Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Ostend 22nd May 2013
There was a decision to be made Wednesday morning, the sky had a lot of clear blue showing through the high cloud and the forecast until Monday looked dire - there was an opportunity for sailing which Shakespeare would have made great play of - take it now and go or be stuck for days. Our course to Ostend was 26 miles close to shore, along the channels between the many sand banks running parallel along the coast here where on shore winds from the North throw up nasty seas at low tide. We made a run for it with one reef in the main and double reefed genoa, flying along with the bow anchor dipping into solid green water now and then. We were at high water and a fair tide pushing us along, the sun was shining and once in deeper water I felt a sense of relief that it was going to be an easy sail. We saw a few other yachts, a couple of fishing trawlers working and a fast Customs boat out of Ostend powered in the other direction. In the shallows, common terns plummeted into the wave crests for sand eels and along the straight flat coastline, endless ranks of apartments lined up on parade.
At Ostend harbour entrance three red lights barred the way in - I radioed the harbour master who was dealing with three ships leaving the port so we circled until the greens appeared leading us into the RNSYC marina close to starboard having all the advantages of being right in the town but finding oneself the subject of much inspection by passing holiday makers. The harbour was bustling with scores of Dutch boats, converted and beautifully restored barges, tugs and craft of every shape and size all come to the Ostend Anker sea festival - colourful flags and decorations abound as they worked through the locked section of the harbour to the Mercator harbour beyond. The streets were filled with stalls selling anything and everything from a dead fish to a four inch shackle and there we found our starter for that evening, a 100grms of tiny grey shrimps which were delicious. And so to bed for a quiet night in Ostend where I came with my school when I was eleven just sixty years ago.
The Harbour Master called the next morning and convinced us that it would be madness to go out in the conditions his forecast predicted - we spent the morning in a bitter wind, shopping through the street market which spread from one square to the next in a random order where traders persisted in offering pieces of cheese at any opportunity. At one point we came upon salmon being smoke cured in a large metal cabinet which belched swirling wood smoke among the crowd of onlookers and because of the Ostend Anker boat festival there were endless crocodiles of young children being taken on school trips, most of the younger groups wearing identifiable colours to make reckoning that much easier - what a responsibility - and yet more Dutch boats continued to arrive through the day - mainly tall ships and one minesweeper; it was remarkable to watch the close quarters manoeuvring being done without any mishap or raised voices so far as I was aware.
We went back to the cathedral which we had visited yesterday having been enthralled by it - most unusually the magnificent West front of the building does not face West but East, this was so that its best aspect faced visitors who sailed into the port. It is a treasure house of modern stained glass made by Michiel Martens after two world wars had totally destroyed the original glass. The range of colour, design and effects are outstanding.
- comments