RAOC Gazette - page 247
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1981 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1981 |
| Late date | 1981 |
| Transcription |
wind stayed above thirty knots, and although when past Continental Shelf we did notice a longer swell, there was a -t sharp sea superiui posed upon it. We had developed a _-m, whereby any fore deck work would be done by the . i; -vatch crew, who would wake the ofTwalch man to stand in the hatch way to release halliards and sheets and generally be on hand for emergencies. In fact, the weather was so bad that the off-watch tended to stay in his oil skins, for there was much spray about and we were making up to five sail changes per watch. Conditions below quickly became very damp and even the charts and sleeping bags began lo sutler. We had seen no shipping for six days; Carl was just coming off watch when he saw a flashing light. We switched on the VHF Radio to see if anyone was calling and heard a heavily i -cnted voice, Russian we supposed, ask in English, who was ([ shing the light at him. Then to our great surprise John Oakley answered from * Kriter Lady 11." Can you imagine our joy! If there had been room Carl and I would have danced a jig. There was much slapping of thighs and congratulations. We were ahead of a sixty eight and a half footer. We called up ' Kriter Lady II * and told him that we had expected him to be ahead of us. He replied, that he had wished to be further on, but was sitting out the storm. Well, there was good old Thunderer charging along at six knots with the heavy weather iih and thrice reefed main, with the log ticking off the miles to nerica, leaving ' Kriter Lady II* to- sit out the storm. We i..ter learned, that two days after our meeting, she suffered damage to her middle mast and some time after that retired and motor sailed into Newport, arriving two days before us. That was the last ship we were to see for seventeen hundred miles and nine days. The days rolled by, and we fell into a rather pleasant routine. We had both been sick once or twice on about day three, but by day five we were cooking and eating quite substantial meals. We had been idven some Commando Dry Rations in one-man day packs, -id these proved very useful especially the night time snack. he main-meal-part, which was cooked by the man on morning ••--a-tch, was supplemented by fresh onions, potatoes and carrots plus whatever else he could find. It gave us a very satisfying midday meal of either, stew or curry, or hash or curry. Dessert was normally fresh fruit, which was very welcome, but did not last long. The evening meal comprised of bread, hot baked in the oven, with peanut butter, salami, jam, cheese or what ever. Breakfast was the on-watch man's problem. I normally had a bowl of cereal and a packet of apple flakes from the dry rations. Mr Cyril Roberts, a caravan site owner and proprietor of le Silver D a k s club at Pendine (well worth a visit) had sponsored us for all the drink we could consume. A most noble gesture and we drank his health at least twice a day. We had loaded two types of beer in cans, lemonades, cokes, (used to clean the teeth at breakfast time) fruit juices, tomato juice, tonics and two bottles each of the normal spirits. In addition my wife had supplied two bottles of champagne for special occasions, and my sister a bottle of Madeira, a glass of which we had with a slice of my mothers fruitcake to celebrate he few pleasant evenings, when we could sit in the cockpit nd watch the sun go down. Carl made himself a hot chocolate on one occasion but apart from that we did not have a warm drink. I am not sure if it is the poor water or the boat's motion, but we found the idea of a cup of tea or coffee or even a hot oxo or bovril less than appealing, Before the start we had argued about the weight of liquids on board, Carl wanted more water, the weight of which to be offset by offloading beer. In the event we compromised by carrying an extra four gallons of water and drinking more beer than was good for us in the week before the start. We ed only about eight gallons of water over the whole trip ;d we were left with just enough beer to be hospitable at the finish. The weather was not pleasant, but at least most of the time we could lay a course within ten degrees of the Great Circle Route. In the eighteen days that it took to reach Cape Race, I managed only one watch without oil skins. The average wind strength was Beaufort V and we made very good time. We had the Spinnaker up for only fourteen hours. We should have been north of the lows, but the weather did not conform to "ormal patterns, and predictions were more often than not oved wrong. We happened to have the VHF radio on one morning when we heard an RAF Nimrod organizing a rescue for the crew of * For Fun T a Swedish forty five foot entry in the race that had been dismasted and was suffering rudder trouble. We had been moored alongside ' For Fun ' at Plymouth and we knew the crew well. They were about one hundred and twenty nm North West of us and after hearing that they had assistance we decided to sail on, but we were feeling worried and very sorry for them. Life was scarce in the ocean. We saw no whales and only two schools of dolfm, both of which appeared in the roughest weather and seemed to take great delight cutting as close as possible to our bow from both sides, but they did not stay long and soon we were back to an empty sea. The only bird life in mid-atlantic were a few small black birds, storm petrels we presumed, and three Fulmars. As we approached Cape Race the bird life increased and we were entertained for many hours by a funny little narrow winged brown and white sea bird, who was attracted to our mast head aerial, and was constantly picking at its top. Due to the water shortage we had not washed since the start and using salt water achieved nothing. One day, with rain bucketing down in a twenty knot wind about three hundred miles off the Grand Banks, I thought, yet another B . . . . rain shower, but then an idea struck me and I stripped off and stood in the rain lathering myself all over with soap. At that moment, standing covered in suds, struggling to keep balance on the slippery deck; the rain stopped. I spent the next ten minutes trying to rinse off using drips from the main boom. When I woke Carl for the morning watch he only just recognised me. On day nineteen we sighted a freighter, the Dart America and spoke with her over the VHF. She was our third siting and our first radio contact since day six and 'Kriter Lady 11/ A most courteous Captain gave us our position and promised to report us to Lloyds. Two days later, when we should have been eighteen nm south of Cape Race, on the change of watch in the morning when I came up in the cockpit, I observed the fog astern giving us about fifty yards visibility. I glanced forward to be confronted with a wall of rock appearing out of the mist. I struggled frantically to release the Navik self steering lines on the tiller. We were beating into a very light headwind making about three knots. I shouted to Carl, who rushed on deck, by which time I had* tacked. He brought the Genoa round and sailed away from the shorelines. We were shocked and worried for in two minutes we were back in the fog and lost. We must have been north of Cape Race and the only explanation was a northerly set not described in the pilot. The RDF had been worse than useless never giving us two fixes in the same ten miles square. We kept a very good lookout for the next couple of days and with many hours working at the charts and RDF, we found that we had been eight nm north of Cape Race. That's a difference of nine degrees on our course from our previous fix received from the Dart America, It's impossible to keep a lookout all the time, the on watch must navigate, write the log, fetch sails etc and in our system he had also to cook. When not working below he was always in the cockpit looking out. We were also in the habit of glancing around the horizon at five minute intervals, if the work below extended beyond that time. We had a close shave and had been very fortunate. We drank a toast to my Aunty Mary who had promised to pray for me twice a day. We had made very good time up to now. But as soon as we entered the Grand Banks fog we slowed down as we were beset with light wind and poor visibility. We spent thirty six hours in sight, fog permitting, of the lights of Halifax. Indeed after twenty one days at sea it was most tempting. Our conversations were about night life in Halifax and baths in hot water, but we resisted, and eventually the wind picked u p enabling us to press on north of Sable Island towards the Nantucket Shoals. During the preparation for the race, portfolios of charts for use by us and the return legs had been ordered. I extracted only those charts which were necessary for our crossing. As we approached the Canadian coast I was sorting out the charts and discovered that I was missing one of the entrance to the Bay of Fundy about two hundred nm of sea, for us, uncharted. We had charts of Nova Scotia on the one side and the Nantucket Shoals on the other, we had a chart covering the whole of the west coast of Canada. There were no obstacles in between, so it was not crucial, but nevertheless I decided to make a chart of the bit we were missing. This proved very interesting, satisfying and quite useful during the thirty six hours that it was required. As we approached Nantucket Island we were constantly playing with the R D F and ONS four thousand,an automatic RDF system loaned to us for the race, to ascertain our position before we entered the shoals. The pilot describes this piece of water 205 — |
| Book number | R0250 |