Transat Day 1 - 24th November 2008
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Position: 26:31:50N 16:29:50W Transat Day 1 Well we’re finally out on the
ocean. We didn’t quite have the
relaxing morning that I’d hoped for before we left yesterday – I thought it was
all going a bit too well. An hour
and a half before we were due to leave the dock, I was just topping up the water
tanks when there was a bang and the sound of a lot of water flowing into the
bilges. I quickly realized that one
of the flexi water tanks had burst.
After initial thoughts of “this couldn’t be worse”, I managed to pump out
the water, take out the offending tank and found that one of the heat-sealed
seams had failed over a length of 50cm.
This tank stored about 80 litres of water. For a moment, I thought that we would
not be able to leave – disaster! After some deep breaths and lot of
curses, I decided that the thing to do was seal off the pipes to that tank
(hammered a large wooden bung into the inlet, together with a large dollop of
EvoStik “Wet Grab” – I think they should sponsor me) and take the equivalent in
jerry cans. Luckily, we’d bought 4
collapsible tanks in Lanzarote as extras, and after sending Rob to the chandlery
for 2 more, we had our capacity (if anything, slightly more). So panic over, just a load of jerry cans
wobbling around the floor in the fwd heads. The tanks weren’t the only thing
feeling wobbly. The excitement of
the tanks left me feeling quite emotional as we walked down the pontoon, with a
brass band playing, and said our goodbyes to our friends. Little Eva from “Samba” gave me a big
hug which just reminded me of my lovely girls back at home. Everyone else seemed
fine! We cast off our lines at 1145, and
motored out to hoots and waves from lots of people, and into the chaos just
outside the marina. The breakwaters
were thronging with people. There
were boats of all sizes everywhere, and we joined in the melee, and watched as
the big boats set off at 1240. We
hoisted our sails and turned the engine off. Then at 1300, the start gun went,
and with a cheer, we were off! We
had a good start, at the committee boat end, on starboard, gibing out onto port
into clear air as soon as we were clear of the ship’s stern. It was abit hairy at times with lots of
bigger boats getting within a few feet of us. I saw at least one collision but we got
away OK. We settled in with a NE 15kt wind,
with just 1m swell, and sunshine.
Rob & Pam took the first watch about an hour after the start, and I
lay in bed reading a book – luxury!
We poled out the genoa and set full main and mizzen and had a cacking
sail at 5-6 kts, with bursts of 7+.
I have to say I feel it is a bit of a shame that Sarah and the girls are
not experiencing this, as the conditions so far have been far easier than any of
the sailing we’ve done to date! The night was fine although the wind
was light and our speed dropped down to 3 kts. At 0430 the wind had veered enough to
necessitate a gybe, so we gybed the whole lot over onto port and settled down on
a course of 220M. I didn’t really
sleep – didn’t really expect to – but I think Rob, Pam & Sally have all
snatched some and I am sure I will catch up. We are heading parallel to the
African coast for the next few days.
The weather isn’t looking promising for a fast passage, so for now we are
heading in the general direction of We just had our first SSB radio net
– quite a performance with 80 or so boats to run through. It is my turn to be radio net controller
tomorrow, so we’ll see how I get on! Lots of love to you all and many
thanks for all your encouraging words & emails to nutmeg {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com {DOT} They mean a great
deal. Ollie
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