They're Off

They have now left Bayona behind - having settled up (ouch!) filled up the water etc. Next stop Nazare which should be a pleasant uneventful sail of about 24 hours. Here's hoping!

They floated off, they turned the key, and it worked! Huge sighs of relief all round. They have had a chugg around and are off out to anchor tonight. Quite apart from anything else it was useful to get the engine going to recharge the batteries as they have been in alongside for a couple of days and not catching any wind for Dora (the Duogen - windmill etc) to work with. Tomorrow comes the scary part - getting the bill! They plan to do a 24 hour sail to Nazare as with now just the two of them they don't want to wear themselves out too soon, and they have plenty of time to make their way south, doing short hops.

Anxious Times

Well the mechanic has now installed all the new parts (which arrived from the UK in less than 24 hours!) and gone home for tea. Chris and Pete are waiting anxiously for the tide to come in so that they can float off and see if it will start. I think it's fairly similar situation with the tide as "a watched pot never boils!" It could be a while yet before they can get off so Pete abandoned ship and went ashore to email the pics. I think there is a degree of nail biting going on at the moment!

The Saga in Baiona

Since our arrival on Friday the staff at the Monte-Real club D Yates have been very helpful in organising the mechanic and also with the translation of things, they also arranged for us to dry out at the fisherman’s slipway, which is where we are now and shall probably be for a couple more days yet whilst we await the parts from the UK. The slip itself is quite steep and the tidal range is small so we have had to put ‘Spam’ stern up the slope and to stop her settling on the rudder tips first we sank a pallet for each side and stood on them until the tide went out, good job the water temperature is quite pleasant, unlike the water quality, well it is the fisherman’s quay after all.
The mechanic has done a magnificent job of replacing the yoke pins, so I do not anticipate ever having any more problems with them. Better not say ‘ever’ in the foreseeable future is probably best.
David has been struggling with his very tight budget so has decided to get back home and try and earn some more money and find another way of getting to the Caribbean. Anyone fancy a sail! ! ! Room for one.
Sorry everybody for the sudden lack of pictures but my card reader is suddenly playing up and I think I am about to lose all that I have taken so far because its telling me to format the disk. I shall endeavour to take some of them again and post them soon.
The weather is still wall to wall sunshine and hotter than we have had all summer back home, this is more like it.

Update from Pete

Scilly to Bayona.
The story so far.
We slipped from our mooring in St Mary’s at ten o’clock on Sunday the 9th September, a cloudy day but otherwise good for sailing as the breeze was blowing gently out of the Northeast. We had the cruising chute up and drawing before we passed the lifeboat and were slipping along nicely.
The send off was quite something and it was hard not to just turn around and go back to all the comforts of home and loved ones.
We had to motor for a bit down by the Bishop to get out of the tide and the wind had gone a bit light. After an hour the wind filled in again and the engine was stopped and as we were stowing the leg it wouldn’t raise properly and on inspection the steering connection had come undone and was jamming it, this was quickly remedied and the leg stowed, safely we thought.
We sailed on through the night under mainsail and cruising chute (a big lightweight sail for light winds) and settled into our watch keeping routine. The steaks we had for dinner that first night were seen off in short order and everything was just peachy.
The next day the sun came out and it was very pleasant sailing downwind. During my time off watch I went up and sat in the sun on the foredeck and contemplated about the challenges ahead and just what was I doing out here, and will I be up to it all. In that time sitting up there I seemed to get my thoughts straight again now that I was actually out here doing what I had been dreaming of doing for a very long time. Little did I know that the trials and challenges were going to come so thick and fast!!!
I was on the 4am to 8am watch on Tuesday 11th and the wind was right on our stern which is not where I really wanted it and it was proving difficult to keep the chute pulling properly and at 5.30 it collapsed again but this time instead of filling as I came around onto the wind to get it to fill it just wrapped itself around the forestay. The crew were summoned from their beds and we tried to get it unwound from the bottom but it was somehow knotted very tightly and all the time the middle of the sail was going around and around the forestay tighter and tighter. As it was still dark it was not the time to try getting up there to see if it could be freed so David and Chris retired to their bunks and I sailed on. I tried sailing the boat about a bit to try and get the bag of the sail to unwind and at times this was successful but it was arduous. At 6.30 we were all set for the challenge ahead, as the halyards were also caught in the wrap we could not go up the mast and back down the forestay to clear it so myself and David would take it in turns to climb hand over hand up the forestay to the bag of sail in the middle and hang on for all we were worth with one hand and try to unwrap to billowing sail with the free hand. It was surprisingly easy to climb upwards but the motion of the boat had me swinging from side to side like a monkey on speed, it was wild and took and immense amount of effort to just hang on b ut I managed to get about three wraps off and came down. David went up next and also got a couple out, so I went up again but could only manage to get one out and now we were both exhausted already and while we recovered the sail just wrapped itself up again. We could be playing this game for a very long time and the forecast was for stronger winds to come so we had to get it down to be able to sail on safely. There was nothing else for it but to get a knife on it and try and get the bottom end where it was knotted and tangled really tightly undone. I fished out the bosun’s chair and we rigged the spinnaker pole to stand on while we performed our swashbuckling acrobatics, Captain Jack Sparrow is a mere amateur by comparison. After slashing and tearing for two more hours at my very expensive but now useless sail we finally got some movement and at long last managed to get the ragged remnants down and stowed. I shall have to be very bored before I take a needle and thread to that mess.
The wind as had been forecast certainly did increase and very kindly stayed behind us so we were going right where we wanted and going faster too. Through the night the seas increased and it was beginning to get very noisy and uncomfortable but nothing we couldn’t cope with. By lunchtime on Wednesday the wind was up to force seven and the boatspeed was really good we were charging towards Spain. By 9pm I could see the lights on the coast and when we closed it a bit more was able to get a mobile signal and dutifully phoned home. We sailed on down towards Cabo Finisterre in winds that were slowly easing and at 3am there was not a breath of wind and we were left wallowing in the inshore traffic zone so we went to put on the engine but the leg would not lower into position, on inspection I discovered that a locating pin had gone and the other was only just holding the leg on and the whole thing had twisted and was quite mobile. This leg weighs 43kgs or 95lbs in old money, so its no joke to be lifting this around. We got some ropes under it and supported it in its position as best we could so we wouldn’t lose it altogether and then were resigned to having to sail in the lightest zephyrs when they came along. We were only five miles from Cabo Finisterre but it took us from 3am until 12.30 to sail the seven miles round to Finisterre harbour. The not so bad part of this was that we were surrounded by dolphins nearly the whole time just lazily following along with us, one managed to spit in David’s face as he lay on the foredeck with his hand hanging down to the water to make a close contact with them. It certainly made it a mixed emotion day and seeing the dolphins like that lifted us all from the depressing hole that we could have sunk into.
Finisterre was bereft of any useful places to try and get a proper fix done, we managed to track down a quad bike repair guy who we scrounged a couple of bolts from to try and get the leg secure. We were all quite pleased with the job we had done and thought that this must surely be it cracked, but the engine refused to start with the leg down, it was as if it was stuck in gear so something was catching. We could turn the prop by hand so we knew it was out of gear. With the leg raised the engine started fine so somewhere in the linkage is a problem but we will not get it fixed in Finisterre.
We decided a good night out was needed and went out for a meal and liquid refreshment and it was much needed to relieve some of the stresses that were now building up, these things should not be going wrong so early on in the trip if at all.
I was awoken at 5am by a good breeze rattling through the rigging of the yacht next door and had a look out but with a thumping headache could not yet face getting to sea so I went back to bed. I couldn’t sleep properly knowing that we ought to be taking all the breeze offered and getting on our way to Bayona to try and get the leg fixed so was up at 7.30 and shook David and Chris who turned to without fuss with the offer of a cuppa. By 8 we were underway and sailing along nicely but sailing is never that straightforward and the wind came and went all day long teasing us by pushing us fast and lulling us into thinking we would be in bayona before dark and then dropping and changing direction and slowing us down, instantly adding 12 hours to the trip. We eventually took 14 hours 30 minutes to sail the 50 miles down the coast but the worst bit was arriving in the dark only for the wind to stop blowing five miles short of the destination, this was annoying but we were prepared and put the dinghy over with the outboard on and used it to push us along and into the harbour with only a dribble of fuel to spare, got loads of diesel but the outboard likes to drink petrol!
Well now we are at the mercy of Spanish mechanics and will have to wait until Monday to find out if anyone can do anything for us. Heyho if not we are a sailing boat after all so who needs an engine, anyone want to buy 10 gallons of cheap diesel.
Bayona is a lovely town and we are being blessed with some beautiful weather so we shall make the most of our sojourn here and have a bit of an explore before going looking for more adventure.
By the way 1 litre carton of wine just 48 euro cents about 35p, haven’t tried it yet so will give my judgement of it later.