And then there were two......
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sun 7 Feb 2010 13:58
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Sunday 7th February
Scotland is a beautiful place at all times of the
year, but winter in the frosty and snow covered Highlands around our home is
breathtaking. Our trip home was completely full on. All days, I spent working at
Gael Force with a fantastic team, who have worked through difficult
challenges to keep the business on track and moving ahead which is exactly what
we are doing. We are growing sales and developing new business streams in the
teeth of a tough recession, which I happen to believe will continue for the next
two to three years (the recession I mean). Its a good name for us - Gael Force -
kinda says it all. God, I miss the daily craic and buzz of business at Gael
Force, and all the people there, and I would go stale or insane if I did not
have such a compelling, and interesting challenge at hand in our
circumnavigation. All evenings were spent with friends and family at
dinners and ceilidhs, and it was great catching up. I also realised that
the blog readership seems to have extended considerably beyond
the expected dozen immediate family. I better be careful what I
say from now on - then again probably not.
After spending a fantastic 10 days at home I am now
back aboard with all the crew - that is the brave Trish.
This state of affairs is no reflection I assure you
on the brutal regeme of sailing from one tropical island to another
(notwithstanding the fact that one island was Gran Canaria and the next, three
and a half thousand miles away was Antigua) always at 200 miles per 24 hours,
and a diet of barbequed ribs, mahi mahi and rum in all its forms. And it is
certainly no reflection on the Trish. No, no, this is just that I am very
hard to live with. Just kidding - I think.
Trish and I have been very much looking forward
to spending time with just the two of us aboard. We think we have had only
one night aboard alone since we got the boat. That was in
Southampton the night after the boat show! Oops, Trish just reminded me of
two nights in the Canary Islands - how could I forget.
We have to sail about 1400 miles to the canal but I
am perfectly happy to do that, even alone. Though the boat is large at 67ft it
really is geared to short handed sailing and either I stay offshore and
grab sleep here and there or make "short" 100 mile plus day sails from anchorage
to anchorage, either way - no problem. Those who know me may remember that a few
years ago I sailed round Britain and Ireland (how could you forget, I am always
banging on about it!) - everything to starboard, except Rockall - yeah,
call me a pussy - alone on a Beneteau 40.7. This boat, called Gael Force
(and currently available for charter through Alba Sailing in Scotland)
though 27 foot shorter and 30 tonnes lighter than this boat, I can assure you
all, was very very much more challenging to sail than Rhiann Marie. So I am
perfectly happy to sail Rhainn Marie alone - however I am not alone, I have the
wonderful Trish.
I therefor am very confident and relaxed about the
next phase of the journey, Trish on the other hand is very apprehensive. On
Friday she was very tearful leaving the kids behind in snowy Inverness and I was
not. Not that I will not miss the kids, who are now young adults and seem
fairly well balanced, but that I see this as a great opportunity for both Craig
and Rhiann to chew up and spit out the additional responsibilities they now have
as young adults. We trust them completely and we have many friends, family
and neighbours who we are sure are there for them if they need anything. In fact
our friend and neighbour a farmer agreed at a wee ceilidh at our house the
other night that he would keep an eye on things, and as long as he was
invited to all parties, he would say nothing!
Trish's apprehension relates to feeling very
nervous about not being able to give me enough sailing support on the boat.
However when we previously sailed just the two of us on our Beneteau 473
(also Gael Force) she was a perfectly competent hand and generally helmed
except when berthing. Ironically she has sailed about 7000 miles since then
but feels less confident now. I think with so many boy crew on this trip
and with Craig now an experienced sailor Trish has sat back and let the
others do the sailing and this has meant she has got a bit "rusty". Also the
boat has had one or two problems which have dented her confidence, and of course
with all the kit aboard, it is very complex and loads at all times are enormous,
which I can understand could be scary. I will try to get Trish to
write a blog about how she feels, but of course she is just a little more
shy than I am. I hope she will however, as it will be of interest to others who
might not feel they have got it in them to sail around the world and she
has already sailed about 8 - 10,000 miles.
The next three days we will provison, catch up on
the outsatnding jobs, the most important of which is get the autopilot going,
take fuel and we hope to leave by Wednesday morning at the latest. We hope
to be in Cartagena in Columbia about 20th of February and in Panama at the canal
on about the 12th, of March for a transit on the 15th. Our main
concern between here and there is security. Safety has always been our number
one priority but the risks are now different. Being short handed our individual
safety is even more important, however in addition to sailing risks we now have
very real security risks.
The coast of Venezuela is now more or less a
"no-go" zone with cruisers being subjected to violent robbery and attacks. We
will not visit the mainland just the offlying islands which are regarded as
safe. There are also some risks on the Columbian coast around the dreaded
Rio Magdalena and the port of Baranguilla where people have been shot at and
WILL be robbed. Well, at least we know where we stand. So we have
researched the area, and taken first hand feedback from people who know the area
and we will continue to take feedback as we go along. We will also take
precautions with where we anchor generally and will tend not to anchor
alone. At night we have a security arrangement developed which we need to
review again but more importantly put in place every night. This is a little
difficult when we have been brought up with never locking doors - but given
the risks, it is worth the effort. Between these risks there are, as is the case
everywhere in the world, wonderful, kind and friendly people to meet and
beautiful places to see. Blogs from here on in will also not be clear about
how many crew are aboard, and may in fact even have some spurious
information about numbers of people places we are going and equipment
aboard.
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