the last 24 hours have been quite something, in all respects, sailing
and personally. first of all this is now the longest I have been alone
at sea on my boat and what a perfect choice for weather than a near gale
in Bay of Biscay.
When the wind slowly shifted westerly to southerly we all knew this was
going to be followed by a blow. this of course started in the middle of
the night, just off ushant and its traffic separation scheme and all the
shipping that comes with it. from when the wind picked up to this
afternoon when it came down a bit there has been no peace, first the
waves, incredible compared the wind, which only occasionally touched 35
knots then stabilised at steady 30. i was already in the middle of heavy
traffic at the convergence of commercial shipping using the traffic
separation scheme, i had attempted crossing the lane of this motorway of
enormous cargo carrier and other odd shaped vessels but my boat speed
was so pour in the heavy seas that i chickened out everytime and was
heading north east behind every boat i was avoiding, not exactly in the
direction of santander, so i tackd hoping to follow a course that would
still cut the traffic. instead, i found myself feeling like i was in the
middle lane of a motorway on a bicycle, scary stuff, had no choice but
wait for a window in what was the thickest traffic i have ever seen,
boat after boat, pairs of boats overtaking each other... I was heading
for "off the continental shelf" where i was hoping the sea state would
be better. Meanwhile is spent some very lont 6 hours slowly crowling
south of the highway having to talk on VHF to 3 or 4 boats to make sure
they had seen the frog on the motorway and to discuss which way it was
safest for them to ovrertake me. I'd give them a call with their MMSI
read from the AIS and ask them to turn to channel 6 or 14... quite cool.
Anyhow, by the time i was on the edge of the continental shelf i saw a
big window in the traffic in the opposite late and took the leap heading
south east again. Altough this time i was crossing rather than gliding
it still took an eternity to have the AIS screen with no shipping on
display: 12 very long hours in nasty seas.
In the afternoon wind abated a bit, sun came out and took the chance to
clear the battlefield below. I had taken quite a lot of water when
literrally ploughing through the waves with the full force of the bow
and being completely submersed (or at least that's what it felt like) as
we all know boat are rarely really water tight, water makes it through
every little tiny aperture it finds.
The rest was fine saiing, reatively speaking, i checked the forecast
which seems to indicate the low is moving faster than expcted (which is
good) but now the wind is picking up again and i have to go and try to
make the boat go faster, but the sea is just a show stopper.
Ciao
Marco
British Beagle
If you enjoy this website why not make a donation to The Institute of Cancer Research. For more information visit our Charities page.