11.08.2015: Isle of Wight
South Coast of England
The south coast of England greets us with overcast skies, rain and winds coming at us head on. The "Dagmar Aaen" pounds her way westwards. In the head, the "popular" roller coaster movements have begun. In the head of the ship, the up and down movements are felt the strongest.
In contrast the last days felt like a Caribbean cruise. T-shirt weather and winds from eastern. That gave us the chance to test the new spars. Bernhard Naber made two hollow booms in his carpentry workshop just before we set off. These can be used to boom out the foresail which increase the area of the sail the wind pushes against and the ship sails faster. The spars will be really put to the test during the Atlantic crossing with the Passat winds. But it was obvious, even off the Dutch coast that Bernhard had again done an excellent job. The balloon foresail and the jib stand perfectly when they are boomed out.
After leaving Dover the "MSC Zoe" whooshes past us
While entering the English Channel, we experienced live what modern yacht structural engineering can mean. The wind had died down and the "Dagmar Aaen" was making just around 2.8 kn under full sails. There then appeared on the horizon a huge balloon foresail. The "SCA" came flying up. The hypermodern Volvo Ocean Racer had just completed a race around the world with an all-women crew. And now this racy ship just dashed up and passed us under Code Zero, jib and main sail at an unbelievable speed of 11.5 kn - and this quasi with practically no wind - an impressive experience.
Another ship which passed us was, however, even much faster. After passing the Strait of Dover, the brand new "MSC Zoe" flew past us. This cargo freighter is presently the largest in the world and was launched in Hamburg just a few days ago. The ship is almost 400 meters long, came out of Rotterdam and was travelling at a speed of 22 kn on a westerly course.
By the famous Isle of Wight (this is where the America's Cup used to be held) we met up with the upper crust of the tourist industry: All bustling in the direction of Southampton were four gigantic cruise ships and among them the "Queen Elisabeth" on her route to Hamburg. A spontaneous question as to whether anyone on board the "Dagmar Aaen" would like to change ships - no one...
We are still on route to our first stop in the harbor of Falmouth on the southwest tip of England.
Matthias Steiner