Sunday 23 June 2013

Lymington to Lymington

Our adventures in Taonui started in Lymington in 1996 and Taonui returned there at least eight times over the the next 17 years. So it is rather appropriate that we end our offshore sailing here. Taonui passed the purchaser's survey with flying colours and, with all the TLC before re leaving the Azores and thorough cleaning and polishing in the UK, she looked just great. It was hard for us to say goodbye, but we are happy with the prospect that her new owners, Ann and Glenn, are going to take her on more trips in the High Latitudes. She is to be re-named Gjoa, after Amundsen's ship, and Plans are to take her to the Canadian Arctic next year.

The prevailing wind along the south coast of England is westerlies, but, wouldn't you know it, we had strong east winds for all of the eight days that we took to get from Falmouth to the Solent. Perverse!! Nonetheless, we enjoyed the picturesque ports along the way...Fowey, Salcombe and Dartmouth. There reallyisn't anywhere to anchor so we were tied to buoys or pontoons, which was just fine with us as the rivers and tides run strong in these places. Passing

Plymouth we found ourselves in the middle of a nay/marines exercise with destroyers swooping around a rather strange looking pocket aircraft carrier and a series of eight boat high speed ribs roaring around. Coryn got a friendly wave from one as they hurtled by.

With the sale of Taonui complete we came up to London to do some touristy things.....Notting Hill Market on Saturday morning, two hours at the very well done Wimbeldon Tennis Museum, a matinee performance of War Horse (excellent) and, of course, the wonderful and free Museums. and the now restored historic Navy buildings and hospital at Greenwich and the nearby Royal Observatory with its display of the Harrison Clocks.

On Tuesday morning we fly to Malaga for a week's touring in around, Serville, Granada and Cordoba. After that we are off to Austria.

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Falmouth

I'm glad to be in. At noon yesterday I was off the Manacles, 7 miles from Falmouth after a wonderful sail for the previous 24 hours. Wing and wing, two reefs in the main and 1/2 the genoa poled out, a full moon. glorious sailing, easy and comfortable. Lot's of ship traffic to keep me attentive the AIS and the radar. 156 miles noon-to-noon. For the trip; 1,297 miles sailed, 100 more that a direct course getting around the High. 10.3 days, an average of 126 miles a day.

Today is cold, raining and blowing with more of the same in the forecast. It's good to be tied to a dock.

Monday 27 May 2013

Day 9 May 27 Great sailing

Noon-to-noon 164 miles. Great downwind sailing. Taonui is so good at this. Three reefs in the main and 1/2 of the #2 genoa poled out, Albert loving it. At dawn a big frontal area passed over, lots of rain, and out the other side, as forecast the wind went from SW to NW. Very confused peaky seas tossing the boat around. Went W+W on the other tack, but now, noon, back onto a broad reach. Still violent tossing, but it is going down.

Noon position was 49 36N 8 59W with 149 miles to go to the Lizard and then 15 miles into Falmouth Harbour.

Sunday 26 May 2013

Day 8 May 26 Great winds from here to Falmouth

No wind for much of last night, but a 00:40 it came in again from the west. So Wing and wing again with the speed slowly building. By 11:00 the wind had shifted to the SW and Taonui was off on a broad reach making 6.8n 7.0 knots. Lovely smooth sailing. I'm now in UK Shipping Forecast waters ( only 11 hrs to noon as clocks lost a hour) and the forecast for my area, Sole, SW Force 4 veering NW. Looking at this morning's weather fax, it should hold in the NW on Monday. A deepening low approaching northern Scotland. High in Biscay. And the Atlantic High has gone north and east, reaching all the way to Nova Scotia.

Noon position 48.44N 12.55W, noon-to-noon (11 hrs) 125 miles, 309 to go.

Coryn flies to London on Monday and will be coming down to Falmouth on Friday morning.

Day 8 May 26 Great winds from here to Falmouth

No wind for much of last night, but a 00:40 it came in again from the west. So Wing and wing again with the speed slowly building. By 11:00 the wind had shifted to the SW and Taonui was off on a broad reach making 6.8n 7.0 knots. Lovely smooth sailing. I'm now in UK Shipping Forecast waters ( only 11 hrs to noon as clocks lost a hour) and the forecast for my area, Sole, SW Force 4 veering NW. Looking at this morning's weather fax, it should hold in the NW on Monday. A deepening low approaching northern Scotland. High in Biscay. And the Atlantic High has gone north and east, reaching all the way to Nova Scotia.

Noon position 48.44N 12.55W, noon-to-noon (11 hrs) 125 miles, 309 to go.

Coryn flies to London on Monday and will be coming down to Falmouth on Friday morning.

Day 8 May 26 Great winds from here to Falmouth

No wind for much of last night, but a 00:40 it came in again from the west. So Wing and wing again with the speed slowly building. By 11:00 the wind had shifted to the SW and Taonui was off on a broad reach making 6.8n 7.0 knots. Lovely smooth sailing. I'm now in UK Shipping Forecast waters ( only 11 hrs to noon as clocks lost a hour) and the forecast for my area, Sole, SW Force 4 veering NW. Looking at this morning's weather fax, it should hold in the NW on Monday. A deepening low approaching northern Scotland. High in Biscay. And the Atlantic High has gone north and east, reaching all the way to Nova Scotia.

Noon position 48.44N 12.55W, noon-to-noon (11 hrs) 125 miles, 309 to go.

Coryn flies to London on Monday and will be coming down to Falmouth on Friday morning.

Saturday 25 May 2013

Day 7 May 25 West winds at last!

Great down wind sailing. Last evening the barometer started a slow decline and at 01:00 the west wind started. What a pleasure to turn off the engine. Light at first, but within an hour up to 15 knots. Taonui came alive. Full main out to port, full #1 genoa poled out to st'b and she was off. 7.5 - 8 knots. Down below, snug in my bunk, I could listen to the lovely sound of little bubbles rushing along the hull....instead of the grind of the engine for the previous 36 hours. On deck a lovely moonlit night, cool, clean, bright.

Noon-to-noon was 151 miles leaving 434 miles to go. ( noon position was 47.57 N 15.48 W ). Around 10 AM it started to drizzle and then rain, proof positive that we are now in UK waters. It must have a weak front passing over as the wind switched more into the NNW and dropped to 10 knots. Still sailing Wing & Wing but on the port tack and speed down to 5 knots. I'm heading a bit north of the required course so as to avoid some of the heavy traffic heading into the Channel. Had a chat with big tanker last night. The Chemo Leo heading for Antwerp, only making 12 knots, while Taonui was making 8. So it took an age for him to get from the bottom to the top on the 24 miles covered by the radar screen.

Friday 24 May 2013

Day May 24 Motoring across the High

Since noon yesterday the motor has been on pushing her along at 5.5 - 5.8 knots. Absolutely no wind. Oily clam. Painted ship upon a painted ocean. Noon position was 46 15 N 10.09W, Noon-to-noon 135 miles, to go 585. Barometer slowly falling. GRIB forecasts show good N-NW winds for tomorrow.
Several ships passed by today heading for the Channel.

Had a visitor this morning. Going on deck at 06:00 I nearly put my hand a little bird, a little bundle of black and white feathers on the coaming of the companionway...600 miles from land. I cleared out the egg crate that I had strapped down in the forecabin holding fruit etc. and put a large black plastic bag over it. Carefully I took him in my hand. Just two little peeps as he was startled awaken. He weighed nothing. In the crate he perched for a while on a cabbage leaf and maybe had some water from a blow. No interest in a partly rotten orange or in some muesli. No chance of him becoming a vegan and I didn't have any insects. He was a House Martin. Very similar to our Purple Martin. By noon he had died. They always do. At least he didn't die falling into the ocean.

The sad end to my visiting Martin is that when I threw him overboard he landed on the cabbage leaf that I threw with him. He floated away in the wake on his little green boat.

Thursday 23 May 2013

Day 5 May 23 Centre of the High

Had a easy sail in past 24 hours, close hauled in light seas, with the wind slowly shifting east and lifting the made course from 550 to 13 degrees. All of which is consistent with reaching the centre of the High. At Noon, the wind was down to 5 knots and soon after was zero. So motor on and heading a bit north of the now required course of 73 to Falmouth with 716 miles to go. The GRIB forecasts show the High continuing to drift SE with lows and fronts coming into the area to the north. The noon Shipping Forecast is for gales over most of the UK. Noon position was 45 21N 21 56W, Noon-to-noon sailed 111 miles, made good only 62 miles

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Day 4 - May 22, Still Heading north

Noon position 43 58N 22.06W

The centre of the high is still 240 miles to the north so there is nothing for it but to keep going close hauled on the st'b tack against the lightening NE winds. In the past 24 hours to noon distance sailed was 116 miles, but made good only 52, with 778 miles to go to Falmouth, but that is assuming that I was on course. Not so, until I can get to the north side of the High. The wind is lighter now, 12 knots, or less, and the seas are low, so it is easy sailing. At noon I changed up to the #1 genoa to pick up a bit of the declining speed.

To all of you reading this back in Victoria, hikers, bridge players, kayakers, sailors, cellists and Sticky Wicket'ers, I wish that I could be withy you to "hold hands" in our collective sadness at the loss of Malcolm. We will all miss his big, happy voice, easy laugh and forever positive outlook. He lived a good life and we are all the richer from having shared some of it with him. Goodbye old friend.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Day 3 - May 22, Heading north

As forecast the High moved north as evidenced by a small drop in the barometer. At 08:00 the wind had shifted more to the NE, pushing Taonui onto a heading of 95 - 105. So tacked over to port and started bashing directly into the waves left by the old wind. From noon yesterday until 08:00 I had made good 99 miles. In the next four hours I made good only three miles as I headed 345 which 75 degrees off the required course. Nothing for it!!. No point in heading east as this would just keep me in the NE winds and end up with a long grind to windward up the French coast and across the Bay of Biscay.

The noon position was 42.04N and 21.37W, 102 miles made good out of 115 sailed. 830 miles to Falmouth. By 16:00 the wind had shifted further east and am now heading almost due north, heading for the centre of the High, 360 miles to the north. There should be light east winds around the southern side of the centre.

I'm plotting noon positions on the same chart used in May, 2000 when I was sailing north from the Falklands and stopped briefly in San Miguel, Azores en route to Falmouth. From there it was a flying broad reach in strong SW, giving daily runs of 160 - 180 miles and a fast, exciting 7 1/2 day trip. Not this time. Pity.

Monday 20 May 2013

May 20 Hard on the wind

The High is still stable. It should go south where it belongs. Taonui is hard on the wind, 20 degrees below the required course. However the wind is only 15 - 20 so it's not too bad and Taonui is a tough boat. Just keeps pushing ahead. Made 125 miles noon-to-noon, leaving 932 miles to go. Noon position, 40 59N 23 23W. Forecast is for the wind to go from the N to the NE tomorrow so over to the St'b tack, sailing almost away from Falmouth and towards the centre of the High. Aside from the unfavourable wind, it is a pleasure to be out on the wide ocean. Last night the waxing moon was oh so bright that only the brightest stars shone through.

Sunday 19 May 2013

May 19 - Easy Sailing

Noon position 40 07N 25 52W. Made good only 90 miles in previous 24 hours as I tacked to and fro against the shifting winds that couldn't make their mind up whether to be N or NE or to be too light for sailing. A lot of those miles were under motor heading north in anticipation of Coryn's forecast of North winds today. They came in at 05:00 and since then the heading made good has been 70 to 85 degrees at times the the number 2 genoa and two reefs in the main. Now, 16:00 the wind has lightened giving a lovely easy sail, 5.5 - 6 knots, close-hauled #1 genoa and one reef. Albert loving it. Warm, sunny skies. All is well with this part of the world. Very little shipping and no birds since leaving the Azores. At noon, 1,053 miles to Falmouth on a course of 58 degrees. I'm now on the eastern side of the High and the forecast is for the High to stay stable tomorrow but then move north, which will put me in the NE winds on its SE corner. If so, I'll go onto the other tack and head north.

Saturday 18 May 2013

May 18 Depart Praira de Vitoria

Left this morning at 09:30 into alight NE wind but large lumpy seas from somewhere. I'm in the SE quadrant of the North Atlantic High which is covering a huge area of the eastern north Atlantic extending north up to the the latitude of the UK. Shouldn't be so, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get any wind aft of the beam on this trip....maybe at the end, if a low comes across from Greenland. I've done a lot of boat stuff in the past two weeks starting with getting rid of the sand that had accumulated in every thing above decks. Thankfully nothing below decks which were shut up tight with a humidifier runing Apparently it was a tough winter in the Azores...lots of wind and rain and, driving sand from the beach onto the parking lot where Taonui spent the winter.

Taonui got three coats of the last of the US super eco-friendly antifouling that we had brought with us. After launching it took 2 and 1/2 days to completely strip all the winch's to clean out the sand. By yesterday she was ready to go and looking smart after lots of TLC to the deck's non-skid, spot deck painting, freshly varnished floor boards in the main cabin and pilot house etc., etc.

Noon position was 38 51N 26 55W with 1140 miles to go. Have been motoring all morning. The wind is exactly from the NE which is exactly where I want to go. Not enough wind to sail effectively in these seas which just shake the wind out of the sails. On the plus side, the batteries are getting a needed thorough charge. Coryn says that the wind should go into the north tomorrow, which would give a close-hauled sail on course. Hope so!