News on 14th October 2005
Out Of India
Birgitte and Ray Charmak
Fri 14 Oct 2005 11:56
We have named our oyster 53 "Out Of India"
Having seen the weather report before we set off from Southampton I thought
we had been well
and truly blessed by the Gods.
A North Westerly had been forecast with 2 big highs in the middle of the
Atlantic.
We set off on Sunday the 2nd with a perfect wind however just avoided a
disaster at the very
beginning pulled off to find we had another mooring line we had not noticed
as this was put on by the Oyster boys when we left the boat for them to deal
with warranty issues, then when heading for the fuel
pontoon down the river Itchenor we went down the wrong channel fortunately I
noticed just in time we had 00 under the hull,and did a quick 360 degree
turn!
The wind was perfect went on our course without having to make a tack for 24
Hours then flat calm for 7 hours then the wind picked up it got to gusts of
a force 8 and Raymondo was honking up during his watch.I certainly was
questioning my sanity and sense of logic in wanting to cross the Atlantic
and go on around the world when my stomach could not cope with leaving the
shores of England.
Any way we made it and certainly made up for it in La Coruna on our first
evening on shore on Wednesday the 5th of October
when we went on a tapas bar pub crawl,certain crew members were a little
worse for the bars the following morning but a good time was had by all.
On the 6th and 7th the Atlantic was like a flat calm lake!! so we made the
most of it and headed for Nazare in Portugal on a 36 hour motor sail from La
Coruna
then to Cascais to arrive on the 8th evening Saturday, we figured we might
just as well cover as
much water as we could while it was flat calm and the weather in our
favour.We said good bye to Nicola (Dame Ellen) on Sunday morning as she flew
back to London from Lisbon and will join us again at Los Palmas in the
Canaries for the Atlantic Rally,it was sad saying goodbye to a fellow sailor
with whom in a short period one has shared some tough and arduous
experiences.
On the 6th we had a school of dolphins play around the Yacht there must have
been over a hundred it was awesome, we have had a number of dolphins come
and play in front of the bow but this large school was truly memorable.
On the 11th night we anchored in next to some fishing boats as a storm was
coming in at Baleria round the corner from Cape St Vincent at the bottom
corner of the South West of Portugal ,as we were anchored and the winds were
heavy we were up 2 or 3 times during the night to check the anchor at 4.30 I
get a shout from Alwyn ( Inspector Cluso) who is our most experienced help
for this passage, to say the anchor had slipped.we got up to find the wind
was blowing a force 7, turned from a southerly to an Easterly ( Bad for this
anchorage according to the almanac) and the anchor had got stuck in
someone's mooring line after getting the anchor up we found a rope 5 inches
in diameter attached and we could not get it off.
By now we were getting closer and closer to a 200 odd ton fishing trawler
which looked pretty solid and could do a lot of damage.It was just like you
see in the movies,no one could hear each other and the wind was tossing us
in one direction and the rope round the anchor another,and at one time we
got to 3 ft off the fishing boat, the only solution was to ram her into
reverse and get back from the trawler,then to try and get alongside the
trawler to Moore up to her,this we managed, which then gave me a chance to
see the problem with the thick rope forward,still stuck to the anchor.
By looping another one of our lines around the python!we managed to lever it
by standing and pulling from the fishing boat.Wow what a big relief and what
a wake up call!! when we got it off there was so much tension on the thick
rope it took all of Alwny's and my combined strength to get it off our
anchor.
We had now freed out of India.,decided it was best to stay moored to the
trawler till day break and wait or the storm to blow through,which we later
discovered was the tail end of Hurricane Vince.
A friend phoned Birgitta to find out how we are doing and told her
that when they went round the world the Pacific was even worse than the Bay
of Biscay.!!
After the Atlantic we will enjoy the Caribbean for a couple of years and
East Coast of USA and then may well spend the rest of our time in the Med I
don't think we fancy the Pacific if its worse than the Bay Of Biscay as its
certainly a lot more water! we
will see!!
We had a fantastic sail using the cruising shoot most of the way from
Vilamoura in Portugal to Chipiona in Spain today 14th October we are on
our way to Cadiz for the Oyster Trafalgar Rally.
Bye for Now Ray and Birgitte