The Start - Saturday 6th June, 12:30, Falmouth
The run-up to the start was quite a spectacle with nearly 70 competitors and countless other boats around to support the start and see us off; I can’t imagine there were fewer the 200 boats of all types crowded into a small area of sea in Falmouth Bay to watch the start between Pendennis Castle and Black Rock. I am certain I have never seen so many boats all at once in one place; to top it all off there was a large enough crowd in the grounds of the Castle as to be visible from boats. Although - having come so far down to the start - no-one had managed to get down to be in a boat to see us off, we did see the family of another boat’s crew that we had been sat next to at the meal on Thursday out to see them off, and so it was lovely to get a big cheery wave from them as we passed them somewhere in the melee of the wait for the start.
All stowed ready to go - including a box of 11 cornish pasties of a variety of flavours!
Dragon in the middle of a mass of AZAB boats all rafted up before the start.
Being in Class 1, the fastest class on handicap, we were the last to start and so had an hour of motoring up and down waiting for our start as the other classes were counted down and set off on their way by the surprisingly calm voice of the race officer (“yacht XXXXX, if it indeed you who has no sail number on, I trust one will be there by the time you reach the Azores?”), who like everyone else here has given us a warm welcome. Our cunning plan was, due to the length of the race, motor about a short distance from the start line with the spectator boats (and as it turned out half of our class) and then once the other classes were gone put up sails and sail across the line, aiming to start without any near misses or collisions instead of being too fussed about place: a far cry from the inches (if you’re lucky) of space left in a dinghy race! It transpired we were not alone in this plan, although possibly the most lackadaisical about the time of the start - we crossed it dead last, nearly 5 minutes after the gun due to a short delay hoisting the no 3 genoa we were using. I think it is probably (hopefully!) the latest i have ever been for a start but not a problem when you consider the length of race ahead; what was important was to start and get away with no problems.
Sat 6th June, 22.57 - 49° 20’ N, 5° 50’ W
Darkness has pretty much fallen now and I’m sitting typing this alone in the cockpit on my first night watch of the trip proper. The stars are appearing one by one above me, slowly taking the sky from the evening light and joining all the lights around of the other boats, mostly the other AZAB competitors who twinkle green off to port and red off to starboard, sadly a few also sparkle white ahead of us! There are several ships around although so far they have all prudently decided to steer clear and not try to thread through a fleet of over 60 sailing boats that are still mostly within a circular area with a diameter of maybe 10 nm, all of whom they would have to give way to as we are a distance west of the shipping lanes and of course non are using their engines. Most of the boats are still quite densely packed really, I've had to disable the AIS proximity alarm for Martyn to get any sleep or me to get any time not running down to the chart table.
Monday 8th June, 09:13 - 47° 41’ N, 11°26’ W
I had to stop writing the last entry then as we were getting too close to another couple of boats and the wind-vane was meandering slightly in the fairly gentle breeze, so I went to hand steer and never got back to writing. Since then the wind has come round to be astern and built. We spent most of Sunday with the huge asymmetric up, wrestling it down once we had started to surf at up to 12 knots; the sail doesn't have any furler or snuffer and so getting it down is a question of shading it from the wind behind the main and lots of grabbing and pulling to try to get it on the boat dry!
As the wind continued to build reefs were put in the main and eventually it was stowed entirely at about 3 am today; now we are sailing under a small area of the furling genoa only, yet I saw the speed over the ground (SOG) on the GPS show 14 knots an hour or so ago during a surf. The waves are pretty massive at the moment which made rounding up into the wind to drop the main a question of timing as much as anything. The autopilot is doing a good job keeping us on course, although we are having to run the engine every few hours to keep the batteries topped up. We’re actually making quite quick progress not that far off the rhumb line and slowly overhauling a couple of boats on the AIS, the number visible onscreen now about 5 as the fleet spread out.
Also in overnight on the VHF were news of two separate yachts dropping out and heading for France, or in one case possibly straight home. On both boats the electronic autopilot was to blame - on one the gearbox failed and on the other it simply couldn’t keep the yacht on course in the prevailing conditions - both yachts made the decision that hand steering with only one or two people on board was not feasible for the several days of sailing still ahead. It is very sad to hear of people unable to continue after all the preparation and so on put in for such a trip, especially since one of the yachts was rafted to us in Falmouth before the start and speaking to the crew they seemed well prepared and excited for the voyage ahead. It was nice however to hear the camaraderie and good grace with which people spoke on the radio, wishing each other good luck, whether they were continuing to the Azores or one of the boats with an amended destination. This is why when writing a log you never put “to” the Azores but leave it blank or put “towards” if you must write an intended destination.
Onboard Dragon things are - touch wood - going well so far; we’re eating well as we still have plenty of cool fresh food from Falmouth so it was stir fry on Saturday, bolognese on Sunday and plenty of cornish pasties, bacon butties, quiche, custard tarts, yoghurt and fresh fruit in between times, plus the obligatory treats tub for night watches. We have received a message saying that on the water we were around 25th place out of about 65, although that number will most certainly increase dramatically once Dragon’s painfully fast handicap is taken into account. In fact if you are (or were I guess?) watching us on the tracker you will probably know far better than us where we are relative to the other boats, as all we have to go off here are the few visible on AIS and guessing where they will be in the fleet. Anyway, I’m going to leave it here for now as the irregular roll in these waves makes typing quite hard work!
Tues 9th June, 22.57 - 46° 00’ N, 16° 10’ W
We gybed this morning onto a course that takes us pretty much straight down the rhumb line to the Azores; it says something about the different timescale and mindset of ocean passages that that was the first manoeuvre of its like done since the start of the race on Saturday, and we are likely to be on this course for at least a couple of days more, if not longer. Sail changes and trimming generally get done something between a few hours and a couple of days apart, all rather different to dinghies where it is a matter of minute or even seconds! The point is though that very little has changed in the last 24 hours, other than the aforementioned gybe which has at least put the galley and saloon seats on the leeward (“downhill”) side, making for rather less sliding about when cooking. The roll of the boat in the sizeable waves is still pretty impressive though and provides moments of surreal comedy, such as when I learnt we had gybed by my lifejacket and jumper landing on me in my berth!
We’re still running under a fraction of the genoa, with the autopilot steering and running the engine at times to keep the batteries charged up. Watches are kept from down below as the cockpit is a place where you need to be clipped on and holding on tight, all the while risking a soaking from a rogue wave breaking as it hits us and sending what can only be described as a lump of water over the boat, consequentially we are now keeping the main hatch shut, although the washboards are out. Its pleasantly sunny but the NE wind is still keeping the temperatures well below what we expected to encounter at this latitude, although that does make sleeping easier. I’m definitely getting into the rhythm of the passage now and woke this morning feeling properly refreshed for the first time. Different things become important out at sea and its an odd state really that even my best attempt to describe sounds like an oxymoron: you have lots of time to think, read, reflect and so on but yet seem to never get around to doing things like writing this. The reason may not be entirely unrelated to the extra effort required to complete a simple task such as getting the laptop out and typing onboard a boat that is rolling by about 30 to 40 degrees and going up and down several metres in a rather unpredictable fashion, all over a period of about 10 to 15 seconds. Despite this fairground ride I have remarkably few bruises, other than on my knees!
Food becomes pretty important, especially when you are spending half the night up and about on watch: mealtimes have notably become less fixed, matching when we happen to both be up and hungry more than anything else: I know some boats report the opposite but I guess their watch system is probably less flexible than ours too. You find what works for a particular crew and boat I guess. There is still some fresh food but some stuff is running out: the pasties for a start are low! Once Martyn is up again I’m going to make some flapjacks with chocolate chips to nibble on night watch.
For those not used to cooking on a boat there are a number of differences between the galley on board and a normal kitchen: firstly everything is in reach without much moving around and the work surfaces have fiddles around the edge which are a sort of one or two inch high fence to stop items on the worktop or the inevitable spills from escaping so easily, although you would be amazed how high a piece of crockery can jump - thank goodness for unbreakable melamine! The other big difference is the cooker is gimballed, meaning it can swing to match the roll or heel of the boat and has pan holders on it, which do exactly what is says on the tin. The top of the cooker is also a useful place to clamp a mixing bowl etc. while cooking in these conditions. We have however, found a niche not exploited (to our knowledge) by one of the multitude of cooking shows available: cooking at sea. I think it would be a “smash” hit (sorry, couldn’t resist), drawing audiences from both the traditional cookery sector and those looking for a modern replacement to the likes of Laurel and Hardy.
Our world has shrunk to the small, bouncing environment we inhabit as the only trace of the outside world sighted recently was a cargo ship several miles distant and we have not seen or heard another competitor since yesterday when Martyn was called by the skipper of Outrageous, a Swan 47 and one of the handful of other boats carrying a young crew; it will be interesting to meet the people on some of the boats around us as we only met a handful of boats’ crews before the start and all we know about the boats that we were sailing near for quite extended periods of time is gleaned from one of the copies of the race programme onboard, which has the bio of boat and crew available on the website in it.
I’m going to go and make some flapjacks now so will continue my ramblings at another time! I must say if you’ve read this far I’m not to sure if I should congratulate you or be worried really….
Wed 10th June, 01:41 45° 17’ N, 17° 10’ W
The waves are now definitely either bigger, more beam on, or both. Whichever the case is, Dragon is being affected more now than earlier, although the dark leads to an unpredictability that always makes the sea feel rougher. All the hatches are firmly shut and the companionway hatch is also across to stop the waves that land on the coachroof every wee while from joining us inside. I went out to stop the engine that was on to charge the batteries and noticed that the wind vane servo rudder that is in the water behind the boat constantly and produces the force that turns the wheel being towed along by its safety line as the stock it is mounted on had actually snapped, presumably when Dragon was surfing down a wave (currently the fastest seen on the GPS is 14.8 knots, but the actual maximum may well be a fair bit more). Something to fix in the Azores, at least the weather is forecast not to be upwind much before we get there so we should have no issue using the autopilot and running the engine to top up the batteries. Still, we are making good progress in the right direction, have come half the distance from Falmouth, and the chocolate flapjacks are yummy!
Fri 12th June, 17.08 - 40° 11’ N, 23° 30’ W
Its sunny, warm (shorts and t-shirts weather - although that was true in Falmouth for me but most the other crews seemed to disagree), there is a force 3/4 blowing on a beam reach over a gentle swell and we’re making about 7 knots directly towards Saõ Miguel, the largest of the 9 islands of the Azores Archipelago and now less than 200 miles away. The finish is off Ponta Delgada on the southern shore of the island, and we know that at least the first boat to finish is already there. At one point it looked like we would possibly make it in under the one week mark (midday Saturday) but due to a frustrating spell of very little wind last night - that caused the sails to slat across the boat terribly as Dragon rolled in the residual swell from the previous few days' winds - with the current conditions we are looking at an arrival either tomorrow evening or Sunday morning.
We’re still eating well, even if the concept of normal mealtimes has well and truly gone out of the window, half a pan of stew sits on the cooker to reheat later and there is still a range of fresh veg that have survived quite well, although the tatties have all started sprouting.
Other than a few fishing boats and a couple of cargo boats there has been nothing on the AIS for several days now, and certainly no sign of any of the other AZAB boats, although we know from messages passed on the the satellite tracking that there are some not too far away - odd!
The Finish - Saturday 13th June 19.29, Ponta Delgada Harbour
As we approached Saõ Miguel the wind backed towards west but never too far to hold the westernmost point of the island. To us this made the decision of which side of the Island to go an obvious one: we were approaching it quickly on a close reach; the finish line was slightly to the west of the centre of the southern shore and going to the west would put us upwind of the island and out of the lee of its mountains and the havoc they would play with the gentle airflow present. This proved to be a very prudent decision and one that meant gained significantly on the yachts that tried to pass to the east of the island because they were slightly closer to it and the GRIB (weather) files were suggesting it would be faster; this time looking at what was actually around us proved to be the better method.
A faint line was spotted in the clouds about 30 of 40 miles out but disappeared like a mirage; half that distance gone and the murky day suddenly cleared in the manner of a magician’s trick to reveal a green and mountainous island with a large mountain closest to us at the western end and a lower but lumpy area stretching off in an easterly direction. We took the western coast as close as we dared to and consequently got a good view of the beautiful coastal towns, lush green fields (the Azores are volcanic, very fertile and quite highly cultivated), and peculiar flat-topped rocks, remarkably close to leeward after a week out of sight of land.
We were greeted on the pontoon by others that caught out lines and welcomed us to the Azores! As soon as we had stood Dragon down we were invited onto another yacht to have a drink and met some of the other crews who had just finished, then headed out to find a restaurant in the town for a celebration of our arrival.
We slept well on Saturday night, although I couldn’t quite grasp being able to stay in bed all night and not need to get up! Sunday morning was sunny and we had the chance to explore Ponta Delgada somewhat and start fixing the few problems encountered on Dragon but I will leave that for the next entry, as I am out of time now.
Thank you for all your comments on Facebook and the blog and so on, I’m just catching up with them now!
