2004 KRAB RALLY
De Panne Beach, Belgium
SATURDAY, MARCH 27 - SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 2004
The trip to this year's Krab Rally at De Panne was the third last trip for my old trailer carrying K800 on top. Thursday night [March 25th] was a last-minute decision to go.
Come Friday morning I along with Phil Sharp were on their way past Lincoln to Dover. During a comfort stop just before Lincoln I took the opportunity to phone P&O ferries to book the ferry. Phil had a sheepish look on his face as he realised his passport was back home on his kitchen table. There was no option but to backtrack. Using a different route to the way we had already come, we got on the A1. All went well till the M11/M25 where we waited 20 minutes in slow moving traffic. Appears one shunt on our side of the road and an artic lorry trying to make love to the central Armco barrier on the other was the cause. The traffic was nose to tail from Dartford Tunnel to the M11 but what can you expect on a Friday!! We decided to keep going and eat on the ferry. 90 minutes had us in France and on the motorway to De Panne.
We arrived in De Panne just after 6pm, collected the keys to the hotel room, went to the club house, and rigged the yacht to be ready for the 9am start Saturday. Friday evening was the reception party in the De Panne clubhouse. After a few beers Phil and I made our way to a welcome bed.
Saturday was a cold, frosty and windless start. A warming sun by the 9am made the briefing pleasant but with no wind the next briefing was scheduled at 10am then, if no wind at 11am racing for the day was off.
By 10.30am boredom was setting in until I was invited to go trawling for shrimps in Johan Sorby's pumped up rubber boat. We spent about 90 minutes out in between the banks, and collected about 2 kilos of shrimps and 2 small herring.
Back on the beach we bought K800 back into the club compound and drove to Johan's house to sample the cooked shrimps. Phil and I we educated on how to peel the damn fiddly things, and very tasty they were too!!
We then met up with Sven and went to a nice restaurant to have a late lunch (steak cooked on an open wood grill in the room). We then took a sneak look at Sven's 60ft yacht in dry dock, very impressive.
The evening bash had some very nice food washed down by the clubhouse beer. An eye had to be kept on the clock as we lost one hour due to the clock change to summer time.
Sunday started same as Saturday - with no wind. The bright sun brought out the Sunday walkers on the main beach. I took an opportunity to look at some of the kite buggies. By 10.30 we gave up and put K800 on the trailer ready for home. Just as we finished the wind picked up from the south to give enough breeze to enable yachts to tack on the beach.
With a 2pm ferry booked for home, Phil and I chucked in the towel and headed to Calais and home.
Regards to all
Gareth Rowland K800