Matthew and I had both managed to set aside a week right at the end of May and into June to try to complete our AZAB qualifying passage. There was not too much preparation to be done for the boat but a lot for getting away from work of course. The weather forecast was not too clever with all sorts of variable weather including a gale warning. We arrived down very late on Friday and promptly went straight to bed.
The next day came with loads of wind and also plenty of rain. We arranged to pick up Matthew and also to go to the chandler to get some charts both of north Brittany but also of the area round the Fastnet rock.
Finally around mid afternoon we were ready to go and Matthew and I cast off into a brisk westerly. The forecast was for strong westerlies until the following day so it was decided to go to Fastnet rather than Ouessant. It was still blowing properly, somewhere in the region of a five in the shelter of the land but it got up to a seven the further offshore we got. Also, for the first time in nearly thirty years I got seasick! I think that it was brought on by apprehension at the proposed passage along with some quite rough weather as we sailed out past the Eddystone. The galley sink was the place I reached and that rendered any cooking impossible for the time being. We continued to bash south with the idea that we could get round the Lizard point on the next tack. The wind direction suggested that we needed to get about thirty miles south unless the wind changed direction. Once well clear of the land the wind and seas built up will we had a solid force 7 and were pushing into some decent sized waves. It was quite uncomfortable. When I came on watch at midnight I joked to Matthew that I would prefer it if he didn't drive my boat into concrete floors. Nevertheless, Sarah G showed her pedigree and continued to bash into them at around six knots.
I took over at midnight and continued south for another couple of hours. As usual, I felt much better when on deck though it was still quite uncomfortable. We went about at 0200 and started heading towards the Lizard though it became apparent that we had miscalculated and should have tacked much earlier rather than trying to clear the Lizard after getting nearly a third of the way across the Channel. As dawn came up the visibility was not that great but we were heading more or less for the Lizard though the tide had turned against us and it was very slow going round.
The second night in particular was very frustrating as the wind progressively dropped to nearly nothing and poor Matthew only managed three miles in a whole six hour watch. The wind, what there was of it did at least swing round into the east and I was able to inch across Mounts bay and was off Wolf Rock by the time my watch ended at 0600.
Matthew had a much nicer sail with an easterly pushing us out to and past the Isles of Scilly. My seasickness had finally cleared up properly and we enjoyed leaving Bishop Rock behind us and setting a course for Fastnet as well as my cooking a chilli for lunch.
As the darkness fell around us, it was too cloudy for a sunset I turned in and left Matthew running before a slowly dropping wind. I heard a bit of swearing in my sleep and it became plain that the weather was not good. Visibility had dropped to near zero and the wind was both dropping and swinging round to the west via southerly. We had a look at the chart and it became clear that we were not going to make it to Fastnet and then have a chance of getting back in time for our leave to expire. I was also concerned about the shipping TSS off Fastnet with this very poor visibility. We therefore turned round and headed for home at about 0100. It was a big disappointment to have to abandon our trip but I think that it was the right thing to do.
The night watch was truly not a nice one with the southerly wind though it did go round to the south west. Visibility remained very poor and it was also bloody cold. I am resolved to get some suitable gloves sorted out for such night watches.
As the night progressed, the wind became lighter and lighter, the rain became more persistent and I was feeling distinctly fed up. Thankfully, as the sun got up the rain eased off. Poor Matthew came on watch at 0600 and I grabbed my now regular two or three hours sleep. At least our six hour watch pattern was working out well. I cannot imagine how a four hour system could be better for short handed crews.
We had made very slow progress on my watch and still had a good few miles to go till we reached Bishop rock again. In total we were looking like spending nearly 24 hours in the Irish sea – west of Bishop Rock for only about 60 miles sailed.
Finally,the weather looked like improving. The wind backed further into the north west which suited us very well. It filled in a bit as well so we were sailing quite well by the time we got to Bishop. The sun also came out at last and we had a great time past the western rocks and the Isles of Scilly. Indeed, had we not been required to be back in Plymouth, I would have been extremely tempted to stop for a visit to Hugh Town on St Mary's. It looked extremely enticing as we past. We also encountered some other traffic at last, not having seen any other yachts since leaving Plymouth. That, combined with a couple of fish boats, the helicopter and fixed wing planes as well as the sight of the Scillonian made for a positively busy water. There as not much shipping around though.
The north wester held on quite well through the afternoon into the afternoon and we hoped to be able to get round the Lizard a bit quicker than the outward trip. Of course the wind continued to drop into the night and I took over from Matthew with us about nine or ten miles west of the infamous Lizard. We had mis read the chart and were actually bucking the tide so it took the whole rest of my watch to get us just one mile east of the point. It did feel like an achievement though and we did feel that we were on the final leg with about fifty miles left.
I always seemed to come off watch to leave Matthew to cope with dreadful visibility. Just as he got up I saw a bank of positive fog developing ahead. The wind also fell away entirely just next to a crab pot. The main was slatting terribly so I simply took all sail off. The wind sort of filled in from the east and Matthew took her into the fog which proved very thick and not very nice at all. I felt him putting a tack in and found out that the area off Falmouth was quite scary. It was just lifting as I came up about ten and we could see Dodman point dead ahead. The wind was in the south east but a nice gentle force three and we enjoyed a nice coastal sail towards Rame Head. All was going well till we got within a mile of Rame.
The haze had been steadily increasing and suddenly, I noticed that not only had Rame head disappeared into the haze but that everything else was disappearing as well. Once again, the wind dropped though not quite to nothing. The tide was against us and we could hear warships blowing their horns in the offing. I really did not want to be out there as it got dark so we decided to call an end to the passage and got the engine on.
We still had zero visibility but Matthew did a sterling job at the chart table and took us round Rame Head and brought the red buoy off Penlee point up on the nose. We could still see no further than a couple of boat lengths but we knew where we were going. The only thing was I was definitely not going to tangle with the inner part of the sound in zero visibility so I had Matthew take us into Cawsand bay.
We had been looking forward to a curry at the Spice Well in Plymouth's Barbican but the fog did for that. It did lift a bit as we got abeam of Penlee point and we were able to get into Cawsand bay easily. We dropped anchor at about 1900 and so ended our trip. The sound was still as thick as ever and we heard lots of hooting from warships coming back into Devonport. We tuned into Plymouth port operations and heard lots of naval conversations about how poor the visibility was.
I think that in reality, it was much better to spend the night at anchor rather than rush back into civilization. We had a really peaceful night and the sunset was very spectacular with the fog falling down the hills into the bay.
The next day was much clearer and we motored across to Sutton Harbour where we first luxuriated in their fantastic showers and then went ashore for a very welcome pint. That evening we had our curry at the Spice Well which had not deteriorated at all and brought a very nice celebratory conclusion to the trip.
While in Sutton Harbour, I sorted out the third reef in the main and tried it out for size. It really is very small indeed.
We had logged just over 400 miles which falls short of that required for qualifying for the AZAB. I have contacted the RCYC who say that so long as I can complete 500 mile with Audrey we will be OK. We have given a lot of thought to it though as it is quite possible that we will not be able to complete the qualifications when Audrey and I try ours at the end of August. There is an innate problem with sailing any sort of triangle as you are more or less guaranteed contrary winds at some point which makes it more difficult to keep up good averages. We have various plan Bs. These include: cruising to an Azorean Island, cruising down the Atlantic coast of Iberia to get ready for our planned Mediterranean cruise in 2012 or scrapping all idea of any long distance sailing in 2011. We will just have to see what happens.
Anyway, the end conclusion was that our trip into the Irish sea was a success and we both enjoyed. I certainly was pleased to have my choice of boat confirmed to me as a good one.
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