Catherine OLeary

We started on time which was good; some of the crew were a bit hungover. We had a following wind and managed 5 hours of sailing until we had to start the motor and motor in. Gave Nick a chance at the helm. Wind from E/SE F3/2

We set off on good time; there was more wind at first. We sailed well considering the tiny Genoa we had. Eventually we had to start the motor to get in and we pulled up fine.

We set off late as the coffee was low and everyone was tired and hungover. We needed to get over the tide to get anywhere, but we ended up betided at lower heads and I decided to turn on the motor so as to get over the sill at Carteret. All went well until we got to the marina at Carteret, when I struggled to get the boat into its berth. Otherwise a lovely trip.

A beautiful spring day only 3 crew but we got the spinnaker out twice and I think we came third. Wind 5kts WNW sunny midway tide. No dolphins sadly.

A difficult sail; wind was initially force 5 from the south, predicted to drop although it didn’t. Because we were expecting the wind to drop we didn’t put a reef in the mainsail and we were really carrying too much sail. The skipper said we couldn’t reef the Genoa which was surprising. There were 7 of us on the boat so I was largely ballast. It was difficult to get around the boat for tacking, so I was having to go over the roof to tack. But on one tack, my foot got caught betwee the genny sheet and the guardrail and I got trapped which was a bit scary. But I got out in the end without falling in the sea. We came second in the race and third overall in the series.

Wind from the northwest steady 20kts. There was confusion about the start of the race, the radio wasn’t receiving properly and they tried to delay the start because the big Condor Voyager was due to leave port around the start of the race. Whilst waiting to start, we had an uncontrolled jibe which took Jonathan’s hat and glasses. The glasses went in the sea, thankfully he could still see adequately. Spinnaker went up went on the second leg, but we couldn’t get it down easily as the clutch had jammed, so it came down in an uncontrolled way and the spinnaker pole hit Stephen on the head causing a head injury. In the end we came second which please Stewart. Refee lower heads terres all to starboard.

Windy from ENE Force 4 - 5 Swell 0.7m a bit of chop Boat heeled over after tack and I nearly fell off, held on by life jacket by Tony. We came last 😩

Not much to report: F2/3 from west but we just motored. Fighting 1.5kt tide. Rising tide so on alert coming through the eye of the needle. Tied up well with assistance of Stephen ashore.

Having freed the prop we were relieved to be able to set off. Wind F2-3 most of the way, mostly from the west. No adventures this time. Just good sailing.

We set off well though I was nervous as a new skipper and unfamiliar crew, I wasn’t entirely sure which line was which. We had a good F4/5 wind from SW so beating. However we had a tide initially W to E 2kt so had to take a bearing of 110 to ferry glide. Started with a reef. The wind dropped after an hour so we decided to shake the reef out. Unfortunately we mistook a reef line for the Genoa halyard and half the Jenny ended up in the water. Which was a good learning point. Then Stuart became seasick and not able to help. However we still had a crew of two. So we were sailing well and had made good progress to the west coast of Jersey when we noted what appeared to be a fishing boat but turned out to be a trawler. We made as good a detour as we could. As we neared Corbiere we weren’t making much progress so we turned on the engine but it wasn’t running well, quite a judder and little thrust. We tested this a couple of times, attempting to reverse, go into wind without success. So in the end abandoned this and continued under sail. We discussed what to do and took advice from friends, and contacted Jersey coastguard to advise them of our difficulty. We felt we could continue to sail and did, they would monitor our progress. After about an hour, the wind disappeared and the tide picked up and we started to drift so we updated the Jersey Coast Guard who advised they would attend. However they were going to take time. In the interim another boat Atlantic Isle arrived on the scene and discussed the situation with us. Initially they advised they couldn’t help us as they had passengers, but they would stay with us to see if we could maintain a southerly bearing as Corbieres rocks were to the east and the tide was pushing strongly 2kt south east. They stayed with us for about 20 minutes, and eventually decided they would tow us. Stephen made a great cradle for the tow, and I learnt more about helming under tow. After about 40 minutes under tow the coast guard arrived and took over. They took us under tow to the harbour, though we had to coast for 20 minutes waiting for a very large vessel to leave port. We were towed alongside to to a berth past the St Helier Yacht club which was a bit embarrassing but everyone was very kind. Amazingly, one of the crew John is a free diver going down to 15m, and the following morning he was able to take large amounts of fishing line off the prop, so we were able to race back.