Shake it Down Biscay!

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Thu 1 Oct 2009 08:39
Having left Southampton at 0600 on Saturday 26th September after a very long five years of dreaming then concieving and finally planning this round the world trip and spending the last two and a half years having our Discovery 67, Rhiann Marie built we are now well through our initial shake down cruise and are at a position 36:27.03N 007:15.6W and have about 14 hours to run to get to Gibraltar. After the excitement of the Launch Party (perhaps the first time there has been a "strip the willow" on the quay at Ocean Village?) and the Southampton Boat Show and the buzz and stress of frenetic activity to complete last minute preparations and paperwork the previous week it was an indescribable joy to cast of the lines that morning and embark on our maiden voyage which was to be a 1200 mile shake down cruise come delivery trip which would test the sytems and the gear aboard and also work out crew routines and watches and develop a safety protocol for the Atlantic. As we had four abourd we worked back to back 4 hour watches of two round the clock - this seems fine and could be kept up long term.
Almost immediately after entering the Channel proper we had our first whale sighting which was a small whale which we have not yet been able to identify. At Ushant through the second night we took something which I suspect was a net round our prop and brought us to a standstill, but a blast astern and then forward seemed to clear it as we have a rope stripper fitted  
We were fully expecting to have a rough ride through the Bay of Biscay but the forecast was extremely favourable - too "favourable" in fact and we found we have had to motor almost all the way. We managed a full day sailing in Biscay when we had F6 occassionally 7 and a further afternoon's close reaching to Cabo Sao Vincente South West Portugal - other than that short sails or motor sailing. Now while F6-7 may sound a bit of a pain to some it was over our starboard quarter and we sailed very happily at 10 - 11 knots and the motion and comfort below was excellent. To prove the point (as it seems apart from skipper I am also cook) I set the gas barbeque on the pushpit going with 25knots behind us and cooked all aboard a barbeque steak dinner! Biscay was kind.  We also ran up our new spinaker just to run through the sequence with the crew but this was short lived due to further lack of wind. We have had sunshine most of the way and have been working through a list of small jobs to be done aboard mostly that of system management and familiarisation. Generators run, watermakers run, fuel tanks and water tanks managed,  filters changed, batteries and oil checked etc etc.
We have had large pods of dolphins with us countless times, which have been hugely entertaining and we have frequently used the two person dolphin watching seats forward to good effect - this is a great feature of the boat as you can get eyeball contact with the dolphins and could almost touch them. Two of the crew also saw a very large whale broach 100 yards to starboard - but alas skipper/cook was in the galley!
On the afternoon of Wednesday 30th we had extremely thick fog and were ghosting along under sail. There was a bit of traffic as we were off the Lisbon shipping lanes and the fog horns of very large ships which we could only see and track on the radar sent a spooky reverberating sound shuddering down our spines. Very close radar attention and all hands on decks with lifejackets on and engine at the ready and our fog horn going. Then we got two ships closing in on us directly one with a CPA of 23ft at one point while a couple of miles off, the other not much different - one from Port and one from starboard, which of course would also have put them on a near collision course but for the slightly different TCPA's. We were under sail and theoretically had the right of way but this point was hidden by the fact we were shrouded in very thick fog and irrelevant due to the huge size differences at play! I could not turn to Starboard as this increased the risk with the starboard target and none seemed to be altering course, I called the first on VHF and got no response and then called the second who responded immediately and clearly and turned a few degrees to port to clear us sufficiently. Back to the first and nearest target; (it seemed we were the "target") when I got a response which seemed very sleepy, I asked that he alter course. He said he would alter 2 degrees to Starboard and I then asked him if he did this how much did he think he would clear us by (now just over a mile away - us doing 7 knots under sail and he doing 17 knots- and the TCPA now under three minutes) he said he would clear a quarter mile port to port and a few minutes later a container ship appeared 3-400yards to port out of the fog - Oh well it helps keep our "systems" regular. All in all a good and alert performance by the crew of Rhiann Marie.  
We are now running along the South of Portugal on a waypoint for the straits and with an ETA of 2300 hrs Thursday 1st October. We have a worklist to complete in Gibraltar but also have to return home for a few days at the beginning of the week.