What a week! And what kind of hospitality one shows at the marina's of lake Grevelingen.
We hope that people on Kauaii are just as hospitable as in Zeeland. Friday, August 11, we will launch our boat from the ramp at the marina of Bruinisse. We are getting more and more handy at it and in no time we are ready to go! Quickly row to the harbor, because there is a film crew ready, Omroep Zeeland. A nice shot is taken of our arrival and soon we have a microphone under our noses. We are so happy with the (regional) publicity. Earlier this month we also gave a radio interview for the national radio. Also super cool! After rowing with the film crew, we quickly moved on to speak with interested parties. At 17:00 we will see our report at Omroep Zeeland. It's cool that they are so fast. Many stories, nice encounters and a number of donations later, and a nightcap in the yacht club we look for our cabins. A nice start to this week.
Saturday, August 12, the day starts with rain. The route for today will bring us to Port Zelande, the other side of the lake, which seems doable in terms of distance in about 5 hours of rowing. It turns out differently. Because it is so busy at the lake we can't sail with the autopilot, but it would have been nice because the wind is picking up. A big Beaufort 5 blows over the Grevelingenmeer and forces us to be humble. At 7 pm, after eight hours of constantly headwinds, we can dock and we have the best neighbors you could wish for as a tired rower. The neighbors just sat down at the table and had too much food. Gratefully we receive the meal!
Sleep early because on Sunday we have an open day in Port Zelande from 11 am. Fortunately, Luuk, harbor master of Port Zelande, comes to pick us up, so we can sleep for a few good hours. What a service!! We can lay our heads down, but they are still spinning of the struggle we had with wind and waves. When we arrive at Port Zelande, thanks to the harbourmaster Luuk, a place has already been made for us at the harbour. The rental boats are moored at another jetty so the Mare Fortuna can be beautifully moored in front of the harbor office, the best place of the Marina. A perfect spot for us. Once again we are warmly welcomed. We are therefore very grateful to the ports of the Seven Sisters for their help.
There is a lot of interest in our boat and our stories. In moments when it’s quit, we make sure everything is well prepared for the days to come. we want to train in the dark for a few more hours and look at the water map. We look for a nice route to row on Monday. Lake Grevelingen is beautiful and there is enough space to do our recommended drills. Monday afternoon we practice the drill with the normal anchor, having a refreshing plunge and eat our fried dried meal. We get the hang of it, and are happy with our routine. When we actually start at our route for our nightly row, at dusk we are confronted with the lack of lighting on the buoys on the lake. There are too many shallows to risk rowing without knowing where you are, so we change the plan and practice anchoring in the dark. Good night!
Herkingen marina is the next harbour to call at a port. It is even possible to stay there with a camper, so family sets by. No dried fried food this night, but sushi for dinner! People are curious about our boat and all random questions are asked: “How many days do you think you have to row before you can set foot on Hawaii? Don’t you have any arguments on board? Where is the toilet?” We are willing to answer them all, no problem! In the afternoon we have Marcelle on board, she booked herself a full experience ocean rowing clinic! With her experience of (wild water) canoeing, she really was fast picking up the technique. We ask everyone who books a rowing clinic, to give us a personal quote which can help us during our crossing. The quote will get a prominent space so we can look at it to give us when we need motivation and inspiration! Which one Marcelle gave us, you will see it soon on our boat!
Thursday morning, Sabine passes by. She is figuring out for herself if ocean rowing is something she wants. We are willing to help her in that quest. We met her at Boot Dusseldorf this year and since then she wonders how it would be to row an ocean. We know it feels how to be swept away by a dream, so invited Sabine for a morning row. Probably we left her with more questions when she came, so she could use her drive home to think about a good plan. For us, we know what we want and really had to do some other drills, to have a well spend week. Parachute anchoring is a very important drill we have to know. When we have bad weather during our crossing, or there are too strong headwinds, we will use the para-anchor. So these drills we have to know by heart. And so we practiced on a quit spot of the lake different kind of anchoring and some good nightly rowing. And in a blink of an eye it was Friday, our time at Lake Grevelingen was done.
How great it was to spend all those days on our Mare Fortuna!
