Diary of a DeliveryOur 52ft yacht
Nisida left Malta and the Middle Sea Race bound for Gran Canaria and the ARC on
1st November 2006. On board were seven LCSC members; Peter Hopps (skipper), myself,
Jeremy Whiting, Rhys Triffit, Becky Senior, Peter Law and John Bowron. For all
of us except the skipper this was the longest trip we had undertaken (and indeed
for Peter Law it was to be his first night sail). Nisida
in Malta - getting ready for the off
We'd allowed 14 days for the
1700 mile trip, allowing time for a refuelling stop if required in Gibraltar but
provisioning for the full two weeks. To complete the whole distance, non-stop,
in just over 9 days was testimony to mostly favourable (if breezy) winds, a boat
which loves downwind sailing at speed and, most of all, to a fabulous crew who
more than rose to the occasion. I'd never imagined a delivery could be quite such
good fun. Becky
at the helm - spinnaker up
Copied below are the emails we sent out
via satellite phone during the trip. These were sent to relatives at home and
those coming out to join us for the ARC, and you may surmise that we somewhat
glossed over or simply air brushed out the sea sickness, general discomforts and
sail damage that almost inevitably accompanies such a boisterous trip...
Hilary Cook Gran Canaria 16/11/06 From S/Y Nisida
Date 04/11/06 We left Malta on Wednesday after a quiet little
drink on Tuesday to celebrate Hilary's birthday. Heads soon cleared as we turned
north west out of the harbour into 20 knots over the deck, and on the nose, which
rose to over 30 knots overnight and continued the next day. Luckily for morale
and prospective progress the forecast was for the wind to swing into the north
east by late that night and it duly did. Since then we have been running with
the main with up to two reefs and the yankee poled out and have hit speeds of
up to 14.5 knots. Our daily run rate has shot up from not much more than 120 miles
to over 200 today and we are now north east of Algiers and 550 miles from Gibralter.
We haven't yet decided whether to stop there (not Algiers) or anywhere else and
while sailing is like this it would seem a shame to stop. Best regards
Nisida and her crew It
wasn't all downwind surfing in the sun...
From S/Y Nisida
Date 06/11/06 Today we passed the half way mark on our trip
- hitting 800 miles gone and to go at watch change at 8am this morning (from when
we covered 40 miles in 4 hours). We've now covered over 600 miles as the crow
flies in the past three days and have 100 miles to go the entrance to the Gibraltar
strait. Daytime has typically seen the wind dropping to around 20 knots and yesterday
we introduced two of our crew to the spinnaker for the first time. Today it's
been back up to touching a force 7 but is now dropping away and we're watching
a school of dolphins playing awaiting Jeremy cooking our dinner. Tonight sees
the last of our fresh meat - spag bol - and then we're onto devising menus for
freeze dried chicken and testing our ARC food. It's 700 miles now to Gran Canaria
and we aim to be there in time for the first of the ARC parties next week. By
then we'll all be very ready for a shower and a beer. Best regards
Nisida and her crew finally…
a shower after 7 days at sea
From S/Y Nisida Date 8/11/06
Yesterday we passed through the Strait of Gibraltar - an event
we were awaiting with great excitement (we hadn't seen much land, or anything
else apart from dolphins, for 5 days). Just ahead of dawn we could see the lights
of both Africa and Europe and make out the outline of the Rock. However there
was to be no sunrise to match those of the previous days - the cloud came down
to near sea level, the heavens opened and, rain temperature apart, we might have
been in Scotland. The Atlantic weather itself proved very different from the Med,
and rather familiar, ie a low pressure system with driving rain, gusting winds
and limited visibility. Yesterday it was almost chilly but today you can tell
we are now further south than most of us have ever sailed. The sun is hot and
we are drying out the boat as we sail out west towards where our forecast tells
us we may find more wind. The other change we encountered on leaving the Med was
to the distance of our voyage. It is 1020 nautical miles to Gibraltar, and when,
as we passed there, we moved our GPS waypoint to Gran Canaria it showed a further
698 miles to go. So a total distance of over 1700 miles and not 'about' 1600 as
the skipper had led us to believe. But if we could average 7 knots from here in
(and 25 knots of wind are forecast from the south east for Friday) we could still
beat 10 days for the trip, and be in a bar in Las Palmas bragging accordingly
on Saturday night. The wind is now picking up and with luck we will be spinnakering
by the time the other watch comes up on deck. It's also Peter (Law's) birthday
but we haven't yet decided how to celebrate - we'll wait and see what the weather
is to bring us. Best regards Nisida and her crew calm
at last - sunset down the African coast
From S/Y Nisida Date
9/11/06 We are now 150 miles south west of Casablanca and have
just taken down the spinnaker. In our quest to keep our daily run rate up above
our 7 knot target, and with the wind down to only 15 knots, we held it overnight
last night for the first time this trip. In terms of run rates (and apologies
for our obsession with these, but there isnt a lot else to get excited about out
here) we ran 148 miles in the 16 hours from midnight when we gybed on a favourable
wind shift. But in contrast to the similar run rates achieved in the Med when
we hurtled down Alp-like mountains of waves, out here we have mere rolling foothills
- less exciting for the helmsman but much more comfortable on board. We are now
about 315 miles from Gran Canaria and conversations are turning to how we will
cope with dry land. The forecast tomorrow is for force 6 to 7 from the south east
- which should produce a fast if bouncy run in - but we may well try and slow
down in order not to arrive at a tricky harbour in the dark of Saturday morning.
Life on board has got noticeably more sociable as we don't simply come off watch
and head straight for our bunks, hoping for some sleep before we crash off the
next wave. The rest of the crew are all now on deck, enjoying the late afternoon
sun and over 8 knots on the clock. Time now to go and prepare the next freeze
dried chicken dinner. Last night the skipper starred with chicken korma, tonight
it will be chicken paprika. Recipes available on request. Best regards
Nisida and her crew and
sunrise the next day
From S/Y Nisida Date 11/11/06 We
sailed into Gran Canaria this morning and are now safely moored, showered, fed
and looking forward to an uninterrupted night's sleep. We also washed down the
boat - you could tell we'd been on port tack most of our way down the African
coast as that side of the deck and rigging was covered in yellow sand. Yesterday
did indeed see wind force 6-7, but not until evening by when we'd been allowed
by the skipper to indulge in more high speed playing while filming each other
helming. This then meant we had to slow down during the night as we really didn't
want to arrive at a very busy port (at least 5 ships including a war ship and
two cruise liners followed us in) until day break. Slowing down from 12 knots
when under only a bare headsail with two reefs proved a challenge, but the wind
predictably dropped once we had put in our third reef. We completed the trip in
9 days and 15 hours - two days faster than our skipper achieved on a much bigger
boat two years ago so we're feeling pretty pleased with ourselves and the boat.
We worked out last night (you need these mental challenges on the 2-5 am watch)
that we'd done 68 watches between the two shifts. That's a lot of cups of tea
- although Bovril (with black pepper) and mint tea in fact proved the fuel of
choice of the on-coming watch this time. That's it from us on this email until
the ARC (starts 26th Nov). Best regards Nisida and her crew in
Gran Canaria - our first beer for 10 days
Watch
a short Video clip of us sailing Nisida during the
Malta - Gran Canaria part of this delivery trip.
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