21 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 9)
We had a very pleasant night with good wind on our starboard quarter and clear skies. At about four o’clock, Glenys had a close encounter with a ship. The ship had been steadily approaching us from behind and was expected to overtake on our starboard. About 400 metres away he did a slight correction to port and then a very radical 60° turn to port, passing about 200 metres to our rear. Glenys was hopping mad and called them up. They treated it very matter of factly simply saying that their course was now 068°. I suspect that they hadn’t seen us until they made a slight course change to port and then panicked. I think Glenys has a right to be paranoid.
At breakfast, a front went over us and we had drizzle. After this front, we should get lighter north westerlies as the Azores high is forecast to stretch north. We finally passed our halfway point (Yahoo!). The cloud started to thin about lunchtime and we rolled downwind in the sunshine in the afternoon. The boys are keeping to themselves, designing a Space Port in Lego. Brett didn’t talk to me all day apart from showing me his latest creation.
At dusk, the wind veered to the north (actually NNW) and we set off on a boisterous reach. The wind was only 15-20 knots, but it sounded like a gale after a week of calm days!
22 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 10)
The wind picked up a bit at two o’clock and I reefed the main and dropped the mizzen. Because we kept rounding up, I had a bit of a struggle with the main because one of the slides has broken off causing the slide below it to jam when I tried to drop the sail. I had to set the autopilot to go upwind and managed to free it when the main sail was flogging. Unfortunately, the horrendous noise forced Glenys out of bed.
The wind calmed down a little and veered to north by dawn. We had been following the light of another yacht all night and at dawn he was about 3 miles ahead of us. Later in the day we managed to talk to him on VHF. The yacht name is “Papiotte” and they left 3 hours before us! We had a marvellous day’s sail, reaching in fairly calm seas, which stayed with us up to midnight.
23 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 11)
My first watch from midnight to three o’clock was idyllic – the wind was light, slightly forward of the beam, calm seas, cloudless sky and a myriad of shining stars. I started to feel very melancholy that our voyage and this phase of our life was coming to an end.
At four o’clock, on Glenys’ watch, the wind suddenly picked up, so I was dragged out of bed to reef the main and drop the mizzen. A sail batten pocket has been slightly sticking out on the mizzen for a couple of weeks and as I tried to drop the mizzen the batten caught on the shroud and pulled half of the pocket off – if only I’d got around to repairing the small bit of stitching! By nine o’clock, the wind had died completely so we started to motor.
During the morning we have acquired a hitchhiker – a homing pigeon stopped for a ride. We gave it some food and water and it let me pick it up. It has two leg bands – Red, J39961, GB95 and Blue, 7292. We’ll have to find out who owns it and write to them to find out where it was supposed to be going!
I tacked the sail batten pocket back onto the mizzen. We stopped the engine at five pm and managed to sail at 2 knots until seven o’clock when the wind died completely. What a dilemma – enough fuel to motor for 24 hours which will get us 120 miles, but it’s 250 miles to Falmouth! We decided to motor overnight and see what tomorrow brings!
24 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 12)
I tried to sail at half past one, but not much joy. An hour later, the wind picked up enough to sail as a front went over. We had a good sail for the rest of the night, with overcast skies and albeit with a cold biting NNE wind. We spent all day hard on the wind, but thankfully the wind isn’t too strong. We can tell we’re getting close to England because it’s COLD. Thermal trousers, jumper, jacket, wellies and woolly hat were needed today.
We crossed onto the 200 metre shelf and we have seen quite a few fishing boats wandering about. “Homer” the pigeon is still with us and is getting more cocky. He actually came round the deck into the cockpit this afternoon, but was quickly banished back to the front deck when he crapped on the seat. The front deck is littered with his “calling cards” – what a mess! He shows no inclination to leave us at the moment. We’re getting restless now that we’re close to the end. I’ve been looking at the Almanac for somewhere to go – it’s going to be a big shock to pay £15+/night. The wind continued until midnight.
25 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 13)
It was a cold night with quite a few ships and fishing boats. I hate fishing boats – they have right of way, we try to keep well clear, but it seems that they like to come and have a look at yachts. We had one that trawled on a parallel course, 400 metres away for one hour. Another turned straight at us and passed about 200 metres behind us – very worrying!
By dawn, the wind had started to drop, but at least we are on the chart of the English Channel. At about seven o’clock, the wind started to veer so that we can only hold 100°M instead of 75°M – what a bummer, France here we come! Just after midnight, we tacked for England and then the wind died on us. We decided to motor straight for Falmouth to refuel and have a 24 hour stop over. At about three o’clock, the wind picked up to a pleasant 12 knots, so I decided to sail for our waypoint off Start Point – forget Falmouth!
At half past seven, after a few unsuccessful attempts to enter the warm interior of Glencora, Homer finally got the hump and took wing. He circled the boat three times and then set off in a northerly direction – I hope he makes it home!
We had a wonderful sail, with blue skies and calm seas until ten o’clock, when Glenys lost the wind and we had to motor. We decided that we will head for Dartmouth to refuel.
26 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 14)
At midnight, there was enough wind to sail and we zipped along at 5-6 knots until dawn, when the wind died again and we started to motor. It was total chaos last night with ships and fishing boats everywhere, at one point, I had 7 ships and 8 fishing boats in sight – I didn’t read much of my book! At dawn, when I dragged myself out of the warm embrace of my sleeping bag, I was rewarded by the sight of land – home at last!
As we were coming into Dartmouth, we spotted a basking shark just off Skerries Bank. We circled it a couple of times and had a very good look at it. I went and got my snorkeling gear out and wanted to jump into the water and swim with it. Glenys vetoed my little adventure probably because the fish was over 20 foot long, looked like a shark and we’re nearly home. I was gutted...
We went into the River Dart, which was total mayhem - ferries, yachts, power boats and dinghies everywhere. We filled up with diesel and moored on a floating pontoon in the middle of the river. We went into town and had lunch with a couple of pints to celebrate - one of the pubs wouldn’t let us take the children in - welcome to draconian England. We bought a few magazines and retired back to the boat for a quiet, exhausted evening.
27 July 1996 Dartmouth to Southampton, UK (Day 1)
We treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast and mooched about until two o’clock. We motored out of the river into a flat calm sea and motored all night up the south coast well inside the shipping lanes.
28 July 1996 Dartmouth to Southampton, UK (Day 2)
We approached the Needles at dawn and then simply motored up the Solent and round to Shamrock Quay marina in Southampton.
As the great and wise Porky Pig says, “Th-th-that’s all folks!”
- << Prev
- Next