The Off, 47:49.46N 009:07.1W
Ellatrout3
Tue 29 May 2012 21:55
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The good ship Ella Trout is off and going
beautifully.
The Start: Ten of my
family and friends with five children joined the spectator boat to see us
off. It was a lovely day, but no wind, which meant that when the starter
fired off his 12 bore stating gun nothing really happened except the
nearest boat got smothered with Johnsons baby powder. Being calm it did allow
the spectator boat to visit each yacht and friends could send their last good
wishes. Evertbody had a good time apart from baby Bea who was sea sick all
down her mum! Fortunately after 20 minutes the wind slowly filled in but so did
the mist and we all disappeared. At the Draystone Buoy I had a close
encounter with Thomas, on Marta, when my self steeriong went onto full
lock and I very nearly rammed him, I wrenched it off the tiller just in time.
(needless to say it's not working now - the first casuality!!) Then we
rounded the mark together in company with John Margusson.
The mist soon cleared and it was a lovely sail all
afternoon with a light head wind. During the night the wind got up, which
brought on my mal de mare, - for the sailors it was a hard beat into a force 5 -
i.e. a strong head wind. I reached the Lizard by about midnight and was
into the shipping lane by 2am. Sea sick and no sleep it was a vey bad
night, the only good thing was my heading, straight to the Azores - south
westerly. The strong winds and the course being straight
into them meant that sickness and shipping traffic lasted all day Monday
too. My sea sickness finally left me about 6am Tuesday morning, the wind
also eased and freed to give me a few hours easy sailing.
At the time of writing, 22.30 Tuesday, I am rested
and fed and feeling good. Ever since I left the Lizard Head the good ship Ella
Trout has been heading more or less straight for the Azores, how long will it
last??
Thank you all for coming to see me
off.
Roger/Dad/Poppa
Ps This and the last position was at the time of
writing, in future (once I get organised!!!) it will be at
1200GMT
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