10th June 2008 - Leg 2 Bayona to Povoa de Varzim
Bali Hai
Neal Stow
Tue 10 Jun 2008 16:36
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We have just arrived in Povoa de Varzim and for
those who are watching our progress on the website the fact that we came in last
is not what it seems. We, along with Blonde Moment, decided that we would
not use the motor and sailed the whole way. Almost all the other boats
motored for some part of the trip and so we are hoping that on the handicap
system we will do alot better in our placing.
The sail started well. We were second over
the start line and could have done better if I had kept my nerve and continued
sailing on collision course with Bouzouki but where we had right of
way. Unfortunately, not being a Mad Max, I chickened out and gave
way.
The weather was beautiful, sunny and hot. The
only problem was the wind - or lack of it. What there was also came from
behind, which meant that we had to use the cruising chute/spinnaker/big
colourful sail and we were unable to sail downwind and had to sail out at an
angle to the wind which added an additional 8 miles to the 50 mile course.
Not having used the spinnaker much myself and the crew having absolutely no
experience of it we had a few scary moments in strong gusts but overall the crew
did a splendid job of controlling the sail. However, I did lose my
watch during one rather eventful episode when the wind changed and the spinnaker
pulled the boat right over on its side. Rob was relieving himself in the
toilet at the time and so it was even more awkward for him.
For the most part we sailed along at around 5-6
knots and it was quite pleasant. We even had a pod of dolphins swimming
along next to us for 20 minutes or so and Andy managed to take some great video
footage with his camera.
Unfortunately about 5 miles from the end the wind
died and we could see black storm clouds with forked lightening coming our way
from the shore. When the storm hit we got absolutely soaked as, while we
put jackets on, we had not bothered with full waterproofs (Rob was not a happy
camper).
We were just ahead of Blonde Moment at the time of
the storm and we anticipated the change in wind direction before them so we took
off towards the finish line. But once the storm had gone the wind died
right down and they caught us up again. We were coming up to the start
time and manoeuvring to prevent them from overtaking when, literally only
50 metres from the finish, we were hit by a wind shift that caused us no end of
problems allowing Blonde Moment to slip past. We claimed that we passed
the finish line at the same time as them but if we were really
honest.......
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