Nearly at the finish...

So we're a few hours out and everyone is shattered as the watch system sort of fell apart last night so we could push things hard. I was almost seeing square after staring at the plotter, paper charts and ais for about 7 hours... Finally crashing for an hour and a half at about 6 so i could then relieve Andy ad in charge on deck as he'd been helming for 8 plus hours solid die to highish winds and poor visibility.

Today had seen good winds so far, we even got kite up for a while until it started gusting 35 knots! Now surfing along at 10 knots with the promise of beer spurring us on.

Thoughts have already turned to some of the more amusing highlights/lowlights of the trip... For example our dolphin "hit and run", the dead fish found washed on to deck by the waves washing over the boat occasionally, the occasion Paul and Tony went off watch asking the question "do you want to do a sail change?" bring told no and then shouted at to get up 7 mins later after they'd dekitted and got into their bunks!

I'm sure more hilarity will ensue over dinner later but for now we focusing on the finish!

It's going to be a long long night...

Friday 22 August 0056: So much for sunshine for happy hour this evening. What sunshine there was went away pretty quickly and the damp of an Irish summer set in, added to by the waves washing over the decks and occasionally giving us all a nice salty shower!

Steffan cooked us dinner without being ill (just!) and then we corrected our course slightly to get ourselves to the edge of the tss where we can turn East to home... Well to lizard point, where will we then turn slightly into Plymouth.

First though I have to navigate us past the scilies. The wind, combined with the pitch black enduced by the weather, means helming is difficult so Andy is at the wheel and it feels.like were flying... I am now "off watch" - for tonight this means sitting at the chart table wrapped in my sleeping bag to keep warm (I'm slightly damp around the edges) do I can keep a steady look at the chart plotter, the paper. charts as back up and the AIS. It's going to be a long long night...

Once we're past the scilies I will be able to relax slightly, but both Andy and I are going to be shattered (more so than now and the others won't exactly be fresh faced either) so must make sure we don't relax too much... There are still. A few boats out here with us so we mustn't take our foot off the pedal.

Wet and wild... Oh to be sure!

Thursday 20  August 1758: After some short tacking by A watch (Andy's watch team rather than mine, meaning I was being thrown around in my bunk) down the side of the traffic separation zone off the Fastnet (these tss zones are obstructions on course and time penalties given if entered) we settled onto a best course to windward as B watch came on deck (as close to the wind as we can steer without flogging the sails and without losing too much speed) towards the scilies and shortly afterwards the wind picked up... Forcing the other watch out of bed to help us change down the jib to a smaller one.  We were pushed northerly of our line, as couldn't quite hold the course we wanted, but after watch A came back on deck a wind shift enabled us to come back south of the line.

It's been a grey, wet and windy day but apart from the occasional slam over a wave and the obstacle course it take so get into my bunk it's been another fun days sailing... Although we've definitely experienced what the Irish (and Celtic) sea can throw at you over the last couple of days, think we saw 40 knots on our way West and haven't been far off the same today, which is nothing to what it can be on a bad day! A stark reminder of how bad things can be was the all ships call to Fastnet racers from the Irish coastguard, that had me leaping out of my bunk to listen to and respond... A yacht had set off its epirb (emergency beacon essentially) and wasn't responding to vhf so they were trying to get yachts in the vicinity to relay to the yacht. They were showing as moving on ais and the yellow brick tracker and eventually a nearby cargo ship managed to get them on the vhf. In this case all ok and just set off by mistake or unknowingly at a guess but it could have been very different.

We're now bearing away from the wind back towards the best route and have 60 or so miles to go to the scilies... The sun has come out, I'm in my slightly flatter bunk and it's happy hour when I wake up!

Rounding the rock

And we're round... Official time 03:49:15! Pitch black so no photo evidence, but a huge sense of achievement, especially as other boats also rounding at same time so we're not out here alone!.... Now just to get home!

Navigating the rock

It's just gone midnight, so early Thursday morning, I've just come on watch and find myself navigating us the last 20 miles to the rock itself. Andy is helming, and will probably do so until we get round. Once we're on route back across to the scilies he's going to need to crash out as the weather meant he was up a lot last night and today.

So this is what it's all come down to... Thankfully the 8 knots of wind I woke up in has increased and this shouldn't take us too long... But who knows with the changes in the wind we've been having this race!

On route to the rock..

Random notes from last day or so...

Drifting in no wind (again) around lizard point

15 knots and glorious sunshine across to runnel stone and round to lands end.

Wind dieing off again as headed up East side of tss, so sea merged into fluffy horizon of clouds as sun went down and we turned West to head, on the route to the rock, across the Irish Sea during Tuesdays happy hour.

Wind increased over night, at 25 knots put up the number 3, app  after the first reef went in. By my  second watch overnight we needed 2 reefs in. Tricky helming as no points of reference so Andy did most. We all had a go though, so helming in pitch black in up to 35 knots... What fun! Required a lot of concentration and was roosting by the end!

High winds have continued throughout the day, but can now see land (1445 wed) and have tacked to head back south to rhumb line as we had to bear away a reasonable amount during the night and this morning.

40 miles to the rock and the turn to the finish.

Frustratingly weather took us to far north... Now short tacking along shore to get to that rock... Time 1929 Wednesday evening. Rock by early hours.

Competition has retired:)

Sun up, kite up

0635 17.08.15: After a night of almost no tacking, and just keeping the boat moving were still in sight of lots of boats, the sun is up and so is the kite!

The night wasn't too cold, with some cloud and winds ranging from 6 knots up to 10, fairly consistent (although not quite) in direction until early this morning when it started going aft, so we hoisted it at shift change and now I get 4 hours off (a special day time treat) assuming we don't need to gybe or drop anytime soon as I'm standby 2...

Night night.

Looking through the looking glass

Monday 17.08.15 1829: we just heard someone on the radio describing the wind as "light and fluffy" which is a much polite way of saying there's virtually nothing than the way we'd describe the current conditions.

We're round start point, past Salcombe and in Plymouth Bay... The water isn't quite glass like but it's not far off it and were barely making 1.2 knots through the water. Happy hour is an hour and a half away and I don't think it's going to be that happy! To explain, happy hour is an hour with all of us on deck before sundown to have dinner (curry tonight) and check the boat out etc before its dark. It helps us get back into the right pattern having have had 2 4 hours watches during the day to allow for more sleep. Normally it's 3 hours on, 3 hours off so the one watch of 4 in every 24 hours is very welcome.

Apparently the multihulls have gone round the rock, but we can't get enough signal to get on the tracker so just gossip in the radio. It's taken them a long time to get there, so at least it's not just us little guys suffering and it looks windier come tomorrow and Wednesday so fingers crossed it helps the little dudes at the back!

Over and out for now, got to go check my hair in the mirror like water below me.

Keep on movin'

2200 BST 16.08.15: The aim of the game,  now we're out of the Solent is to keep on moving. We're now settled in to our watch system, I've had most of 3 hours kip and we're somewhere of Portland.

The bad news is we could be here a while, with only 10 knots of breeze we're barely doing two knots over the ground, and there is a little too much south and east in the course over the ground but as our speed over the ground is on, we're not going too fast in the wrong direction!

We can still see stern lights stretching across the horizon in front of us and a few starboard lights out on our port side. Looking at AIS we are not along in suffering from the tide with most of the fleet heading in a similar direction over the ground. At least we are not alone.

Everyone is waiting for the tide to slacken and the wind to shift north slightly.... It's all about keeping us moving in the meantime.

At least we didn't run aground on the shingles just past hurst, unlike one boat we saw... Not a good way to start (and finish) your Fastnet! Fingers crossed we don't make that kind of error... Time to check the charts!

Hot hot hot...

Monday 17.08.15 1445: just gone off watch, having tidied up after my mother watch duties... Cooking pasta and bacon down below in this windless heat wasn't overly pleasant and am not sure I'll get my sleep now I'm down, but we will see.

We, like everyone else we can see (and hear!) are drifting around in a slightly sloppy sea (the slop means every wave under us makes the sails lose whatever wind they had got in them spill out) with the kite up desperately trying to find some wind... It can come from any direction, we don't mind... Although if it came from behind we'd at least have the advantage of being one of the first to get it!

I can see the kite above me, it looks like it might have some wind in it... Or maybe not.

It's frustrating but it is what it is... We can see land and I'm hoping to be able to download some more grib files to help me understand what the wind might do next but the mobile signal is pretty poor this far offshore so no joy so far.

I didn't think I was tired, we've managed loads of kip each due to the weather so far, but now my head is on the pillow I'm feeling dozey!

Wind dances at home please! Just for us!

On your marks get set.... Drift!

With virtually no wind all morning, we motored over to cowes and picked up a mooring buoy to rest prior to the start. The start was not exactly what you might call a fast paced affair... We were wary of the tide pushing us over so hung back a little and joined the parking lot that included the big boats who started before us!! 

After a bit of patience, we drifted over the line with 0.0 boat speed before finally getting some very minimal breeze. Thankfully the tide is with us for a few hours yet and we're making 6 knots over the ground and are by Yarmouth... Fingers crossed we make the Portland tidal gate or we may need to go a little further offshore or anchor!! 

Race ready!

This morning saw me waking up in the Aztec crew house (thanks guys!) in Cowes and wondering down to the yacht haven to catch a ride with Karen, Jon, Gordon & Sally (second thank you of the post!) back to Port Solent to join Castalia and help with race prep.

Turning the boat with just mooring lines in a small space to get the decals on (don't look too closely there are bubbles) was entertaining to say the least... But we're all done, have just enjoyed a great bbq, prosecco & beers (third thanks to all those who contributed) and are leaving at 7am tomorrow morning for our 1220 start outside of Cowes!

Photos from the day below! Sorry if some repeats the blogger app is not great! 

It's nearly time...

So I had all these good intentions, to write about each qualifying race and then finally about the Fastnet itself.

Unfortunately, a combination of work, socialising, inshore sailing (including the mast down incident on Aztec a few weeks ago) and cycle training (sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/cyclerumcrawl) I just haven't found the time. The races haven't been uneventful though... 

The myth of malham saw us miss the Portland tidal gate, consequently drifting backwards overnight as the wind died completely. Additionally our water pump stopped working on the way to the start and despite I) a dodgy repair by our resident engineers minus one part and ii) then popping into cowes to get a  new one to install we ended up with no means for pumping water out of the tank for the whole race so washed up in sea water and restricted our bottles of water a little... Not ideal when the race ended up taking us 64 hours (we'd hoped for nearer 48) and resulted in a last minute day off as we finished at 3am on a Tuesday morning. The good news was we a) now had enough qualifying ,lies and b) got some good kite practice with both spinnakers going up during the race.

The next race was the Morgan cup to St. Peter port on Guernsey. We were doing really well until just before Alderney ,with many boats around us, but again got caught in some negative tide doing Abigail circle. We went round Guernsey in thick fog before finishing in time for a delicious meal with fab wine and a trip to the local nightclub! My fave bit... Phoning the boys to find out where they were at at 2am and being asked where the boat was...they'd walked the wrong way! The sail back with just 3 of us was also pretty good with gusts in the high 30's enabling us to surf down the waves at speed!

The channel race followed, essentially a giant round the cans race, where we went a bit too far south, losing too much ground. But again, all good practice, lots and lots of kite work and light wind helming.

So that now brings us to today.... Friday the 14th... Less than 48 hours to go! I'm on my way to cowes for the cowes week fireworks and tomorrow will hotfoot it to port Solent to help prep the boat and study the charts!

I'll try and post on here when I can but you can also follow team Castalia on the yellow brick tracker found via the Rorc Fastnet site... 

Just want to get started now!! 

The race for Moules Frites and beer

Our motivation!

Our first race of the campaign was the Cervantes Race on 2 May 2015 - across to Le Harve on the French coast. Aimed to be approximately 135 nautical miles, the course was set to take us west out of the solent and across to Anvil Point (the other side of Poole Bay) before turning to make our way to Le Harve. Hopefully arriving in time for a lunch of Moule Frites and some beer!

As this was our first race together as a crew, with the addition of my friend Alexis who I sail with regularly on Aztec to get us to 6, and as the forecast was for winds of at least 20 knots, we decided to use the Dacron main, rather than the full race main and risk damaging it so early on in the campaign. This was undoubtedly the right decision, as we started in at least 20 knots and experienced stronger later on and on the delivery back from Le Harve.

The start, from the RYS line in Cowes, was downwind and very busy. We played it safe, keeping away from other boats where we could and deciding not to put the kite up having not actually hoisted it as a crew before then due to the severe weather experienced on our training weekend (see blog entry here). This did put us slightly behind, but after watching a number of boats struggling to hold their kites, especially as they left the solent and headed across to Anvil Point, we all agreed it had been the right decision and started gaining on some of the boats which were struggling in front of us.

Le Harve Marina in the sunshine

It was a fun reach across to Anvil Point, before turning round DZB buoy and heading across the channel - for Tony and Rich for the first time ever sailing! Now that we were going closer to the wind and as the waves increased in size, we were soon getting sprayed by water and really starting to experience offshore sailing, it was also at around this point that we started into the formal watch system.

The watch system for this race, saw Andy leading 'A' watch consisting of himself, Rich and Alexis and myself leading 'B' watch, consisting of myself, Lyndon and Tony. We change watches every 3 hours, with one member of the off watch on 'stand-by' - so remaining fully kitted up, lifejacket included, so that they can be on deck as quickly as possible if they are required. On the watch roster, someone is also assigned 'Mother' duties for the preparation of different meals throughout the race.

For this race, my watch had the first on watch, so we were on deck just the three of us from 1600 to 1900, thankfully our course was such that we didn't need to tack during this time and the wind was fairly consistent throughout. We came off watch just as Andy had finished preparing the first meal and were then able to get some rest, although I was the standby so only really dozed in my bunk with one eye on the nav station which I could see from my bunk.

Unfortunately (or fortunately maybe) I am writing this several weeks after the race (and then backdated it), so I am unable to recall the exact details of every sail change and each watch. My residing memories of the race are of our motivation to get to Le Harve in time for the Moules Frites and Beer, of it being relatively windy throughout, with a sail change happening in the dark near the shipping lanes taking us off course temporarily, of Alexis being seasick (sorry Alexis!) and realising the watches in the dark go much quicker than those in daylight! Especially when we get stuck in the tide and can see the same bit of land for way too long during one watch, if not across multiple watches!

In the end we did make it to Le Harve in time for a late lunch, after a quick beer in the yacht club first to hand in our declaration form. We found a restaurant which served Moules Frites and settled in with more beers. Most of us asked for a large beer (how very British!) whilst Lyndon asked for a small beer - apparently the French waitress found this amusing and turned out to have a sense of humour, as said small beer was initially brought out to the table in a glass not much bigger than a sherry glass! The look on Lyndon's face was a picture!

The weather coming in...

The heavens opened whilst we were eating lunch and we all decided there was no particular rush to leaving again as we could see a front coming up and knew the weather would be bad underneath it. By the time we left the restaurant, the sun was shining and we walked along the back of the beach back to the marina to do some odd jobs on the boat before getting ready to leave - at roughy 6pm.

Leaving Le Harve in light winds

By this point, there was no wind and it was a lovely evening so we put up our cruising chute for the first time ever as a bit of a learning experience and patiently tried to make progress whilst the sun set and the moon rose behind us. Unfortunately the weather didn't stay quite as calm and we experienced winds of over 30 knots during the middle of the night, fortunately we could tell they were coming as they tended to be accompanying big dark clouds which you could just about make out against the night sky. So there was at least one sail change and an extra reef or two put in the main on the way back over. Typically by the time we reached the solent, the wind had gone again completely and the sun was shining on a glass like water so we put the motor on and made our way back to base - Port Solent.



So in summary it was a great learning experience, we came 96th out of 114 starters, beating a couple of very fast boats on handicap and we had a great time bonding as a crew.

Sunsets as we head out into the Channel with Cruising Chute up

Andy and Rich with the moon rising behind

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry

When putting a crew together, especially for something as significant as an offshore season, it's normal (and wise) to do some training together prior to racing and this was Andy's intention from the outset, however the best laid plans often go awry.

Our first outing was hampered by Castalia not being ready for us after her rig maintenance over the winter - so we went for a shakedown on a chartered boat just so people could get to know each other and to hopefully experience conditions outside of the Solent. Most of us arrived on Friday evening and went out for a few bonding drinks and a meal (with some of the work bunch who were also in Port Solent for a different event) before heading to bed to be rested for the following day. Saturday morning saw us leaving the lock and heading out to the Solent and beyond - luckily the weather and sea conditions were in our favour, over 30 knots and bigger seas than most of us are used to once we made our way round Bembridge and out behind the island. Unfortunately this did also test some people's stomachs and not everyone managed to keep their breakfast down – I now actually understand why people are said to turn green! Although sea sickness is not something to be embarrassed about, whilst so far I'm lucky enough to have been affected I fully expect that one day, probably when I'm least expecting it, it will hit me full force and I'm not looking forward to that day. We did however still manage to do a few manoeuvres and if nothing else practised putting reefs into the mainsail before heading back into Port Solent. After packing the boat up we all headed round to Andy’s house to see Castalia and have a beer together. Very jealous of the walk out of the back door onto the pontoon and the boat arrangement that Andy has going on and it was great to see the boat which will be taking us around the Fastnet rock later in the year.

Our second outing was more successful, starting on Saturday morning we made our way out of the lock – this time on Castalia and headed out into the Solent. Our plan was to practise manoeuvres, man over board, using the emergency tiller etc. aiming for Lymington at the other end of the Solent.  Again it was quite windy, so we got the sails up complete with reefs in the main and started making our way – Andy then pretended the wheel wasn’t engaging with the rudder and we suddenly found ourselves fitting the emergency tiller – a big heavy metal L-shaped bar which fits into a fitting at the stern of the boat. Everything about it makes me hope we never have to use it for a prolonged period of time – firstly it’s fiddly to get the cap on the fitting out, using a winch handle that is hard to turn in the space available, secondly lifting the bar in is heavy and awkward work and thirdly it’s heavy to helm, often requiring two people one on each side to enable it to be moved.

As the wind got up, we put more reefs in the main and decided it was as good a time as any to practice putting the storm jib up instead of the number 4. Probably not quite as windy as it would be to use it for real, but definitely a good experience – even if I only witnessed it from the safety of the cockpit letting the idiot men go up to the front and get soaking wet! As we progressed to Lymington, we noticed a top gust of 47 knots but after that particular gust we don’t really know what the wind was doing as our anemometer (which had recently been reattached) blew straight off the top of the mast, leaving us without a wind reading for the rest of the weekend – given what happened the following day this was probably a good thing!

We eventually got to Lymington and were all very happy to discover what have to be some of the best showers on the south coast – complete with heated towel rails and underfloor heating in every shower, before heading to a nearby pub for a much deserved hot meal and some drinks. We risked looking at the weather forecast over dinner only to be presented with warnings for the whole of the UK – it was going to be an interesting ride back to Port Solent! 

We were proved right about it being an interesting ride home - forecast for Force 9 winds, but definitely hit at least an F10 at times. Bramble bank recorded an average base wind of 45 knots that day and a friend saw a gust of 62 knots further down the Solent. It was time to use our storm jib for real - and Castalia managed 10 knots with just this tiny orange handkerchief at the front to pull us along! 

Storm jib in action

This really doesn't do the size of the waves justice

If we'd hoped it would be a bit calmer on the way up Portsmouth Harbour to Port Solent we were only going to be disappointed - Castalia was heeling over with no sails up even right outside the entrance to the lock and it was just as gusty on the other side in the 'shelter' of the marina. I did not envy Andy having to moor up in those conditions! 

Whilst our plans for practicing manoeuvres went awry, we did at least get to experience what those kind of weather conditions are like - that was certainly the most wind I've ever seen from a yacht - whilst still in the relative safety of the Solent. Not many other boats were out there with us that day I can tell you! 

Next stop - our first qualifying race to Le Harve!