This weekend saw Javelin (Sweden 39) & her merry crew do their first ever qualifying race for Fastnet 2013.  On-board there is Pete the Skipper & boat owner, Alex an experienced Fastnet campaigner as First Mate, Tanya who’s also done Fastnet before & surprised herself by deciding to do it again and John, Mike & I – who are new to Fastnet.

We all belong to the same sailing club – the Royal County of Berkshire Yacht Club & have sailed with each other before on various trips – but never as one crew all together.

While other boats may have set themselves the goal of winning, our priority is to challenge ourselves & enjoy doing so.  We’ve signed up to do most of the feeder races so that we can get comfortable in our roles & working together as a team.

So how was our first race – The Cervantes Trophy Race from Cowes to Le Havre (100 miles)?  Well we didn’t come last (23rd out of 29 in our class) but I’m not sure ‘enjoy‘ is the word that would spring to the lips of everyone on board.  To be quite honest the race over was a bit of a slog  & the word that may more readily come to mind for me was ‘confused’:

1.  Confused Sea

Oh boy was it – we had hour upon hour of that lovely lumpy corkscrew motion on the way out (in stark contrast to the flat sea on the way back).  One of our crew quickly fell victim to it & spent the rest of the crossing murmuring sweet nothings into a bucket down below.

A second managed to resist the urge initially but was eventually seasick for the first time ever.  They wouldn’t recommend it apparently!  We were able to track their progress by watching how they responded to the offer of a cheese & ham toasted sandwich (pre-made by Tanya & then just heating up on-board).  At the first attempt, they were able to open the tin foil but took one look & passed it back down below.

However, a couple of hours later, they were heard enquiring if there were any left & then proceeded to eat 2 back to back without even heating them up.

2.  Confused Plotting

My job was navigator.  A course to steer was developed & off we went.  All was looking good – the helm was happy & off I went to my bunk.  Coming back on watch later in the night I had a slight coronary when I saw that the position plot for the previous hour had us way off to the East of our intended track – like WAAYY off.  Not a great start as navigator.

However, panic over when it came to light that there had been an error in plotting as someone couldn’t find their glasses when they went to do the log.

3.  Confused Chart Table

One the way out, the chart table was a source of all evil.  It managed to eat whatever you put on it or in it so it was impossible to ever find anything again – the aforementioned glasses being a case in point.

So upon arrival in Le Havre war was declared & order brought to the offending item.  How long it lasts – we’ll have to see!

4.  Confused Time Zone

We were using a watch system of 3 hours on & 3 hours off with 3 people on at anytime, rotating who was on watch each hour.   The system worked well but did have some interesting effects on the crew:

• People quickly end up on different meal times depending on what watch they’ve done.  Those who were on the 0400 – 0700 watch had had breakfast so weren’t keen when offered breakfast again at 0900 (when we woke them up due to fog).  Similarly, evidence was found in the cockpit of the mini beef pasties that had been inhaled during the previous watch 0100 – 0400!

• You can completely miss meals.  We got into Le Havre at midnight, went to bed & got up mid morning with the intention of having fresh croissants.  However, by the time we’d actually got off the boat & showered it was midday & time for lunch.  As a result our celebratory  beer  became breakfast.

• Check what time zone your phone is on when using it as your alarm clock.  I bounced out of bed at 0045, got kitted out & appeared ready to relieve my husband (from his watch – keep it clean) only to find my phone was on French time vs the boat that was on British time.  I quickly became fluent in French before turning tail & getting back into my bunk .

• So why didn’t I just start watch an hour earlier as I was up & let my hubby get an extra hours kip?  I did offer but as anyone knows the 0100 – 0400 watch is the coldest, so he insisted I went back to my bed – my hero.

5.  Confused Weather

What a contrast a day makes.  While the sea had been up & we had a lot more wind than was forecast on the way out, our return trip overnight Sunday was in calm conditions & very little wind.  This gave us a chance to use up some of the fuel on-board & to review how our first race had gone.  One important thing that had come to our attention was the need for some cool shoreside gear – we’d gone for a base layer that while practical simply wasn’t cool enough.

Fortunately a friend popped by wearing exactly what we wanted – thanks Jamie.  Tanya tracked down the item & negotiations on which colour have now begun.

6.  Confusing Sounds.

So we arrived back at the Isle of Wight, relaxed & content with our first feeder race to be faced with FOG & a real pea souper at that.

Fortunately we had Tanya on-board who has the hearing abilities of a bat & was able to hear the pathetic squeak of a yacht fog horn 2 secs before it loomed out of the fog at us & avoiding action was taken.  One top tip on fog horns.  We were using ours & if we heard another horn we would sound ours again.  To note, some of the buoys in the Solent sound horns & while I’m sure they are happy to be tooted at, it can be a slight waste of your fog horn aerosol can.

So one down.  A great trip overall & one of great contrasts.  Not least at the start when all the other boats stayed on the island side & I took us off to Gillkicker (well the tides were better there……)