Tactical Motoring 43:15N 20:27W
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Thu 18 Jun 2009 15:15
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After the pretend racing yesterday, the forecast
was received when the blog was sent. It showed high pressure (no
wind) ahead for a couple of days. The Scillies may be north east,
but undaunted I set off west of north. Not back to Iceland but
starboard tack: Trying to get north of the high pressure, where the west winds
live.
A quiet night it may have been, but then I read too
much. At home there is someone to demand I come to bed, but
here I finish the book and sleep too soundly. I woke having slept through
or forgotten at least one alarm, with a gentle beeping going. The AIS
alarm normally does wake me, but this ship was already heading away from
us. On a lovely sunny morning he would not have run us down, would
he?
But there was very little wind so we have motored
north for five hours now, to try to find the westerlies. Motoring the
wrong way is nearly as silly as rowing a yacht, but we did that too
once. The Three Peaks Yacht Race, like the Scottish Islands Race allows
rowing.
We had a yuloh (a chinese sculling oar) and a
Cambridge college oar on Milly Brown. If you rig an outrigger on the stanchions
and sit with your feet against the front of the cabin roof you can row a
Contessa at about 1.5 knots. The
yuloh is more efficient and throwing yourself backwards and forwards
across the cockpit can get two knots. With both together we could
hold two knots.
You start the Three Peaks Race from Barmouth and
the 25 miles to Bardsey Sound had put the faster, big modern racing boats out of
sight when the wind dropped at the sound. We rowed through, leaving
our slower companions for dead. No one else had a yuloh.
Overnight there were bits of breeze as we tacked
the next 25 miles to Caernarfon bar. My
brother and I sculled an hour or so each, during calm periods in our
watches. As dawn arrived the tricolour lights we were gently
tacking against grew sails below them. They turned into the grey kelvar of
the big boats: We had sculled through the fleet. That was the last
we saw of them, as they could get over the bar against the ebb,
but it was good to worry them.
Come on you say, but why were you motoring the
wrong way? Well it is still 700 miles to the Scillies and there is only
fuel for 200, so if we can go and find wind it is worth it. Or is it just
more fun than feebly motoring towards our destination?
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