Dozing in Dunstaffenage

Its taking longer to recover from sleep deprivation than I expected – but getting there now.  We left Corpach yesterday just after the last of the boats had arrived

I thought I might post on the final stages of the race from our perspective.

Our runners ran a blistering time in the lakes to let us get into the last lock with 15 mins to spare before the tide dropped too far.  Only one boat was ahead – EADS.  We made it through the lock – charged off out the harbour – and then 30 seconds later – stuck !  We tried reverse, forwards, hanging on boom, kedging off mast halyards – but we were stuck.  So having checked we weren’t going to settle on anything nasty (fortunately it was just soft sand and no swell) we plumbed depths all around us – and we may have been a boats width too far to the right – but the depths were only 10cm different.  Also when we eventually got off we touched twice on the way out in the channel – so I suspect its silting a bit.

Anyway – once the boat had settled – we set about apportioning the blame.  Doug was an easy target as he’d been on the helm – as was I as skipper – everything is always my fault – and in the heat of the moment I hadn’t been giving clear directions.  But there again Ben hadn’t been watching the back bearing on the harbour either had he ?  So it looked like the sailors were well and truly in the frame – but then snippets started to come out from the runners – they had been beaten by EADS by only 1 minute – surely they could have run faster – a bit ?  And then there were all the delays while Stewart washed his hair en route – and Crispin stopped for a chat with his mum!

Anyway we eventually got off half an our before the rest of the leading pack came out the lock gates on the rising tide.  These were all faster boats than us – and I was starting to understand how a fox felt as we got chased down on the way to Mull of Galloway.  We rounded this and headed up to Mull of Kintyre in the dark just rounding this on Tues lunchtime before the tide turned against us.  We could see boats stretched out in front up the sound of Jura.  We had Moby J for company (again!) after his little detour to the Isle of Man.

We worked out that we could make the sound of Luing if we averaged 5 knots – which was looking OK – so we settled in for a sail up the Sound of Jura.  Then suddenly we spotted all the boats starting to pile up off N end of Gigha as they lost all wind.  If we joined them we would never make the Sound of Luing.  We looked at options and the Sound of Islay was just opening for us – so after a quick vote we decided to go for it – everything to gain and little to lose (except perhaps a place to Moby J).  We jibed across and watched Moby J do the same – and we imagined the pencil chewing going on – should they follow us ?  In the end Martin said they decided that they had had enough time out on their own in the Isle of Man so decided to stay with the pack (I also suspect they were well and truely sick of the sight of us by this point)

The Sound of Islay route is at least 12 miles longer – and we had no idea what winds we would encounter on the far side.  We shot through the sound and speeds over 10 knots with the kite up managing to stop Doug from detouring via the distilleries.  The sun was just setting and everyone agreed it was the best sail of the trip. 

We shot out the far side and found 15 – 20 knots of wind – so shot up the W side of Jura with the kite up starting to imagine the finish in sight – and then the wind dropped completely and we spent the night unwrapping spinnakers, hoisting jibs, rowing – and generally doing anything we could to try and get the sails to fill in the nasty lollop that we found ourselves in.  We also desperately didn’t want to get sucked back through the gulf of Corryvreckan to rejojn the fleet waiting for the tide at the sound of Luing.

We crept up the W side of the Garvellachs – still not quite sure whether anyone had made it through the sound of Luing – and then we saw them in the early dawn– EADS, Team Whistler and Sea Fever ghosting across the bottom of Kerrara.  It transpired these were the only boats to make it through the Sound of Luing with Team Whistler being the last through with 5 knots of tide against them – getting wind just when they needed it.

It was now clear that we had a real race on between these 4 boats.  We hoped they might not see us at first – but we were flying a large rainbow coloured spinnaker – so not exactly in disguise – and how many cruising boats fly a spinnaker at 4am.  The wind was still frustratingly light for us all and they made the Lynn of Lorn just before us and sailed straight into a dead patch.  Time for more rowing, we were catching Sea Fever with our kite still full just – playing every last wind shift on the water whilst rowing at the same time.  Team Whistler were rowing hard and we weren’t gaining much on them. EADS were a mile or 2 in front.  Stewart knocked up a fantastic cooked breakfast to keep spirits up – while we went through the CD collection to work out the best track to play as we passed the Aussies…

Eventually the wind filled in from behind and all 4 boats were shooting upto Corpach.  EADS still in the lead – but being closed down fast by Sea Fever and Whistler.  Being faster boats every mile we sailed they drew slightly further ahead and we were desperate to keep in touch to give our runners a chance on the Ben.  Our runners were getting more and more nervous as we approached

Eventually we shot into Corpach with about 20 knots behind us (where was that all week?) – we were well by the lee – but didn’t dare waste time jibing – so we just made the mark dropped sails and motored into the jetty dropping our runners off less than 30 mins after EADS.  After a race like this – all 4 lead boats arrived within 30 mins of each other.

It was now all down to Crispin and Stewart – EADS were not catchable baring disaster – as their runners were of a similar speed to ours.  However Sea Fever and Whistler potentially were  – so still all to play for.  So while all our runners were way – we chatted with the other boats (and had a beer or 2) waiting for our runners.  In the end Crispin and Stewart ran a fantastic leg – lifting us into second place just a few minutes ahead of the Aussies.  Sea Fern won the Tillman – so something for all which was nice.

It was a great race with a very exciting finish – the other boats were good company – and Team Whistler are keen to get people over for their Tasmanian equivalent (P.S. Thanks for the shirt guys!)

We are slightly amazed – and very pleased with our result.  A couple of good choices at key points, fast runners and a big does of luck helped us pull it off.  All in all a very good team effort.  It would have been nice to beat Geoff and his EADS team – but it wasn’t quite to be – maybe next time ….

Doug has subsequently worked out that our grounding in Whitehaven gave us half an hours head start – without which we would  never have beaten the Aussies – so feel free to send the pictures !

Many Thanks to the organisers too for all their hard work – it is much appreciated even if we were too sleep deprived to convey it fully !