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After a cabin breakfast last Saturday morning Jan and I took the trot boat out to Ninjod. Our plan was to race in the Crouch Yacht Clubs‘ Puxley Trophy race to Levington. We were using the race as a delivery trip ahead of our house move to Melton, Woodbridge.
This year’s Puxley Trophy race was low on entrants with most of the other CYC skippers being away. The only other entry (also 2 handed) was Nick and Angie aboard Gambit.
We barely made the starting sequence on time having found a minor issue with the mainsheet system (it was in bits on the cabin floor!).
We started close hauled on starboard tack weaving through the moorings at Burnham-on-Crouch in 10 to 12 knots of wind. The wind speed increased a little to 15 knots once past the river Roach and as we bore away towards Outer Crouch and Buxey 1 & 2 our boat speed increased to 6.5 knots over the ground against the tide. At Buxey 1 we looked behind us to see the day-glow color of Gambit’s kite.. We then decided to hoist our Asym.
With the Asym up we quickly pulled away from Gambit. Our line towards the Spitway was very tight with the Asym up, we could not get much higher and we discussed dropping the Asym. We chose to keep it up and 20 yards from the mark we took a big knock. This resulted in us missing the mark by 40 yards and ending up heading down wind into the Spitway while we took the kite down. Angry and cheesed off we retired!!
Once into the Wallet and heading towards Diffusers we had a cup of tea and cheered up. With Jan at the helm white sail reaching we saw speeds of up to 9 knots over the ground.
As we turned towards Harwich the wind went behind us. The new kite was put on deck and sorted, the pole raised and the sock hoisted. As the sock was raised the pole fell forward and we wrapped the kite around the forestay.. Heading up didn’t free the wrap! Jan put on the chair and with pilot on sailing downwind under main alone I hoisted her up the mast. While up there struggling with the kite we crash gybed and Jan was bounced around. Other yachts thought this looked interesting and motored towards us to watch the action. This really didn’t help.
With the kite sorted and back on the deck, Jan badly bruised we entered Harwich harbour. We started to tidy the boat and while Jan was standing the swell rolled us and we crash gybed (again). The boom and her connected and pushed her into the cockpit. The main sheet swept across the boat and whipped the back of her head. She went below and once checked over we put the sails to bed and motored into SYH.
Our 1st sail out of the river this season was an eventful one.
Congratulations to Nick and Angie with Gambit on their victory.
Click to enlarge
Thanks to Dom Katan, skipper of the winning boat, for sending us pictures.
Just received a position report timed 11.45:29 UTC that puts John an Lucy moored in the Marina. They have finished. Hoorah !
I guess John is currently drinking beer.
More info as I get it ..
Update
Just received text message from John. It reads..
“Fast French Boat 1st, Fast Cat 2nd and Thorpe Bay Mud Boat 3rd. Had bath and now appreciate how strong wind is”
John and Lucy are now within cellular range and text messages can be passed. At 08:18 UTC this morning we received:
“Am 3 hr away strong wind thrw night getin lighter hope not becalmed off harbour”
And at 08:49 UTC after asking for a condition report we received:
“Sth wind 10knt sea lumpy as had f6 all nght sent sat psn 3 times every day thank god 4 gps can not c island”
More news as it happens.
Update – 09:18UTC
New text message received.. It reads:
“My reported 10kts wind is now a measured 22kts seems I always under report”
Update – 09:48UTC
New text message received.. It reads:
“Can just see high island 6 miles ahead have just shipped big wave am soaked”
At 06:05:10 UTC this morning they had 26.8 nautical miles to go and were sailing at 5.5 knots
2 Position reports so far today. At 05.07UTC this morning John and Lucy had managed to get another 45.8 nautical miles closer to their goal and averaged a speed of 5.63 knots. Then at 12.58UTC today they had pulled off another 39.85 nautical miles at an average speed of a little over 5 knots. At the last position report they had 119.26 nautical miles to go. Given this information we should expect to hear of their arrival sometime tomorrow morning.
The 1st competitor to complete the race, Dominique Katan , arrived this morning at 11.06UTC in his Mistral 7.5 and described local conditions as a south easterly gale. Congratulations to Dominique..
At 20.59 this evening we received another position report from John and Lucy. Since 04.55 this morning they have managed to average 5.44 knots and have got 87.31 nautical miles closer to their goal. With a little over 200 nautical miles left to run we should expect to hear from them very soon assuming the weather conditions remain fair. Remember the last time John approached the Azores he sat for 72 hours with no wind at all. Here’s hoping Lucy and he have more luck this time.
A number of other race participants are now being tracked. You can view John and Lucy’s performance along side the other tracked competitors by clicking here.
Between 06.29 UTC this morning and 13.06 UTC this afternoon John and Lucy managed an impressive 42.99 nautical miles at an average speed of 6.65 knots. Then between 13.06 UTC this afternoon and 20.58 UTC this evening they managed another 45.49 nautical miles at an average speed of 5.89 knots. For those that are wondering how the later’s distance is greater but speed slower the answer is that the distances measured are the distance made good to the finish. Although the dynamic duo travelled faster this morning not all of it was as favourable a direction as it was this afternoon.
At 20.58 UTC John and Lucy had 327 nautical miles left to sail. At 6 knots that is a little over 2 days, at 5 knots is close to 3 days.
Between 13.13 UTC today and 17.16 UTC yesterday John and Lucy managed to take off another 88.85 nautical miles at an average speed of 4.46 knots. At 13.13UTC today they had 512 nautical miles to run to the finish.
Assuming the weather data I downloaded is correct John and Lucy are skirting the edge on a high pressure system with the wind behind them. I hope he has kept a log, it will be good to find out how the weather forecasts compare to actuals !
Another position report received today.. Hoorah.. Good for us but probably not the best time for John aboard Lucy. In the past 24 hours John has managed to reduce his distance to the finish line by only 50 nautical miles. This is almost definitely due to light winds. Yesterdays position report from Pipedream described conditions as south westerly 8 knots. In plotting the 3 position reports since yesterdays posted update it would appear as though John and Lucy ave turned right and are now heading back towards the rhumbline.
