Lasting memories Being torpedoed by dolphins playing in the wake at night, they loved the phosphorescence and I do not know how they missed hitting the boat. Just missing a whale The incredible hospitality of Clube Naval Ponta Delgarda And the many new sailing friends we made. |
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Scary moments The second was when the man overboard alarm went. I was in the cockpit and shot down the companionway to see if Henry was still in his bunk to meet him coming up to see where I had gone. After that the MOB alarm had to be switched of as it cut out the GPS. The third was over the crest of a wave to find a whale asleep in the trough about 20 feet ahead. Luckily it flipped its tail and moved out of the way. We had been in company with them most of the day and they were longer than the boat. Small by whale standards but quite big enough at close quarters! |
What do dolphins, whales and swallows have in common? Having won the Falmouth 500 the pressure was now on to do well in the main race. We laid up in Plymouth again in November and started on the five page list of jobs to be done. The weather was foul, cold wet and not good for doing anything on a boat outside but we managed to get the hull antifouled, topsides polished and anodes renewed before she went back in the water in March. We also managed to get some painting done inside and have a general clean out of most of the lockers. I had a disastrous sail down to Falmouth in mid March, setting off single-handed before the boat was really ready, trying to beat a westerly gale. I had a very lumpy motorsail to Falmouth, discovered a few leaks, stood on the autopilot plug which sheared off and finally got a jib sheet round the prop in Carrick Roads just as I was about to motor up to Pendennis Marina who had kindly sponsored a berth for us until May. I had never been into Pendennis Marina before but managed to sail in and alongside at 2.00am. Caroline had to sit in the car and wait as we did not know the codes to get in and once alongside I had to go and let her in. We managed to complete most of the jobs by the end of April (it is very time consuming working at long range) although we were still fitting odd bits of electronics, tracker and AIS, a few days before the start. Meanwhile fundraising was going on apace with letters and leaflets going out and money trickling in. Everyone was very generous. Henry and I went down in early May for a practice sail and to be examined for our ICC certificates. No problem with the ICC exam but our new mainsail started shedding its batten pockets (it had only been hoisted three times!) so it had to go back to the maker for emergency repairs. Managed to get it back(via Devon, Dorset, Surrey and Hampshire) by the end of May in time for the start on 2 June. After family celebrations in Berlin we met on the boat in Falmouth late on Monday 28 May and started the process of registration and last minute checks. We had a safety inspection carried out by RCYC on Tuesday – missing a light list and he would report back on the mast step restraint (we use traditional wedges). Thursday pm call from RCYC saying we did not need the light list (which we had just bought – special order) but we did need to substantially restrain the mast step. Bearing in mind that scrutineering finished on Thursday night, frantic mods to boat which threw out all the planned jobs but we actually made it to their satisfaction. We did all the comms tests and found we could text emails from out sat phone while in Falmouth. It never worked anywhere else and we had to report in by voice every day despite having a tracker on. The start was pretty uneventful although we had to do a quick tack and gybe to avoid arriving early so ended up starting near the back, about 30 seconds late but better that than an hour penalty for being early. The rest of the race was also fairly straightforward, a low pressure system followed us the whole way which meant that we did punch into a SW7 for about 30 hours and were thought by the watchers ashore (the race was tracked on the website so that everyone could see where we were) thought we had gone the wrong way when we headed WNW for some hours to avoid punching into a westerly which never arrived. It did mean that we could go west round the Island which saved us a lot of time over those going East about. 
Embarrassing moments - just one when Henry went to change the gas bottle on day three and found that the spare was empty. Luckily I had thrown in our emergency half size one and by limiting ourselves to one hot drink and one hot meal per day we made it last. Wildlife – whales escorting us for a day (often only 10-15 feet away, too close for comfort), dolphins playing alongside and round the bow, a very tired racing pigeon that failed to land as the spinnaker seemed to flap every time it tried. We were also home to several swallows one of which flew round, into the saloon and out and then back and up into the foc’sle where it spent the night, leaving just after dawn. Next evening another one circled, flew into the cabin and perched above the port berth where it promptly fell asleep and spent the night, leaving next morning. Neither they nor the ones that perched on the rail seemed to mind that we were going the wrong way. Arrival at Ponta Delgarda was in a flat calm at 2.00am having taken an hour to round the mole end to the line where we got a hooter acknowledging our finish. The rib that met us asked if we had an engine! It seemed better to wait until we crossed the line before we started it! 
We were welcomed as we came alongside by a member of the Yacht Club with the welcome news that the restaurant in the Club was open all night with complimentary bar (we run a dry ship at sea). Had a very welcome shower and beer and on the way back to the boat met John and Alex Head from Quaker Girl, the other Nic 32. We had beaten them by an hour on the water (more on handicap as we have larger topsides but the same hull). So we owed them a meal as we had an agreement that the winner would provide a meal for the loser. Next morning they seen being poured back onto Quaker Girl as we got up. We were unable to wake them for breakfast, Marina staff were unable to wake them at lunch time and moved Quaker Girl with them still asleep. They finally appeared about 4.30pm. We were looked after extremely well by Clube Naval de Ponta Delgarda , from being greeted on arrival to food and wine tastings, dinners and a day trip to the volcanic part of the Island with lunch thrown in. Definitely worth the trip. The shore crew (Caroline and Tom and Joshua) got the boat back up to standard, replacing the burgee halyard which had chafed through, repairing the autopilot with a temporary plug, doing rig checks and lots of cleaning. I managed to get the gas bottles re-filled so at least we had tea and coffee on the return trip. The forecast for the return was that an Azores high was settling so no wind and a long trip back was likely. For the first two days the forecast seemed right, light wind to start and then none. It took over 24 hours to lose sight of the Island! Thereafter it was a bit different as the wind picked up from the North, so we were on one tack for five days. The only problem being that the sinks do not work on Port tack when heeled so no washing up for five days – well that’s the excuse anyway. Night of day 2, having drifted in company of three boats all day, saw the lights of a yacht that seemed to have wind all of its own, coming up behind. Must be single handed or asleep. It overtook us about 30 feet away, I could read its name in the dark. I bet that could have given someone a fright. Actually, when we got back I was talking to the skipper who said that it was a nice quiet night, so he went below for an hour for a sleep. When he came on deck he looked round and nearly had a heart attack because there was a boat about 20 feet away. He did not realise it was us. The wind went variable, mainly SW for the last couple of days, so spinnaker up and down, reefs in and out and a general clean up and dry out now the boat was level. After 1,000 miles we were a mile behind Quaker Girl although we never saw her. She finished 2½ hours ahead of us so beat us overall by 1½ hours on the water over 20 days sailing. On handicap we beat her by 8 hours overall so honour is even. We came second in class on both legs and combined being beaten by Illusion of Lorne on each occasion. We came 15th overall on the outward leg and 3rd overall on the return leg giving us 6th overall on the combined fleet. Full results can be seen on the AZAB website. We raised about £20,000 (as at 20/7/07)for PDS, short of our target but not bad. Everyone was very generous. |
