winny’s blog

Today was a big day for Joos en Wubbo Ockels. The ‘kiellegging’ (beginning of the making of the hull) of their very special version of the Grote Meid. A boat built, also by Gerard Dykstra, to support itself by making it’s own energie and using as less energie as possible. The Ecolution
(a Dutch website I’m affraid). Here you already can see some movies and pictures of this event (also Dutch, sorry).
Just last week Joos and Wubbo sailed the Classic with the Grote Meid. They were not only sailing the race but also measuring the whole ship and making comparisons. And talking all the time about how this or that must be at the Ecolution.

Where 2 worlds can be so different and so equal at the same time.

That’s the name of the yacht Graham is racing with. On the website of Tim Wright you can see pictures.

Today is lay day. That means no sailing and a lot of partying. But if you have seen or been to one party, you have seen them all. So that’s not something I’m going to miss. Racing is a whole other story ofcourse.
Yesterday the genoa, the big frontsail, tore at a seam. Right after the start. So there was no racing for the Mary Brown after all yesterday. The sailmaker fixed it and tomorrow they will start again.

Good luck guys!

And then Gueens Day today. What do you know. I’m home at once. The funniest thing happend this morning. I woke up at 9.30 am. Not yet very awake so I started with the television where our queen was arriving at Woudrichem (I should go there by boat as well, lovely little town surrounded by walls) in a boat, the ‘Helena’ of Rotterdam. The very boat I worked on this summer a couple of days. With Dick as captain, he is just behind the mast. Of course Bea (that’s her name, well, sort of) gave him a handshake when departing so I’m only one handshake away from our queen… Or, a girlfriend of mine put it different, I sat on the very same toilet as our queen.

While I am home since yesterday, Graham is racing with the Mary Brown in the Antigua Sailing Week.
A complete different happening then the very polite Classic we sailed last week (with the Grote Meid by the way. I did not mention the name of the boat).
So the second day in this race Graham and captain and crew are this very moment making a protest. That is not done in the Classic but in the sailing week it hapens all the time.

The results of the Mary Brown, a very nice Amel of 53 ft, are to be found in devision B on the results page (not yet published until now). Yesterday they became 8th or something out of 16 which is very good.

My flight was not to bad. Only hanging around at Gathwick for 5 hours was boring, very boring. But I slept most of the time. And even this past night I slept for 11 hours. Where that comes from???

We had 4 very good days racing. Not that we had any prize at all but the sailing was very nice.

The sails looked good, the crew was almost professional and the wind was not too bad although we could have had more.
So far for the classics. Tim Wright made some very good pictures of us.

Now we are going with another sailingboot to practice for the sailingweek that is the next week. I will not be there of course but sailing on a modern, faster yacht is nice as well.

We are staying at a very old, nice hotel in the middel of the most historic harbour of Antigua, the Copper and Lumber Store Hotel in Nelson’s Dockyard.

What do you know. Miracles do happen. Finally, at the very last moment, the hardware for the sailes arrived. That means that we are going to sail and join the races.

Today we are sailing to Falmouth and Friday the 1st of 4 racing days begins. Paul is in winning mode so who knows. Keep an I on www.antiguaclassics.com.
It means that I will be offline for a longer period. Maybe until the 29th, when I fly home again.

I told you about Hermitage, the lunch?
Well, here is prove of it.

Paul asked other people as well to come with us and it was a lovely day. Hermitage is nearby actually, around the corner when you sail. When you go by car the road is so bad taxidrivers won’t go there by night.

It is a hotel, but the rooms look like seperate houses, build against the hill. Some even have there own little swimmingpool. And the restaurant itself looks gorgeous too, with a nice pool next to it.

And then there is te view…. need I say more? Oh, and yes, the food is good too.

Pauls boat, de Grote Meid, was on land for maintanance. Especially because after a year just lying in the water and not moving at all there was a big reef growing under the hull. If you want to go racing that will bring you no further then the start. So that had to be cleaned.

The other day de Grote Meid went into the water again. You will not believe how big it seems on land. Here, on this picture, it is beeing moved with the travelift. And it does not seem to fit in to that narrow space you see there. Well, there was only 5 (five) centimeters left on either side of the boat once in the water. Incredible.
Now it is in the water again, the motor is working perfectly (I know becouse we sailed with it on monday, a lovely boattrip with perfect lunch at Hermitage). But now there is a big problem with the new sails that just arrived yesterday. So it seems that there will not be any sailing anyhow. Which is a big shame. We all are sad about that.

And so, after 4 days, I had my last 2 dives on Thursday.

Studying was harder then expected but rewarding. I passed my tests on Wednesday and did my two last dives on Thursday.

Those dives were amazing. Like in an aquarium as I am telling everybody here who wants to listen and also to who does not (wants to listen that is).

Look at these pictures. The first one, above, is me. Yes, really, that’s me. OK, I know it could be anybody but believe me, its me!

You will not believe what we actually saw down under (there’s a lot of Aussies over here now for the cricket). Look…

I decided to get my PADI licence while I’m here. The water is even warmer than last time and I do like diving very much. This licence lasts a lifetime all over the world. I will be able to dive everywere.

The course is given by JollyDive, where I dived last time and from what I heard from experienced divers, they are very good.

This course includes theory as well. I was given the book yesterday and although we don’t start until Monday I found myself studying already. But hey, picture this: swimming pool, drinks at hand and a manual. Not too bad is it? I’m enjoying every minute of it.