Sue Pelling’s Blog from yacht Heartbeat III of Burnham, issued at
1530 on Tuesday12 August 2009
We’ve had an interesting time over the last two days, since we sent our first report. Sunday night – our first night – we struggled to reach Portland Bill lighthouse and after at least eight hours we finally set sail again, but not until about 0400 when a 8-10kt breeze filled in from the west.
Once round Land’s End we hit a fresher breeze heading north to avoid the TSS, and stayed on starboard tack, sailing to the left-hand side of the rumb line. All the boats we were in fairly close contact with around Land’s End however, disappeared, and as the wind continued to fill in further and further into the Irish Sea, we found ourselves totally alone. Even at night, when it’s often easier to spot nav lights on the horizon, there was no one to be seen. That was, however, until we were joined by 100s of playful dolphins who skipped around, weaving their way through our bow wave keeping us entertained for well over half an hour.
Just as all of us were settling into life on board, and enjoying the big, rolling wave experience of the Irish Sea, our battery power failed leaving us in complete darkness with no instruments, and now way of communicating by e-mail. Thankfully we have co-helmsman Clive White, who is also a talented marine engineer, onboard who managed to skilfully rebuild the electronic system and after a few hours we were back on track again. We picked up the forecast backing wind which meant we were able to stay on port tack most of the way to the Rock.
The wind continued to build throughout the day on Tuesday reaching 24kts at times and this, coupled with the big sea, made for a fairly uncomfortable night for everyone. The temperature ped too, and crew tiredness began to take its toll. A 10ft whale (actually it was a porpoise!) 20 metres away on Tuesday evening livened up the Port Watch crew which meant Judy Payne James and I spent the rest of the night ‘whale watching’, and of course, watching out for other boats, because at this time (Tuesday night) we’d still not seen another boat.
Although we are working on a strict four hours on, four hours off watch system, which works really well, tiredness among the crew was really becoming noticeable. A good night’s sleep as the boat pitches and rolls, is definitely not in the schedule, in fact to describe it, it wouldn’t be too far from the truth to say it’s like sleeping in a fast spin washing machine. Nevertheless, we all feel a bit wrecked but we all still have smiles on our faces and, when we rounded the Fastnet Rock at 1115 this morning (Wednesday), the struggle to get here was made all worth while. It really is a magical, yet mysterious place but we were however, a little disappointed not to see anyone cheering us on from the lighthouse this year. That certainly would have made even more special.
Anyway, as we rounded the Rock the wind was still up in the 20kt zone and we cracked off slightly to make Pantaenius – the spacer mark ¬– a further six miles on. We were joined by dolphins again here who seemed to enjoy leaping around our bow wave as we rounded mark, hoisted the kite and powered off downwind. We’re now currently enjoying the most glorious sleigh ride in the big rolling seas back towards Land’s End.
As far as food goes, well, our good Kiwi fried Roger Temple has been keeping us well stocked up 24-7, and I honestly don’t think I’ve eaten so much in my life, and it’s all been good too, None of that nasty freeze-dried stuff that I was secretly dreading!
We now have 125 miles to go to Bishops Rock and if we keep up 8-10kts of boat speed we’re currently clocking up downhill, our predicted eta is 15 hours.