The Final Leg
Chiscos - Atlantic Cruise
John Simpson
Tue 26 Jun 2012 09:13
50:53.410n 001:23.270w
After all our fears and alarms...as the song goes, we
arrived in Falmouth on a crisp cold June morning.
We had had a very challenging, but fast crossing from
Horta in the Azores, and completed the 1265 miles in just under 9 days.
We had some extreme weather - 50 knot winds and
towering 8 metre waves, but Chiscos coped well and despite some scary moments,
the crew came through fine.
There was some times when the winds didn't blow quite as
hard and this allowed our resident astro navigator to make sure the gps was
working properly...
...and also to allow a bit of tuition to take
place.
We arrived in Falmouth early on the morning of Sunday
17th June. We were followed in later that day by Mike and Alexandra on
Halo and the Heike and her crew on Endo 2. The following day Felix and Louisa on
the Pinta arrived after stopping for a night in La Coruna.
In true Chiscos style we organised a party and enjoyed a
great time with all the crews when they had arrived.
John then left us in Falmouth and we started to make our
way to Southampton, via Plymouth, Dartmouth, Weymouth and Yarmouth. We had some
really bad weather during the week, but we were determined to reach
Southampton on Saturday, to meet our reception committee!
As we made our final approach up Southampton water, we
were met by Graham and Geoff (off Nyda) in Grahams boat 'Shiatsu' This was a
great gesture and made us feel as though we had really arrived.
Shiatsu as she came up Southampton
Water
We pulled into Ocean Village Marina just after 2pm on
the 23rd June as planned, to a great reception. Hooters, cheers, lots of the
crew who had been with us during the trip, champagne and cake!
Our Atlantic circuit has been a truly amazing trip.
We have logged 10,817 miles, at an average speed of
about 5.7 knots and motored for 501 engine hours. What has made the
trip so much fun has been the wonderful crews we have had on board (we had a
total of 19 different crew on board!), and the great people we have met
along the way, both locals and other boat crews. The ARC teams for both the
ARC and ARC Europe have been great and I would thoroughly
recommend The World Cruising Club.
Thank you to everyone who has made this trip so special
for us all.
Fair winds and safe sailing to all the crews who are
still on their adventures.
Chiscos is now at her berth in Southampton, where she
will wait patiently until her next great adventure!
John.
Skipper, Chiscos.
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