Across the Bay....If I imagined our crossing across the Bay of Biscay, I could not have created this... We left Falmouth in very high spirits as the wind was light, so light that we didn't put the sails up for 6 hours, to me it was a dream come true. For those of you who sail on the Disco you will know what a year we've had with the wind permenantly blowing heavily and always on the nose.
We settled into our watch systems of 4 hours on, 4 hours off. It was by far the most pleasant offshore sailing I've done all year. The wind blowing from the south east we sailed a comfortable reach. Our first sight of dolphins came that dusk when 3 huge fins appeared across our stern belonging to bottle nosed dolphins, they were certainly in a hurry as they didn't even say hello.
Starting the 7am watch we decided to put up the kite as the wind had slowly come around behind us and was only blowing around 8 knots. When I headed off watch at 11am, Paul was ready to make a few sail changes as the wind had died a death, and was swinging in all directions. He motored for an hour until we found enough wind to keep us moving again. By late evening we were heavily over-powered, and the first reef was put in and up came the No.3 Genoa, this was the type of weather I'd been expecting.
Just after Suzannah gave me a shout for my night watch there were excited shrieks as we were joined by dolphins. These weren't any ordinary dolphins as in the phospherecents they glowed from under the water just like they'd eaten Ready Brek! The sky was amazing, there was no moon but the stars lit up the entire scene, and I spotted 7 shooting stars AND caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights!!
Unfortunately as time progressed so did the wind and it returned and stayed on the nose for the rest of the trip blowing over 40knots for a short period of time and staying a very steady 25-30knots for the duration. Luckily we had 2 friendly South Africans on board, our brews, Brad and Clyde, they need no nicknames as they are a whole new breed with stomachs of steel. Clyde being an Icelandic fisherman was more than happy to cook in these conditions, while the rest of us just tried to keep the food down.
The Disco was tried to her limits and took on a ridiculous amount of water, on the fastnet we saw it appear above the floor by the chart table, this time it was above the whole floor with bags swimming, bodies flying it was hectic. Far wilder than I'd imagined.
Matt decided enough was enough and we changed our destination to La Coruna in Spain which took about 70miles off the trip.
Matt B described the experience 'I'd been hoping to experience some big weather, but its a bit like an auntie, you really look forward to her coming, but once she has arrived you're ready for her to leave.'
Arriving in LaCoruna was a great moment for us and 2 days later we are finally putting the boat back together again after drying her out. We're going to be here for a few days as the wind is still heavy outside the bay and there are plenty of restaurants that need to be tried.
This week we would also like to introduce Mr G, he is our resident Grasshead, introduced by Paul and Suzannah as a birthday present to Matt, he is easy maintenance as you just have to top his water up and leave him in the sun. Pictures will follow.
TO THE FASTNET CREW 2001, My thoughts were with you this week as I relived that horrific experience again, for the second time this year and again found myself wishing I was dead and decided that it must just be a punishment for spending the next 9 months in the sun.... This crossing put the Fastnet into a whole new light and I decided I'd rather have done that again, than crossing the bay which was one and a quarter fastnets... but the reward of arriving in Spain rather than Plymouth is a whole new thing. The 3 Amigos this will really put you to the test. And Scotty, we broke the table again! I feel like I could now cross the Southern Ocean - AS IF!
Revised -- Friday 26 October 2001
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