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| Gorgeous Gent |
It had been lovely to have warm weather and gentle winds on the way to Calais, especially after last year at this time when I was in Whitehills seeing 10ºC. But the week from the 2nd was less promising with strong winds in many of the afternoons and even some rain. The Calais crew decided to skip Nieuwpoort and head straight for Blankenberge on Monday 2nd, 60 miles up the coast with a following wind most of the way.
So it was another early departure to catch the 0445 bridge out of Calais marina. Initially I planned to sail with jib only, then I saw others were putting up the mains so we did too, with one reef in it - then dropped it as it just blanked the jib and didn't help us at all. With plenty of tide and the engine on we were tootling along at 6.5 to 7kt, passing the industrial sites of Dunkirk and heading further offshore at Nieuwpoort to avoid an active firing range. at 1040 we put up the main again and at 1130 we finally shook out the reef and started sailing. By that time the tide was turning against us but we made good speed in the shallow waters past Oostende and finally reached the bumpy entrance to Blankenberge around 1600.
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| Bleak Blankenberge |
Blankenberge is one of the many Belgian coastal towns with a "wall" or tower blocks along the seafront, and in this case another one surrounding the marina, so it's not really a lovely place, but it's convenient with good facilities. We were a day earlier than originally planned but there were already plenty of Westerlys there. There's also a station with a direct link to Bruges, Gent and Brussels. After my failure to visit Gent when I stayed there in early January I was very delighted to be able to visit. Anne from Aeolus and I had a relaxed day in the city despite a very long walk from the station, with a boat trip around the canals, and a visit to the cathedral to see the famous Van Eyck painting of the Mystic Lamb, then we found a tram back to the station to head to Blankenberge again. All very satisfactory, although lazily I bought two very strange frozen pizzas in a Turkish supermarket on the way back which were pretty disgusting.
Late at night we all had another dither. Thursday was the planned departure date but looked pretty windy, albeit with the wind behind us again, and wet. Wednesday looked just a few knots less windy and drier. At midnight I was still dithering but by the time I dragged myself out of bed at 0530 I'd decided to go for a Wednesday departure, along with four or five other boats from the fleet. In fact we had a lovely sail, in warm sunshine part of the time, taking only three and a half hours to the lock into the Kanal door Walcheren. At Janet's suggestion we had the main up for a while but it was not entirely successful. We crossed the Westerschelde at Breskens, where you can still see the "Psycho" buildings although the painted flour mill is apparently gone. Sadly by the time we got through the lock we had just missed the 1030 bridge into the new marina in Het Dok, but there was a nice waiting pontoon with other boats to talk to, and by 1240 we were safely berthed in the spacious new marina.
Calais to Blankenberge: 57 miles. BB to Vlissingen: 23 miles.
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| They breed buoys in Vlissingen |
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