Race 13 - Day 1
Crew Diary - Derry-Londonderry to Liverpool
22 July
Leg 8/ Race 13/ Day 1 – July 22nd
Race 13 is underway
We left Ireland today the same way we arrived – the weather being dull grey and overcast and the reception warm and friendly. As we approached the dock on July 9th a full 134 days ago, there were literally 10s of people there to greet us, and the Mayor. As we left today, the Mayor was there again but this time he was joined by at least a 1000 people on the Quay side to see us off, Derry has been great; the people warm, friendly and very accommodating and the atmosphere has been one of the best experienced on any stop-over.
We completed our parade of sail, and then headed out to the mouth of the river where the race was to start. The 2.5 hour journey up the river would have been pretty mundane, but for the huge flotilla of small boats that accompanied us on the journey – everything from a motorise sea bucket to expensive gin palaces and also an older wannabe gin palace with dodgy engines that blew out thick acrid smoke that completely engulfed Garmin and gave much of their crew breathing and seeing difficulties. As we reached the start point there was yet another crowd waiting to see all the boats jockeying for position around the start line before the off. Then we were off and the wind died. We drifted majestically, frantically changing sails hoping we could find the right combination that would see one of us catch a non existent breeze. The antics must have made a great spectacle for the crowd, many of whom chose to accompany us by walking down the road that runs along side the river – and stopping regularly waiting for us to catch up.
Eventually we limped out of the bay and headed Northwest to clear the headland and head out towards the west coats of Ireland. I am not sure why Ireland is called the 'Emerald Isle' as that infers colour but all we have seen for the last two weeks is shades of grey. The forecast was for reasonably light to moderate winds up to 15 knots and moderate seas. Well surprise, surprise that proved inaccurate and it was not long before the winds were above 30 knots and we had to take down the code 2 (spinnaker) hoist of the white sails and had put in a couple of reefs in the mainsail.
Taking down a spinnaker means wooling it down below. (i.e. taking sail the size of a tennis court that is made up of three legs and rolling each of those legs into a tight sausage). It is back breaking work requiring you to be bent over which is not always the best position when the boat is pitching and rolling all over the place. Due to the fact that most of my watch were either doing sail changes on deck or closely examining the content of the bag they were holding, there was only 2 of us wooling – which had me contemplating a bag a few time. Eventually we got the wooled spinnaker into the sail locker to bag it just as we got hit by some unpleasant waves with the silent bit we all dread. Normally we can hear the constant sound of waves on the boat but some time we hear a large crash and then silence – that means the bow has gone airborne. Sir Isaac Newton tells us why an apple falls down from the sky, and from this act it is very plain, all other objects do the same so when the bow goes up, it eventually comes down throwing everything not nailed down (i.e. people) into the air. The rule of thumb that therefore follows is that the people, on landing, usually come it contact with a close inanimate object that is specially designed to inflict the most pain. In my case it was the steps in the sail locker. I can safely say that there was no damage to the to the steps whilst I have an indentation on my head that perfectly matches the contours of the step handle.
Other than that, things seemed to be going well. We are sailing well, our plan seems to be qoeking and we are lying first in the fleet – if only we can keep this up for another 5 days.
Love to Tess, Olivia and Giles, of whom I think constantly and remembering Marcus.
Rory Rhind
Thought for the day:
A person that can smile in a crisis has found someone else to blame.