Calm After the Storm

At last I find some peaceful time to post. I have been wanting to do so for a few days but then things were a bit demanding to say the least.

When I left it at in my last message, we were in a nicer weather after the series of deep low pressure systems that had hammered us. Unfortunately, we went then into a deep wind hole where we spend 24 hours going at 1 knot (that’s less than 2 km/h!) holding our breath trying to get every bit of wind, all this with a damaged mainsail… Not so fun. We also sighted 3 orcas out of the Orca exclusion zone (a pod of orcas along the coast of Spain and Portugal is known to attack and break the rudder of sailing yachts); we were quite concerned but they hadn’t their way band left us in peace. They probably thought that we were too beaten up to be worth their efforts… biding our time in the wind hole, we were waiting for the arrival of a mild low pressure system to regain some speed upwind. It came… but mild it was not! 40-45 knots of wind in our face, solid sea state: back to life at 45 degrees in a shaker. So, we went through another tough 24 hours with half of us being seasick. All this with my rib bothering me a fair bit. I got quite tired but still operational.

After a while, the wind was calming down and we went off watch for what I thought would be a nice nap, expecting a next mild watch. When I was awaken, I realised that another problem occurred launching the Yankee 2 (a bigger headsail to replace the yankee 3 we had during the gale). A tear in the sail happened and we had to bring it down. Here goes another watch spent bringing this thing down, putting back on the yankee 3, folding the damaged sail in the wind and the rain: by that time, all of us in the watch were becoming a bit knackered. We managed somehow and eventually the wind went down enough to put on the yankee 1, a massive piece of headsail for lighter wind. Ian (my fellow victualler), Martin and I went to launch it; however, what would normally take 1 hour took us the extent of the 4-hour watch to do. We were just having no strength left! I have rarely been so exhausted to the extent that my body had not much juice left even when I will it to work.

The magic is this: we had a good sleep, we soon after woke up with a beautiful weather: the sun shining on the sea, a nice breeze pushing us along, the boat going nice and, for the first time, horizontal, instead as angling 45 degrees. In the space of a few hours, total exhaustion and low mental state turned into a lovely exhilaration. Since, the weather has been working our way, and the joy has been building: we started going downwind enough to fly the kite, the big asymmetric spinnaker we use to ride waves. Then heading straight to the mark for the first time, we had a really good day of 24 hours of sailing between 10 and 17 knots (kudos to Martin for helming the boat then). Last night, we had the most amazing full moon just ahead of us. Riding and gliding on a long swell. After all the hardship, this is why I love sailing. And my rib is getting back into order. Life is good.

The watch is really coming together as a team, trust, humour, and easy going attitude between each other is building. Strong relationships are developing. This is truly something beautiful to be part of! We grabbed this morning a nice third place in the sprint run despite having basically no mainsail. That is super encouraging! We are all quite pumped now.

I have been dreaming of an Aperol Spritz by the sea in Puerto Sherry. A few of my fellow crew members may be getting interested in the idea… Soon now.

Take care and as my good climbing and skiing buddy Charlie says, “don’t do anything I would do”, or maybe do it, it can be worth it.

Getting ready for the Sprint of Leg 1

5 September 2025

Leg 1 recaps