Back to Scarborough
We finally crept back into Scarborough at 0730 on Friday the 13th July after what seemed like a long hard slog home. With all the adrenalin drained from us after the race had finished, and weather reports which mentioned the word seven every day, motivation didn’t come easy for the return passage of over 500 miles, just a short hop for us you may have thought, but not so.After four days storm bound in Falmouth, at the second attempt, we finally departed and set about the task of getting back to Scarborough but with only a small weather window we decided to make our first port of call the beautiful river Yealm where we picked up a mooring and once again met up with Peter Taylor who joined us for a G&T before supper.
An early night and an early departure to catch the tide around Start Point and we were on our way to Dartmouth (a decision we regretted as the SW wind gave us a very unpleasant and uncomfortable sail with a nasty breaking swell that threw us all over the place, we made a note that when sailing you can not sail to a strict time table, you must not ignore the forecast and our safety must override the urge to get home. This may seem strange after severe gales and 2500 miles of Ocean racing but the main point is then we did not have to consider the rocky shore line - now we do! ) We spent two days in Dartmouth which gave the opportunity to spend more time with friends we had met the previous year on the Round Britain and Ireland race.
After two days another break in the weather saw us setting off for Weymouth for an over night stay, before heading off to Cowes and meeting up with our sail maker UK McWilliams, who even though they were heavily committed to sail repairs from the Swan World series which was on at the time, worked on the main sail over night so we would not be held up on our passage home, many thanks UK.Once again an early departure saw us on our way to Brighton, a marina neither one of us had been in before and with a strong SW wind in the shallow waters around the entrance, one we don’t particularly want to go to again!! This is a huge marina with absolutely no character, with the most appalling architecture we have seen, sorry Brighton, the staff were great but never again, unless we are in dire need, then please ignore this foot note!
Four am saw us leave, on our way to Dover for a night before the final push up the coast to Lowestoft, which since the stay with the RB&I, almost seems like home from home. We left at nine am to carry the strong North going tide through the shoaling waters off Great Yarmouth, squeezed through the offshore wind farms, inside the Haisborough shoals (land, seven miles offshore!! ) across the Wash and crossed the Humber estuary on a very pleasant evening and finally home.
WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN?, oddly enough, one mile from the finish line I said I wouldn’t, Emma said ‘she would do it again tomorrow’, but after meeting up with fellow competitors, exchanging experiences, feeling the bond that a shared experience like this gives, a few pints of the black stuff, I was ready for the off once again.If ever anyone gets a chance to do a big race like this, grab it with both hands, it will be something you never forget, to get to the start line is, in itself no mean achievement and requires total dedication to the cause and then to race flat out for eight or nine days, twenty four hours a day to the point of exhaustion and still be able to give it ‘some more’ when things go wrong requires unparalleled effort, certainly this has been the hardest thing we have ever done, the rewards are tremendous and of course the prize is a free holiday for two in the Azores!!!! If you want it, go for it, MAKE IT HAPPEN !
One final fot note. We are very proud to say that all our efforts and everyones generosity ended when we were able to present cheques to our two charities
for over £5500 to each of them.