24 June 2008
Hilary's Blog - 24 June 2008
We arrived in Lymington at 00.49 to the warmest welcome we have had yet. The shore crew had been here since mid afternoon, and it was obvious that Berthon Marina had done everything to make the whole team as comfortable as possible.
Meanwhile out on the water...... the tow back to the Looe channel was wetter than life in a washing machine. Unfortunatley, my electronics are exposed and suffered somewhat as a result. Initially I had little control over anything; steering, sheeting, you name it. Once the tow was dropped, and we started to sail, life got drier until eventually at least half of my systems recovered. I was left with no navigational information, but I have sailed the Solent enough to know more or less where I was going.
Problems with steering and sheeting were intermittent, but we made it past the forts and into Osborne Bay. At this point I needed some medication, and we did a crew transfer from RIB to boat. It was timed just wrong and I heard a sickening crunch which I knew meant that the gel coat, at the very least, had been pierced. I suspected that the carbon had also been breached and sadly this turned out to be the case.
The wind died completely and, with the tide against me as well, Arty and I struggled on to the west of Bramble Bank. I eventually gave in and called up 'SUB' for a tow into Lymington.
Page last updated on 25 June 2008 at 16:47