Monday 21st November
Nowcrew
Mon 21 Nov 2005 10:39
Well we are on our
way but what start to the trip!
It all started with
a great send off from Gran Canaria, Tom the pipes did us proud with a 1/2 hour
of tunes as we took our place in line to leave the marina. The crowd gave him a
big cheer as we went out to sea.
There were bands
playing on the harbour wall and a very big crowd to send us on our way. Simons
wife Denise cast us off with a few tears in her eyes and we spotted TJ and Lee
our riggers from North Wales on the wall at the marina entrance as we
left.
The start was a
little tight as some of the bigger boats converged on the line. We got up some
speed and Andy decided to push the boat through the eye of a needle as we just
made it between four similar sized boats and then we were
racing.
We all
sat back after 30 minutes thinking the weather was fine, a clear sky, flat sea's
and a reasonable breeze but we were so wrong! An hour later we hit a big squall
with 10' feet high waves breaking over the bow.We were all drenched from head to
toe and endured 6 hours of very heavy weather. Despite a few panic's as the
crew all got used to their roles on board we found our way and were forced south
by the wind towards the African coast. The sun set very quickly and as darkness
came it was pitch black making the task of sailing the boat even more difficult.
We were all getting very cold and tired at his stage. The winds settled down as the night
rolled on however and by dawn we were settling into calmer sea's.
Because of the
very sudden onset of yesterdays storm we were not able to follow the planned
route along the rum line and have ended up going south through the night and
then after looking at the weather model, Andy, decided to re-route us to the
west. There is a big empty patch with no wind to get
around.
Everybody
seems to settling in now and after a breakfast of bacon butties we are are
catching up and getting used to the boat
It's going to
be a long 2/3 days until we find the wind. Most of the crew are doing
some sleeping while we write this, catching up from last night! We changed
our watch system on the first day from a 2 man to a 3 and sometimes 4 man watch
so there are some tired heads.
More
tomorrow.