Well in the end waiting for the best weather was never
going to happen. In the old summers we used to get the Azores High pressure set
in, the lows all tracked north over Scotland,
and you had a great run across Biscay and downwind along the western coast of Portugal.
Nowadays our summers seem to be in between Low pressures that track in every 3
days from the Atlantic bringing wind and rain.
So we found a gap between 2 Lows and poked our nose out Thursday
morning from between Tresco and Bryher and headed south past Bishop Rock
lighthouse, the Start / Finish line of all the Transatlantic runs and the race
was on, making about 9.5kts we would arrive in 1day and 18hrs – well that
didn’t last.
The pictures to prove we went past Bishops Rock Lighthouse
the start of our 460 miles across Biscay
At least going from the Scilly Iles put us 70M west of
Ushant and the TSS and meant all the larger cargo vessels were always well
clear to port of us as we all headed to Cape Finistere. For 12 hours we flew
down our rhumb line until the wind came right on the bow and left us with
options of tacking to France or New York, but we kept sailing into the night in
steady F4/5 over night on Suzanne’s
watch we got a big squall go over with 27kts over the deck and Suzanne was left doing more sail changes than Dame
Ellen.
We did 3 hour shifts which seemed to work out fine, but
the next day the wind just gradually disappeared and we were down to 1.7 knots
I could blow faster, so on went the engine and we motor sailed most of the
remaining miles, that’s when you notice the swell. David was fine but I
was ill, sick all the next night but as a trooper still did my watch.
Dead or alive, even after a shower I felt crap but at
least I had head down for 3 hours..
The highlights of the trip across where the numerous pods
of Dolphins, 2 different types, blue nosed dolphins and common dolphins, most
rushed over to greet us and swim in our bow wake at least it took our minds of
the boring trip as it just goes on and on you know!!!
As you can see we had no wind, calm seas, but what a swell
ugh
We had a visitor come right in the saloon and even flew
into our cabin – it looked like a swallow – so I named her
“Spitor Swallow” (David’s sense of humour), but after a short
rest she was away couldn’t stand David’s jokes.
Ended up motoring the last 1/3 of the journey arriving at
the entrance in the dark about midnight so slowed right down as nervous of entering
a new harbour in the pitch black even with all the gismo’s and floated on
the wind for a few hours until we could see where we were I went to bed for an
extra couple of hours.
Now at anchor in Green
bay, sheltered and not much swell. Going to bed
to sleep for a full 8 hours luxury and will explore La Cornua tomorrow as we
have to check into customs etc.
Good night from a very sleepy crew on Suzie Too xxxx
