Day 21 THE PITSTOP
Telefonica Black
Lance Shepherd
Sun 3 May 2020 09:39
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50:06.66N
004:31.06W
Hi team
Well the wind gods are misbehaving!
Just after our position report we downloaded new
weather, not good! A lot of head scratching and fuel calculations were
being worked out and we have decided to do a pit stop in Plymouth.
Its time to come clean with you all........now don't be
angry we just didn't want to worry anyone until we could speak with all the
friends and family of everyone on board.
So half way through our journey, 2000 miles from
Antigua, 2000 miles from the UK, 1000 miles from the Azores we had a knockdown
and ripped the main sail and the J4. Unfortunately the rip in the main was
above reef 3 and there was no way of fixing it. So outcomes the trusty storm tri
sail and we have been sailing with that every since. As you can imagine it has
been slow going however we are safe, well and always have back up plans.
The first back up plan was to stop at the Azores (we had
spoken to them and got permission, but would not be allowed to leave the
boat) to refuel/get more food however we were making good progress so
decided to crack on with the journey.
We then spoke with marinas along the South coast to
ensure we could stop to refuel if needed. As you can see from out blog yesterday
we thought we were going to make it.
Initially the routing was showing an arrival of 16/17
days, on top of that we always add 5 days emergency stock and then a couple for
luck!
Due to us being much slower than planned. our fuel and food onboard have been closely monitored.
We use fuel everyday to charge the batteries that run
all the boat systems (well until next year when we are going green with a wind
generator and solar panels!) and we have also done more motoring than usual. We
do have enough fuel to motor to Portsmouth today but it would be at 4.5 knots
and there is a weather system building with headwinds down the channel.
We didn't think we would make it before the headwinds so
we have decided better to be safe than sorry and pop into Plymouth.
Our main priority is to keep everyone safe onboard and
not be a burden on any authorities/communities during these unprecedented times
at home. If we carried on today and got caught in a foul tide, with headwinds
and with our lack of a main sail there may have been a risk. So a big thank you
to Plymouth for allowing us to refuel and restock.
Hopefully the winds clear soon and we will carry on
round to Portsmouth, if not Plymouth looks like a nice place to
live!!!
editors note* We would just like to thank Lance
our wonderful skipper for keeping us safe in such a professional way
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