Our Travels In 2002

Continuation of the Round the World Voyage, begun in Melbourne
       in 1998.  Channel Islands to the Baltic Sea

It was a very brief but pleasant cruising season, cut short by the pressing
need to return home to Australia to see to some business matters. The couple
of months we had on Evanna were all the more precious, and we did have a
wonderful trip.

Out little ship was waiting for us in Jersey when we got back in April. She
was still intact, even after the little winter "accident" when a harbour
gate jammed open and most of the water drained out of the marina. Her photo made the front page of the local paper, laying on her side in a most
undignified manner. As soon as we returned we put her up on the hard to
check her hull below the water line. Fortunately, there was no great damage.
Tim Riddell had continued the maintenance work during the winter and Evanna was beginning to look like a new ship with freshly painted decks, and all varnish stripped and re-coated. Tim and his friend Gaile remained on board with us for the cruise up the coast of France and Belgium, through the
canals of Holland, then the Kiel canal into the Baltic. Tony and Maren
joined us in Holland.

The French Coast Revisited

We left Jersey behind and dropped into the island of Guernsey for a couple
of days before putting Evanna through the treacherous Alderney tide race and onto the north coast of France. The stream in the race can run at up to 7
knots on spring tides, and any contrary wind or swell can put up very nasty
and dangerous seas. We were fortunate to have a following wind, and with a
fair tide, we flew along at a great pace. It was good to be in France again,
despite the brush we'd had with French Customs the previous year. (See
Newsletter 2001). Our principal reason for laying Evanna up for the winter
in Jersey was to take her out of the E.U... for a good period of time to
avoid French demands for VAT, calculated at 40% of their valuation of the
vessel! We were hoping the French customs would board us again so we could wave our Jersey clearance at them, but to our disappointment, they showed no interest in us whatsoever this year. The north coast of France is the home to some wonderful seafood restaurants, and we certainly tried out a few. The most memorable was in Dieppe. This lovely old harbour town is one of our favourites on the Channel coast, and if you're ever there, try a restaurant called La Grande Duquesne. There's nothing "grande" about the building, in fact it's quite small, but the food is superb.

Through the Canals of Holland

It's hard to believe, but it is possible to take a sailing yacht with a 22
metre high mast, right through the canals of Holland. There's what's called
a Standing Mast Route, a charted way through the maze of canals where the
many road and railway bridges open to let sailing vessels through. The route
is probably a relic of the old days when most of the Dutch canal barges were
under sail. We entered at Vlissingen, that lovely old port on the south
coast of Holland for the first part of the trip through the southern canal
system and across the Zeeland Estuaries. These are now closed to the sea to
prevent a repetition of the disastrous tidal surges that used to break the
dikes and flood the low land. The little towns such as Bruinissa and
Willemstad that used to be sea ports, are still searching for a new identity
on what have become huge fresh water lakes.

We'd been looking forward to Dordrecht. It was here in 1972 that Peter built the first of the canal barges, and began the canal cruises that have since become so popular. Many of the friends who came down to visit Evanna are from that era, particularly the Timmer family. It was from Jan Timmer that Peter bought the hull of what was to become the first of the canal barges, and Jan's brother Chienus skippered her on the Rhine passages until Peter had his own Rhine licence. Like most of the Dutch seafarers, all the Timmer family were born in the small cabin on the family ship - a 25 metre sailing clipper. One of the principal vessels on the Dutch canals in the 1920's, these elegant little ships, rigged with single mast and sprit sail, would cruise about Holland picking up general cargo, vegetables or cheese from the farms. When the wind was favourable the ship could sail the wide canals, but when it wasn't the family would  have to get into harness and tow the vessel. Many of these clippers were sea-going, and after picking up a cargo, they would batten down hatches and sail across the North Sea to the markets in London. We were also lucky to be in Dordrecht for the annual Festival of Steam when most of the steam ships, tractors and engines of every description gather in Dordrecht to whistle and puff at each other.

Jan and Diana Meijer dropped in on their way back to France. It was Jan who bought the hotel ship Etoile from us some 10 years ago. He and Diana have made a great success of the business and have now built a second ship which they've named Nouvelle Etoile. It was great to see them again, and they were interested to see the Evanna, especially as Jan had last seen her in the early stages of building.

Tony and Maren (brother and sister in law) joined us just south of
Amsterdam, and we had the most magnificent midnight cruise through the city.
The only time they can open all the bridges of Amsterdam is late at night
when the road traffic is less, but it's a perfect time to see this wonderful
old city. Once through, we found a place to moor close to the centre, and
next day paid a visit to the two great museums - the Rijks museum with its
collection of Dutch masters, and not far away the Van Gogh museum. From
Amsterdam we had a wonderful sail across the Ijsel Meer. Formerly the Zuider
Zee, this once salt water estuary is now a vast fresh water lake, and is
home to the many restored sailing clippers.

Probably the most picturesque part of the trip was the canals of Friesland.
From Lemmar on the Ijsel Meer to the sea port of Delfziel, we followed the
little canals as they wound through some of the most beautiful farmland and
villages. However,while we'd made sure we could get through all the bridges
along the way, we hadn't thought to ask about the canal depth. There were a
couple of places where Evanna had to plough a track through the soft canal
bottom!

 The Kiel Canal to the Baltic

From Delfziel both tide and wind were kind to us and after a 3.00 am start
we reached the harbour of Cuxhaven at the mouth of the river Elbe, just as
the tide turned against us. The following morning, a fair tide took us
upstream the short distance to the entrance of the Kiel canal, that great
waterway that connects the North Sea and the Baltic. We took two days to
transit the canal, stopping along the way to meet up with friends of Tony
and Maren, and to try a couple of the very good restaurants, and finally
locked through to the Baltic at Kiel. It was a short cruise up the coast
from Kiel to Flensburg. It must have been a great thrill for Maren to cruise
into the town she left some 45 years ago! Flensburg is a beautiful place,
set well in at the head of a fiord. At the time we arrived a regatta for
classical sail boats was in progress. These included about a dozen or so 12
metre yachts from all over the world.
Sadly, this had to be the end of the 2002 cruising season. We had the Evanna
hauled out in a small Danish shipyard near Flensburg, and got her ready to
face  the cold winter.

What are we doing in 2003?

Although we're still caught up in our building project in Australia, we hope
to spend a few months cruising the Baltic next year, if we can find enough
people interested in joining us. (The usual "Paying Crew" rates would
apply). We'd leave Flensburg in May and cruise the coasts of Germany,
Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland during May, June and July.
On the south coast of Finalnd we'd reach a latitude of 60 degrees north
where during the summer months, it's almost perpetual daylight. This
continual sunlight raises the water to an incredible 24 degrees celsius, the
temperature along the Queensland coast! It's not long before the Baltic
countries will be joining the E.U., so it's the last opportunity to see them
as they are and to do a bit of the great bargain shopping that everyone
talks about. 

Have a look at our itinerary for 2003 

Our very best wishes for the coming season and the New Year.

Peter and Carol Evans.