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Aislig Bheag - 15th - 23rd June Alison's blog update



Ship’s log Rhu to Newlyn 15th – 18th June 2014

We haven’t had the opportunity to add to our blog since leaving home but here is a synopsis of the journey so far.

We attempted to leave from our launch date, Friday 13th June, probably not a good day to leave anyway! Finally got away from Rhu on the Gareloch at 17.30 on Sunday 15th with six of us on board.  John and myself, Eilidh, Megan, Tony and Derek.  Sailed with light winds behind us carrying us south and commenced our four hour watch system.  I was on watch with Derek as we sailed past Ailsa Craig around 3am, a huge dark tower of rock rising vertically from the sea. It’s hard to believe people lived their entire lives on such a small inhospitable island.  We had many a laugh over the three day passage to Newlyn in Cornwall, to name but a few, the entire crew in brightly colored mustaches and a full percussion band one evening at sunset.  In addition to our regular companions, the dolphins, we saw a few Minky whales en route.

I think my 24 year old daughter, Eilidh captured the spirit of the trip when I asked her how she had found her first experience of round the clock sailing.  She said, “there’s not much that can beat getting up at midnight to start watch and seeing the sky covered in millions of twinkling stars, with the huge bright orange moon rising over the horizon, whilst being escorted by about 20 leaping dolphins, surrounded by sprays of glowing and sparkling phosphorescence; awesome!“

In Newlyn we did some maintenance and had a much needed shower – my hair had started to take on the appearance of a Mr. Whippy ice cream.  We dropped off Tony and Derek, who, unfortunately due to our late departure had to return home before the next leg of our journey from Newlyn to Porto in Portugal. 

Ship’s log Newlyn to Porto 19th – 23rd June 2014

We had given up all hope of catching up with the ARC Portugal Rally which we had signed up to participate in.  A great disappointment, but outwith our control.  We also had to give up on plans to pick friends up in Portugal as time was getting too tight for their homeward planned journey.  John, Eilidh, Megan and I left Newlyn around 15.30 on Thursday 19th June into moderate following winds carrying us south to the Bay of Biscay.  Eilidh sweated tears over trying to work out the watch system allowing each of us a six hour break at some point on the passage.  Well done Eilidh. Wind increased by Saturday and we had a lively day’s sailing across the first part of the bay, but it dropped off leaving us with the engine for most of the latter part of the journey.  It was quite tiring sharing the watch system between four but many enjoyable moments were shared as well as some scary ones.  Megan and Eilidh’s 2am encounter with a sea monster – probably a disturbed shark as we sailed past making it dart about towards under and away from (thankfully) the boat with a massive shower of highly eliminated phosphorescence.  It took them quite a while to recover.  It is interesting how, in the dead of night, your eyes and mind can work overtime reaping havoc with your otherwise reasonable thought process. At one point, Eilidh and I became convinced that we were a slow moving target for the many ships passing in the night, as everything appeared to be on a collision course with us.  We spent the watch constantly adjusting course to keep out of their way.  Maybe engine gives way to sail, but who wants to argue with a tanker the length of 4 football pitches and the height of a large block of flats?  What did we do before the days of AIS?

The sea life on this leg was amazing. Crossing the Bay of Biscay on the calm days, the sight of huge whales, usually in pairs lying basking under the sun on the surface of the glassy sea was a sight to behold, only 20 feet or so from the boat as we slid past.  The dolphins, many, many pods of them jumping and dipping across the sea towards us then accompanying the boat at times for up to two hours.  We also encountered several sharks along the way.

John stoically worked his way through the long list of repairs still outstanding from the launch.  Gradually everything is coming together making Aislig Bheag the safe, comfortable home we want for the coming year.

When we reached Porto Atlantico Leixoes at 20.30 on Monday 23rd June we were more than ready for a celebratory drink and a game of Cranium to round off the evening.

Alison

 

 

 

 



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