Here I will place stories you will mail me. These stories will be judged by a very competent jury (me) and at the end of the season I will call one story to be the winner. The author will get a fantastic price. Stoies cam be mailed to me (or as a word-attachement). Stories may not be longer as 600 words and should refer to a prospect. Further there are no restrictions.
Story 1: Last day of a weekend sailing:
The first story is something that happend to us on last year. It happened on the last day of a long weekend sailing in our prospect "Rossinant". The weekend started out very nice, lots of sun and wind. We sailed from our homeport (Enkhuizen) across the IJselmeer to Stavoren. From there we sailed through Friesland to Lemmer. On the day of this story we had to sail from Lemmer to Enkhuizen again, because I had to work the next day. The windforcast was 4 beaufort, but it was a little bit more. Once we were on the water ist was 6 with gusts of 7. In about half an hour, my wife and our 2 years old son were seasik. We had to sail straigth into the wind. To make things easy on board I reefed maxial, so the ship only made 3,5 knots and didn't sail very good against the wind. After 5 hours we were at Lelystad and the wind layed down a litle bit. We desided to start the engine to motor the last stroke to Enkhuizen. After 2 minutes the engine stopped. I checked the filter and the Diesel was completely stirred. I mounted a new filter and found out that the tank was empty. I forgot to tank. We hoised the sails again and sailed home. In front of the port we waited for someone who wanted to tow us in. The third ship helped us. At night we brought our rescuer a bottle of wine. That nigth we slept very well ,after beiing on the water for 11 hours. I learned to always bring a jerrycan with diesel, and to put out reefin for a little while longer, when sailing against the wind.
Author: Renze Dijkstra.
Storyl 2: "Sory, this one's only in dutch": Ons eerste weekend met onze zoon Cas.
In Zwarsluis begonnen de sleepboot dagen , dus wij onze boot ingepakt en op een zaterdagochtend na het ontbijt de Quinta los gegooid en de tocht naar Zwartsluis
begon. Na 5 uur varen kwamen we in de haven De Watergeus in Zwartsluis .De Zondag zijn we lekker in Zwartsluis gebleven en oude sleepboten bekeken terrasjes gepakt en lekker gegeten.
Maandag ochtend na het ontbijt vertrokken we weer uit Zwartsluis, We waren nog geen 5 min. aan het varen of de moter (ook een volvo penta) maakte een hels kabaal. Na een sleepje te hebben gekregen naar de haven De Kranerweerd, waar we de boot even hebben afgemeerd ondekte één van de monteurs van de haven dat de pindex van de startmotor bleef hangen, en tegen het vliegwiel sloeg. Dus wij de startmotor laten reviseren, deze werd een week later er weer ingebouwd Wij dachten, kunnen we de boot weer mooi ophalen en kan ons vaarseizoen verder
gaan, nou mooi niet. Wat bleek nou, het lag niet aan de startmotor maar de krukas was gebroken. Wij de boot maar naar kampen gesleept en de motor eruit gehaald voor reparatie
bij nader inspectie en informatie te hebben verkregen leek het ons niet verstandig om de motor te repareren.
En zo worden we dit weekend 13-7-2002 weer naar zwartsluis gesleept, waar in haven DE WATERGEUS een nieuwe motor ingebouwd wordt. We hebben gekozen voor een VETUS M 206 15 PK. En zo hopen we dit jaar nog veel te genieten van onze boot QUINTA
Groeten Maurice & Wieteke Jansen
Story 3: The voyage of Lysa Blue through the Clyde Forth Canal September 2002
Inevitably during the trip there were events and things which inspired the odd limerick.
British Waterways issue a key to all their toilet facilities along the way but none have yet been provided on this link except at either end and the key does not fit the cabin at Bowling Basin.
The canal is supposed to have been dredged to 2m but we still touched the bottom quite often and the keels of yachts are disturbing years of settled plastic bags which then catch round the prop. Weed and algae are not yet fully under control on the Glasgow end so engine cooling water filters can block.
A team of between 3 and 5 cheerful and helpful lock keepers drove from lock to lock for the up locks from Bowling in Glasgow. They opened the gates and operated the sluices - we just had to throw them our ropes. On the way down to the sea lock on the River Carron we had just 2 lock keepers at a time again driving to meet us at each successive lock. When they are not taking boats through (which is most of the time) they are working hard to remove the problems.
Maryhill in Glasgow is a very tough area and a bad place to stop as the locals will throw stones or try to pilfer anything going. There is a spectacular flight of locks there and we passed through as the local primary school kids were crossing the canal to get home. "Can come on board Mister?", "What's this for Mister?", "Can I kick it Mister?", "Do you wee in the Canal Mister?"
The Millennium Wheel at Falkirk (look it up on the internet) joins the Clyde Forth Canal to the Union Canal which then runs all the way to Leith along a contour but does not connect to the sea. Once out into the tidal river Carron near Grangemouth there is a very low bridge (Kerse Bridge) with minimal water under it which means that everything must be lowered to deck level as much as possible and the time judged carefully not to "hit or stick" We got through with two inches above and not a lot below.
Just past the Kerse Bridge there is a barge and crane to restep the mast but we were warned that the operator was not time conscious and there was not much water beside it.
The Clyde Forth Canal is great fun.
Lysa Blue has just had a great run.
Though the bottom we hit
And found nowhere to shit,
We still think that this Link is well done.The Clyde Forth Canal you must do
It is not yet quite perfect that's true.
The odd plastic bag
Will create a big drag
And there's weed that will slow you down too.The Clyde Forth Canal is a gem.
It is staffed by some wonderful men.
They stick at their work
Which they don't ever shirk
And their jokes are quite good now and then.The Clyde Forth Canal gives a thrill.
We got ours when we reached Maryhill.
We were asked by small boys
Making all sorts of noise
Many questions which strained our goodwill.The Clyde Forth Canal is sublime
As you travel it, you're lost in time.
The Millenium Wheel
Puts a final grand seal
With its novel and magical climb.
At the Kerse Bridge a boat could be wrecked
If air clearance and draught were not checked.
'Twas a delicate ride
On a fast falling tide
Calculations all proving correct.Our good fortune was bound not to last
When it came time to restep the mast.
The man with the barge did not loom very large
So we opted to motor right past.
Story
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