Relaunched: First Trip of the Season

Third Time Lucky
This time the boat yard guys were ready to drop other jobs to attend to Mekicevica immediately. Feeling guilty, no doubt.
Next day is Saturday and the boat yard is closed, but the boss will be there for the sales and brokerage part of the business, and apparently he still remembers how to operate the boat lift.
So Saturday mid-morning, for the third time in two weeks, Mekicevica is relaunched. I dry the bilges with paper and wait. They remain dry as a bone. YES! Mekicevica is afloat again! With the widest grin on my face I motor out.
Suddenly all the tension of the past few weeks catches up with me. The plan was that First-Mate would join me and we would immediately sail the length of the Grevelingen to Mekicevica's new berth in Bruinisse. But I feel very, very tired and the weather is miserable. I just motor to the other end of the harbour, ask the harbour-master for a berth for the night and fall asleep aboard.


I didn't sleep long, as there is still lots to do before we can sail out. But by late afternoon all is ready and First-Mate joins me for a celebration dinner at the club-house.


Sailing Again at Last
On Sunday the weather has improved a bit but it is still unseasonably cold and blowing hard from the NE. Thinking that one year ago we were sailing in shorts and T-shirt...
The direct route from Scharendijke to Bruinisse starts heading NE, before turning SE.

The Grevelingen showing in red the start, break and finish points.

Mekicevica was still to be treated as recovering from complicated surgery, so we did not feel it was wise to subject her to beating into a 4 to 5 Bf wind, so we came up with a plan: Yo-yo Ma, the outboard motor was going to take us upwind to a sheltered bay on the island Archipel. There the by then frozen crew would warm-up with a hot drink, before unfurling sails and sailing on a beam- to broad-reach down to Bruinisse.

After a Winter of intensive surgery, Mekicevica leaves Scharendijke at last, helmed by a frozen skipper. When is the good weather going to start?

The motoring bit turned-out a bit longer than intended, as being a windy Sunday the racers were out in large numbers, and we tried not to get in their way, put-putting along.

RSs racing on the Grevelingen.

We found the small bay on the Archipel to be a lovely spot. The sun came out, and the wind eased a bit. Mekicevica was joined by a Kolibri, a Dutch, wooden boat about the same size.

Mekicevica basking in the sunshine in the company of a Kolibri.

The stop was longer than expected as Mr. Roller-Reefing had one of his usual tantrums and decided to wrap the genoa halyard around the forestay. But we know his tricks by now, and a tweaking of the tension of the standing rigging sorted him out.
The sailing to Bruinisse was delightful and thanks to the careful planning we did not have to change tack at all. Mekicevica is sailing better than ever, even if the Skipper spent nearly the whole of the trip worrying that the mainsail was not setting properly until he noticed that he had forgotten to ease the topping-lift...


Mekicevica is now in her new berth in Bruinisse, ready for a season of sailing that will include exploring the Oosterschelde and a few weeks on the Croatian coast.