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Zaurak - Zaurak leg 2 Novice News



Novice News
Zaurak, 12th June 2018
Leg 2: Bayona to Povoa de Varzim

All change! After some strong bonding over the Bay of Biscay, most of the original crew had to disband and return to keep the UK economy ticking over (or look after their pets). The ratio of Walshes to Bentleys changed dramatically in favour of the latter and skipper Richard was lumped with a crew whose enthusiasm and witty comments largely outweighing their sailing skills.

Despite the drop in experience, Richard managed to get his nose over the start line well before anyone else in the fleet as we left the Bay of Bayona. We were off to a soaring start and spent the rest of the time drinking tea and enjoying the gradually increasing sunshine.

At some point, Richard noticed that a rope was caught around a slightly faulty winch. My brother Sam and I heroically heave-to-ed the sheet and managed to un-do it. Unfortunately I was so caught up in our achievement I didn't notice it re-catch as I happily winched it and flexed my cycling muscles, trapping the sheet once more but this time impossibly tight. A knife and a patience skipper was the only solution and we reefed the stay sail for the rest of the conveniently downwind journey.

The steady rocking on the downwind trundle along the coast was only interrupted by the odd yelp as someone spotted a small flag indicating a lobster or crab pot. Ruth noticed the speed surpassing 10 knots, which is the speed that the Bentleys agreed they could all cycle at (no mentioning whether that's electric bike assisted or not!).

Richard and I took a 'noon sighting' today, which means looking at the sun through a contraption that resembles something an optician might use and spending some time trying to correct from an endless list of +/- and eventually finding our position on the earth. My reading was 26nm out whereas Richard managed to get his reading accurate to within half a nautical mile. Bravo!

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