Ok we made it yesterday but don’t seem to have stopped at all!

We crossed the line at the perfect time, sun just coming up in the morning: we all managed a quick wash with the last of the water and donned our shorts and distinctive hot stuff tops ready for the finish line. 

Then the heavens opened! 

It can only be described as biblical. Within seconds we were drenched to the skin with no view of the finish line at all. To be fair we couldn’t see anything. 

After some comms issues we found the spare hand held VHF in the grab bag and made contact with the finish line. They suggested we headed slightly further south to the line! 

Steve took the helm for the final part of the race helming us across the line to victory! Again we didn’t win the actual race but we completed it and came in a respectable 5th against some boats with experienced crew who had done the crossing before. 

Once ashore we got our welcome rum and started sorting the boat and kit to move off the boat after an explore. 

The evening then involved drinking at the arrival drinks at the golf club. A great party atmosphere with more rum than some should have. 

Even Steve showed some shapes on the dance floor (videos in request!).

So after some decompression time what do we think? 

I would suggest most would prefer not to do that again. I however am a glutton for punishment and loved every part of the experience. Even when there was just sea and sky it was beautiful.

Flying fish - just fascinating to watch

Dolphins - always great 

Whales - only a brief encounter but great

Stars - lots of stars Milky Way and so many shooting ones

Sun rise/sets

Moon rise/sets

Seeing another boat and chasing them down

Emails from home ! There was life outside our world

Navigation at its simplest 

Weather routing - not had to consider it to that degree before and loved it

The sea - it’s power and majestic 

Seeing the sea blown flat in a squall and surging at almost 20knots 

Engineering out our problems

It’s hot. We lived in just shorts pretty much 24hrs and sleeping after night shifts was hard!

So what did we break? Well pretty much everything electronic

On the delivery trip the electronics took a hit from a load of salt water and whilst in Gran Canaria we sorted a lot of them and believed all at that point. There were however a few new gremlins that cropped up mentioned in previous blogs, here is

The list though

-Engine management failed - couldn’t start the engine but managed to create a work around 

- batteries wouldn’t hold a charge meaning regular charging morning and night, the solar helped during the day time though.

-Many of the instruments although linked seemed to give different readings!

-Mast instruments stopped working

-Echo sounder stopped working 

-2 x spinnakers ripped at the head

-Water maker only worked on port tack and we never seemed to want port tack!

-Guys for the spinnaker broke

-Fridge stopped working on day 2 so lost most our fresh meat!

-Our only reliable instrument , the compass, light stopped working so we couldn’t see it in the dark. We did use some fairy lights around it to make it visible but looked like a disco!

So whilst not everything went to plan, we achieved it. We didn’t bail out when the problems occurred but solved them and sailed on. Makes a better story that we drank champagne whilst the crew took us over. 

Some quick thank you’s to the team, 

Steve for having a dream and letting me join the crew,

Lyndsey and the kids for being so supportive and especially having to do extra work at home to keep everything running smoothly. Even if Florence’s quote of ‘I thought it would all fall apart but you have done really well’ made me laugh.

My brother, Suzy and Sam for helping hugely looking after Doris, and JC doing lots of other errands to help with the kids as well. I truly appreciate it in helping me achieve the trip.

stay safe and sail on!

C