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Snippets
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Snippets
Pieces on members' activities or topics of general interest
Reg and Chris Hadwen Cruise “Wenda” to Brittany and link up with other GXSA members
“The trip started when we met up with other yachts in Cherbourg for a Northshore Rally. Peter Poole was also there in “Holly” on a Nicholson Rally. Activities were marred by gale force winds and fog so the rally ended early June when we left for La Rochelle. We had northerly F5’s with a 2m swell rounding Ushant giving us a fast and steady sail. We then motored through the Raz in calm seas to meet David & Marion Horn in La Foret, sheltered from F7’s in L’Herbaudiere and motored south to rendevous with Phil & Jill Snowden in La Rochelle. “
“The sun mainly stayed behind the clouds and the temperature remained in the low 20’s for our return. In increasing winds we visited Vannes via La Turballe and beat across bay to Port Haliguen. With our keel raised we went up to Quimper and anchored peacefully for the night. Then in Audierne on Bastille day
we met more friends who were waiting to cross Biscay in their Westerly 31. Finally to L’Aberwach along the N Brittany coast home to Gosport.”
Holiday plan for "Optimist" was to visit outer Hebrides
Reached Stornoway Sun 10th June
Explored town – absolutely dead closed. We’d heard about this, but were still taken aback by the completeness of the closure.
Next day we decided to do the tourist bus ride. There are several attractions, the standing stones of Callanish, Carloway Broch, Gearranan Blackhouse village, 2 museums at Shawbost, a whalebone arch at Bragar and a blackhouse museum at Arnol. The bus does a circular ride, with the fare depending on the number of stops you decide to get off. Unlike the hop-on, hop-off city buses, these buses are infrequent, so we decided not to alight at the standing stones, you can just see them from the bus. Anywhere we got off, we’d got to spend at least 2 hours!
Getting to Scotland from Brighton was not easy in the weather we had, with a week’s delay at the start, including 5 expensive days at Poole, and more delay at Aberystwyth, Holyhead and BangorWe thought our return would be easier – wrong again – and had to wait 10 days at Arklow while a series of depressions passed. With an 80 mile trip to Milford Haven we didn’t dare to set off in such wild weather, and a little community of “stuck yotties” developed and we had gloomy drinks on each others’ boats, speculating on when we would ever escape. The highlight was when an Irish lady called Cecily organised a “stuck yotties’ dinner” and eleven of us, from 5 boats, went in a 12 seater minibus to a hotel in the Vale of Avoca, for a splendid meal – and only 3 days later we were able to sail away!
Was it worth it?
John Apps in Glayva completes the Jester Challenge with a "Double Singlehanded Transatlantic"
As reported previously, association member John Apps sadly had to retire in the Azores from the Jester Challenge in 2006. He did not formally complete the race, so set off again in 2007. After a gruelling voyage - and in true 'Jester Spirit' - he finished the Jester Challenge 2006 arriving in Newport RI on 18th July 2007. He is the third skipper to finish.
John wrote:
"Well we made it. I passed the Castle Hill Light at 1350[UTC] on 18 July 2007. 410 days, 2 hours and 50 minutes since the start of JC06. I think this might make me third on the podium."
"Except for the last 200 miles when I had next to no wind I seemed to go from low to low with only a day in between. Even where the routing chart indicated that the wind should never exceed F7, I was encountering F9s. I was knocked down twice in three hours trying to sail under bare poles in a F10 NE. The first knock down was disastrous as I had just taken my top stormboard out to check on everything, when I was knocked down - ending up with about 2 feet of water in the cabin. I also lost my wind indicator, broke the babystay, flattened my spray hood and ended up with a raincatcher radar reflector looking like a flower as it bent out of shape. Except for the missing wind indicator everything was more or less repairable"
"About 100 miles out of Newport I encountered very dense sea fog and unfortunately no wind for a day and a half. I was caught in something called the Great South Ship's Channel just south of Nantucket. Every hour or so I could hear a ship's fog horn going past. I was replying on my foghorn, but it sounded very puny in relation to the ships' blasts. Still I think my two radar reflectors are fairly effective."
John then spent a few days in Newport before heading straight back to the UK's East Coast. When asked by another association member whether he had a good cruise this summer, John responded "I just popped over to Newport to finish the Jester Challenge" - modesty indeed.
"Little Blue" Goes Round England and Ireland
Vice-Chairman, David Horn, circumnavigated the UK and Ireland clockwise in 2006 from Gosport in his Starlight 35 “Little Blue” in four stages with crew changes in and short trips home from Kinsale in southern Ireland, Oban on the west coast of Scotland and Lossiemouth on the east coast. Six of the various crews, including Marion his wife, are GXSA Members and four were ‘outsiders’. Three serious bouts of fog, two or three very windy sails, more motoring than expected but some great sailing passages interspersed with some good eating gave a memorable summer cruise. The setbacks - an equipment breaking gybe, duff one year old ‘French’ battery, fouled folding prop, raising a large old fisherman’s anchor with our own and a cap lost overboard in middle of the night never seriously marred a great experience.
A Baltic Odyssey
Two members, John Wells and Ray Norris and friends, all but one over 70, chartered a 40 foot yacht in Stockholm this summer, meandering through a cruising paradise - more than 24,000 islands, islets and 'skerries', before reaching the Baltic. A hop across a 35 mile stretch of open water and they were in Åland, an autonomous ‘region’ of Finland comprised of some 6,000 islands etc with charm all of their own. A most successful cruise in isolated magical scenery.
The Harbourmaster arrives with the forecast
A unique feature reported by the crew in "Sailing Today" was the availability of weather forecasts in Rødhamn - delivered by Annette, the harbourmaster hand written on a bag of freshly baked breakfast rolls.
"Stella Maris" on the ARC 2006 (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers)
Geoff Clitheroe from GXSA crewed for Ian Hankinson and Elspeth in the mass rally from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to St Lucia in the Windward Islands in Ian’s 36' Starlight "Stella Maris", a distance of 3,000 miles. The voyage took 21 days and 6 hours, getting progressively warmer as they ran before the wind, goose-winged, from 28 to 14 degrees north. In contrast to other yachts, they had no major incidents or failures. The crew voted the "hydrovane" the most fantastic piece of kit followed by "ear plugs" for getting to sleep. They saw several schools of dolphins which on each occasion came to play around the boat, a pair of spouting whales, and lots of flying fish. A truly memorable experience.
Following this event Geoff was presented with the Bob Gammack Trophy by GXSA for the role that sailing has played in his determination in recovering from a recent stroke.
Stella Maris arriving in St Lucia.
John Gorrie in Gnutcracker Joins the RYA/Yachting Monthly Rally
John decided to join the RYA/Yachting Monthly annual cruise because his crew were cross channel "virgins" and he thought it safer to cruise in company.
The cruise, in July this year, started at Poole then to Cherbourg where they stayed for the following day for R&R and a visit to the wine hypermarket - they had a distinct list to starboard for the rest of the cruise! The next leg was to St Peter Port for a second night before departing to Alderney and then back to the Solent.
The cruise was great fun and well organised with "pontoon parties" and buffet style/BBQ dinners in Poole, St Peter and Alderney. The disappointment was the lack of wind - but that's sailing!
"Victoria" to Orkney
Seeking alternative cruising grounds, Ken our webmaster took his Moody 31 to Kirkwall in Orkney from her home port at Woodbridge Suffolk. With two GXSA members, five different crew and some single-handed sailing, he did the 1200 mile trip in 31 sailing days visiting 19 different ports. Besides the sights of the Orkney, a highlight of the trip was being followed closely by a minke whale for over an hour between Stonehaven and Peterhead.
Members visit the Mary Rose Museum
In April this year, members visited the Mary Rose Museum in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Some of the group are shown listening to our own guide and past GXSA chairman Ted Sutton, prior to our going into the exhibition. The visit included a privileged talk and slide show from the Chief Mary Rose Archaeologist. 21 members had a very good day out in excellent weather.
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