We Have Done It

The final night of our 1000 mile qualifier provided me with a poignant moment in the campaign. My introduction to Open 60 sailing has been a massive learning curve, two weeks ago I had neither sailed long distances short handed or stepped foot on an Open 60! Over the past two weeks I have constantly quizzed Steve about Spirit of Weymouth, short handed sailing and Open 60’s in general. I needed to absorb as much information as I could in a very short space of time to enable me to bring some of my own experience and expertise to the boat in a positive way.

At midnight the wind started backing from the South East to the West and then North West. We had been drifting along at less then five knots in about the same wind speed. Now the wind was freeing us off and it was time to consider the kite. It was a black night with no moon. Despite the lack of wind there was a swell running probably pushed in from the deep low, mid Atlantic.

‘Ok,’ I decided, ‘time to put the kite up.’ I pondered for a few moments trying to decide whether to wake Steve or not. He was sleeping ever so peacefully after a very broken sleep the previous night! I took a deep breath and decided the time was right to put the kite up on my own! Now this may well seem daft to the seasoned single handed sailors and I certainly was not going to admit to Steve that I was slightly nervous about the issue. However, to me this was a big thing, it was to be the first time I had hoisted the kite on my own, added to this was the additional complexity; it was pitch black.

The manoeuvre bought a smile to my face. Everything went very smoothly and a few minutes later the Code 0 was down and the kite filled. Spirit of Weymouth instantly accelerated forward and was effortlessly slipping through the water at 10 knots in not much more wind. Very pleased with myself; it was time to reward myself with a hot ribena before taking the tiller and savouring the moment for the next four hours. I felt a huge sense of pride and satisfaction.

Next goal was to overcome my new found clumsiness! I think Bambi probably shows more stability and walks in a straighter line than I have been over the last couple of days! Never before have I shown any sign of uneasiness whilst moving around a boat. It surprised me that this could ever be an issue but after contemplating the rationale behind it I became more aware of my acute fear of falling over the side.

In the past I have always sailed with a crew who I have the confidence in to get the boat back to where I would be bobbing around. Now, with Steve asleep there is just me on deck much of the time and no one to see me fall overboard. It could be a couple of hours before anyone even new I was missing. Having identified the route cause it is time to remedy the phobia whilst remaining aware of the imposing dangers.

We jubilantly crossed the finish line at 0345 yesterday morning. I say ‘we’ and ‘jubilantly’ in the liberalist sense as I was in fact asleep! Steve had taken pity on my man flue and let me sleep in! Bless! He only woke me once back in Portland Harbour!

The wind has not been overly kind to us over the past few days, it has generally either been very light, bang on the nose or right up the chuff. The result is our sailing a total of 1165 miles to complete the course in just over five days. This is a 200 mile a day average. Whilst not brilliant for a fast Open 60 it was still a very respectable time considering the high pressure system that has been dominant over the British Isles and Western Approaches for the past couple of weeks. On the positive, we did have one twelve hour run of over 150 miles!

Stage one of our campaign is now complete. Over the next few days I will write about my reflections of an awesome five days of sailing, Steve White and his ambitions and the highs and lows of preparing for the Transat Jacques Vabre.