44:35.4N 1:21.1W

It’s Wednesday 24^th September (my birthday!) and as I write, the Bay of Biscay is uncharacteristically passive as it stretches uninterrupted as far as the horizon in all directions. The wind is blowing about ten knots on the beam but I’ve still got two reefs in the mainsail to avoid arriving at La Vigne before high water tomorrow. Any earlier and, according to the Reeds Almanac, I won’t be able to fight the tide as it rushes over the shallow bar that lurks beneath the entrance to Carcachon – which, by the way, seems to be just a short distance from Bordeaux. And the irony of that is not lost on me as the dice seems to have traded a relatively easy sail with the torment of not sampling the local plonk and not celebrating the first successfully completed leg in typical style. Putting the brakes on has also given me the opportunity to relax, enjoy the warm weather down here and to start writing my first Newsletter since my ‘Dice’ voyage started on Sunday afternoon.

Talking of which, I’m sorry if you’ve been checking the website for position updates. They’re uploaded manually by me whenever I have an internet connection and as I’ve yet to set up my satellite phone properly, I’ve not yet been within 3G or cellular range since leaving Portsmouth on Sunday. Anyway, the position reports should now be live and should show a clear track of my progress so far. I’ll keep this updated as often as I can but please remember that it’s not an automatic system and relies on me being slightly more organised than I am!

Looking back, Sunday was an extraordinary day not least of which because two years of preparation (mostly condensed into the last remaining few hours!) had culminated at this pivotal moment in my life. Cousins and Aunts I hadn’t seen for years, slightly bewildered to discover that such an errant and dysfunctional gene had survived ‘natural selection’ to exist in the family, arrived to enjoy the occasion. Besides my immediate family, close friends and media, there were a few surprise appearances from various well-wishers and boat-owners berthed at Wicormarine who were clearly lured by the smell of barbequed bacon and sausages wafting over the pontoons!

On Saturday night, over an Italian dinner chosen (badly) by the dice, we (me, my mum, brother, his girlfriend Claire and my friend Hugo) created the first selections of six possible landfalls. Each one, itself drilled down from six localised options, was selected from areas such as the Channel Islands, Brittany, North Biscay, South Biscay, English south coast and as option number six, Cape Verde. We even thought it would be quite funny to give the dice an option of sending me to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight – just fifteen minutes sail from Portsmouth Harbour but I was psychologically and practically prepared for a long voyage and was relieved to see Bembridge, lovely though it is, outmanoeuvred by the Isle of Scilly! So, having endured an uninspiring tomato and mozzarella salad followed by a tasteless risotto, unceremoniously, the six dice options were revealed…

1                     The Isles of Scilly (English South Coast)

2                     Guernsey (Channel Islands)

3                     La Vigne (South Biscay)

4                     Canaries

5                     Ria de Camarinas (Near Finisterre)

6                     The Azores

Now, I’d love to say that in the media spotlight cashing in my fifteen minutes of fame and in front of so many people, I was a natural. A natural what I’m not sure but despite my very best intentions, I left so much unsaid. I wanted to make a brief but thoughtful speech in which I would express regret at not being able to share the moment with my brother Colin, with my nieces Emily, Hannah and Maddy, with so many people who I know wanted to come but were unable. It was a small consolation that I had spoken to Colin on the phone earlier that morning but as someone whose infectious enthusiasm for sailing has been my inspiration, I regret that I didn’t even raise a toast (or a bacon buttie) to ‘absent friends’. My only excuse; I had taken on far too much in the days leading up to Sunday. In the sleep-starved madness of chasing deliveries, provisioning and wrapping up one last event for my old company Roadshow, I’m afraid that on Sunday, distracted not just by the frenzy of phone calls, text messages, and radio interviews but by the beckoning horizon, I was focussed more on rolling the dice and casting off than on trying to make some order of the chaotic thoughts, emotions and fears cluttering my head. Well, at about 1130hrs, I rolled the dice (yes, I know… ‘die’) to reveal a three… la Vigne in South Biscay. The night before, La Vigne could have been Bilbao, La Rochelle, St Gilles, Trinite Sur Mer or Cap Breton but the dice had now, for a second time, chosen to send me to this tiny anchorage on the Atlantic coast of France. And that was it. No profound statement as “The Die is Cast” or “Where to Next?” or anything for the record to mark such an occasion. Just a few hugs… well, a lot of hugs and a short trip in the dinghy to Canasta where my single-handed circumnavigation of the world had just begun.

Flanked by Scott from Wicormarine and a few family members in the launch on one side, Hugo taking photos from a RIB on the other and my pontoon neighbours aboard Iona bringing up the rear, I was waved off in typical style. I was pretty pleased with the turnout for the shore party but was staggered by the number of people on route to Portsmouth who, on their own boats, blew horns, waved flags and even joined the convoy. I had dressed Canasta with ‘Colours Over All’; each of the signal flags in a specific order flown like bunting from the bow, over the mast to the stern. Hugo, the official W2N photographer for the day, was busy taking pictures all that way up to the harbour entrance where hi RIB started to get swamped by the amount of traffic up there. I’m sure he’s got some great shots which will soon be on the W2N website for you (and me) to see. If you want high resolution copies, email me and I’ll forward your request to Hugo who will make them available to you.

I’ve got just under 60 nautical miles to go before reaching La Vigne which means I‘ve already covered 450 since leaving Portsmouth. Most of it has been pretty unremarkable although up until today, I have been achieving fairly consistent speeds of seven or eight knots with an occasional nine as I surf down a wave. The most significant thing to note is the prevalence of shipping traffic in the English Channel making it impossible to risk sleeping before reaching Isle D’Ouessant and the Bay of Biscay. On reaching this turning point (and choosing the coward’s route around the island rather than risk negotiating the Chenal Du Four and the Raz De Sein) I made the decision to sail the less populated rhum line across the bay to La Vigne rather than hug the coast. I was so tired by then that I was fighting to stay awake but by staying clear of coastal waters, I’d certainly be able to nap for an hour at a time. Even at the wheel, standing up to ride the steep waves, I was succumbing to fatigue. I was hallucinating and struggling to differentiate between reality and dream. Vague forms around the boat became people. Unmistakably, coiled ropes on the cockpit bench seat became the legs of a scruffily dressed gypsy girl. Sitting on the top step of the companionway, I looked to starboard where an air vent (called a Dorade) was clearly the disembodied head and face of someone dredged from my subconscious. Noises around the boat adopted a human form as the autopilot hummed a cheerful yet tuneless song. And none of this was at all scary. In my semi-asleep state, I sort of understood what was going on and just accepted my uninvited crew with indifference.

You think I’ve gone mad now right!? No, well, this was just briefly on Monday night as I became consumed by tiredness but let’s be honest, it’s nowhere near as entertaining as digestive biscuits riding bicycles into parked cars to make the base for an enormous cheesecake (as was the experience of someone who I know will be reading this. That he was neither drunk nor tired makes me think it best that I don’t name names!) It was obvious then that if I didn’t get to sleep soon, I’d be in danger of misreading the charts or misinterpreting a channel marker and that could have been disastrous.

Finally then on Tuesday, alone again, not only did I get to sleep, I was at last able to set a course that after two days of downwind sailing, brought the wind over the port beam for a fast reach across the bay. Great sailing generally although after several hours with waves crashing over the bow, I discovered that I’d not closed the forward hatch properly! So, first job when I get into La Vigne is to dry out all the bedding and office paperwork that’s stored in there. The next job will be to repair the navigation lights at the bow which became temperamental fairly early on. Other than that, Canasta has been outstanding. She sails beautifully and as I write, with ‘Smith’ at the helm (the autopilot is made by Smiths Industries), aided slightly by a fearless small bird that stopped for a rest on the wheel and hasn’t left, she is holding a course with just the tiniest of wheel adjustments. I’ve been thankful too for the single-line reefing system that twice already has enabled me to shorten sail without even leaving the comfort of the marquee sized sprayhood.

So that’s it. No dramas, no dolphins, a bit of phosphorescence but I was too tired to appreciate it (and just watching it has a pretty hypnotic and soporific effect!) Oh, there was of course an outrageously sordid ‘dice’ orgy of dancing and singing to energetic gypsy folk shanties but that all ended abruptly when I woke up on Tuesday and with it, more lucky heather than I could have dreamt of!

I should be in La Vigne by tomorrow morning and will take some time there to make some repairs to the boat (only minor) and sort out the Satellite Phone. I’ll probably stay a few days and will take advice locally for the next six dice options. I’ll write again when the dice has rolled and let you know “Where to next?”

Happy Birthday Col’ although you won’t get this before Thursday.

Rob Clark

W2N Global Ltd.

+44 (0)7967 661157

www.w2n.co.uk