19 July 2008
Hilary's Blog - 19 July 2008
We left Portland for Brixham at 7am on Thursday expecting to sail for up to 19 hours. We were therefore pleasantly suprised when our plan to sail out into Lyme Bay on one tack and then back into Brixham on the other tack worked! Leaving Portland Bill and the Races was a steep learning curve sailing wise. Coming away from "The Bill" the wind was on my port quarter so I was sailing on the fastest point of sail. The wind around the rocks is tricky and the boat broached a few times as the mainsail overpowered the jib. This took me directly towards the rock, a situation which, from my point of view, seemed like a bad idea. However we were soon clear and made it to our first way point ahead of schedule.
It's always great to arrive in port to the smiling faces of Paul, Jacqi and Helen, but it was especially nice to surprise them slightly by being ahead of schedule. We'd hoped to catch them on the hop, but they were more than ready for us, as usual... :-) It was particularly good to see Jacqi walking in a straight line and talking what passes for sense amongst the team in general, as she had brutally attacked the Land Rover's bonnet with her head earlier in the day!
The day after we arrived should have been a quiet day, with the sail to Salcombe planned for the evening; as it turned out it was nothing of the sort. My Godparents came down to see me and we were accosted by ITV South West's News presenter Sam as we were eating lunch. I did a short piece, but they wanted a live feed for the 6 o clock news. In preparation for that night's sail to Salcombe I had been given strict orders from Helen to sleep. I "encouraged" Paul to step into the spotlight for his television debut. I was aware that I was breaking the sleeping rules, but I was pleased to hear him perform. If demand continues, signed photos may become available!
The forecast from the Met Office for the Salcombe sail was F4-5, occasionally 6. This is the limit we have set ourselves and so we put two reefs in to be on the safe side. I was towed out of Brixham harbour and into Lyme Bay at 11pm. The water was so glassy that even Arty struggled to move at any speed. After 30 minutes waiting for a howling gale to hit us from around the headland, we finally decided that it wasn't going to happen and took both reefs out. Now that we were at the western end of the Channel, we are getting Atlantic rollers which, whilst big , I would swap any time for the short chop of the Solent (as would 'Me Too'). Although the wind picked up to a force 3.5 for a time, the threatened gale never arrived; this meant we arrived in Salcombe to familiar faces, including Alex, an old friend from UKSA. He kindly came out to meet us with the rest of the gang.
Paul's charisma obviously helped with Lorraine Bullock, from Salcombe Council, who has managed to rope off several spaces in the car park. Salcombe is on a very big hill which makes the yacht club and it's showers are inaccessable; the Council have done their best to make our stay comfortable, but we may have to use the shower in the van for the first time which could be interesting.
Unfortunately, we lost Martin Forster who, for many personal reasons, felt he could not continue with the remainder of the trip. We are all very sorry to see him go, but wish him all the very best. This means we are back down to three "Ribbies" so we will be taking steps to try and find another RIB driver to join the team.
Page last updated on 20 July 2008 at 11:15