Oyster News 52 - Oyster Yachts

A TLANTIC DELIVERY
Jolly Harbour, Hawksbill Rock, etc. A steady force 6 from the east gave us an average of 8
knots with 50% Genoa and 50% main on a beam reach on a course of 020ºM to avoid the
NW end of Barbuda. Not bad.
The first few days were fairly uneventful, 170 to 180 mile days, as we settled in to the watch
routine, 5’s and 3’s. A routine carried on from my days aboard David and Linda Hughes’
Oyster 55, Miss Molly, and devised by Linda. Basically, it means we did 5-hour day
watches and 3-hour nights, split between myself, Mike and Jeff. Jo being excused watches
in return for full galley duties. Mike had the first day watch, 0700 – 1200, Jeff 1200 – 1700,
myself 1700 – 2200. Night watches: Mike 2200 – 0100, Jeff 0100 – 0400, myself 0400 –
0700. The focal point of each day was 1800, at which time we had "The Tot" with a can of
beer, not the usual Pusser’s Rum. Those readers who are Tot Club members will be familiar
with this daily ritual. Only one can per day, no spirits at sea.
On a course of 035˚M, by the afternoon of Monday 26th May, at 23˚ 13’N, the wind began
to veer as expected. MPS up and down as required, even motor sailing when the wind died
and speed dropped below 5 knots (it is after all a delivery). Jo had plenty of time to top up
her tan in between preparing excellent meals. In fact, she even had time to think of a name
for the crew. GOLDIE LOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS! No prizes for who Goldie Locks
was. Myself – Grumpy Bear (me?!! Grumpy?!). Mike – Grizzly Bear (on account of his beard)
and Jeff – Pooh Bear (don’t ask!).
We started on a long slow curve to The Azores on Thursday the 29th at about 29˚ 40’ N. By
Friday 30th the wind was a bit more solid and reliable. Mike listened in to Herb on the SSB
‘12 Charlie’ every night for weather info. We tried to contact him directly, but without
success, so we listened in on boats close (within 100 miles) to us.
Thursday 29th May was the start of an amazing week’s run. Noon Thursday to noon Friday –
190.6 miles, noon Friday to noon Saturday – 224.1 miles! However, our fastest 24-hour
period was from 2000 Friday to 2000 Saturday – 230.3 miles under MPS and main. An
average of 9.6 knots and frequently in excess of 11 knots. The following six days were all
close to 200 miles or over. From noon Thursday 29th May till noon Friday 6th June (8 days)
we logged 1588.9 miles, 198.6 miles per day average. Not bad for only one person and
autopilot on watch, with help from the others as required. During this entire time, the wind
was a force 4 and rose to a 5 for only four hours on Saturday 31st May. The sea state: slight.
Saturday, we had the added treat of a beautiful sunrise while still doing almost 10 knots.
Dolphins were in abundance. They were around most days, we never got tired of watching
them speeding and weaving at the bow. Jeff spotted what we thought at first were strange
low clouds on the horizon. The clouds turned out to be the plumes and splashes of some
very large whales breaching in the distance, about three miles or so. They were too far
away to identify or photograph.
While motor sailing during a calm period, we managed to get caught up in some loose
fishing gear in the middle of Mike’s night watch. I was woken up to: "We’re caught in
something, speed’s down to 6 knots". We had a look over the back of the boat. There in the
torch light, streaming out for about 20 metres was all kinds of bits of rope, net, some small
floats and two large red buoys. To add to all of this, there was another buoy under the
stern. Miraculously, nothing had caught in the prop, only on the skeg. The sea was fairly
calm but there was no way I or anyone else was going into the water in the dark amongst a
load of old net and rope. We shut the revs down and got the boat hook to attempt to poke
the debris off. However, as the boat slowed to almost a stop we suddenly realised that the
debris wasn’t following us any more. As we slowed, the sheer weight of the gear had
allowed it to drop down the skeg, under the rudder and free us. Having not seen the
floating debris in the dark, our speed had almost carried us clear over. It caught the skeg at
the last second after clearing the keel. Thank goodness for the strength of a skeg hung
rudder, otherwise the outcome could have been very different.
A couple of days out of Horta the weather started to change. An enormous black cumulus
cloud formed to the northwest. We were barrelling along at over 8 knots goose-winged,
with the top end of a force 4 from the WSW. All of a sudden, the wind just stopped, the
boat of course started to slow down, the sails hung lifeless for a few seconds then backed.
The surface of the water took on what I can only describe as a prickly appearance and then
the wind started to blow from exactly the opposite direction at about 5 knots. From sailing
along happily at 8 knots to the wind doing a 180 and drifting backwards at about 1 knot,
took less than one minute. With the change of motion and the Genoa flapping Mike got up
to check what was going on, then Jeff and Jo popped up. We furled the Genoa, released
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