Netherlands Trip - In Transit      29th June:

Sunrise in Roompot

Approaching the Roompot Sea Lock

    I arose before the appointed hour in time to see a yacht departing the marina. All was quiet as we went about our business and slipped our lines.
    The Oosterschelde was much calmer today, and only a Force 3 swept over us. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue and the air was quite warm, even at the unearthly hour.
    It didn't take long to reach the sea lock, skirting past the yellow buoys linked by chains to prevent vessels inadvertently getting close to the sluices. An eerie sea mist enveloped the lock with its copse of wind turbines. As we got closer to the lock, its red/green signals turned to green, and a huge lock gate slid to one side.
    We entered the lock, immediately followed by an old trawler that was now bristling with a horde of young men all out for a day's fishing. They all babbled away noisily in some unintelligible language. Another yacht and a smaller fishing boat joined us in the lock behind us. What a cosy group we made. An unseen soul, probably many miles away, closed the lock gate behind us, and a short while later opened up the lock gate in front of us.

Farewell Holland

    We all waited for the signal to turn green, then sprinted under the Noordbrug into the North Sea. A 0.6m swell on the water was immediately apparent. All vessels were obliged to follow a channel; shallow, treacherous waters lay on either side. Soon the two fishing boats were way ahead of us. 20 mins later another two trawlers, bristling with rods and hopeful fishermen, came up from the lock behind us and shot past aiming for their favourite fishing holes.
    We steadfastly plodded ahead, the tall lighthouse of Westkapelle reaching for the sky to port, and the large anchorage for Europort crept up over the horizon to starboard. Before us in the distance the colossal Borssele Offshore Wind Farm appeared as a white forest growing from the horizon. A busy set of shipping lanes stretched between us and the windfarm. Along the north bound lane a couple of miles ahead of us, a tug was hauling a huge lighter to Newcastle, and a cargo vessel was steaming to Teesside.

Borssele Offshore Wind Farm

    We traversed colonies of gulls having social gatherings in the middle of nowhere, and large smacks of jellyfish, which curiously also gathered in the Roompot marina. More importantly, we took heed to evade a pilot ship practicing lifeboat manoeuvres, a tanker and dredger.
    In the fullness of time we arrived at the Borssele Offshore Wind Farm, officially Borssele Wind Farm Zone (BWFZ). It is an offshore wind farm located approximately 24km off the southwest coast of the Netherlands, named after Borssele (the nearest village), near the border with Belgium. The offshore area consists of 5 sites and 3 farms so far with a total capacity of 1502.5 MW. The site covers 344 km2 and contains 173 turbines. A 11 nautical mile long, 0.5-mile-wide corridor provides a passage through the wind farm solely to vessels with a length of up to 45m.
    We steered for the corridor; we had it all to ourselves. Unseen eyes were watching us, and when Rex steered too close to the second of the two offshore transformer substations, a voice out of the ether warned him off. We popped out of the far end of the wind farm, and then Rex made an executive decision. Instead of heading off to the south of the Galloper Wind Farm, we would opt to aim for the gap between the Gabbard and Gallop Wind Farms, taking care to keep out of the shipping lanes which also pass through the gap. Distance wise there is probably not much difference between the two options, but when taking into account tidal flows, the second option could work in our favour. However, beforehand, we needed to cross the TSS shipping lanes at the top end of our route. These were exceedingly busy, and on one occasion whilst crossing a lane I had to alter course to pass behind a slow-moving Maersk container ship.

Offshore Transformer Substation in Wind Farm Corridor

    In our journey across to the wind farms we spotted six porpoises, numerous floating balloons, buoys, cuttlefish shells and a plethora of jetsam and flotsam.
    Based on tides, Rex devised a plan of action: head for Shotley in the early hours of the morning, and head back to Tollesbury the following day. The latter decision was based on reports of foul weather expected on Wednesday.
    It was a long haul, with tides always against us. The occasional rogue dredger also tried to push us off course.
    We crept into Felixstowe harbour at 02:30. Large containerships were lit up like Christmas trees, and arrays of cranes leant over them like giant ants loading and unloading thousands of containers. A pilot boat sped into the harbour, and two tugs stealthily floated out to meet and greet a containership entering the port.
    Rex called up the lock-keeper of Shotley marina, who promptly opened the lock gate to allow us entry. "Have you come far?" asked the man.
    "From Holland," Rex bellowed.
    "Oh, did you have a nice afternoon trip?" He had obviously never undertaken the journey himself.
    "We left at 06:30 yesterday morning. If we had left a day earlier, it would have been a Force 4-6 all the way. A day later it was calm, so we motored all the way, but the tides were against us. At our age we prefer an easier life."
    "Yes, I agree to that too," responded the man. He allocated an easy berth for us, and by 03:30 we were tucked up in our bunks.