Sailing home….

Yes, the fact that I write this already gives away that we survived the sail back . After our excursion to the Hardangerfjord, we continued on to Stavanger. The weather still nice, but the winds light, it took us two full days to get there. A little stop underway in a place without a shower or a toilet had us leave early again the next morning. On the Boknafjord, between Haugesund and Stavanger, the wind suddenly increased to a force 7, so we could practise making a reef for the first time (something that would come in handy later). By the time we had finished the second reef, the wind had completely disappeared and we could take it out and start the engine immediately . We arrived in Stavanger on a rainy evening, but the warm shower at Stavanger Seilforening made up for a lot.

The next two days, we spent mainly in Stavanger. We did some shopping and visited the Oil Museum. On Monday, we waved goodbye to Maartje, who went on exploring Norway without us. The three of us left (Kasper, Ivo and Anne) would sail the boat back home. We were to leave on Tuesday. The weather forecast was good, except for a slight wind increase on Friday afternoon to 25 knots, but by then we would probably be in already.

Because of a lot of things to do (buy food, check internet, try to shower etcetera…) we didn’t leave the harbour before 17:30. The wind was light and, of course, from the direction we were to sail to (south). The story of our life! Luckily, we were allowed to use the engine now, otherwise we might still have been at sea. Almost the whole of Wednesday, the engine and autopilot moved us home, with some sunshine to go along with it. In the night, some kind of animal, probably a bat, had a rest in our mainsail.

The next day, the wind picked up a little, and suprise! not even from the south. That day, we had the laziest day of all, still steering on the autopilot, enjoying the sun and warmth and fishing and reading magazines. Three dolphins stopped by to check out the boat, but left quickly again, probably due to a busy schedule. Another big fish passed by the boat later in the day.

During the night, the wind started to pick up to a force 5 and turned back south. We still got some sleep, but the waves started growing and the wind slowly increased. The forecast was still force 6, with the maximum at the end of the afternoon. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t stop at that. The Navtex received a warning for force 7, and later also 8, which is exactly what we got. The waves built up to huge sizes and we took down the jib and reefed the mainsail three times. In this way, the boat was OK to handle, but it and we got very wet with all the waves. We started counting back the miles to go before our destination and closest harbour, Vlieland, but starting at around 80, this took us about 15 hours. We didn’t very much enjoy this last part, although the boat did well and still was light to steer. But eating and sleeping became difficult. Even though we managed to keep one bed dry, lying inside and hearing all the sounds and feeling the boat shake was not very comfortable. When it got dark it was no longer possible to see the waves, so they came as surprises. At the same time, we had to keep a good lookout, as we were crossing the busy traffic lanes north of the Wadden Islands. Only after midnight, during our last ten miles, the wind slowly started decreasing. The entrance to Vlieland was safe and welcoming, and finally, at 02:30, we arrived in the harbour. We were very relieved to be there! We took a shower, a beer and then managed to make three more-or-less dry sleeping places for a deserved rest.

A nice surprise the next morning was finding the Tavare (another 1000mile competitor) only 50 metres further on. We shared our stories over a good breakfast together. In the afternoon, we both proceeded to the Afsluitdijk (Kornwerderzand), a very nice trip with a good wind from the west. Then we split up and the Solution Too continued to Medemblik, where Kasper’s father received us with a wonderful dinner. The next day was spent again on cleaning and drying, and on Monday we spent the last day on our sweet little boat, as we arrived at its home port in Zaandam and had to give it back to its owner.

We had a great time, both during the race and afterwards! Although it is wonderful to sleep in a bed where you have enough place to draw up your knees again, we will miss the boat. A lot of things together made this adventure to the great experience it was: the race, our own team and delivery crew, the other participants, the beautiful places we visited, the great hospitality and company from friends underway, the superb support from friends and family at home, and just in general, the feeling of being completely out of our ordinary lives. We will need some time to process all experiences! What will follow out of it, and what challenges will come next, we will see in the future.