Shake it Down Biscay!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Thu 1 Oct 2009 08:39
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Having left Southampton at 0600 on Saturday 26th
September after a very long five years of dreaming then concieving and finally
planning this round the world trip and spending the last two and a half years
having our Discovery 67, Rhiann Marie built we are now well through our initial
shake down cruise and are at a position 36:27.03N 007:15.6W and have about 14
hours to run to get to Gibraltar. After the excitement of the Launch Party
(perhaps the first time there has been a "strip the willow" on the quay at Ocean
Village?) and the Southampton Boat Show and the buzz and stress of frenetic
activity to complete last minute preparations and paperwork the previous week it
was an indescribable joy to cast of the lines that morning and embark on
our maiden voyage which was to be a 1200 mile shake down cruise come delivery
trip which would test the sytems and the gear aboard and also work out
crew routines and watches and develop a safety protocol for the Atlantic. As we
had four abourd we worked back to back 4 hour watches of two round the clock -
this seems fine and could be kept up long term.
Almost immediately after entering the Channel
proper we had our first whale sighting which was a small whale which we have not
yet been able to identify. At Ushant through the second night we took something
which I suspect was a net round our prop and brought us to a standstill,
but a blast astern and then forward seemed to clear it as we have a rope
stripper fitted
We were fully expecting to have a rough ride
through the Bay of Biscay but the forecast was extremely favourable - too
"favourable" in fact and we found we have had to motor almost all the way. We
managed a full day sailing in Biscay when we had F6 occassionally 7 and a
further afternoon's close reaching to Cabo Sao Vincente South West Portugal -
other than that short sails or motor sailing. Now while F6-7 may sound a bit of
a pain to some it was over our starboard quarter and we sailed very happily at
10 - 11 knots and the motion and comfort below was excellent. To prove the point
(as it seems apart from skipper I am also cook) I set the gas barbeque on
the pushpit going with 25knots behind us and cooked all aboard a barbeque steak
dinner! Biscay was kind. We also ran up our new spinaker just to run
through the sequence with the crew but this was short lived due to further lack
of wind. We have had sunshine most of the way and have been working through a
list of small jobs to be done aboard mostly that of system management and
familiarisation. Generators run, watermakers run, fuel tanks and water tanks
managed, filters changed, batteries and oil checked etc etc.
We have had large pods of dolphins with us
countless times, which have been hugely entertaining and we have frequently
used the two person dolphin watching seats forward to good effect
- this is a great feature of the boat as you can get eyeball contact
with the dolphins and could almost touch them. Two of the crew also saw a very
large whale broach 100 yards to starboard - but alas skipper/cook was in the
galley!
On the afternoon of Wednesday 30th we had extremely
thick fog and were ghosting along under sail. There was a bit of traffic as we
were off the Lisbon shipping lanes and the fog horns of very large ships which
we could only see and track on the radar sent a spooky reverberating sound
shuddering down our spines. Very close radar attention and all hands on decks
with lifejackets on and engine at the ready and our fog horn
going. Then we got two ships closing in on us directly one with a CPA
of 23ft at one point while a couple of miles off, the other not much
different - one from Port and one from starboard, which of course would
also have put them on a near collision course but for the slightly different
TCPA's. We were under sail and theoretically had the right of way but this point
was hidden by the fact we were shrouded in very thick fog and irrelevant due to
the huge size differences at play! I could not turn to Starboard as this
increased the risk with the starboard target and none seemed to be altering
course, I called the first on VHF and got no response and then called the
second who responded immediately and clearly and turned a few degrees to port to
clear us sufficiently. Back to the first and nearest target; (it seemed we were
the "target") when I got a response which seemed very sleepy, I asked that he
alter course. He said he would alter 2 degrees to Starboard and I then
asked him if he did this how much did he think he would clear us by (now
just over a mile away - us doing 7 knots under sail and he doing 17 knots-
and the TCPA now under three minutes) he said he would clear a quarter mile port
to port and a few minutes later a container ship appeared 3-400yards to
port out of the fog - Oh well it helps keep our "systems" regular. All
in all a good and alert performance by the crew of Rhiann
Marie.
We are now running along the South of Portugal on a
waypoint for the straits and with an ETA of 2300 hrs Thursday 1st October. We
have a worklist to complete in Gibraltar but also have to return home for a few
days at the beginning of the week.
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