RORC Fastnet Qualifier, if there had been wind!!! 18 June
What a start to the summer! We met in Cowes on Friday morning to allow for some training before heading into our first race in the UK. The line up was myself & Matt, Scotty, Marky the Darky, Dave the Teach, Fatboy, Tash, Jane, Grado & Tim. We had light winds all day Friday so we got in plenty of practice with everyone doing different roles so when we get into watches there would always be people on deck who could do any job. We practiced so hard we missed lunch!
Our start gun should have gone at 8.20pm but due to a couple of tankers leaving the solent we had a delay of 30 minutes, which meant we missed 30 minutes of breeze! We hoisted the spinnaker and slowly made way towards Ryde, we anchored there around 11pm as the tide turned and we started to go backwards! Luckily not for long and we were able to pull the anchor up and get under way again, passing boats that hadn't even realised the breeze was filling back in. The anchor went down a second time but was up almost as soon as it had reached the bottom, we then held the breeze and made it round Nab Tower and under the bottom of the island. The morning seemed to last forever, but at least the sun came out and eventually we escaped our oilies and put on our shorts. We started making good progress but of course it wasn't to last. The wind died off again and as we sat there we knew it was time to make a decision, we were 7 miles from the finish but everyone in sight was becalmed, Scotty and Tim had to get flights on Sunday and it wasn't going to be long until the tide turned and we'd be off backwards again. It was a group decision and if one person had wanted to finish we would have done but everyone was agreed. We had set out and achieved what we'd hoped for, if not more. We now have 10 very good spinnaker trimmers, its the longest time in a RORC race that we have flown a spinnaker, we spent 24 hours in racing conditions and we were a great team.
We arrived in Brixham at 8.30pm, having drunk a bottle of bubbles on the way in! Only a handful of boats had managed to finish. We set off after dinner and headed for Weymouth to fill up with diesel, we certainly hadn't expected to motor all the way home. We arrived in time for breakfast and all ate so much we skipped lunch again! Grado & Fatboy stocked up with Sunday Papers & Ice cream to get us safely home and we had a pleasant motor back to the Solent in our shorts, finally my face has a bit of colour back in it and it looks like my legs will stay brown a little longer. We made it into the Yacht Haven around 8pm so the crew escaped quickly to try and get home at a reasonable hour!
It was great to get the crew together and it even makes me excited about doing the Fastnet, knowing that I get to spend it with these guys, we are already a Top Team. I just know this summer is going to be a bundle of laughs! Only two weeks until the next training session - Yeah Baby!
Back to Fluffy's Cruising Diary
Back to Home Page