Day 21 - Port Joinville, IIe d' Yeu
|
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 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 – 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 |
