay. We had also decided to hire a car and drove straight to the marina to check on Sequel. Sequel absolutely fine if a little warm and the temperature in our cabin up to 34 degrees. Found a small amount of shade down the side of the boat while Bruce changed some of the straps attached to the cover over the main part of the boat, the straps being a bit like a bungee and most of which had lost their boyingyness. Hard to imagine that he had spent his time at home deciding that this was a job to be done before Sequel sails home to the Netherlands - ended up joining in and have at last (possibly a bit too late now) learned to tie a bowline - but will probably have forgotten anyway if it crops up again.

News of ship not getting any better. Got really excited as we could see on vessel finder that the Atlantic was heading for Split to arrive Thursday afternoon! And then the next time we looked it was heading for a port just outside of Venice. Could not believe it - thought we had missed it. Then calmed down, thought it through and came to the conclusion it would return to Split. And then an email from the agents to say 'it was pretty much set in stone' that the Atlantic would be back in Split by Tueday 21 and we should be alongside by 8 a.m. that morning. Not so good as our flights home booked for that morning and due at the airport at 8 a.m. But along with this email was the name of the main man of Starclass-yacht transport and we were able to contact him direct and have arranged to go alongside the Atlantic sometime on Monday instead. This does mean, disappointingly, that we will not witness Sequel being loaded.

Friday 17

Ventured into Trogir last night for our evening meal and were yet again horrified by the amount of people. It looks like it is probably a lovely old town, set entirely on a small island of its own, but it was hard to tell through the crowds. 

Back to the boat shortly after 9 a.m. for a meeting with the Croatian agent who has been organising customs clearance and producing a T2L document (to prove community status) so Sequel can be shipped. There is yet another agent in Rotterdam to clear her back into the Netherlands. And we thought we were all part of one lovely big community. 

** So then time for some sightseeing and off we went to Split. Really losing heart to begin with as it all seemed so busy again and so much traffic but finally found somewhere to park, if a bit of a hike from where we hoped to be, but had a lovely time, first a coffee, then a beer and then lunch. My daughter would thoroughly approve of this type of sightseeing.

**slightly lost it when there some mention of washing the boat before our trip to Split - air quite blue 

Split

The Palace of Diocletian

Did I mention that it is 39 degrees here? 

Difference between a ship and a boat

Sunday 12 July

One explanation for the difference between a ship and a boat is that:

you can put a boat on a ship but you cannot put a ship on a boat.

I decided to Google the difference and then to stick with the one I have just given although quite liked this one too:

when a ship sinks you get in a boat, when a boat sinks you get in the water.

              

We have spent the last three weeks at home enjoying the garden and the English summer and catching up with family and friends and avidly watching the course of the ship which is supposed to be taking Sequel back to the Netherlands.

To start with we were following the wrong boat! But only because the shipping agents had told us the wrong name and now we are getting very close to a shipping date we are (almost) sure we are tracking the right one.  For anyone remotely interested the website is www.vesselfinder.com and the name of the ship is Atlantic IMO number 9573634 - today the Atlantic is on its way from Lavrion in Greece to Istanbul. The itinerary of the ship is ironically to then sail to Corfu and finally, by Saturday 18 July, to Split. We are a little perplexed as to why it was not suggested to us that we could take Sequel to either Laviron or Corfu and slightly annoyed that we have taken her all the way to Split.  At the same time we are pleased that we did get to Croatia on Sequel and that we have visited Dubrovnik, Korcula and we still plan to visit Split and Trogir.  

We go back to Split, therefore, on Thursday 16 and plan to return Sequel to the water until we are instructed what to do next.  We have an email that says we can take her alongside the Atlantic on Saturday with a view to possibly loading her some time that day or possibly on the morning of Monday 20 July.  Some things still remain a bit of a mystery such as at what stage do we get off Sequel and what on to? It is making me feel anxious but Bruce appears to be very relaxed.  I am a little suspicious as to how relaxed he is when he sighs loudly in the middle of showering and tells me he is thinking about Croatia!? 

Atlantic

Hope to be able to take more photos of Sequel sitting on the Atlantic later on this week!

Split

Tuesday 16 June

Left Korcula at 6 a.m. as again we wanted to get ahead of stronger winds forecast for later in the day and headed for Stari Grad on Hvar Island, reputedly the oldest town in Croatia and one of the oldest in Europe. A lovely day, also a little cooler and a good journey of just over six hours. We were very happy with the town quay at Stari Grad which has recently been extended to accommodate more yachts and has both electricity and water. Although there were not many boats when we arrived by late afternoon the quay was almost full but unlike Korcula it was peaceful and we loved it here. The wind did pick up but fell again by nightfall and despite a clear sky when we went to bed it rained heavily in the night.

Hvar island is famous for the lavender which is grown there and it is for sale everywhere.

Stalls selling lavender

Wednesday 17

Left at 8 a.m. as again a little worried about the wind although it had dropped overnight and headed for Split which was a short journey of about three hours. 

Leaving Stari Grad, Hvar

In all of my blogs I have gone on and on about the wind, naively never having taken it seriously into consideration when we first set off five years ago, but now we have experienced most of the stronger winds, in particular the mistral and especially the meltemi but quite the scariest sounding of all is the Bora. I have read hair raising stories that it halts sea traffic and turns cars on their sides, ripping off roofs etc. So to finish off our adventures so far this year, and possibly for ever, we arrived in Marina Kastella, not far from Split and close to the airport, in a strong wind and yet again enjoyed mooring in a strong cross wind.  We finally tied up with three lazy lines and three of our own on the pontoon and it was confirmed by the marinero helping us that this was indeed the beginning of a Bora and that it would pick up during the night. 

We have heard again from Peters and May, the shipping agents, that the sailing dates have been put back  again to any time between 01 - 15 July. We have, therefore, decided to return to the UK and will leave here on Saturday morning.  The marina will only give us a month's contract for leaving Sequel on land as July and August are high season and they want to maximise their income.  So yet again Sequel will come out of the water on Friday morning.

Thursday 18
We have now experienced the full force of the Bora and, although the Captain is pleased we did, I have never been so scared on Sequel as I was for most of last night (but that may be because I have forgotten some of the other times already). It was horrible.  The wind increased in strength as the afternoon wore on and continued at full force through out the night.  At 3 a.m. the Captain got up to check on the bimini which we were both convinced was going to be blown off the back of the boat. In fact I got to the stage where I was hoping it would just go and I could go to sleep, although was also worried about my washing line going with it and where I was going to hang all the washing today. The noise was particularly alarming, a combination of jangling sailing boats, the endless, ominous, whistling of the wind, the waves in the marina and the bimini being shaken to bits and then the odd crash just to add to the atmosphere.  I am now sitting here at 5.10 p.m. with the sun shining and a light breeze as if nothing had gone on and the bimini is completely intact (and the washing is dry).

Apart from recovering from the most horrible night we have ever spent on the boat, we have as usual been washing salt water and dirty rain from the boat and cleaning up. Time to pack now but we will be back in the next month to see Sequel safely loaded on to a ship. And then we will collect her when she arrives in Rotterdam to take her back to Maasbracht where she was built.

Absolutely cannot resist adding this photograph which greets me every time I open my notebook to write my blog and one of my favourite photos of both the Captain and the First Mate and the only person to ever say 'Aye Aye Captain'.