Noon position Twenty Eighth June 46:0.9N 016:57.6W
Days run by log 111 miles
Dear Reader,
There we were, bowling along in hazy sunshine, doing about 5 kts as the wind
was dying, when it struck!!. FOG.
I've never seen it in the middle of an Ocean before and it wasn't forecast
anywhere. I dislike fog intensely and this was the real crème de la crème.
Everything was dripping wet and visibility was down to 50 yards at times.
Emotionally it completely drains you and it must be like Harry Potter feels
when he comes in contact with a Dementor..............it seems to suck all
of the joy out of your soul. What do you do? Its pointless keeping watch
because you cant see sod all so you go below to keep dry and jump up every
time the radar beeps on at 20 minute intervals. Then you also fine tune your
other senses like hearing and smell. Well I've been hearing voices all the
way over hear so you can imagine..........I nod off, hear people
talking....... fling the hatch operand hang there like a limp glove puppet
listening ......and listening and remembering that his voice was the
steering rope squeaking.......ah yes I remember. I did find and pump up my
foghorn and tested it but its as much use out there as a lemon in a brass
band.
The guys I really feel sorry for are most of the other racers as I was the
only one I noticed with radar,which incidentally I only thought I would need
on the 2010 race.
A lot of the others have AIS detectors which are fine near coasts and
shipping lanes but there is no legal requirement for ships to have them on
when ocean passaging. For the non sailor let me explain about AIS.
All commercial boats broadcast their name, selcall no, position, course,
speed, heading and if they are turning. A small boat can plot this on a
display and you know if any vessels are likely to run you down. If so give
them a buzz!
Anyway the fog went all through the night and even sucked the energy out of
the wind so at 6 am I took the poled out genny down and started to motorsail
north to try to get out of the shit. I had a series of naps and got up at
0900 to see...................wait for it...............yes the horizon!!
And that's not all...............the sun came out.......and
...............the wind came back. OK its only 8 to 9 kts but that's fine
and I'm still heading NNE for a day or so as the windless hole is expanding
up my wake.
In case I didn't mention it, my official position in the race was 15th out
of 43 starters, but there again I was one of the bigger boats. The race has
no rules, but I was a little peeved to find out that some who arrived before
me had motored a lot in calms. In fact seeing the cans being refilled in the
garage I can believe it. I did motor the last three mile because it was
getting dark but I only used 2 &1/2 gallons of fuel for the whole trip
mostly charging batteries.
The real heroes of the race are the guys in the smaller boats like Tim in
his engineless junk rigged 25' folkboat (which is a jester replica), Trevor
in an identical boat which is an exact replica of the original Jester, an
still bear that name. Graham has a junk rigged 20' kingfisher, Roger has a
junk rigged 21' Corribee, and Bill has a 22' Westerly. They all made it safe
and sound and I take my hat off to them. If you want to see the latest list
"google" JAC 08 entry list.
I said I would talk about food today but I'll do that tomorrow when I've
caught up on some sleep. I will recommend a very good book, which is "My
Old Man and the Sea" By David and Daniel Hays. Its a very moving story about
a father and son who fitted out their own 25 foot Vertue and sailed from the
States round Cape Horn and back. Its not just a sailing book but one that
explores the relationship of a father & son and is both moving and highly
comical. You have to read the sons description of taking a pee because he
was too macho to sit down. It was sooooh funny I almost wet myself laughing.
It said on the cover that it is to be made into a film by Steven Spielberg,
but I haven't seen it as yet.
As its been a more gloomy blog I have a quote from Douglas Adams to finish:
"A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely
foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
By the way did I mention that we have gales forecast for
Monday/Tuesday?................no?............tune in tomorrow when I will
explain my cunning plan.
|
