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TORPOINT MOSQUITO SAILING CLUB
Exocet Strike
Caribbean Tour 2005 – 6 |
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Delivery
Commenced the delivery in Sept from Plymouth to Cascais (Lisbon) which is approx 700 NM, looked for the best weather window and thus motored for 3-4 of the 5 days it took to cross Biscay and go down the Portugese coast.
Crew John Dyer, Brian Eagle, Ellie Littlejohn, Chris Denny.
Delivery
Cascais to Gran Canaria via Sines and planned to be via
Lanzarote. Flew down to Lisbon on 31st Oct. bad weather for 4
days so eventually set off on the Friday, 50 NM down to Sines, which if
anyone is going that way has free WiFi, absolutely brilliant. Next day
stocked up with more food and off to Lanzarote. Stella (wife) sending
e-mail and phone weather reports via the Iridium Satellite phone,
essential piece of kit. Radar very useful when crossing shipping lanes
off Cape Trafalgar. Another piece of useful kit was the DuoGen, in water
mode, never needed to put motor on except when no wind and kept fridge,
radar etc going no problem. Off cost of Morocco the weather got pretty
windy, up to 30 kn, luckily from behind. During the night we decided that
since the forecast was for strong winds for the next few days we may as
well go direct to Gran Canaria and miss out Lanzarote, since time would be
tight for the rest of the transat crew arriving. Going down the coast of
Gran
Crew John Dyer, Brian Eagle, Tom Telford.
ARC Nov 20th to Dec 13th 2005
After much preparation (mostly drinks parties it seemed) we were ready (were we) for the off. We were 2nd boat across the line at the start of the cruising fleet away form the general melee near the committee boat and sailing well, suddenly wind dropped to 3 kn and we could see the racing fleet 20 mins ahead of us heeled right over, yes a transition zone from running to beating. Suddenly into 25kn on the nose, that wasn’t in the script. That night was not much fun Dain sick, Zoe cold (her Dad had said you won’t need them it will be too warm – yeah right) rest of the crew not looking forward to going below much. Boat held together well though and next day much lighter. Day 2 about 500 Nm S of Gran Canaria I noticed that the furler foil had parted about 2/3 up the forestay, no option but to get in chair an go up and fix it. Luckily light winds and 2 foot swell, but it still throws you around when you are up there. Eventually got it fixed and when I got down I was advised that although I had asked for the boat to be with the engine on in drive slowly to go through the swell, this wasn’t actually happening, looked like the gearbox or prop had a fault. Adrian had said, foolishly that he wanted to go for a swim in the Atlantic so here was his chance. Came back up to say, what does the prop look like? Second time back up – no prop oh well we are a sail boat after all. Then the Sat phone went down. After a crew meeting I decided that safe thing to do was to turn back and fit a prop and get the phone fixed. After another 10 -12 hours, I somehow got the phone working again, so with everything crossed we turned around back on course. Big rollercoaster of emotion that day.
After this it wasn’t too eventful except due to very little wind we made slow progress and actually went as far south as the Cape Verde islands.
The whole voyage took 21 days, and at one time it looked like we might run out of the 25 days worth of food. Got there at about 2000 local time, and fortunately a Slovenian guy we had befriended towed us into Rodney Bay Marina, and off to the bar for a few drinks (We are a dry boat when at sea).
If ever you get the chance to do this trip it is a life changing experience.
Crew John Dyer, Stella Dyer, Brian Eagle, Zoe Lyle, Adrian Bassett, Dain O’Driscoll, Paul Hollett.
Rest of Dec to end Jan cruising the Caribbean from St Lucia up to Antigua.
Antigua Sailing Week Sunday April 30th to Friday May 5th.
First race is halfway around the Island from English Harbour on the South to Dickenson Bay on the North West. Had a great start and then fell in a big hole, only light winds to start with. Ended up at the SE corner of the island 5th on the water. By sailing good angles and spinnaker trim we fought our way back to be fighting for the lead. Just about to change down headsails, wind now at 20kn on broadish reach, then saw a big hole ahead and wind going ahead. Managed to break through with the other lead boat and left all the other behind. Got to penultimate mark and got the other boat in a tacking duel, and took 5 mins out of her which we held to the finish. Into Dickenson bay for the beach party. Then 5 of us back to our rented house in the ex Eric Clapton 5 litre Chevvy Pick up, great fun.
2nd day, lightish winds, got into an early lead and built up a 5 min + cushion when the wind did a 180 Deg shift and dropped to nothing, and torrential rain. Race committee abandoned that race and cancelled it for the day, big shame for us.
3rd day. Good winds, got into a safe early lead (boat ahead was definitely over). Got into clear wind, fetch to first mark, not sure why all the boats were dipping so much ahead after fighting to get so high, oh well. Round this mark and into a tight kite leg which then went ahead again, this was the second half of the round the island race started on Sunday. Into cover mode all the way to finish, and second bullet. Found aout why several boats dipping at start, prohibited area, in top class all but 3 boats were protested and DSQ, although they requested redress later in the week and got it – terrible race and protest management.
4th Day – Layday – lots of beer and Rum.
5th day South Coast Race, got away into a safe second and then took lead, quite amazed at our boatspeed. Uneventful race finished first again, quite unexpected.
6th Day Ocean race. Got into a good lead and then fell into a hole, no wind inching along, suddenly 6 of the 8 boats ahead by about a mile, still not going anywhere, could only tell who was who by spinnaker colour ( Ras Turner – yes he was there was miles ahead of us jousting with another 2 boats for the lead. The wind was very fitful and we managed to come back through the fleet and there were nearly 4 of us abreast going down the last mark, we were inside Ras but with 2 in front. Approx 2 mile fetch to the finish and we could not get past the other 2 boats, now why now. So finished 3rd for a change, All very depressed going back into English Harbour until Mark pointed out we had still won by a big margin and how often did we expect to win or even get third – mood up. Back to the bar for a celebration, great meal and free sweet in Ricarts at Catamaran Marina.
Saturday is prizegiving – so we were stripping the race gear down and putting the cruising gear back on for the trip up to Tortola and shipping back to UK. Suddenly had a call to say we had won best British Boat and the prize giving was about to start. Mad dash – and anyone who knows how I drive will know it was a mad drive down to English Harbour in the Chevvy and we got there in time. Very nice to have our name on 2 trophies in the Nelsons Harbour Museum.
Second prizegiving that evening, plenty of free beer and Rum, just about remember getting back to the house. Brilliant time, and I understand that the Musk Ox team are going out in 2007 to try to do the same.
Crew John Dyer, Stella Dyer, Brian Eagle, Kieron Kennedy, Mark Penrose, Andrew Ford, James Anderson (Col Retd), Alex Anderson, Christoph Tiedemann, John Jones, John Denny, Sue Denny (shore crew).
Final part of the trip was a cruise to Tortola BVI, which was brilliant and there were Stella and Mark plus myself. Brian who you may have seen mentioned on all the rest of the trip was absent, setting off on an Oceanis 523 back to the Med. Skipper John Dyer
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