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!!