Day 21 - Port Joinville, IIe d' Yeu

Silk Sheets
Ben Shute & Fiona Kennelly
Mon 11 Aug 2008 17:56

We left port at 5:20 AM, Sunday 10th August, in blackness and set sail for Port Joinville, IIe d' Yeu 46:43.64N 2:20.7W

 

I had downloaded the weather and pressure charts for the next few days the night before and decided to head for a small island off the coast about 100 Kt Miles away, another big hope. I did not take into account the fact that we were now on CET (Central European Time) which meant we would, again, be leaving in darkness. I just want to make it very clear that we could not see a thing, three 5th of five 8th of F*^% ALL. I could not even see Fiona at the front of the boat, so leaving in a rather rough sea and a strong wind was probably not the smartest of things to do especially with out the Radar working. We all worked as a team to get out past the channel entrance and around all of the rock’s of which there were many.  It was like a sea of Cardinal Markers out there each one flashing now and again like a drugged out dancer at a rave party. If only I could tell how far away they were. I did have my trusty hand held chart plotter which is always by my side, something I have grown very fond of very quickly. I do not think I will ever be able to put 100% faith into the thing but I dare say I could happily put in 99 percent. It is amazing every time we found a marker it was where my little handheld friend said it should be. With out it I can promise you I would not be doing what I am doing. Hat’s off to the sailors that navigate from the charts alone and amazingly enough there are still plenty of them but I put those guy’s into the 60 years old and not out sailing club.  

 

It did not take long for the sun to rise it was a lovely day with a warm wind behind us and a fantastic sun to the front shining across the water. This was the first cheer me up for all of us, so on went the kettle and out went the rod’s

 

The kite went up pretty much first thing so we could maximize every bit of wind, however for such a powerful piece of kit that can bring so much joy and speed in light winds it comes at a price, it is difficult to fly, it seems to have a mind of its own and when ever a gust of wind comes along it will steer the boat where ever it like’s normally resulting in the sail deflating and cracking the sheet (rope that connects to the back of the boat) like a stockman’s whip, scaring the absolute SH!T out of Fiona every time with out a doubt. I think I have tried every way known to man flying the thing now, I have poled it out, pulled it tight let it loose and so on, another big problem Fiona and I have with it is that if the wind gets above 18 Knt’s which it can do with in minutes I can not physically get it down, even with the big sock that it is kept in designed for people like myself I can not do it so we try to fly the main sail in front of it to reduce the wind filling the thing up, we try going dead down wind, we try everything, we have even had to drop it in the water before. Well anyhow we were going along very nicely with the main sail out and as the wind veered off a little and the kite deflated and twisted around itself and the front sail, it then tried to re-inflate which it did in two sections so very very bad new’s, I ran forward and tried to fix it but no luck so down it went into the water in a hurry because I was worried it would rip, this was all ok until it went under the boat and got caught around the keel. A very stressful half hour it was with lots of yelling trying to get the sail freed and back onboard which we managed to do. Believe me Fiona and Craig were not impressed when I said it was going straight back up, but you know the saying if you fall of a horse hop straight back. Besides I was not having a humongous wet sail being stuffed in to the cabin. We pulled in the main and flew it once again where it worked perfectly for the rest of the day.

 

About 2 minutes after we were under way again a pod of Dolphins came and said hi, I think they could proberly tell we were all stressed and with a multicolored sail in the water I guess we were not hard to find. Thinking about it now they are probably the reason I did not catch any fish. They did cheer all of us up though.

 

It was not until about 2AM that we arrived at the entrance to the small port we were going to stay only to be crippled once again by not having the radar working. It is crazy over the last year I have only used the Radar twice and now it seems I need it every day. So again up the front the crew went and shouted back commands to steer her into her dark home for the night.  You would never of thought you could of packed so many boat’s into such a small harbor.  We crept in silently and rafted up onto a similar sized boat 3 deep and went straight to sleep after 20 hours of fun only to be woken up by the boat next to me wanting to leave at 7 AM. Let me tell you this sailing malarkie is not easy. I am always exhausted, sore and having to fix everything. Not sure why we do it but I guess if it were easy there would be a million more boats out on the water.

 

 

Special comments by Fiona:  This sailing business is bloody hard, physical work and never a dull moment.  Who needs the gym?!

It’s certainly testing at times and I’m living completely out of my comfort zone.  But I wouldn’t change a thing so far and certainly feel alive for it!!!! 

 

 

 

Day 021

Destination – Port Joinville

Traveling Direction – South East

Wind Direction – North West West (Fair Winds F4)

Average Speed 5.2 Knots (Moving quick all day)

Top Speed - 8.7 Knots Over Ground 

Total distance - 101 Nautical Miles

Travel Time - 19.52 Hours

Temperature – 21 (Lots of Sunshine finally)

Crew     - Fiona (Tired again but loving the sun)

- Craig

Missing Work - I do not think So

Expenses -

 

Next Destination – La Rochelle

 

 

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