Monday, 27 June 2011
splashing arond in the shallow end...
A few days ago I put a mark on the chart of where i expected to cross the continental shelf, the small pencil mark on the chart seemed an age away. Since then I have have had fights with spinnakers, lounged around in the sunshine, ate lots of freeze dried food and slept all of about an hour! I have now passed that mark and am now back in shallow water where here the depths are only around the 200 meters a few hours ago they were in excess of 3000! Not that that makes much difference to me, however I suppose at least the creatures beneath you in the shallows can be found in books, who knows what lies in the real deep- fishes with torches attached to their heads for a start, and thats just not normal!
last night I became aware I was in the company of of another boat in the race called Jenna B, when I saw her pop up 6 miles away on the AIS is was nice to know someone is near, I can imagine from the tracker at home it probably looks like we are close enough to chat, if not at least see each other. In reality though, with a 6 mile horizon at the top of a wave and a 60 meter one at the bottom, it has been a good few days since i saw another boat, in fact it was Jenna B that i saw last and i think that was the day after the start.
As she is in the class ahead and started 10 minutes earlier than me when she first caught up this morning I let her sail through me and just thought with a warm feeling inside, 'oh well, she is a faster boat and I am still beating her on handicap- let it go'. Of course lasted for about 10 minutes before i was again on deck working the sails and steering like a man possessed to keep up. After the 10th or 11th wave landed on my head i began to wish I hadn't bothered!
The conditions today are a world away from the tranquil sailing of yesterday, as if the wind gods have thought....'so you think you are finishing soon do you, well have some of this'.... In basics its not very pleasant! the angle I am sailing to make good my course for the Scilly isles is about 60 degrees to the wind (apparent) it is an odd angle to sail, the boat is stood on its ear and each wave that hits the bow rears up and lands in the cockpit. George seems not to mind nearly as much as me, so I am letting him steer until it brightens up! Something you just couldn't get away with 2 handed!
I have been trying to find the will power to go back on deck and steer and tweak sails and all those things racing sailors do, but I think I can probably think of a few more jobs to do down below first!
Maybe I'll try sleeping a bit, that seems like a plan, not had much lately....
Sunday, 26 June 2011
its only theory after all....
As the mist came in the wind veered through 40 degrees, I gybed the boat held the spinnaker for an hour or so, changed to the asymmetric spinnaker for an hour or so, changed to the code zero for an hour or so then changed, maybe for the final time, to a regular 'white sail' set up.
The reason I had positioned myself out west (not sure where the others are as cannot see the tracker) is to take advantage of the new wind, as it is coming from the west then though to the north. If I had sailed a straight line from where the wind was (north of the Azores) to Falmouth when as the wind swung as it now has I would have to make ground into wind, which is a slower angle of sailing. The gamble was how far west to go, ie. how many more miles to sail than a straight line. At some point it becomes counter productive. I have no idea as to whether I have played it right but this morning when the wind finally started to shift I breathed a slight sigh of relief!
It is of course only a theory but if the forecast stays true from now on then i should able to make Manacles Buoy (a turning mark of the course) and maybe even the finish on this tack without having to change the sail set up. As I say, it is only a theory!
The rest of today I will relax a bit as I have to cross the continental shelf at some point tonight, that is where the fishing fleets hang out and could cause some headaches for me as I need to give way to them and they are very unpredictable. In basic I not only need to be awake and on deck but also alert enough to think straight! I knew I had brought some coffee for a good reason!
Getting bored of Phil and Flop's circus....
With a swell coming in form behind and the wind sub 10kts for the first time in a while I have found myself staring into the kite, as the wind puffs it fills, then flops as the boat rolls on the swell, then it fills again and it flops. I am still waiting for the Gybe point to arrive, it is getting close but going this slowly for this long was certainly not on my game plan! With another 10 degree shift to the west I will make my move, and then probably decide that the gamble is too big and I am not really sure if the shift is coming fast enough to make it worth it! That is talking from experience as that exactly why my tracker will show a north west track for a while this morning! It is frustrating at the moment as on the weather files I have received this calm patch is fairly small and I should have been well to the north west of it. I am not sure then if the calm patch is simply bigger than expected and the other boats are in it too, or if it just happens to have sat on my course just to test my patience. Of course it is too late now anyway so i will just keep watching Phil and Flops finest performance for a while longer.
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Waiting for a wind shift....
If last night was akin to white water rafting then today would be lying on a lilo in a pool with a large G and T. The sun has been shining all day and the seas calm (for the middle of an ocean!). The wind has been around 15 kts all day from the South/Southwest and I have spent the day watching George steer. Occasionally i would turn George off and have a drive myself, normally short lived as I would find something to take away my attention! It felt a little like driving miss daisy so i rarely stuck at it for more than a few minutes! I have had numerous encounters with large ships, one of them even told me very proudly he had 3 sailing boats 'like yours' on board his cargo ship deck. As he passed so close I could get a great look at the boats being piggybacked, all at least 100ft'ers!
Every forecast since leaving Ponta Delgada has given a wind veering tonight through west, as such I have positioned myself well out west to take advantage of it when it arrives, I am though still waiting for the shift and if it doesn't come I may have shot myself in the foot! I was waiting for it to arrive with the spinnaker hoisted so i could Gybe and keep the best boatspeed through out the night, however as it started to back instead and was therefore taking me even further towards west at great speed I thought i should drop it once again and at least start pointing at the right country. I the rest of the race is as planned and the forecast remain true i am expecting to arrive sometime tuesday pm.
On a side note if anyone fancies doing the delivery sail from Falmouth to Portsmouth on Wed arriving Portsmouth Thurs with me then text via sat phone and you'll be very welcome.
Over the last week, and indeed the week before that many people have texted through the link on the the blog page, Thank you all so much for messages they really do make a difference and they are always welcome. Especially Chris, thanks for your many daily messages all very welcome, it nice to think that other people are enjoying the race so much (hope the RTIR was good).
As most of you will be aware this race is also my qualifier for the OSTAR 2013, a solo race from Plymouth UK to Newport RI, USA. I thought I would have a eureka moment at some point in this trip and either scream, 'No effing way am I doing the OSTAR' or simply satisfy me that the OSTAR is for me. I must say so far I haven't had either. I guess it is because the trip has been fairly benign as far as weather goes. Believe me know one in this race wanted a force 9 less than me, but I guess until one has experience of sailing in those conditions then it is hard to tell quite how I would get on 1500 miles from the nearest piece of land in either direction in a storm by yourself in a 35ft boat! One thing that this race has certainly pressed upon me is how important home life is to me now, having been a virtual nomad my whole adult life(!) I have never really experienced missing home before, now I know how strong a feeling that can be. Anyway enough of that, I think I had better put some Metallica back on the stereo instead of this Kate Walsh bird!!
I should really go back on deck, check the sail trim, steer the boat and eek every 10th of a knot out of her all night. But i may put the kettle on again and let George carry on!
Big winds, big ships and a wet kite...
After watching the wind stay a steady 17 kts for few hours and with a forecast dying breeze I once again hoisted the Kite (spinnaker), once it was up George took control and went down below I wrote my last blog. Not long after I was shocked to see the windspeeds reading 22kts again, thats about the top limit for George. I decided to once again wrap myself up and get up on deck. As I opened the hatch to get out it was noticeable that the waves had picked up, all i could see was white water everywhere but the kite was holding well so no cause for alarm. I would simply have take the autopilot (George) out and drive again until it calmed down a little. I was keen to make the most of the strong(ish) winds we had be seeing.
If it was strong(ish) winds I wanted then thats certainly what I got. As the wind picked up the sea's ferocity increased 5 fold. It went from having a great albeit playful, fairly close to the edge sail to being completely absurdly over the edge and way beyond in just a few minutes. I was dropping into waves that had no idea how large they were or whether I was about to plow into the wave in front and stop or keep accelerating into tomorrow. The winds were having one final blow, if I could hold it for a little longer I was convinced they would drop. The clouds were changing and the cloud cover increasing signalling a change in winds coming. As the winds passed 27kts I felt trapped, The foredeck (front) of the boat didnt look a very appealing place to be and thats where i needed to be if I was going to drop the kite. There was very little if no natural light, the moon was now firmly behind blanket cloud. My gut was telling me that it was a freak gust and it would calm down but I knew if it kept rising I would be getting towards the realms of dangerous! I got to the foredeck firmly clipped on and looking back have never seen so much spray hurling up from both sides of the boat! The kite came down with no fuss but the feeling of loneliness in the few moments before were huge- not that I wanted someone to come and help, because I didnt. It was more that I wanted someone to whoop and cheer and maybe a high five with me when I finally tamed the beast! What a ride!
There have been a few moments before in my life when I have ended up in a situation that only I could get myself out of. One of them was in a light aircraft flying in cloud near Gatwick airport when I lost all my instruments on board, that was the most scary. The few moments before I managed to the kite down last night was probably the second!
After the excitement and adrenalin had worn off I was well and truly humbled. I thought I had been making the right calls so far this voyage, the balance between racing and safety has always been top of my agenda and it would appear I maybe made the wrong call last night!
Having got back down below and dried off I saw the first signs of an issue with another ship, I have a collision avoidance system onboard (AIS) and it was showing a much faster container ship approaching me from dead astern, the calculated separation between us would have been 0.2 miles, not really enough! A 3am I had visions of the crew not being fully alert so I made a radio call and asked for a little more room! The kind man obliged and passed 1.6 miles away on my left. At that range they look quite seriously large!
After some rest and a few Zzzz's first light came and it was high time to get back into the race and re-hoist the Kite. My previous instincts were right, the wind dropped no sooner as the kite was down and had been sitting steady at 14 kts since. Now very well practiced in spinnaker hoists and drops it was up in a jiffy and flying well. That was until the cleat holding the halyard (the rope holding it up) gave way and the whole thing went under the bow! 85 square meters of spinnaker acting as a large sea anchor! With a bit of a faff I managed to get it back onboard and once again up and flying. I think thats enough excitement for one day!
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