49:35.0N 005:50.7W at 0915bst
Morning all,
this is probably going to be the last blog update as we close-in on the
Cornwall coast, the wind has headed us a bit and we are now close-hauled on port
tack heading for the lizard (that’s Lizard point for the non-sailors). I
believe we are currently forecast to be 5th place in class but until we cross
the line it is all to play for.
I think it is going to take some time to digest the last few weeks of
sailing as there have been so many ups and downs since we arrived in Falmouth a
few days before the start. Many friends have been made along the way and
many new experiences gained both on and off the water that will be drawn on in
the future.
I’m sure there are many over the coming weeks that will ask Mark and I the
simple question “how was it?” and I have not yet worked out how to
answer. Am I pleased that I signed up and did the race? –
absolutely! Where there times when I would have done anything to be
sitting under a tree – again Absolutely! but those times were challenges that we
had to meet and overcome and the trip was all the richer for it. I have
always been a believer that there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had from
completing something that was a struggle and takes you beyond your comfort
zone. As an old boss of mine used to say – “if it was easy everyone would
be doing it”.
I can’t signoff without thanking some folks that have made this trip
possible....
First and foremost we need to thank our lovely ladies at home for letting
us go to sea leaving them with children to look after alone alone. Mark
and I are extremely grateful for your support and we have some serious brownie
points to earn back.
Next the folks at the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club who organised the race,
parties and support when things go wrong.
Simon Keeling at www.SailingWeather.co.uk for emailing
forecasts and the folks at www.mailasail.com for their help on the
Satellite coms that we found essential while away at sea.
Many thanks Jeremy and Fiona Rogers (www.jeremyrogers.co.uk) their help and
advice while getting repairs.
Huge thanks must go to Keith and Pam Feltham for their support in Ponta
Delgada, having a fresh clean and non-moving bed to sleep in was wonderful, as
was the home cooked food and a base from which to recover and regroup for leg
two.
We particularly want to thank Sue (Mother Hen) from Taymar Swallow and
Richard from Carolina for their support on Leg one when we had some problems to
overcome. Sue’s supporting conversations on the VHF radio made a world of
difference to Mark and I.
Lastly and most importantly Mark, my trusted co-skipper, who knows me well
enough to tell me to shut-up and go to bed when I am grumpy and knackered, he
also kept me buoyed up when the boat was in bad shape on the way across.
I’m pleased that we work well as a team and not-once have I had any regrets
about asking him.
That’s
all folks, I hope I come up with a better answer to the “How was it?” question,
I have another 40 miles to think about it.
George
and Mark
SY
Concerto.
48:53.8N 007:47.2W
second report of the day! mostly because we are excited to be so
close to home.
Mark has his pinny on and cooking dinner while I trim and keep and eye on
the course that wendy is steering.
No dolphins yet today but we did find a small fish on deck a little
earlier. As we are now back on the continental shelf there is a lot more
shipping around so we are going to have to get used to being extra vigilant
again.
If (when) Carolina make it in before us I hope they remember to bring the
cold beers to the boat when we arrive. I expect we will head back into
Pendennis marina on arrival.
ttfn
48:24.9N 008:55.7W at 0923BST
From the radio chatter is sounds like Carolina, Franglais, BladeRunner and
Concerto all have roughly the same distance to go. All quiet from
Strategem who are either well in the lead or just keeping quiet on the radio to
keep their game plan a secret.
All fine aboard for the last 24 hours, the small spinnaker went up again
yesterday afternoon as the seas had flattened down a bit. We have
been frustrated with the kite and getting a decent course out of Wendy as we had
a beam-on sea that was knocking us about. It was much more successful last
night and we made some good progress.
The kite came back down again at 0800 as while Mark was on watch the wind
has shifted a bit more around to the north and the best we could make was
090-100 which was not great. So we are now back to white sails and
plugging on at the best speed we can make.
Not long to go now with 182nm to the manacles buoy and only a few miles on
from there to Falmouth. Will be checking the weather in a bit but I’m
hoping yesterdays forecast for light northerlies has changed as that could give
us a slow finish.
We had two great shows from the dolphins yesterday who played with the
boat, jumping out of the water and darting in and out of the bow-wave.
bye for now. G&M
48:24.9N 008:55.7W at 0923BST
From the radio chatter is sounds like Carolina, Franglais, BladeRunner and
Concerto all have roughly the same distance to go. All quiet from
Strategem who are either well in the lead or just keeping quiet on the radio to
keep their game plan a secret.
All fine aboard for the last 24 hours, the small spinnaker went up again
yesterday afternoon as the seas had flattened down a bit. We have
been frustrated with the kite and getting a decent course out of Wendy as we had
a beam-on sea that was knocking us about. It was much more successful last
night and we made some good progress.
The kite came back down again at 0800 as while Mark was on watch the wind
has shifted a bit more around to the north and the best we could make was
090-100 which was not great. So we are now back to white sails and
plugging on at the best speed we can make.
Not long to go now with 182nm to the manacles buoy and only a few miles on
from there to Falmouth. Will be checking the weather in a bit but I’m
hoping yesterdays forecast for light northerlies has changed as that could give
us a slow finish.
We had two great shows from the dolphins yesterday who played with the
boat, jumping out of the water and darting in and out of the bow-wave.
bye for now. G&M
47:40.5N 011:58.4W at 1056BST
It has been a relatively easy 24 hours on port tack, initially the wind was
at approximately 45 deg off the bow but has been on the beam for the last 10
hours. Wendy the windpilot has needed lots of attention to keep us
on a course of 060-070 as she wanders around during gusts and then holes in the
wind. Generally the wind has been around 10-14kts (True).
I gather that there have been some reports of gusts and rough seas, we had
a big line of cloud come over last night and I shortened sail expecting some
breeze but the pressure was increasing rather than decreasing and the wind
backed without anything else coming from it.
Had another big whale surface last night on our port side, it only came up
once to blow and was probably 15+ meters long at a guess. Also found out
our Yellowbrick tracker has died and the folks at race control have asked to be
sent position reports so they can update the tracker manually.
Mark and I are fine, both developing a bit of a chesty cough possibly from
the damp boat but otherwise fine.
ttfn G and M
46:27N 014:56W at 0843bst
Bit of a dull and wet day yesterday, very light airs, slow process and rain
all day. Finally at 0300 this morning a strong breeze of 18-23kts from the
North-North-East kicked in. I initially put two reefs in but when I
get into my bunk at 5am the boat was slamming a bit so Mark put the third reef
in to slow us down and keep the boat in one piece. We are still doing 5kts
in this configuration and are comfortable.
We are in Radio contact with Nazca II still , they are a bit further west
and didn’t suffer the wind hole we had but now have more wind that we do.
Given that we are trying to look after and nurse Concerto home I’m happy to take
the wind whole even if it was frustrating.
Ran the engine for a hour yesterday to put some charge into the batteries,
with only one working solar pannel I expect I will have to do this once every
2-3 days now but we have plenty of dempsy-diesel so not a problem.
that’s all folks, it’s a bit wet and bumpy to be typing and I need to look
at the gribs and SWIS forecast.
George and Mark.
Another 24 hours pass and we are now closer to Falmouth than we are to Sao
Miguel! Also it’s my birthday today (33) so I had fun opening cards this
morning and even had Happy Birthday sang to me over the VHF by Mike and Paul on
Nazca II.
While we started yesterday with the big spinnaker up there was really a
little too much wind so Mark wisely suggested that we go down to the small one,
we did the swap and were much more comfortable, doing the same speed and Wendy
(the WindPilot) was much happier.
Because Wendy was struggling in the morning under the big kite I was using
the electric autopilot for a while but the work it was doing was too much for
the the wooden block that the ram connects to and it split, this resulted in
lots of flapping sails as we worked out what happened. I have temporary
glued the block back together but it’s probably only strong enough not for very
light-duty use.
A large whale popped up behind the boat yesterday evening and scared the
hell out of me when it blew out it’s blow-hole. I woke Mark and it’s the
fastest I have seen him get out of bed on this trip so far. The whale was
probably 15-18m long but didn’t hang around long enough to get any pics.
That’s the second whale of the trip and it’s always fantastic to see them.
Mark is treating me to a Birthday breakfast of eggy-bread, bacon and beans
so I’ll sigh off for now.
Best wishes from George and Mark on Concerto.
44:12N
19:36W at 1010BST
Morning
All,
My
birthday is not until tomorrow but it seems as thought it came a little early as
I’m told that the AZAB tracker is showing Concerto as being in first place for
Class 1!! However we are not quite halfway back so there is still a long
way to go and we are trying not to push the boat (and ourselves) too hard.
Carolina is also up in the top three so overall the Contessa 32s are putting on
a good show.
The
Spinnaker came down last night at about midnight as it was starting to get
uncomfortable on board and we wanted to put a bit more north in our course, it
had been up for around 36hrs so probably earned a rest. The guy was
starting to chafe a wee bit but not too bad.
Looking
at the Gribs the forecast is for the wind to go around to the North tonight or
tomorrow but the dead patch that we were concerned about has moved further south
of us which is good news. I expect we will put the small kite back up and
make the most of these S-SW winds while we have them. I will log back on
later to pick up a forecast from Simon at SWIS to see if he agrees with the
Gribs.
Second
bit of good news is that my Mailasail is working correctly after swapping out my
ebay USB/Serial converter for a decent one borrowed from Dave on Carolina.
we will now do our best to keep the blog up to date.
That’s
all for now as the sun has just come out and we need to go play with flappy
things on deck. It was a very warm day yesterday so we are hoping to
a slightly cooler one today.
Over
and out.
G
& M
42:08N 21:59W at 0710 UTC
Our third night as sea was very enjoyable, nice sunset, clear sky and
millions of stars.
All fine on board with the Small spinnaker up since 1830 yesterday.
Progress has been good and I’m told by Carolina that we are in the top three or
four boats in our class. It is very pleasing to be making such good
progress in the right direction and at speed.
One minor problem is that one of the solar panels appears to have stopped
charging, this will mean that I will have to run the engine every few days but
that’s not a major issue as we have plenty of diesel.
Best wishes to those at home, we will see you soon.
G & M
40:44.8N 24:23.2W
After two nights at sea we are back to our normal routine on-board and
settled into the watch system. We are being a bit more relaxed about
the watch system this time to allow whoever is in most need of down-time to get
a bit of extra sleep and this seems to be helping.
We had the Spinnaker up for the frist time yesterday, we could see Carolina
coming up from behind with her big pink kite and we thought it best to do the
same. It came down again at about 21.30 as there were some black clouds
coming up but I believe Carolina kept going with it overnight.
We are now shooting along under full main and genoa with 14-18kts of breeze
on the starboard quarter and making 6-7kts directly for Falmouth. Unless
the wind drops off I expect we will stay with white sails as managing the
spinnaker singlehanded can be hard work.
I spoke with Equilibrium this morning at 0530, they asked me to forward a
message to race control as they have had some electrical problems and lost all
power. They have a H/H VHF and GPS and are returning to Ponta Delgada for
repair.
Mark and I are both fine, reasonably rested and well fed.
G&M
39:14.6N 026:16.6W
It’s great to be underway and even better to be making our way back to see
our families at home!
The 24hrs leading up the the start were rather frustrating and stressful as
we had an on-going “discussion” with our insurance company about the repairs
done in Ponta Delgada, in the end it all worked out fine but we only had
confirmation about 3 hours before the start. Big thanks to Jeremy Rogers
for his call to me and email to the insurers.
The start of Leg 2 was fantastic, a good breeze of 20 kts and bright, warm
sunshine. The three Contessa 32s started altogether with Carolina
just beating Caprice and ourselves to the start line, we then all beat east up
the coast to a turning mark 1.7 miles away before turning back to the
west. I thought there would be a split between boats going east or
west-about the island but in the end all boats headed west.
Concerto had a good night in the light airs (6-9kts) and overtook a number
of boats in Class one and a few in class 2 which was very pleasing.
According to the gribs yesterday the wind is doing to die-off to nothing soon
before building from the South-South West.
At the moment Carolina is 2nm to the west of us and Caprice is a little way
behind.
ttfn, G & M
37:44.3N
025:39.9W 1230BST
Boat Fixed, food on board, sat phone should be
working but this is a test. just back from the race briefing, not a lot of
wind for the first few days but should be ok from Thursday/Friday.
Potential for some stronger breeze and we will be keeping an eye on that.
Big thanks to Marco for all his work on the
boat.
Huge thanks to Keith and Pam for all the great
food, clean beds and support.
Cheers for now,
Mark and George.
Just
delivered Concerto around to the next marina and a local GRP chap, he is going
to cut out the worst bits of loose and delaminated GRP and rebond the lose
internal structure, I will also get him to add in a temporary bulkhead aft of
the main bulkhead to strengthen things up on the port side. It’s only a
temporary fix as having spoken to the helpful team at Jeremy Rogers Yachts she
will need some serious surgery when we get back (removal of port side furniture,
floor, etc), so far the insurance people have been fine.
Mark
and I just helped the last Contessa (Caprice) into her berth, he carried on
sailing the whole way and I’m in awe, especially as he was single-handed and has
had no cooking facilities for the last 10 days due to a split in the
gas-line. Well done David!!
We
are shopping today to get the non-fresh food and drink for the boat, fresh food
will be bought on Monday.
Very
hot here, I gather it’s not so great in the UK at the moment. We will do
our best to bring some sun back with us.
over
and out.
G&M
38:48.8N 023:01.8W 1230BST
Unfortunately we have had to retire from leg one
of the AZAB, time was running out as is the wind with a very large high over the
Azores. Motoring to the finish was looking inevitable so we thought it
best to arrive as soon as poss and give our selves a little time to fix a few
items on the boat before leg two starts on the 21st.
Most of the repairs are pretty minor, replace a
few ropes and fix some of the leaks. We did suffer a little damage to the
hull stringers on the port side causing the hull to flex more than it should,
however I’m confident that we can get it repaired before leaving again although
we will be doing our best not to fall off so many big waves.
Thanks for all the messages, we have had
continuing email issues due to a crushed data cable but fingers crossed this
will send.
Cheers for now,
Mark and George, tanning on Concerto 110 nm NE of
Sao Miguel.
45:30.0N 014:59.2W 1145BST
Morning all,
For the first time on this race we have a little patch of light wind, it is
currently blowing about 3-5kts from the North-West. While that’s not great
for racing it does give mark and I a bit of a rest and a chance to dry out the
boat. The first few days have been pretty hard for both the boat and crew
and this little respite is very welcome – along as it doesn’t last too
long.
Looking at the Gribs from MailASail and the forecast from
SailingWeather.co.uk it looks like the wind will kick in this afternoon,
12-15kts from the N-E again will be lovely. I’m not 100% sure how we are
doing against the other competitors but I’m pretty sure we are the furthest
West. The routing was taking into account the earlier forecasts that the
wind would go around to the west on Tuesday/Wednesday which it did for a
time. It’s possible that the wind may go SW by the weekend so being out to
the west will give us the advantage of a freer/easier final stretch into the
Island.
Thanks to everyone for the messages via email and SMS, really appreciate
them and lifts the spirits when we are feeling exhausted. Mark and I have
both felt that this trip has been a little harder than we expected but that is
partly down to how long it took to get our sea legs.
Those at home will be pleased to hear that Humph is having fun and the
naught duck has not yet been banished to the forepeak. Wendy (the
WindPilot) has also been singing to us so we don’t feel along on the graveyard
watch.
That’s enough for now, we need to get our damp clothes, cushions and
sleeping bags out into the sun while we can. I guess I didn’t quite
fix all the leaks I hoped I had.
ttfn
George and Mark.
48:11.5N 010:24.8W
At last, Mark and I are rediscovering our sea legs and able to tuck into
some decent food. Sunday evening and night were pretty hard work as we
were just coming off the continental shelf with 25kts of breeze and the
atlantics swell was not doing us many favours as the depth of water went from
2000m to 200m.
We seem to have a problem with our AIS system, Carolina (and others) have
only been picking up an intermittent signal from us. Also the AIS screen
has come up with some error messages around an antenna problem. I
have remade the connection onto the back of the set but the problem
persists. I may have to fit a replacement antenna when we get to the
Azores.
We have some lovely sun at the moment with is charging the batts but next
to no wind, only about 5kts from the SW but there is a weather front near by
that we think is causing this.
ttfn, Concerto
49:51.9N 005:12.0W
Great day for both spectators and the racers however by the start of the
Class 1’s the wind was getting a little feeble.
Pleased to say that Concerto was first across the start line with Carolina
not far behind. Most of the fleet tacked off to the East while COncerto
stayed on the west side of Falmouth entrance and it seemed to pay as we made
some distance between us an the rest of the class 1’s, we also went past a
couple of Class 2s.
Pizza for dinner (yum), followed by checking my weather from Simon at SWIS
and the Gribs, then the watch system starts.
Great to finally be away and doing the race rather than thinking about
it. If I have forgotten anything then I guess I don’t need it.
Had a bit of an issue with the AIS transponder not transmitting but having
remade the antenna connection it seems to be fine now.
Best wishes, George Mark on Concerto
49:55.0N 005:01.0W
Great day for both spectators and the racers however by the start of the
Class 1’s the wind was getting a little feeble.
Pleased to say that Concerto was first across the start line with Carolina
not far behind. Most of the fleet tacked off to the East while COncerto
stayed on the west side of Falmouth entrance and it seemed to pay as we made
some distance between us an the rest of the class 1’s, we also went past a
couple of Class 2s.
Pizza for dinner (yum), followed by checking my weather from Simon at SWIS
and the Gribs, then the watch system starts.
Great to finally be away and doing the race rather than thinking about
it. If I have forgotten anything then I guess I don’t need it.
Had a bit of an issue with the AIS transponder not transmitting but having
remade the antenna connection it seems to be fine now.
Best wishes, George Mark on Concerto
50:9.2N 005:3.8W
Message from 2/6/11 2300hrs...
Mark and I are now well installed on Concerto in Falmouth and are finishing of preparations for the start on Saturday.
Lovely sunny day in Falmouth today perfect for cracking on with the many small jobs to be completed. Among other things we have reorganised and stowed the food, sorted the grab bag, filled up the diesel, put the dodgers and lee-cloths on and dropped our premade meals for the first few days in a friends freezer.
According to Simon Keeling at SWIS it looks like we are in for a brisk North to N-E breeze for the first few days at least and there is a reasonable chance it will last well into next week. Time will tell but we will certainly be off and away into the deep water beyond the continental shelf quickly.
A quick thanks to all the well wishers, text messages, called and emails of support have been great!
TTFN, Concerto
50:9.2N 005:3.8W
With Concerto in Falmouth and the final preparations now in mind thoughts have been turning to weather information and the best way to receive this.
All the boats in the race have to carry some form of satellite communications and Concerto is no exception. We have teamed up with the very friendly and helpful folk at MailASail (www.mailasail.com) who in addition to being able to provide phones, equipment and airtime have an excellent software suite that manages and compresses email, allows the download of Grib files and blogging on their web-diary all over a low speed sat-phone connection.
On the weather front, if you excuse the pun, we are reasonably capable at using a Grib viewer and getting an idea of what is on the cards but there is so much more to forecasting and we just donât have the knowledge and experience to make the most of the information available. Therefore we are extremely pleased to announce that Simon Keeling of SWIS (www.SailingWeatherInformationService.co.uk) will be providing Concerto with daily weather forecasts for our sea area. Simon is a self-confessed weather anorak and it is likely that you have seen him working on TV, he has also written two books and has a number of private weather forecasting companies. We are extremely pleased and excited to have Simon on-board.
Final news, the engine lives again! Nick Eddy of Falmouth Harbour Marine Services has cleaned the tank and fuel lines of all the gunge, diesel bug and rubbish that has accumulated over the last 33 years and I now have a sweetly running engine again. As long as I keep on top of any new diesel-bug growth with biocide this shouldnât happen again but will be keeping spare filters on board just in case.
sat phone test