Traject: Zeebrugge – Brouwershavense Gat.

Blog van 2012 – 08 - 21
Traject: Zeebrugge – Brouwershavense Gat.
Crew: Skipper Cees
Sam Krikken


We left the Zeebrugge Marina early (07:45) and saw outside nice weather for our Spinnaker.
At 10:30 we entered Dutch territory again and welcomed the internet connections again.
Weather: wind ZZW 8-9 knots.
At 14:00 at the Roompot bank we changed the Spinnaker for Genua and mainsail. The wind increased to 11-13 kn.

After 16:00 hours the wind decreased dramatically so our destination Stellendam could not be reached by sail.
We decided to anchor the boat for the coast of Renesse in the water called Brouwerhavense Gat.
We found a good anchorage place behind a sand bank in the shade of the dunes.
After the main anchor was dropped, we dropped a second anchor behind the boat with the help of our dinghy to prevent drifting during the change of tides when the current change direction too. Our GPS-system was set for anchor watch and everything looked fine and quiet.

Once we were asleep I heard the rope of the second anchor against the side of the boat. It turned out that the main anchor had dragged a few meters causing the second anchor now to be too close to the boat. This could cause damage by the anchor line in the rudder or propeller.
I woke up Sam and we lifted second anchor.
Also we had learned that the wind had shifted to West and increased in strength.
This had a terrible effect on our anchor spot as now the waves hit us.
A very anxious and restless night followed. Sam and I decided to check the situation every hour and write the findings in the log-book.
By 04:00 O'clock in the morning the situation was so that the main anchor held firmly, the wind was now WNW with 24 knots in stead of the predicted 8-12 knots.

At 05:30 the anchor winch broke and all anchor chain slipped in the water. The end of the chain is tied to the ship, so we were still anchored.
However, after Sam got up too, it became clear that the anchor winch didn't work any more.
This meant we would have to winch in the anchor by hand.
Given the strong wind and the high waves that was impossible as the winched in chain fell back into the sea as soon as you stopped winching.
In fact De Boekanier was chained to the sea bottom with no where to go for us.
There were now two options:
Wait for a calm sea and winch in the anchor manually.
Call for help.
The last thing is what we did and within an half an hour the lifeboat of the KNRM (Dutch Safe and Rescue Organisation.) was next to us. They brought a rope and some kind of chain cutter, tools meant for small ships, but De Boekanier has a very strong anchor chain, so his equipment looked like a nail clipper...
Luckily this meant that we had to invent another way of lifting the anchor which with the help of the KNRM boat we could bring a strong rope around the chain and tow that to the anchor. The SAR boat managed to get the anchor above water and three men winched the chain on deck of the Boekanier.
Finally the anchor was safe on board of the Boekanier again and we were free.
We said many thanks to the guys of the SAR boat and sailed away in the direction of Rotterdam. Strong wind and high waves made our trip uncomfortable, but the fact that we were sailing again compensated that.

We arrived at 17:00 hours in Scheveningen. Very tired of the bad night before but happy to have a well equipped harbour again.
We will keep you updated.