If its mid September , it must be time for the Great River Race , that wonderful , eccentric festival of traditional rowing on the tidal Thames  that takes the form of a pursuit  race  from The Isle of Dogs to Richmond.  This year Ben and I teamed up , rowing Kingfisher  our 15 foot skiff , with two young sailors from Hamble  as our mandatory cox and passenger.

From Great River Race 2011

Some folk consider this as a bit of a lark and are happy just to finish , but perhaps 25% the fleet of 350 boats  are serious racers . No guesses as to  which party we belonged to then , although with oarsmen over 40 described as “veterans” , Ben would have his hands full making up for his greybeard father over 22 miles and 3 hours of rowing.

The good news is that a strong flood makes it in effect a 15 mile race , whereas the bad news was that strong headwinds  with gusts up to 25 knots were forecast , and anyone who has ever rowed in such conditions  will know the extra effort that is required to maintain headway , let alone race.  We were given a fairly good handicap of + 12 minutes , with some of the faster boats starting up to 30 mts behind us , but this meant that if we were to win we would be out on our own ahead of the fleet and rowing against the clock for the whole race.

And this is precisely what happened.  By Tower bridge we  had made up the time on the early starters , possibly because the wind against tide created a rough ride that saw our crew pumping and bailing fit to bust to keep us afloat  , whereas others were looking distinctly waterlogged. Then the heavens opened and squall after hail ridden squall swept the river as we pulled along , completely on our own save the accompanying rib.

As Richmond lock hove in sight (2.5 miles to go) the rib  assured us we were 500m clear of the next boat , but were as flabbergasted as us to find that far from having its gates open for traffic , the lock was shut , forcing us to a standstill.

After an age the gates started to open , but not before a Celtic Longboat and two dragon boats had come racing round the bend to join us , and once we were eventually allowed through they sped off into the distance. Eventually we crossed the line in 9th place , but if the 5 or more minutes we were forced to wait are taken account of - our time would put us at least  in the first 3 , and possiblymake us the winner.

The jury is still deliberating a week later , and if we were upset at the time , sanity has now prevailed (” its only a friggin boat race !”) and I suppose we will  just have to train harder for next year and see if we can make it third time lucky!

To all WAFL followers ,

Many thanks for your support in securing the blog prize for us - it makes Chris’s achievement in coming 4th in the double handed even more impressive as I was down below ( in the warm and dry , tee hee) blogging away whilst he did a one and a half handed Fastnet.
I gather there is an ugly rumour going around that I wont know how to use it. All I can say is you can all b………..

Actually , how DO you start the bloody thing?

Philip

Did I say that the finish team would have problems as 50 boats came to the line? Surely that was the understatement of the year.

Team WAFL had their hearts in their mouths. Our met information suggested zero wind by midnight and we fully expected to have to spend the night at anchor but some little thundery cells powered us ( and everbody else!) across the bay. Our ETA at Rame head was tantalising – 2345 hrs – although the breeze was dying for the last two hours as we closed the land and it slipped ominously into the predicted calm period. Astern of us the night filled with green and red lights – unbelievable numbers of them – whilst ahead the big class one boats who had overtaken us appeared to have stopped in yet another line abreast under the cliff.

We opted to go outside the first group and it seemed to pay , but as more and more boats piled in , what little wind  there was ( and by this stage we were excited if we had 2 knots of it) was swallowed up . What is more , the fair tide that had helped us all east was now replaced by an ebb past the breakwater, and the reach that was powering the boats from astern turned into a beat against the tide . Then the piece de la resistance – you couldn’t cross the line on starboard ! So there we were ,  surrounded  by 200 of the 350 boat fleet  in the pitch dark  just about to cross when yet another large boat  joined the party on starboard , scattering the next bunch of port tackers in a bizarre slow motion ballet.

The radio was going mad as 200 boats reported, as per the SI’s , that they were about to finish. No kidding guys – the whole bloody fleet was about to finish and it would have been more sensible for the few yachts in the universe who WEREN’T within 100 metres of finishing  to radio in and tell the race officer not to worry about them!

By and large it was  a good humoured affair , although inevitably there were a few who thought they were back in the Oppie nationals . Our priority became to finish without  being hit or going on the rocks by the breakwater ( did I mention that someone did this , thus adding to the already overloaded  radio traffic as they called for help !) , and gradually the whole raft ghosted across the line.   

So now its time for a bottle of champagne and some serious snoring , and tomorrow we will get down to the serious business of telling tall tales of high adventure. I have a feeling that however extraordinary ( and unlikely) those tales will be , nothing will quite match up to the bizarre events of tonight.

Goodnight.

Did we have fun at the Lizard!

We took our NW wind most of the way to Mullion Cove and tacked up the back eddy whilst a line of boats parked up offshore. There was a light Southerly (team WAFL think it was a local sea breeze) at the Lizard itself and it was the transition between this and the NW wind that was holding up the fleet. All the best bits of fun have moments of terror and ours came when the wind switched off just as we were negotiating the rocks at the point. We had about .5 of a knot of fair eddy and no steerage ( its always rough here)and there was no knowing if this would deposit us on the rocks , so we had the unmentionable device (k—-) out and ready to go . Chris managed to get the merest hint of steerage and we were clear ,with the kite up and seemingly hundreds of boats parked the other side of the headland.

The next half hour was frantic as we gybed and wriggled and trimmed our way between about 4 conflicting sets of zephyrs ( 4 diffent local sea breezes vying for supremacy- Ok I admit I made that up!) but now a NW wind has filled in across the bay and we are off with hordes of boats chasing ½ mile astern.

Chris spends a lot of time on the AIS , and from the speed and vectors we can deduce what the wind is doing on varying parts of the course. It may have been designed for collision avoidance but he uses it as a local meteorological tool. What with me sending e-mails and Chris glued to the chartplotter it’s a good thing Festina is used to sailing herself for long periods of time!

We have the feeling that this is not Neptunes last throw and there may be more park ups before the night is out. If there isn’t , the finish team is going to have one hell of a headache as 50 boats finish line astern. If it does go light again the WAFL plan is to find a nice lobster pot to tie up to for the night.

I suspect you lot will be getting more sleep than us tonight!

Anybody looking at the tracker over the last few hours will have seen us make a radical move over to the North of the fleet, our course dictated by what would give us any speed at all in the chop rather than heading for any point. You then would have seen us take off like a rocket and assume that we had found our seabreeze.

Wrong! The sky cleared over Mounts Bay with the exception of some strange thin lentiucular clouds and all of a sudden we had 15 knots from the NW. And we had it first. So 5 out of 10 for team WAFL - 5 for a result but nul pointes for theory. Actually now I come to think of it I have experienced a sudden 30 knots from the NW in this exact spot out of a similar deep blue sky.
So, all of a sudden our tidal plans have to be brought forward a couple of hours, which means rock hopping round the point. There look to be a few boats trying it already up ahead so we can just keep outside the wrecked yachts and should be safe.
Only joking! And what will we find the other side of the headland ? Possibly a flat calm!
Stay tuned.

We are no longer beating. Actually we are no longer doing very much apart from being thrown around by the left over waves which are coming direct from the Lizard and intent on destroying any forward motion we manage to generate.
The latest theory that has come from team WAFL ( With Alacrity/Festina Lente – geddit?- and thanks Ben, yes I am aware it works on another level as well!) is that we could get a sea breeze. In fact the cloud cover has slipped away and in the last ½ hour there is impressive cumulus activity building over the land.
And that is why we are hot footing it towards the land- or as hot footed as you can get in a Sigma in no wind and loadsa waves. Sign on after 1600 and see if we get it! I have a feeling its going to be a long day and night so its time to bring out our secret weapon. Chocolate coated coffee beans!

Oh , and the K word you are NOT going to mention. Suffice to say that retrieving one two handed in 80 metres would need an awful lot of the above mentioned secret weapon.

Our 4th dawn at sea brought the Scillies in to view as we rounded the Bishop light and set off for the Lizard. The wind is NE and due to back N or even NW, but as ever the time is unspecified. Neptune and Mr Grib have thus set us these nice little problems : do we point and get on the left hand side of the beat , or foot our way through the typically disturbed seas that always exist hereabouts. Option one puts us in the right place for the wind shift , but the wrong place for the foul tide at the Lizard which is strongest inshore. Option two gives us better speed and less tide , but at risk of being hung out to dry if caught offshore when (if!) the wind backs.

As you can imagine Chris and I are wriggling our toes with delight about such arcane mysteries and the mood on the boat is one of happy , obsessive delight . It makes me wonder about our sanity as most sensible folk would prefer a straight run in, but this little scenario is the hand we have been dealt and it will do just fine.

Usually when I see the Fastnet light, its iconic shape on the horizon like a two fingered red Indian salute -( How!) - brings a lump to the throat. “How” indeed! Or why? Why some folk got round and others got left behind is a bit of a mystery. This time we were just too busy to pay it much attention beyond vaguely admiring the scene as the host of boats drifted up under kite in the new red dawn. I once did a regatta at La Trinitee where class after class was held up by a sea breeze front which suddenly passed through with the effect that 400 boats attempted to round the same mark at the same time. It was the first and only time I rounded a mark with fenders out on both sides! It was a bit like that at the rock but 11 hours into the Irish sea we have all spread out a bit.

Sadly we have spread out a bit too much . Was it really me who foolishly predicted light downwind legs that would suit our lightly laden boat. We have been power reaching in 16 knots and the piece of elastic which has connected us to Rapscallion throughout the race is being seriously stretched , whilst Persphone is appearing ever larger like an avenging angel on our port quarter. However even if the conditions are not favourable to our own little race within a race , it is champagne sailing requiring only one of us on watch so we are warm ,fed (!) and rested and waiting for the next little brain teaser which will await us at the Scillies , or the Lizard or indeed anywhere in the next 150 miles.

We may be homeward bound but there’s a lot of racing still to do.

The small piece of water between Cape Clear and the Rock got pretty crowded this morning as more and more boats joined the parking lot. Somehow we didn’t get out of it too badly – but at the last minute who should appear but Vitesse who rounded alongside Rapscallion just inside us. Poor old Persephone who has not put a foot wrong thus far got just the wrong side of the breeze line and is now 3 miles astern!

The 6 mile leg to Pantaneus buoy was dead downwind , against the tide, and in 4 knots of wind. If I said this was nerve wracking my guess is that any non sailor would think I was potty. I mean , could it be more gentle. But after no sleep in the night as we tried to keep the old bus going in the light stuff, working out best gybing angles , VMG’s , tidal vectors etc was fairly hardcore , especially as the first boat round would scoot off with the tide under her. Rapscallion sailed a blinder , but we were fairly close even if we were held out by another 2 hander having difficulty with their gybes.

So now we are fetching homewards in 10 knots of breeze with rather fewer passing opportunities than on the way out. Our immediate priorities are work out the tidal vectors , check the gribs and then take it in turns to catch up on the Z’s.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Its 0200 Wednesday morning and we are parked up off Cape Clear with no wind and the fair tide about to turn. The depth sounder reads 70 metres so please somebody send us a bit of wind to take us round the rock!

Rapscallion is just a few boat lengths away and Jamie is logged on to the internet . He tells us we are back up to 3rd in the two handed class , although if anyone out there has any wind , that may not last long! After long debate we decided to head for the shore in search of a land breeze. I have lost more races by adopting this tactic than I can remember – this reputed phenomenon being about as rare as the Holy Grail , but low and behold the afternoon breeze died to be replaced by an offshore breeze smelling deliciously of farmyard and we hoisted a shy kite and gained quite a few miles on those around us, and then came the great park up.

Presumably someone will turn the wind on again at some time , and it looks like a light downwind return home. On the way out here we have been at something of a disadvantage vis a vis the fully crewed boats who have been able to stack the crew on the rail and sail higher and faster. Now its our turn. Without 6 extra crew , plus kit food and water we must be ½ a ton lighter which must be to our advantage. It will also be a good excuse to make serious inroads into our stores to lighten ship still further.

If anyone is in touch with Nigel on Persephone , tell him to jettison his guns and throw his water overboard- were coming after him!

Our eagerly anticipated veer came in on the dot at 1300 hrs allowing us to tack through 60 degrees and thrash along at 6.6 knots just 10 degrees short of the layline - perfect textbook management of a beat allowing for a further veer and avoiding the trap of overstanding. Hmmm!

Feeling dangerously pleased with ourselves we tucked in to a celebratory lunch which was soon interrupted by a marked lessening of the wind and a dramatic loss of speed as we punched smack into the left over waves. An hour later we were practically becalmed, and even worse the boats ahead were sailing away with a nice breeze from the original direction.

Back to the drawing board! Eventually the breeze trickled down to us and we are once more heading NW on port tack and having long and convoluted discussions about how to handle the rest of the beat to the rock. If it IS going to be a beat ? We still expect the wind to fill in from the NE!

Luckily Chris and I are happy as lambs discussing the minute details of all this stuff, which is probably why we are sailing two handed. Anybody else would just go stir crazy listening to us!

Well , we had our blow. Nothing to boast about in the great scheme of things –but a solid 25 knots for 7 hours and a period of steady 30 will always test you at night. Luckily for us we had moved away from the disturbed seas around Lands End and to begin with at least it was from just aft the beam , so with 2 reefs and a partially furled genny she flew across the building seas at 8.5 knots. Spare a thought for Will Sayer in Elmarleen , he would have copped it in the rough area , and I bet there was plenty of technicolor yawning going on elsewhere around us.
Not on the good ship Festina however! We ate a good supper and have both caught up on sleep as downwind with small sails the autohelm copes fine and on watch we sheltered from the rain in the bubble. Once the sea built it was a bit faster if we helmed , and now that we are back on the wind it definitely is – but we are warm , refreshed , and ready for anything.
Dawn this morning brought the dolphins , revelling in the rough waves and our (relative) good speed. I wonder do they try and play with Banque Populaire as she blasts along at 30 knots? There were lots of youngsters in this family , which I hope is a healthy sign.
We “borrowed” to the North of the rhumbline in anticipation of a big veer later today. But when , and how much – ah , that is the question and we are hoping Mr Grib is more accurate this time. As I write (0930) the sun has come out , the wind has veered 10 degrees and we are back to full sail.
Now , where are those breakfast sausages?

Much excitement as we all converge on the corner, racing along on a tight reach. Rapscallion is inshore of us and despite tacking off earlier, seems to have been slowed up by the Lizard so perhaps we didn’t lose out after all.

Its getting quite blowy and we have the typical Lands End confused sea so it is a tough call whether its better to be out in the wet or down below in the dry bouncing around like a ping pong ball in a washing machine. Down below writing the blog is the marginal loser so this will be short.

We are expecting a blast reach then the wind to go ahead and die back – so its head scratching time as to how to come out of that lot smelling of roses.

See ya!

The whole fleet spent this morning heading SW in anticipation of a backing wind. When it came it wasn’t enough to clear the Lizard so we hung on but the next shift was far more than we were expecting so I fear we have overstood. The early tackers were risking being trapped for a tide East of the Lizard , but unless we lose some of the Southing in this breeze I think most of them will get round. On such decisions are these races won and lost!
We however are crashing along at 7.2 knots , 50 miles ESE of Lands End , just off the wind and barring some unforeseen calamity will be far enough South to not be too badly affected by the Lizard tides and confused seas. I suspect we are in for a windy and rainy night and then all sorts of fun and games in the Irish sea with the wind going light and round in circles. Plenty of snakes and ladders there then and the race is far from lost.
Festina may have temporarily morphed into a racing boat, but one tradition is being upheld: we are eating for Britain and should weigh as much as a fully crewed boat by the time we get in. The chocolate locker alone would feed the crew of a superyacht.
We have no idea how we are getting on. There are some big boats around us , but we know Persephone is ahead. Rapscallion came across Lyme bay abeam , but she tacked earlier than us and may be further to the West now. Hopefully the boats will come together at Lands End and that will give us a better clue how we are doing. Meanwhile we are trimming ( and eating!) for our lives and having a great time!

Well , we got our shift! The NW wind came in right on schedule and we scooted down the inside of Portland Bill to run slap bang into the enormous tide running down its west side. I
Its always a bit of a gamble doing this at Springs , as the tide takes 6 or more knots off the wind and does its damndest to sweep you into the Portland race . This time we made it by the skin of our teeth and gradually escaped the worst of the tide to inch our way westwards. Scary stuff !
Not so scary as the kamikaze cruiser who tried to duck us in the overfalls off the Needles . The first thing I heard was Chris making a noise something like a cross between a banshee and a horses neigh. WhooooaaaaHHHH! Very effective it was too as the kamikaze boat crash tacked heart stoppingly close and lay there , hove to , looking sheepish.
Our beautiful NW wind whizzed us across Lyme Bay , and we are now well past Start , hard on the wind heading SW and waiting for the next shift. Our plan is to be on the left of the fleet by the time it comes in.
Fingers crossed.