Jester Baltimore Challenge 2019 – In Baltimore.

Pre dinner drinks, me (left), Austin and Bernie.
(Photo by Tom)

Thursday and Friday was about unwinding and waiting for the big event on Saturday evening, the local Pirate festival and hoping everyone would arrive in time, I think the last to arrive came in early on Friday morning. The last to arrive direct, after a delayed start due to problems getting off a pontoon mooring was George in "Good Report" who arrived in time for lunch on Friday, and remarkably he made it through the main festivities that evening.

Saturday dinner at the sailing club was followed by a quiz night at a local pub - of which there are many!

The weather was getting a bit iffy and Sunday was spent on the boat sheltering from constant rain and strong winds.



Jesters at the Pirate festival

Flying a pirate flag (and some washing) for the festival.

Lunchtime drink with Bernie (Mischief) pic by Tom (Arctic Smoke)

Slide show of all my pictures whilst in Baltimore including many of the boats, page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Next section: https://mbnb5.blogspot.com/2019/06/jester-baltimore-challenge-2019-return.html


Jester Baltimore Challenge 2019 – The Return.

North of Wolf Rock Lighthouse when I had a few hours
peace and quiet whilst sailing.

Again the wind forecast was a big issue, strong on Sunday with very strong winds forecast mid week so there was not enough time to safely head direct for Gosport and time at anchor in the Isles of Scilly could be a bit bouncy. Also winds were forecast to be very light on Monday and Tuesday and probably easterly.

I did not want to be stuck in Ireland for a week and then perhaps find the wind still to be a problem so, having plenty of fuel, I left at 04:30 on Monday and suffered noisy motoring most of the way to Fowey arriving at 22:00 on Tuesday.

Lots of Dolphins on the way back:

Dolphins in the Celtic Sea (it starts a bit slow but quickly gets better) 

unfortunately the high resolution original was too big for Blogger 

but this is reasonable full screen on a medium laptop or iPad.

 
The promised stiff easterly winds came in on Wednesday morning peaking with very strong winds (F8 & F9s being reported) on Thursday and Friday so it was 3 days sitting out the weather on a mooring in Fowey, with some boat maintenance and these blog postings passing the time.

Mooring buoys in Fowey are very close together!
And in high season boats are rafted up!!!

I left Fowey early on Saturday with a decent wind... which lasted less than an hour and I was motoring again well into Lyme Bay, a F4 then came in from the west and I sailed into the Solent, the sea got nasty surprisingly quickly even allowing for the wind being against the tide so it was another tiring trip. I arrived at Gosport about 10:30 having sailed (and motored 😒 ) 835 nautical miles.

Slide show of all my pictures of the trip home, page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Last section https://mbnb5.blogspot.com/2019/06/jester-balitimore-challenge-2019-issues.html

Jester Balitimore Challenge 2019 - Issues, Lessons learned etc.

Damage:

Sancerre stood up to some heavy seas very well, the only issue occurred running down from the Fastnet when a jib sheet caught on the snap shackle pull ring on the preventer as I was rigging it and pulled the pin completely out. A quick knot sorted that until I got into Baltimore when I spliced on a new shackle. This is not the first time this has happened to me, last time it was a spinnaker guy, but I have not come up with a solution except to buy stupidly expensive snap shackles without rings, not many companies make them, those by Wichard start at £130 and those by Tylaska at £160, and especially with 7 vulnerable shackles (excluding the spinnaker Halyard) that does not appeal.

Modifications & Additions being made:

Galley: I had already installed a crash bar in front of the cooker and thought that I could wedge myself in whilst using it, that proved optimistic when on port tack in the conditions we experienced. 

A spare life line and a folding pad eye from Boson's stores solved that with the pad eye on the aft bulkhead and the webbing line tied to the vertical hand hold forward. The loop on one end of the harness line serving as a convenient place to hang the clip when not in use.

Subsequently I added a second pad eye to the left of the companion way so the  safety belt can be used when using the sink.

Cockpit hand holds: I spent the best part of a day on deck almost all of the time because of the number of boats around - in addition to fishing boats etc, going round the Lizard 3 Jesters (Sancerre, Tranquillity & Drifter of Mochras) were within 1 - 200 yds. and at least a couple more (Guppy Unchained & Flamingo Lady) were close by.

Close hauled in 20knts + with a nasty sea I was pretty knackered holding on to a coach roof winch to stay in place, made more difficult on the long port tack by the Plotter & VHF being on the port bulkhead so I could not lean again it.

I have installed a couple of stainless grab handles that are low enough to go across the  top of the coach roof and not interfere with the winches. Also teak grab handles either side of the main hatch which are reachable when sat down.

Subsequently I put stainless grab handles on the edge of the cockpit seats to enable me to pull myself up from leeward (Arthritis makes that difficult) and as another place to hang on too.

Nav Table: Ok in normal circumstances and on starboard tack but on port tack when I was doing serious navigation I was sliding to starboard and my head was banging on the side of the coach roof.

A thick double kapok cockpit cushion on the outboard side solves that problem but it has to be a dedicated one as mine at least are permanently damp.

Subsequently I have installed additional storage for small items, principally my reading glasses, and additional security for the laptop on the chart table .

Jester Challenge - Baltimore

Approaching the Fal, earlier this year.

 

Off very early on Monday 10th June towards Plymouth for the Jester (single handed) Challenge to Baltimore in southern Ireland which starts on the 16th. Light winds forecast getting stronger during the week so I will probably be motoring, at least to start with.

For Iridium position tracking (from Monday) in a new window click this link.

May 2019 - Alderney

Off to meet up with fellow Jester sailor John Willis, owner of Pippin and to continue my exploration of Victorian and Nazi fortifications covering the south eastern side of the Island. On this trip I walked the eastern half of the south coast.

John, a native of Alderney heading home to Guernsey in his Francis Pilothouse cutter. The picture was later the main picture in John's account of the 2019 Jester Challenge in Yachting monthly.

Longy Bay with Fort Raz top right with France behind.

Fort Hournet Herbe

Alderney lighthouse and on the left "The Odeon", a Nazi lookout bunker.

Fort Les Hommeaux Florains

Aldern's war memorial. With the central plaque for all Foreign Labout
who died in Alderney
"They also Served"

The shipping lanes were rather busy on the way home. Sancerre is the
Blue dot heading north east.

Slide show:

April 2019 cruise to the Fal in company with Suhaile

Thursday 18th April. Gosport to St Mawes.

The Cruising Association organised a rally for the 50th anniversary of Robin Knox Johnson's ( president of  The C.A.] solo circumnavigation, the first one done non stop. A group formed off Hasler marina a little before 10 o'clock to see him off with a few of use sailing in company with Suhaili to Falmouth for the celebrations.

In company with Suhaili going from Gosport to Falmouth for the event.

Off Lymington, most boats turned back just before Hurst.

It was a very pleasant, albeit cool, trip through Spithead and the Solent in a light wind. I was surprised how quickly the heavy Suhaile was going in the conditions and I needed the spinnaker to keep up. That led to some embarrassment going down the Needles channel. 

I had planned to take the kite down before going through Hurst narrows but with a lot of boats under my lea I decided not to as I was on a fairly close reach for the sail and really wanted to bare away to drop it, as the NE wind was quite constant I decided to hold on to it. Big mistake! 

As we passed Totland Bay a gust of wind came down off of the hills and I broached to windward, in 15 - 20 knots of wind. I led the sheet off but it kinked and jammed in the turning block. I was now going sideways towards the Shingles bank and I could not free the sheet quickly. In desperation I let the halyard run, I had taken the precaution of putting on a very long halyard so that the sail could be in the water with the halyard still secure at the bottom of the mast. That recovered the situation but it was then very hard wet work hauling a heavy waterlogged sail out of the water, minus one guy that had disappeared as the sail thrashed about (I had a spare) and repacking it as the boat continued under main alone to keep the speed down.

It took a long time but I had it sorted by the time I reached the fairway buoy when I unfurled the Genoa. After half an hour I was somewhat recovered and in dry cloths to I got the spinnaker up again to dry out.

Crossing Lyme Bay

Unfortunately the Cruising Association advertised the sail "in company" but did not mention that Suhaili was going to stop off at Fowey on-route so I got to the Fal a day ahead.

Welcome committee off the Fal. Roger and Ron
on Rogers Dehler 41.

Suhaili (right) at the start of the parade.

Some of the 50+ boats in the parade.

Tuesday 23rd April. Gosport via Fowey and Brixham. 

Sancerre alongside in Brixham,
Photo by Roland V (Achilles 24 "Hot Foot")

Brixham

The sea turned very rough leaving Brixham in 25Knots of wind but was better later even with gusts to 30Knts - the forecast was wrong until after I left! A very pleasant sail from c Portland onwards.

A total of 66 hours at sea, 21 at night. 305 miles.

Slide show: