Le Grand Disaster

My initial visions of 200 boats heading down the river towards Brussels were slightly misleading, though 30 is still a decent number. Elo and I left Kortgene around 10am, just stopping to get some fuel, and headed for our rendezvous at Hansweert near the entrance to the river Schelde. Ideally then the boats passing on route from Zeebrugge would stop or call on the VHF so we could join the group. Clearly marked on our schedule from the Brussels Royal Yacht Club was a meeting between 2 – 3pm, though on reflection of the state of tide this seemed a little late in the day to me. We arrived at 1pm and tied to the outside of waiting pontoon to be sure we were noticed by any boats passing the entrance to the canal and put out several calls on the VHF for anyone participating to give us their position, with no response. So we waited to around 3pm with another motor boat, also with the same instructions, all to no avail. Finally Pat managed to get one of the guys from the club on the phone and we were informed that they passed around 1pm and were now two hours ahead of us up the river. Disgusted but determined to move on we headed off with a full tide and assurances from those on the river that the current was ‘not too strong at all’. Not strong, my ass, 3 knots + meant our speed over the ground was around 3 knots, whereas the others taking the favourable tide would have had around 8 knots over the ground, resulting in us taking double the time and eventually arriving after midnight. Interesting as it was to sail through Antwerp in the dark, I couldn’t help thinking that I would rather be at the bar having a few beers and a nice meal.

We cast off at 9am on Sunday, this time with all the other boats, to run the remaining leg up the canal to Brussels. Quite a cool experience, arriving in the centre of Brussels on your yacht, I guess not too many have experienced.

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