After provisioning up we finally left Scarborough with a nice send off from family and friends sailed through the night, crossing the Humber estuary and the Wash and have put in at Lowestoft to avoid impending gales, which are forecast and  make a small repair to the mainsail.

After a couple of days rest, hiding from the wind, we left Lowestoft, followed by three other yachts, all travelling south, in the small predicted weather window , in brisk conditions we flew past Harwich, with their ever increasing number of wind farms, crossing the Thames estuary, past the Thanet wind farm, into the Goodwins and with yet another poor forecast put into Dover  at 2300hrs, for the night.The term poor forecast turned out to be correct, in as much as we never got the bad weather and so after paying £28 for 7 ½  hrs shelter we once again set off , down the channel and are now awaiting the forecast gale in Brighton Marina, planning  to get an early start tomorrow.

Well there’s another laugh! We awoke early morning to the wind howling through the rigging, the boat healed over that far I nearly fell out of bed! The gale force winds had eventually arrived but hadn’t blown through as originally forecast, so we are once again held captive in a marina, the picture shows 36.7 good reasons why we should not leave!

Whilst we were paying for another nights berthing, we heard a ‘mayday’ come through for a yacht which had been trying to make the extremely difficult entrance only to be pinned against the breakwater wall outside the entrance in pounding seas, made even more worrying when we heard a ‘man over board’ from the same vessel. The inshore and offshore life boats were launched from Brighton, the offshore from Newhaven and a helicopter, we  watched, with our hearts in our mouths as the skill and courage of the lifeboat crews guided the contessa 32, into the marina, nearly broaching several times, with the MOB safely back on board.

Click on link for video   http://brighton.ilb.org.uk/index.php?pg=detail&id=330

 Whilst we were in Brighton, Sandy, the owner of the other Sigma 36, Slippery K, who will be taking part in the AZAB came round to introduce himself, it is always nice to meet another owner which gave us a chance to compare notes and enthuse to each other about the virtues of owning one of these super boats.

With the prospect of the wind easing we slipped Brighton at 0630 and headed west, to witness a fleet of about fifty yachts taking part in a cross channel race, a very spectacular sight.

We passed a new wreck buoy, a relatively new addition to the IALA buoyage system.

Our intention was to put in at Cowes but with a new forecast of near gales from the west, arriving later (a technical term, meaning after 12hrs.) we decided we could push on to Weymouth, arriving in the early hours, before the strong head winds arrived. After a tiring, slamming passage we arrived, caked in salt and soaked to the skin, but with the knowledge we are just two more day sails from our destination.

With no improvement in the forcast we had an enforced day off listening to the wind howling through the rigging.  Whilst we were there the lifeboat brought in a very smart yacht with a completely trashed set of kevlar sails, reinforcing our decision to stay put.

An early start on Sunday morning, gave a false sense of security as we sailed in the lee of Portland Bill in bright sunshine. From previous experience we know you have to give Portland Bill a very wide berth as the tides are very severe and once again we made the mistake of thinking that three miles off was enough, it really needs something in the order of five or six miles minimum, with 28 knots of wind on the nose and 4 knots of tide in our favour, the term 'wind over tide' takes on a whole new meaning, causing very, very confused seas.

However after clearing the Bill we tacked back into Lyme Bay, into less confused seas, gaining a little shelter from the lee of the land.  Sixty five miles later we arrived in Brixham where we are now tied up on the Town Quay with an extra large gin and tonic!  

What a difference a day makes!

We cast off from Brixham at 0800 hrs in thick fog and drizzle, but once we had rounded Start Point the fog cleared and we had a very pleasant sail past Plymouth with a little excitement racing a Ed Dubois 32 until whilst he was sailing in our dirty air he tacked off.

Whilst we continued on to Fowey, where we have picked up a mooring for the night for the princely sum of £15.00 and will depart for the last 20 miles of our passage to Falmouth tomorrow at 0800 hrs.

 As our wind instruments had mysteriously malfunctioned a couple of days ago we have spent some time today trying unsuccessfully, to find the fault but will add it to the list of jobs to do when we arrive in Falmouth.  We did, however, take advantage of recalibrating the log whilst sailing from Looe to Fowey on a measured mile, pleasantly surprised that the log was under reading and we had actually been going faster than we thought!

After a very pleasent sail from Fowey, we arrived in Falmouth at 1230hrs, where after mooring up we walked down to the AZAB office at the Royal Cornwall Y.C. and registered all the nessesary documentation and now have our permit to race certificate so are once again ready for the off!

 In conclusion, whenever we have talked about the amount of dedication and effort needed to compete in these bigger races, we have always said the hardest thing about them is getting to the start line, by this we mean all the regulations you have to comply with, the physical work involved, organizing the time off that is required, not to mention the expense!  But this race has taken on a whole new meaning, the distance to the start line and back, about 1200 nautical miles, the same distance as six of our North Sea races and on this occasion most of it in unpleasant conditions, hard on the wind, dodging gales, yes, we can now say that the hardest thing is getting to the start line!!

And after the race, the return to Scarborough

After the race was over,our time in Falmouth was not wasted, on Wednesday night we ended up in The Chain Locker, with Paul, Helen, Gareth, Karen & Rob from Jbellino, and Maarten from Home of Jazz.  We had a lovely meal, with lots of excited talk about the race home.  Karen & Rob were setting off back to the Solent at midnight and Maarten would return to Holland on Thursday.

We spent Thursday tidying up Ruffian, and re vittalling for the trip home.  First of all though we went for breakfast in a café at Pendennis and caught up with the crew of the Sadler 34, Stratogem, whom we had been berthed next to in Porta Delgada and the Contessa 32, Carolina.  We shared a few laughs, each and everyone with a tail to tell, later Pete, Paul & Emma worked on Ruff for the rest of the morning, meeting Helen & Gareth for lunch in a café overlooking the harbour. 

Later that evening, we caught a water taxi and went to the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club for a drink and where Pete & Emma had a meeting with the race director, Colin Drummond and John Taylor to discuss our redress over the incident with Bojangles. The redress hearing was, as you would expect carried out in the most professional manner, the result being calculated using the great circle distance from where we turned the engine on to go back to them and the great circle distance from the position where we re joined the race; most impressive, the result of which we were awarded 47 minutes redress. Another  water taxi trip took us back The Chain Locker again for supper, meeting Sandy from Slippery K and Mervyn Wheatly off Tamarind. 

On Friday morning, Paul caught the train home and Gareth took the car to Fowey, leaving Pete, Helen & Emma to sail there.   It was a beautiful morning, but no wind, so we set off under engine, before managing to sail the last few miles.  We picked up Gareth from the Albert Quay, with a very neat manoeuvre of just sliding up to the pontoon, Gareth jumping on and us carrying on without stopping!  After mooring up, we spent a pleasant afternoon in the sun, with a bottle or two of wine, playing cards, before going ashore for dinner, where we once again bumped in to Sandy who was spending a little time in his birth place and with his sister.

Saturday morning, we dropped Helen & Gareth off on the Albert Quay early so they could make a start on the long drive back to Scarborough and we could continue with our summer cruise, our first destination would be one of the most picturesque places on the South coast, a mile past, Plymouth, the River Yealm, where we just managed to scrape in,  one & a half hours before low water with 0.1m under the keel! We picked up a mooring and as the water taxi wasn’t running, we got the dinghy out, only to find that it had a hole in it!  Fortunately we had some repair patches, so it wasn’t too disastrous, but it did mean we were too late getting to the shower block! We met up with Tony & Diane Bale (from the 2006 RB&I) and Peter & Rosie Taylor (RB&I race director) for a meal in the Yacht Club.  William & Anna Mumford (Flair II, RB&I) called in for a quick chat on their way out. It really is great to catch a little time with such good company.

On Sunday at 0700 we left the extremely well sheltered anchorage of the Yealm, and as we rounded the corner, passed the Mew Stone, we were hit with 20 knots apparent  from the West, and had a super sail to past Salcombe and Start Point and inside Skerries Bank where the wind died and we motored the final  miles Dartmouth.  Dartmouth was SO busy, just like London at rush hour.  There were big boats and small boats everywhere, including a huge French cruise ship anchored in the middle of the fairway!  We found a space on the visitor’s pontoon which once again meant a dinghy trip ashore to buy milk and supper.  After a pleasant walk around, we returned to Ruffian, did some boat maintenance and just sat in the sun, doing absolutely nothing, watching the world go by.

We had calculated that we must leave the Dart at 1000, so as to carry a fair tide around Portland Bill and on to Weymouth. But not before, Emma the intrepid explorer had made one final trip ashore, alone in the dinghy; she made it look so easy until her return trip, with the strong current in her favour, saw her flying past and only just managing to catch hold of the far end of the pontoon!

Our arrival time was timed to perfection and the race is not too bad so we are able to go quite close in and inside the Shambles Bank, saving about ten extra miles and thus arriving in Weymouth at 2230.Tuesday morning and we are underway by 0445, allowing us enough time to have a look in at the iconic, Lulworth cove, a superb natural inlet where you can spend the night at anchor, in anything but a strong Southerly.

Unfortunately time wouldn’t allow us to stop this time if we wanted to carry the 5/6 knots of tide through the Needles channel and on to Cowes. It was the flat calm sea’s that allowed us to hug the spectacular coast line with white cliffs and contrasting rocky out crops, which was fascinating and something we haven’t done before.  As the sea was so flat we were able to go straight over St Alban’s Ledge, which is notorious for it’s overfalls and on previous occasions, have always had to make the detour around it. We passed Poole and arrived at the Needles in plenty of time to carry the tide.  It was very strange sailing at a boat speed of 4 knots but actually doing 10 knots over the ground!We tied up in Cowes Yacht Haven and arranged to meet Rob & Jen Packham from Stardancer, (AZAB 2007) for dinner. 

We went to the Anchor and had a very good meal although a glass of wine was horrendously expensive!   Pete bumped into his old sailing partner Marilyn who we had been trying to contact during the afternoon and  she came and joined us.

Our plan was to leave Cowes at 0900 on Wednesday but when we checked the weather, there was an imminent gale warning, so we elected to stay another day but decided to venture up the River Medina to the legendary, Folly Inn for the night, one of Pete’s old haunts, from when they used to come down for their annual crew trip in Djinn Seng days. It was to be a wise decision as the wind howled all night as with the wind direction the entrance to Brighton or Newhaven our next stop 50 miles away, would be virtually impossible and the next stop after that being Dover another 60 miles, which would also be unpleasant to get into in big winds, and unnecessary.

We left the following morning, hoisting sail as we passed Cowes Yacht Haven, and sailed out into the Solent and travelled east towards the forts off Portsmouth. There were the Sunsail racing fleet, twenty of them, all forty footers, racing around the Solent, all well reefed, all on port tack as they approached us, with only the skippers acknowledging our generosity, as we gave way to them. Conditions were not good and once again it started to rain, reducing the visibility even further, we spotted a large ship approaching the forts and then it completely disappeared in the gloom, this was a signal that as there was no need to put ourselves through this and we turned back and found a berth in Gosport.

We had listened to the 0600 forecast and it had been half decent but had missed a later one at 0700 which gave out force 8’s imminent!O.K. Time for some sight seeing, after a good look around the large marina we were in ( some thing that would bore the pants off most people, but some thing from which we can gleam new ideas and enjoy doing at every stop over, chatting to like minded people as we go ) we spotted a couple of Volvo 70’s that deserved investigation, followed by a pint on the ex Greenwich light vessel now, a floating bar.

With no let up in the weather another enforced day in port was called for. The next day we crossed the river to Portsmouth, where we spent the morning looking around the naval dock yards and museums and Nelsons flag ship, HMS Victory before heading off to the, now most famous land mark in Portsmouth, namely the spinnaker tower, 170 metres above sea level with it’s breath taking views, 23 miles in all directions and on the top floor, named appropriately ‘the crow’s nest’ its amazing glass floor, which you can walk over or just lay on, with only the glass between you and oblivion!!

We have now had enough of this harbour rot ( it’s too easy a trap to fall into ) and so with a forecast that promised a force less to start with and decreasing over the next 24hrs, we cast off and continued with our passage, our destination was to be either Newhaven or Brighton.

We crept out of Gosport and took the ‘Inside route’ in and easterly direction, this again saves you a few miles and to some extent would keep us in the lee of the Isle of Wight until the improvement in the forecast kicked in. In this area there are lots of shallows, even the odd drying height, and a small gateway, barely 50 metres wide to negotiate your way through until you get clear and then have a clear run to Beachy Head and Royal sovereign.

We had 20knts apparent wind right up the stern and with full main and poled out Genny( saves wear and tear on the kites ) we were flying along, maintaining great speeds, we flew past Newhaven and Brighton (just as well really because it wouldn’t have been an easy entrance on either) on past Dungerness, and before we knew it were crossing the ferry lanes in and out of Dover, we were well around the corner and heading north before we lost the tide and darkness started to set in, leaving us to weave our way through the Goodwin sands, past Ramsgate and put in at Lowestoft just after mid day! In the first 12hrs we covered 97 nautical miles, giving an average speed of over 8 knts, topping out at 10.8knts, just wonder if we had been racing what we could have achieved!

We stayed in Lowestoft for the afternoon, and met up a couple of guys sailing single handed around the British Isles for charity, Paul Hardaker and Tom Webb.

We left Lowestoft later that evening when top crew girl, Helen Baker had joined us after getting a lift to Peterborough and train the rest of the way ( just hope the rest of the crew are reading this, dedication, loyalty are just two words that come to mind!! )  Since our departure time had been planned to maximise the tides we shot out of the ‘Cockle gateway’ like the preverbal cork out of the bottle, around the north Norfolk coast and across the busiest Wash area that I have ever seen, waving our fair wells to Tom and Paul as we passed them, crossed the Humber in daylight just managed to carry the tide around Flamborough Head and arrived back in Scarborough at around 0200hrs.

What a trip. Sixteen ports, 1200 nautical miles, stacks of fun!