Blogs 2009

Blog 7

The Royal Western Yacht Club – Tonite – Be there or Be square

Following the unpleasantness over the Transbonder machine I thought it best to lie low. I am whispering to you from a little burrow I’ve made in the depths of a skip in the front of the camper boat. I know the tools have been searching for me but I’ve kept really, really quiet. Luckily I am wearing my butt exercising shoes so my time is not completely wasted. I presume they still work sitting down?

The floor is level again now that we’ve arrived. At least they didn’t shoot at us here, but two nice men came up in a little rubber boat, thumped against the wall of where I am hiding and flung a case of beer at the tools. I hope it hit that Rusty, my ex-boyfriend.

I have a little peep hole here so I was able to see the fabulous heart stoppingly gorgeous official man from the RORC who welcomed the tools on the boardwalk. They, of course, looked even glummer than usual. Maybe they’ve already missed the Slam Fastnet T-shirt vouchers and the beer coupons that I found yesterday!!!

The English Riviera! Omigod I am soooo excited. The Royal Western Yacht Club, indoor bathrooms, drinks with umbrellas and probably the royal family. Does the younger one go camper boating, I wonder? Floppy says ‘yaaah’ exactly the same way so may be they were at school together and he could introduce me? Princess Prisilla, Omigod I don’t even want to think about it.

Noooooooow I’ll just finish filling in this membership application form for the RORC and post it, put my Moonwalk trainers, white socks, fake tats and hit the fabulous disco bar with all these beer coupons.

I must listen to my heart and so, unless Hugo Boss want me to help them navigate their camper boat, I shall follow my dream. Love does not come cheap, but luckily Daddy is still a director of the World bank. My travels are only beginning……………I’m just going to luff up and blog off!

Au revoir,

Prisilla, Queen of the Disco

P.S Prisilla Lomasney (Miss) unreservedly apologises to any living person she has offended through her diary entries (you know who you are).

I am reminded somewhat of 2005 (my last Fastnet race) when we spent many an hour adrift in the Celtic sea.This time when we had been praying for a stiff breeze to make the most of our rather unusual sail plan of either tri sail and fractional spinnaker or medium number one and tri sail we are becalmed smack in the middle of the tss off the Scilys.

So as boredom and frustration set in the crew discuss and tinker with renewed vigour on our rather sad looking mainsail. We did manage a hiost rounding Pantaenius but our initial eforts lasted a few minutes before we had to pull the main down and re hoist the tri sail. Still other than eat we dont have much else to do so out comes the gorilla tape,,needle and thread, shackes, line, spectra and whatever else we find may be of use to rebuild the head and top 1/5 of the sail which we have christened 'Steve Austin'after the bionic (we can re build him) man.

The ice on the outside of the glass, the clarity and number of the bubles and and the flavour of that first beer in Plymouth increase on an hourly rate.

Cheers

Andy

• Click to open image! Click to open image!
• Click to open image! Click to open image!
• Click to open image! Click to open image!
•  

Sailing is like a Crystal Maze.....

or so says Max Gill, crew member on Jaguar Logic. He describes Sailing is like a crystal maze: a physical challenge one day, a mental challenge the next!

Jaguar Logic are just round the tip of the Scillies at the moment, neck and neck with Bare Knuckles a Prima 38. They seem very happy crew this afternoon but are praying for wind. Please find attached some photos of Jaguar Logic a few moments ago.

Jaguar is travelling at 2.9 knots with just under a 100 miles to go now. The good news is that the leading boats in Class 1 already around the Lizard seem to have speeded up, showing that there is some wind somewhere, at last!

Puma Logic has been having a difficult time passing the Lizard but have now gone round to great relief to everyone onboard. On handicap, positions are very close at the top of the class so it is really anyones race until the finish line now. Puma has 47 miles to go and is travelling at 5 knots. This means her eta is at present is 11pm tonight. However, as soon as night falls, it is likely that the wind will die completely as it did last night so yet again, there are too many variables at the moment to determine exact eta's.

Playing Around meanwhile, having taken the southerly option seem to be moving and may have just tactically done very well. Time will tell but it seems that Peter maybe able to get past The Lizard on the same course without having to gybe which means that if the other yachts are having to, it will make them slower.

Hi

Written last night at 2109 Wednesday 12th August (but no phone signal) Sorry for the lack of updates but we had an engine failure which took us 12 hours to fix. As a result we chose to conserve battery power and I shut the computer down for that period except for essential navigation. But a fantastice job by Tobias and James and it is up and running again

As I write we are on the downhill ride back from the Rock in the Celtic sea and enjoying 18 knots of breeze, a beautiful evening and after beating for 2 days into the breeze we appreciate the pleasure of a lev el baot and a fast ride.

The race experience experince is fantastic one for the crew and spirits are high as we seem to be getting encouraging results. (but some way to go (150miles as I write this) yet! {lent pof time to make gains or suffer losses if we take our eye off the ball.

1419 Thursday 13th August

We had a fabulous ride last night down from Fastnet Rock. But ten just as we got to Bishops Rock, the wind died and we found are track over the ground being taken by the tide into the rocks off the Scilly Isles. We were stil 2 miles clear of danger but decided to tack and nove further offshore to avoid the rocks

We are now somewhat slower in very light wind just by the Wolf Rock. Having had a real lift yesterday, today is proving a test of resilience and stamina. The wind is now forecast to stay light through Friday so it could take a while to finish. Even though we are only 68 miles to go.

Every qualifying race we have had to deal with light winds and a wind hole in the final stretch so I guess we have had lots of practice

James just told me we are picking up speed again so I am going to check tha out

Chris and the team on Bongani

It's a bit too early for Rusty still, so it's me again…and I have been happier…

All went great last night, had a good, gentle Rock rounding, nice and close in, cutting between the shallow spot and the Rock, overtaking a few boats while doing so. Fantastic views of the lighthouse up close, even thought it was dark and vis not great. Light beams piercing through the light hazy air, pretty impressive!

Good going to the Pantaenius Bouy too, being able to crack off a little bit already, first time since the Needles of not being totally hard on the wind…we're all anticipating the rounding of the mark as this signals the 'sleeride home'!

Forecast had promised us a good 10 to 15, sometimes 20 knots on the starboard quarter. Bring it on! We were ready for it!

Rounding the buoy, kite up, all going well, no f*"%$k ups, wind a bit less and a bit more on the stern than we would have liked to, but hey, we're not picky! We have a nice thing going and we're doing nicely! Finely go to bed for a bit!

Only to wake up a few hours later from a different movement in the boat - a bit of a wallopy motion…heralding bad news: wind has dropped so much, we've had to go down to 3 reefs to keep the main from flapping itself to death and as I come on deck, we decide to take it down completely, hoping to fill the spinaker at least a bit.

Not much good. The spinaker just limply hangs there, as does the palpable disappointment of the crew. We were doing so well, clawing back spaces, nice going under the spi…and now, nothing. The only apparent wind the instruments registers comes from the rolling off the boat…

So back up with the main, to give us some stability, while praying for wind.

And somebody must have some good karma left somewhere, because as we finish hoisting the main with 2 reefs, there is some wind!

Direction has totally changed though and instead of running under kite, we are back to being close hauled in light winds, beating into an light southeasterly! Where the heck did that come from? THe only easterly direction on the grib files was supposed to be 80nm north of us! We were supposed to have a good southwesterly breeze, so we could fly home! What happened to that promised breeze??

Guess it's just not meant to be. One can only be philosophical about it, as I still haven't figured out how to manipulate the wind - at least we're moving at the moment and no longer walloping…

Bishop Rock, here we come!

MarliesStar
Chaser GBR3205L

Blog from Ben Kennedy

With visibility at about 300m we were not expecting to see the Fastnet Rock until it was quite close. The fog horn had been audible for some time giving little clue to the proximity of the Rock. The dawn watch had been favoured by fog with the masthead lights casting a halo. Every so often the lights of another yacht would flicker in then out of sight. Checking the AIS regularly for any signs of larger traffic showed our portion of the Irish Sea to be the sole preserve of racing yachts.

It was much larger than I had imagined, and the top of the light obscured by mist until we tacked past. A forelorn and eerie sight that disappeared as quickly as it had emerged. That was 08:31 this morning.

Later this morning we sat for two minutes observing silence and the sea in commemoration of those who lost their lives thirty years ago in the 1979 Fastnet race which started on this day all those years ago. My thanks to Philippe whose words were moving. For us the sea has been benign and magnificent. It is difficult to imagine what a contrast it must be.

We are happy on board and absolutely screaming home on the 0.75 spinnaker. Kite trimming for 200 miles home? Bring it on!!

What a fabulous crew to sail with and what a privilege it is to be here right now and to have been part of a wonderful team throughout the season. The incidents of minor (and major) kindnesses are too many to mention. Thank you to Philippe and to Dave whose coaching and seemingly boundless energy and humour have galvanised us all.

Did I mention the competitiveness? We are here to win. Period.

What else? Just briefly I want to mention a couple of additional dimensions to this trip. Namely raising funds and awareness of the Teenage Cancer Trust who do so much for teenagers and young adults with cancer and leukaemia. Also the Hope Against Cancer Foundation which supports invaluable medical research in Leicestershire and Rutland.

As I sign off my thoughts are with my family in all corners of the world. I hope everyone is well and safe. I certainly am and even better as I am off watch and about to roll into my bunk. Goodnight. Plymouth tomorrow! Ben

3 sheets to the wind....lets go, we can still win this!

Oh and a block broke as well...at least that's our 'three' done! Otherwise crew in fair fettle

The skipper forgot the beers. Right that's it, mutiny time!

Just received lots of useful information on the weather...two days too late!

spirit of isis 14 Miles to lizard then approx 45 Miles to finish line boat speed 6 Kts eta plymouth late morning or lunchtime

Nor much in the blog dept from the small furry marsupials (Quokkas) GBR1236L

Working too hard and rarely within mobile range plus not previouslyallowed off rail by the skipper. Morale high. It is Mr Frys birthday andwe have sung to him. We are relieved to be off the wind at last. Wentround the rock in a thick sea mist. Only saw it when we were 0.25 milesoff.

Went round just ahead of Maverick. Coincidentally did the same at RoyalSov in the Channel Race. So we seem to be doing alright. We will bekeeping up the effort all the way home. I am writing this as we are halfway down the leg to the Scillies so it will not transmit till we are inrange.

Best wishesThe Commodore

Weeeeelll, we're almost there..no, no, not there as in finished, but thereas in at 'The Rock'!

It's not quite how we had imagined it, as visibility is lousy, it's dark,the drizzle has turned into a proper rain (what's all this about Irishhospitality?? Must be a land thing!) and the only thing we see at the momentis the light of the lighthouse on The Fastnet Rock.

Bummer.

With the forecasted wind and the nice wind shift, we should have beenrounding The Rock at about 8pm.however, with the wind dropping instead ofthe foretold increase and the wind shift never materialising, it is now10.30pm and we are just about to round the famous lighthouse.

A couple more tacks and that is us on our way to the next mark and then onthe home stretch to Bishop Rock, just south of the Scilly Islands, beforeturning NE to head for Plymouth.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.first need to actually get round it asthe wind as dropped and we're only making about 4.5 to 5.0 knots!

More tomorrow, might let Rusty the Salty Seadog do a blog as he is allowedout on the deck tomorrow! He spent most of his time until now down below ashe didn't have a lifejacket, but that's sorted now. So the Rusty fans willhear more of him then!

Marlies

Star Chaser GBR3205L

www.starchasersailing.com

Sue Pelling's Blog from yacht Heartbeat III of Burnham, issued at1530 on Tuesday12 August 2009

We've had an interesting time over the last two days, since we sent ourfirst report. Sunday night -  our first night - we struggled to reachPortland Bill lighthouse and after at least eight hours we finally setsail again, but not until about 0400 when a 8-10kt breeze filled in fromthe west.

Once round Land's End we hit a fresher breeze heading north to avoid theTSS, and stayed on starboard tack, sailing to the left-hand side of therumb line. All the boats we were in fairly close contact with aroundLand's End however, disappeared, and as the wind continued to fill infurther and further into the Irish Sea, we found ourselves totally alone.Even at night, when it's often easier to spot nav lights on the horizon,there was no one to be seen. That was, however, until we were joined by100s of playful dolphins who skipped around, weaving their way through ourbow wave keeping us entertained for well over half an hour.

Just as all of us were settling into life on board, and enjoying the big,rolling wave experience of the Irish Sea, our battery power failed leavingus in complete darkness with no instruments, and now way of communicatingby e-mail. Thankfully we have co-helmsman Clive White, who is also atalented marine engineer, onboard who managed to skilfully rebuild theelectronic system and after a few hours we were back on track again. Wepicked up the forecast backing wind which meant we were able to stay onport tack most of the way to the Rock.

The wind continued to build throughout the day on Tuesday reaching 24ktsat times and this, coupled with the big sea, made for a fairlyuncomfortable night for everyone. The temperature dropped too, and crewtiredness began to take its toll. A 10ft whale (actually it was aporpoise!) 20 metres away on Tuesday evening livened up the Port Watchcrew which meant Judy Payne James and I spent the rest of the night 'whale watching', and of course, watching out for other boats, because atthis time (Tuesday night) we'd still not seen another boat.

Although we are working on a strict four hours on, four hours off watchsystem, which works really well, tiredness among the crew was reallybecoming noticeable. A good night's sleep as the boat pitches and rolls,is definitely not in the schedule, in fact to describe it, it wouldn't betoo far from the truth to say it's like sleeping in a fast spin washingmachine. Nevertheless, we all feel a bit wrecked but we all still havesmiles on our faces and, when we rounded the Fastnet Rock at 1115 thismorning (Wednesday), the struggle to get here was made all worth while. Itreally is a magical, yet mysterious place but we were however, a littledisappointed not to see anyone cheering us on from the lighthouse thisyear. That certainly would have made even more special.

Anyway, as we rounded the Rock the wind was still up in the 20kt zone andwe cracked off slightly to make Pantaenius - the spacer mark - a furthersix miles on. We were joined by dolphins again here who seemed to enjoyleaping around our bow wave as we rounded mark, hoisted the kite andpowered off downwind. We're now currently enjoying the most glorioussleigh ride in the big rolling seas back towards Land's End.

As far as food goes, well, our good Kiwi fried Roger Temple has beenkeeping us well stocked up 24-7, and I honestly don't think I've eaten somuch in my life, and it's all been good too, None of that nastyfreeze-dried stuff that I was secretly dreading!

We now have 125 miles to go to Bishops Rock and if we keep up 8-10kts ofboat speed we're currently clocking up downhill, our predicted eta is 15hours.

whahooo, dashers on the homeward bounders.... In the irish mist...

Good evening bloggers. We have rounded the lizard and are pushing hard for Plymouth. The mood on board is good although we are attempting to eat all our pot noodles and hot packs to ensure best weight distribution. Note must be given to our grinders, especially Hamish 'the ox' Macdonald who enjoyed 8 hours solid on the pumps today! 15 pints waiting at the bar in a few hours for us please.....

an finally the sun comes out !

Just 4 fun.passed the rock and actually saw it. Enjoying beingelectronically tagged so friends can follow progress. A bit like having anaqua asbo! Cleared fog and suprised how many boats are around us. Nextstop and coms at the scilly's.Over.