No pain no gain
ULA
John & Jackie Richards
Fri 8 Aug 2008 15:23
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Position: 045:34.257N 005:47.625W
'No pain, no gain' is frequently heard at my
fitness training group sessions at home in Wolverhampton as we put ourselves
through lots of pain trying to stay fit and fab. Lol! This saying
could equally apply to the crew of the good ship Ula- at time of writing (1.20pm
8 Aug) we are approx halfway through our trip from South Brittany to La Coruna,
enjoying a great sail in gorgeous weather. We are bowling along SW with the wind
at 60degrees, full sails up, averaging between 6.5 - 7.5knots
The same could not be said some 26 hrs ago when we
left Loctudy in a wet SW force 6 and rough seas. Given the ever changing weather
pattern of the last week or so, we had obtained a forecast which gave us a
weather window when the wind was due to veer west and then north west in Biscay
over Friday and certainly the earlier part of the weekend so we decided to go
for it. Unfortunately this meant leaving Brittany in a poor forecast and just
sticking at it for several hours before we got the better weather in Biscay.
Loctudy marina had been slowly filling up on Wed pm as everyone started coming
in from Iles de Glenan before the poor weather arrived overnight. We and
Libertad were among only a handful; of boats leaving on Thursday.(Les anglais
sont fous!)
Only an hour in we were seriously questioning our
sanity, when the forecast SW force5-6 materialised in to the top end of a
force 6 and some pretty fierce squalls blowing through. We
motor-sailed for quite a while as we had to pass to the west of the
Iles de Glenan before turning off the engine,
setting the sails (double reefed main and a hankie out front) and heading on a
southerly course heading up west whenever possible.
It was one of those trips when going below was best
avoided with those inevitable calls of nature being put off to the last
possible moment. The mission of getting out of lifejackets, harnesses, oilies
etc and then spending time in the 'heads' can only be described as
'character building'!
Much to Laura and John's amusement I managed to
accidentally inflate my lifejacket in the cockpit while letting the mainsail out
when my toggle got caught in a rope. Lol.
A highlight of our rough weather spell was a
visit from a school of dolphins - we seemed to have both parents and babies
and they kept us amused for a good half hour playing in our bow wave and down
the sides of the boat.
Dinner consisted of sandwiches which in true Blue
Peter fashion were 'ones I made earlier' - thank goodness! We had a couple of
VHF calls with Libertad who indicated they were in 'batten down the hatches'
mode as well. We began our watch system and during John's midnight to 3am
slot the wind finally started to veer westerly and abate to around 20-22
knots. It veered further through my watch which enabled us to make still
further progress west. We had very little other shipping to contend with, unlike
in the Channel, with only a few trawlers, other sailing boats and what
looked like a ferry or cruise ship in the distance. By then the clouds had
cleared and it was a beautiful night with a spectacular array of
stars.
Dawn started to break around 4.30am. By 8am the
crew had started to dry out and get body and soul together again. Breakfast was
an unlikely Cup a Soup with french bread as no-one fancied the usual
breakfast stuff - even our ARC crew member and well known Weetabix addict, Andy
Castle, would have struggled to eat his usual
three this morning!
Hopefuly the weather is now set fair here for the
next couple of days. We will decide tomorrow whether to stop in La
Coruna or and carry on round Cap Finisterre to Baiona.
Adios, hasta luego!
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