Dear Readers,

a small navigational faux pas I want to share with you - happened on 25. October, the Friday before the start of Hanseboot:

I wanted to briefly “Maverick too” handed over lead into winter by Neuhaus on the Oste ... but these 7,7 NM should be the longest of my life. I needed to 26 Hours.

It all started so well. With a steaming coffee in hand, I stroll in the morning over the dike to the boat and begin, turn it into a kit. Sailing down, Tree from, Windgeneratormast ab, Liferaft down, all pads from board, Shortly after nine ... I finally throw off the bowlines. Still with a steaming coffee in hand. Meanwhile, the third.

I am at the bascule bridge Oberndorf, which is now in winter mode, register on time. Friendly beckons me to the bridge master, I in light countercurrent passing his house. But nanu, why the engine sounds so funny? And why is BECAUSE HE SO HOT??? 90 Grad. No disaster, stay calm. Once the seacock for the cooling water intake and on - and the engine sprotzt back more water than before, the temperature goes down abruptly. “Been there probably silt must be in the valve”, I say to myself. Without a second thought, where is the silt now could be slipped back ... with an engine with salt-.

Half an hour goes well. Then, the engine stops. “What do you want now?” About 1.000 Nautical miles we were on the road last summer and never had engine problems made. Fast the anchor into the water, sufficient chain and dive down in the engine room. “If insufficient cooling water and a continuous motor by itself have something in common, I have a problem.” The far simpler answer, although the embarrassing, I think after checking the level in the diesel tank. Three centimeters on ruler (“Maverick” has no digital display ...). That's not enough good. So no more diesel. Something to me in the past 14 Years under sail never (with a diesel engine) happened.

A phone call alerted my friends Nico and Birte, only a few kilometers away to work on their boat. Adventurous with the small 2-horsepower Mariner outboard and a, Linen improvised outboard bracket on the stern, I manage, to reach the other bank, and to take a canister of ten liters of diesel. Quickly exhaust the machine - “tonktonktonktonk ...” because he is running again.

Exactly 15 Minutes. Then the temperature goes up again. This time, the silt in the tube be. I turn off the machine and let me drive. The tide has now capsized. The outflowing water draws me towards Neuhaus, the winter camp, below deck while I dissect the entire cooling water pipes of the machine and rinse. Eventually, I realize, that the bug is in the reeds. “No matter, the reason is so soft”, I think more and tinker. No 15 Minutes later I'm on deck and reboot the machine, which now holds its temperature. But I've already lost. We're stuck.

Even with the spinnaker pole it is not me, the heavy six tons “Maverick” to push the mud. I must watch, as they slowly, but surely, dry out.

Eleven hours I wait on board for the tide, at a heel of 47 Grad. Every minute fly the lockers on the upper side of, repeatedly pours a bullet rain. Eleven hours in a crooked world. I get a little seasick, because the image, I see, simply does not belong in my world. Each course costs on deck enormous power and can only go from handrail to handrail hand over hand vonstatten. When I move through the cabin, I run to the door on the port side of the Schrankbauwand, for coming closer to a horizontal, than the floor.

“You go just so long on land” you might think. Is not, for there, where “Maverick” is, is a meadow. Three meters in front of the bow is a fence, behind me to watch the cows. To also run along the fence would be burdensome, because the grass is very high. So there is no way out. Even the initial joy, I forgot cleaning out the boat a case of beer, passes quickly. I cook a hot toddy. It is getting colder. The diesel is not enough even, more often than every hour around the heater for a few minutes to turn. On deck for ice.

Finally, midnight, is the water back. “Maverick” swims back, but would not come on their own free, because even around me, it is extremely flat. I picked the shallowest part of the Oste. I was relieved to get my neighbors and friends Bert and Marlene with their strong dinghy to help. We fix some 100 Meter line on the masthead. This is where the ship heeled, that the keel is free and we glide into the wild.

Spend the night “Maverick” the web of the sailing club Geversdorf, before the next morning, the last two miles to the winter camp in the Shipyard Neuhaus cover. Bert and Marlene accompany me, if the engine had problems making. But he maintains. Less than an hour after arriving at the shipyard is “Maverick” again high and dry. But this time wanted. There in the hall, they will now spend the winter camp ... and experience a small change.

This unplanned experience has shown, that the contest was the right choice for our plans. Despite this minor mishap and 47 Degree position nothing broke. Even the doors were still on at the heel and! Nothing has cleared. She is a really stable vessel. One for remote places. And that's where we want to go 🙂

John