The story so far… Hamble to La Coruna – 5th to 21st August 2012.

Today is Wednesday the 22^nd of August and we left Marchwood 3 weeks ago. We spent a few days in Hamble so I could finish work, had a fab leaving do at the King and Queen drinking Pimms in the sunshine. Then over the next couple of days, we said good bye to family before departing on Sunday afternoon (5^th of August) with a great sail to Lymington. It was a beat all the way, but the sun shone and with a spring tide, we were there in no time. Just as we got to the entrance we heard someone calling us on the VHF and my step dad Charlie and step brother Felix were waiting for us in Lymington. We enjoyed a BBQ and found that Sailor Jerry Rum (a leaving present from my brother) goes very well in hot chocolate and on BBQ bananas.

The Monday was spent in the Yacht Haven marina having electronics and a new rev counter fitted. This has meant we started our year with a brand new counter, so we know exactly how much motoring we will be doing this year.

The wind was not being kind and we stayed another night up at the town quay before setting off for Dartmouth at 3am on Wednesday morning. The hope being the wind would decrease in the night and make for an ok passage through Hurst and the forecast for the wind to swing favourable would happen at daylight. Needless to say that neither happened and we had wind on the nose and motor sailed for much of the passage. The first part was not that nice and Ethan was sea sick. Thankfully he threw up in the recycle bin which made clearing up a bit easier. We made reasonable passage time arriving in Dartmouth for 5pm. A shower at the Yacht Club and catch up on weather and Olympics was enjoyed before a good nights sleep.

On the Thursday we decided that the weather window to cross Biscay was not promising and we needed a few days R&R. The forecast was for sun so we took a leisurely motor (no wind) to Salcombe. A BBQ lunch was followed by the beach and the first swim in the sea this year. It was freezing and the boys couldn’t understand my fuss at getting in the water. This was because they had a shorty wetsuit and I just had my new M&S swimsuit. I will be writing to suggest the tummy panel includes thermals for next years range.

We were very pleased that the anchor and windlass worked, as it was un tested and we would be calling on it a lot over the next year. As we anchor I get to do the driving and Russell drops the anchor. This requires me shouting depths so we anchor in the right amount of water and he lets out the right amount of chain. As it gets shallower my voice becomes higher in pitch, especially anchoring at low water when you have to allow for the incoming tide. We laugh at this as when you watch boats anchor the same is apparent with most crews. We were dismayed by a 40ft plus Hanse with a couple on board half way up from Salcombe town to Frogmore Creek (our overnight anchorage) anchored in the channel very close to a beautiful wooden boat. She was obviously telling him that they were too close, and he was saying it would be fine. A few hours later they rock up at Frogmore Creek and again decide to anchor in the channel. Imagine my dismay as she starts reading the depths. 2, 1.5, 1, 0.5 and I am thinking – they are in the channel they should have much more water than that. We then start laughing as the voice increase at 0.3, 0.2, 0.1 and we think – why are they not aground. He drops the hook and we realise that she was reading the speed not depth. Perhaps I have been doing it wrong all these years? Perhaps my former colleagues at the RYA can enlighten me on the correct anchoring technique?

 

The next day we took a trip in the dinghy to Kingsbridge and had the best Salcombe produced chocolate ice cream was enjoyed. This is my favourite one so far. My mission over the year is to try as many as possible and perhaps write a book that you will all be able to pay 50p for from the bookman. We spent the afternoon on the beach with the beautiful people of Salcombe. Now if you have been to Salcombe you will need no explanation, for those who haven’t let me try and explain. If I was to say Made in Chelsea would fit in just fine then it might help. Lots of young people. The girls tend to be skinny and tanned (not sure if it is a bottle or from the recent holiday in the South of France). The men are not quite such good eye candy, but a few are not bad and I do not believe their trunks come from M&S. They play beach volley ball and slap eachother on the back when they score. The boys reward the girls with a consolation hug and kiss on the perfectly tousled hair. he gets a sly wink form the lads, code for you are in there later and the move on with the next point. There is always the fat friend who I cannot believe is comfortable in her Bikini but would look odd in a one piece, and the not so attractive male who is probably bank rolling the whole excursion. They rock up in a Boston Whaler, big rib or a White Shark (why are white sharks blue in colour?) which they anchor off the beach with all the others. The male with the most bravado gets to do the David Hasslehoff swim to it and bring it to the shore at home time. Now Weymouth Beach do not allow you within a mile of the beach in a dinghy because you will obviously chop everyone up. In Salcombe the beach is small and the propeller blades are massive, there is no RNLI life guard telling you the tide is too strong. Perhaps we are of a class where we are deemed responsible enough to watch our kids or at least we bring the nanny to do that for us.

We needed weather forecast so off to the yacht club full of nice to do people down for Salcombe week. On the way it seems the fishermen decorate their boats and do a procession and throw some water bombs. The boys think it is fab and want to get wet, Russ and I are not so keen. We manage to dodge to the pontoon and try and tie up. Now, another thing I have noticed this year is dinghy tying etiquette. Again, has there been an RYA update that I have missed. A long painter means that you can push dinghies out of the way to get to the crowded pontoon. It may mean your dinghy is at the back of the queue when you stagger back but with some pulling the dinghies part and you can get in. So why is everyone tying some very imaginative knots (what is wrong with a bowline) that straps the dinghy in tight. I had to clamour through 3 dinghies to get to the pontoon. I untied the multi purpose frapping knot and retied a bowline. They are probably still there now trying to work out how to untie it. A swift kick of the offending dinghy and a quick pull in on ours and we can all get ashore. Simples!

The weather forecast said it was going to be pants for a while so we sped of to Plymouth in a brisk easterly. Polled out the genoa and we were off like a rocket. Big following sea made for great surfing, of which I am the master and bagged the top speed of 10.7 knots. Russell maintains that he would have beaten it but the log under reads on the opposite tack. Falmouth Coastguard told us that the wind was due to go south west again so we sailed past Plymouth and went to Falmouth. There we spent the next week…

We started at Turnaware point at anchor and moved further up stream again at anchor. We planned to go to the smugglers cottage for dinner, but on finding out that the pub was closing and all the staff had been sacked (their interpretation) we decided against it. The wind started howling and we learnt that the anchor would hold us in fair wind or foul. I spent the night not believing this to be true, but in the morning we were still there. The anchor was probably so dug in we would need a JCB to get it out. The next day we dinghied to Truro and stocked up at Tesco and found a pub with wifi to check weather. It was not a pretty sight and we knew we would not be going anywhere and headed to a Marina. We then spent 4 nights at the Falmouth Premier marina. This was the cheapest option but 20 mins walk to town, and also the home of Princess Anne’s new yacht which was berthed a mere 4 boats away. I wanted to go and ask if she wanted to come for a drink later, but chickened out. Russell wanted to tell her that her wind generator was very noisy, or as he said ones generator was very noisy. This was not helped by 3 days of gales peaking at storm force 10.

We saw the Blades air display on the Thursday. We were surprised it was not cancelled but apparently they like it windy. We also went to the swimming pool which was near to the castle and no longer has a direct bus. We were told to get off at the Falmouth hotel which was a short walk. On the way back we found the footpath but the way there was via the road which was not a short walk up a big hill. We also visited the Maritime museum which has Ben Ainslie’s Laser  called Rita. This is the same name as his Finn. Oli would like to know why his boat is called Rita? I have tried google but no luck in finding the answer.

We finally set off on Saturday (18^th August) at midday. There was no wind forecast and we motor sailed in the heavy swell left from the gales. Oli, Ethan and Russell all succumbed to seasickness over the next 12 hours. We considered a detour into L’aberwach (France) but decided best to press on, hoping the seasickness would pass and not knowing what other weather window might be available. I have never seen so many ships going round Ushant, so we stuck firmly outside the traffic separation zone. Oli stayed on deck for the whole night, refusing to go below for fear of being sick again. He had puked on the galley rug, his trousers and on Russell. We bundled him up in a sleeping bag and blanket, and when it rained we covered him with waterproof jackets. Ethan woke full of beans.

Spirits were lifted by a number of birds who decided to come and hitch a ride. They seemed pretty tame and liked Oli. It was good to see him smile.

By the end of Sunday I told Oli he had to pull himself together and a good night’s sleep in his bed ould be best. He reluctantly agreed on the grounds that I stayed with himuntil he was asleep. This did not take long. In a day and a half we had managed to sail for about 4 hours, but the fuel gauge seemed to be ok on the low engine revs and a little wind assistance through the main. We tested the sat phone by calling my Charlie for a weather update. There was nothing nasty on the horizon. At 5am on Monday morning we got some breeze. We pulled out the Genoa and our speed increased form 4.5 knots to 7, we were finally sailing. Unfortunately it was not to last and 2 hours later the wind had completely died again. This was not what I had expected from Biscay. The seas were flat and no wind.

 

On Monday night / early Tuesday morning the tank was showing a quarter left. We knew we would not get to La Coruna on this. We decided when the tank went to red we would have to sail, however slow it was. The seas were calm and we had got rid of seasickness and settled into life at sea. We turned the engine off at 6am on Tuesday morning. Within half an hour we had breeze from behind and we put the spinnaker up. We were making 5 knots. All day it gently increased and by 3pm we were 2 hours off La Coruna and were doing 7 and a half knots, even more if we got a good surf. The sun came out and we were blessed with lots of dolphins who came and played in the bow wave for several hours. The boys thought this was brilliant, and after the initial removal of feet dangling over the bow for fear they would be bitten they were retuned in the hope that a Dolphin would touch them.

We were tied up in la Coruna by 6 and went ashore for a well deserved beer and ice cream.

La Coruna turned out to be a lovely place. We found the supermarket and enjoyed some tapas in one of the hundreds of bars and restaurants. I cannot believe that they can all keep going. The marina was pretty empty and when I asked the Irish Marina Staff if it was a bad year, was the marina was normally this empty. He said it had been a good year with as many as 60 visiting yachts, in the past they had 20. He said things in Spain were economically bad and the price of fuel was going up. It cost us €1.46 per liter.I assume it was built just before the recession and as such half of it lies completely empty. To berth out boat on a pontoon berth with water and electric for a year was euro 2500. This is stupidly cheap. A night cost us Euro 26 with a 10% ARC discount. We could even get wifi on the pontoon with our small portable booster. The showers were nice and there was washing machine and dryer, but I opted to use my trusty wonderwash. Now any live aboard must have one. It is a hand cranked washing machine. It is a drum that you turn the handle on. It works on pressure and takes 2 minutes to wash and 30 seconds to rinse. I wish they did a spin dryer and the only draw back is wringing out the water, so things take a while to dry, but I am hoping the hot weather will alleviate this problem.