Our Last Blog
Calypso's Web Diary
Joe Drury
Fri 1 Jul 2011 11:04
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Hello all,
Sadly, once again we have had to retire. We have
been becalmed since the early hours of this morning with just 50 miles to go.
After covering just over 1200 miles by sail alone, we are pretty devastated to
be motoring once again but the forecast shows zilch wind for the next few days,
so little chance of a reprieve.
We are lying right off the TSS (traffic seperation
scheme) south of the Isles of Scilly, drifting with the tide and with 11
tankers sailing past; we are concerned that this is not the best place to park a
boat. Also Alex and I are pretty fatigued and we have work and family
commitments in the coming week - I for one don't want to push it with my
employer, they have been very good to me, letting me have a month off in the
height of the season and I'm sure my regulars are missing me! Alex has gigs
lined up and to be honest, after nearly two weeks at sea, we both need some down
time.
Still, it's hard to "give up", but we have
participated in the AZAB, and as the initials spell, we have been to the Azores,
and back. Our boat is in one piece, we are healthy and happy so it's a moral
victory for team Calypso, if nothing else.
We are looking forward to being met in Falmouth by
Alex's parents (of flyby fame), our dog, Austin and close personal dogwalker and
friend, Charlotte, among others. Despite trailing a slick of oily water from our
tired little engine, we will be flying the AZAB flags proudly and at this time
are making Calypso spick and span, ready for port.
Our stowaway Percy has been fed and watered and we
are preparing a comfy box to transfer him to his new home up country, where he
will tell tales to all the local birds how he has battled storms, fought foreign
seabirds, learnt some Portuguese and kept his crew safe upon the biggest
diversion of his homing pigeon career.
Thanks once again to all our supporters and
friends, I hope you have enjoyed our exploits and adventures. We have certainly
enjoyed being a part of the race, and we are delighted to have met the other
participants and been members, however briefly, of the racing
fraternity.
To the RCYC race staff Colin and Julie: we retired
at 0930 GMT at position 49:31.145N 006:06.333W. See you at the club.
Best wishes and thanks to all, this is Calypso,
out.
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