OK SO we did it!

Posted a few pics, even more on facebook, but just a few highlights:-

Set off friday for Cherbourg unfortunately the weather turned before too long and we were all heaving with the sea, particularly after waking up to Bill and Huey!

It hit a force 6 - 30 kts so dropped no 3 and raised no 5, quickly blew the leach and dropped that to replace with storm, all retired to cockpit completely washed out in more than one way.

Note for future "must remember not to use the winch whilst having my safety line attached to the high side through my legs", this will reduce the possibility of somersaulting over the main hatch when the boat pitches at a 40 degree angle. 

Traveled a number of miles before we could raise the no 3 again handing the lead over to the other boats in the meantime.

For the next few days the weather settled into a force 5 / 6 - 30 knot head wind which was great for 10 knot Helming and watching the night go by with the moon and Dolphins.

The last day got more interesting with a force 9 / 10 - 50 knot squall and five of us on the bow pulling the no 3 down to raise the storm jib, all done very smartly.

Unfortunately whilst Ro was helming the speed reading stopped after a particularly hard landing, 10 minutes later shouts of "we are sinking" came up from below, a frantic 15 minutes ensued where we bailed about 100 buckets of water out as well as operating the manual bilge and towards the end the crash pump. The sails were moved from the gangways and boards raised to find the through hull speed log had come out leaving a 50mm hole, once replaced normality reigned. Interesting that Duggie our skipper (winner of the latest clipper round the world yacht race) said if it had gone on for another 5 minutes we would have got the life rafts out!

Needless to say a welcome beer awaited at Oporto and much Celebration.

Thanks to all of you who supported me, I estimate over a thousand pounds will be raised by the end.

Chris

SO some think I may be mad, I mean why would anyone want to travel across the Bay of Biscay in a 65 foot sailing yacht when a P & O ferry gets pretty awful, I thought if I am going to do this then I may as well raise some money for a very worthy cause.

How did I get into this, well I have always loved sailing from capsizing dingy's and Cats or sailing flottilla in the Greek islands to racing 42 footers at Cows and 10 years ago I saw the opportunity of sailing Biscay as a Challenge and it's taken me this long to get around to it.

My brother and I are going to sail a Farr 65 (with a few others) and three other Farr's to Oporto from Portsmouth. What are these Farrs, well they will do about 21 knots and are detuned Whitbread round the world yachts which will make it very interesting.

If you would like to sponsor me the money will be going to Care for the Family which is:-  

Take a look at their website               http://www.careforthefamily.org.uk/aboutus/

So go ahead and sponsor me and don't forget to gift aid. This will add an extra 28p for every pound you donate, and if you are a high rate tax payer you can even claim that back yourself.

By the way all donations will be going to Care for the Family and any flights or trip costs I will personally be covering.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.