What is pulling past you at ten knots while you're doing 2.5 knots through the water and is painted red and black? That's right, a single bucket in the middle of the Strangford driveway.
For six hours, incredible amounts of water flow into a huge inland lake at high tide, then they flow out again for six hours, and we are right in the middle of it. With our nutshell. No wonder this is a sorado for tidal power plants.
We learned a lot about currents, but there are always moments when we are still on the hose.
First we get to know the Isle of Man from its rugged side. We have to circumnavigate the southern tip to get to our targeted anchor bay in front of Castletown, but we did the math without chicken rock. We are received between the lighthouse and the tip of the island with a current of five knots opposite, despite the pressure in the sail we stand.
Castletown shows itself from its very charming side, actually we just want to bunker water at the dry-falling pier, but a folk festival is in full swing, a bathtub race in the middle of the harbor basin, very British. Once again the English prove their unbeatably beautiful, weird humor, every competitor who sinks during the race is greeted with appreciative applause.
We bring our boat back to the anchor bay and take the dinghy into town. When we want to go back to the boat later, the harbor basin is completely empty, no water far and wide. We have to drag the dinghy 400 meters over carpets of algae, stones and silt to the water, along a slippery pier wall.
The next day our French friend and companion Geoffroy dives our boat from below, delivers an HD video of the underwater hull, and we can see that only the antifouling was affected when it hit the bottom of an east buoy, no real problem.
Podcast author Michael Hölzen
By the way: MichHölzen thinks that they have invented a completely new anchor buoy system: the adaptive anchor buoy. Well, see for yourself …
Off to Scotland - advanced fluid dynamics: The 18th part of Michael Hölzen's boat shank sailing podcast. Simply click on the play button with the arrow, and off you go. Or download the audio file using the selection menu on the right in the player so that you can listen to it later
And here it goes directly to Michael Hölzen's "Bootschaft" page with the option of subscribing to his podcast there or directly on iTunes
To the background:
The Berliner MichHölzen has been a passionate sailor for 15 years. It all started on the Wannsee, the first capsize, but also the first excursion on your own bow with a just acquired inland license - “priceless”, as he says. After that he never let go of sailing with all its facets, step by step he broadened his horizons.
This summer he and his friend Laurenz Schlueter would like to sail a very special trip that they have long dreamed of: around England. The two men are freelancers and can take a three-month break for the trip.
The problem: Hölzen and Schlüter do not have their own boat. And they don't want one either. Charter, borrow or sail somewhere is also out of the question for them. So what to do
Without further ado, Hölzen and Schlüter make a decision: You will become a temporary boat owner. In other words, only for the duration of the trip. In concrete terms, they buy a yacht shortly before the start of the trip, which they want to sell again immediately afterwards.
Will that work without ending up with a big hole in your wallet?
"Almost all sailing enthusiasts shook their heads when they heard about the plan," says Hölzen. And also various boat dealers to whom he presented waved them off. He did not let that confuse him.
In the meantime, Hölzen and Schlüter own a used First 30 from Beneteau. In just a few weeks they want to set off on the big trip.
As a full-time radio journalist, MichHölzen regularly reports on the trip in his own podcast called “Bootschaft”.
Podcasts can be listened to on the way to work, on the way to the ship or at home in the evening or at the weekend on the sofa. Or on a rainy port day in the boat cabin.