Princess 67 Delivery - UK to Spain - Loads of Pics and Videos

[Magnum]

Apologies for late reply but back home now.

Great report Hurricane and well done. I'm encouraged by your positive experience because as jfm says I've decided to take the 84 on her own bottom in 2010. I pick up your gauntlet and will be aiming to beat your 74 hour record /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Yes our 67 was boat 13.

 

[Hurricane]

Lets hope that the weather is the same that we had.

I'm sure your cruising speed will be faster than ours so you should be able to beat our time .........

.....if only....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You can fill her up fast enough !!!

/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[jfm]

Blue Riband Rules

Hang on hang on! We need a committee to decide the rules /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. Imho you can't use the 74 hours as anyone can beat that by just sitting in port till the sea is flat then blasting at 40kts. It's gotta be done like the proper blue riband, so that weather, fuel stops, choice of (a) right across Biscay slowly or (b) round the edge fast with a fuel stop, are all part of the strategy.

So the guantlet seems ot be Torquay-Gib in 6 days 7 hours and 32 minutes, surely? And if the UK start point is other than Torquay the forum committee can make a small time adjustment for the mileage difference. Whaddo others reckon? Any advance on this?

 

[Magnum]

Re: Blue Riband Rules

I believe the gauntlet was cast at 74 hours. When you lay down a challenge you can pick the rules /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I have no problem with leaving from Torquay. We'll probably be there anyway.

 

[Hurricane]

Re: Blue Riband Rules

[ QUOTE ]

I have no problem with leaving from Torquay. We'll probably be there anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll probably wave the flag to start you off

BTW - We took SWMBOs Shepherds Pie and Treacle Tart with us so that we didnt have to stop.

I could slow you down by getting djefabs to provide you with a list of his favourite restaurants on the way - there are ways and means of holding onto a title!!!

 

[jfm]

Re: Blue Riband Rules

True, in principle the gaunlet-layer-downer can indeed set the rules

But it's 1200 miles if you cross Biscay as Hurric did, or 1400 if you keep to the edge. With 74 engine running hours that's 16.5/19kts average, pah. Maybe Hurric wants to reconsider the rules?

 

[Hurricane]

Re: Blue Riband Rules

I've just looked at my log spreadsheet again and I made a mistake transcribing the data - a big post like this takes a lot to do and things go wrong.

In fact, the 74 sailing hours was for the whole trip all the way from Torquay to Sant Carles

Here's the data

Torquay to Gib
6 actual days
1242 nautical miles
55 sailing hours
Thats an average of 22.58 knots

Now factor in weather and I think it will be hard to beat whatever the rules.
Not impossible though.

 

[Magnum]

Re: Blue Riband Rules

I demand a recount /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Good going that Hurricane but as you say the weather is the big factor here. F7 across Biscay with Arnesons might slow us down a tad /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Hurricane]

Re: Blue Riband Rules

But the converse is F7 with wind and waves behind you - you'd have a terrific time.

On our trip, djefabs pointed out that the sea in Biscay and more particularly on the Atlantic coast has a much bigger period between waves. This means that you can climb to the top and surf down to the next - we unly experienced that properly for a few hours during one of the last stages to Gib. It was obviously showing us long rolling waves all the way down the Portugese coast but really enough to be significant.

Get strong weather in the right direction and it would be fab fun.

 

[brianchesters]

Caption competition. "Now where did I put my diet sheet?"

 

[Hurricane]

Continued from the first post


The run from Vilamoura to Gibraltar was uneventful – well at least for Derek and me. The sea was a little rough so we decided to go and run the boat from the lower helm position. Mike and Viki were left in charge, I went to bed and Derek put his feet up on the saloon sofa. I awoke in time to see the end of two hours of raging following seas. The sea had been breaking over the flybridge and one of the windscreen wipers was bent at a strange angle. Apparently we had been surfing huge rolling seas. The boat had been slowing to around 15 knots to climb the waves whilst surging to over 28 knots on the crest before diving into the next. It was virtually over by the time I woke but Derek slept through the whole thing – what a boat.

Later we transferred control back to the flybridge. These new MTU engines allow us to transfer control from one helm position to another without changing speed – its great – no coming off the plane – you just press the command button and within 2 seconds engage the micro commander – job done. Unlike Volvo though, the engines don’t automatically synchronise. It’s a little daunting but to synchronise the engines, you have to press the sync button and within 2 seconds put one of the micro commander levers into neutral – the other then controls both engines.

At last Gibraltar

A Princess under a rock

Whilst refuelling - again!! - this turned up - the skipper just backed her in just as if she was a dinghy.

The track to Gibraltar

Stats for the passage from Vilamoura to Gibraltar are as follows:-
Arrived 13:13 BST – passage 157 miles taking 7 hours
Took on 3295 litres

All the times stated in this report were from our written log. On long passages, I have always tried to install a discipline of logging the boat’s time, position, speed and course over the ground every hour. A couple of days before we left Torquay, I had an idea of getting the boat systems to prompt us so I set to with my Visual Studio and produced a small Windows application that prompted us to make a log entry every half hour. I used Windows Text to Speech engine and was able to get the PC to actually “speak” the logging information. This was actually a great success and worked throughout the trip to Sant Carles even though it was only a last minute idea. I was always an intending to, at some time in the future, incorporate a printer to automatically log the information but this “speaking” solution works so well that I won’t now bother. The process actually forces the watch crew to check the boats progress against different systems. The PC’s “speaking” program uses the AIS GPS mushroom to get its information whilst the boat is being navigated and piloted from the Raymarine GPS mushroom. If either were to fail you would know pretty quickly.

Here’s one of Derek’s video clips showing a logging event. You will need your PC speakers on to hear it.

The boat speaks



It’s also interesting to note that during the clip, we reached a waypoint. Every day, routes were planned on the PC using raster charts and then uploaded into the Raymarine plotter using vector based Navionics charts. During the clip you can just see the G Series navigator asking for confirmation to move to the next waypoint. Unlike previous systems, the autopilot can be engaged from the plotter’s remote keyboard. A course change is signalled about 15 seconds prior to arriving at the waypoint. If the change of course is acknowledged immediately, the pilot will turn much more smoothly than if you press the track button on the ST6000 head. It seems that the plotter issues a change of course in multiple small increments. The result is virtually no overshooting or oscillation at a waypoint course change.

At Gib, we were joined by Mary. The airport is right next to the marina and it was only a 10 minute walk from the terminal to JennyWren’s overnight berth.

As far as I was concerned, we had done really well and deserved a relaxing day so I phoned Clive (Suncoast) and arranged a visit to his base at Duquesa. We left Gib quite late but in time to meet him for lunch.

The entire crew pose for a photo alongside in Duquesa

Since buying JennyWren, Princess Motor Yacht Sales have been absolutely great so we thought we’d push our luck a little further and see if they could find us an overnight berth in Puerto Banus. Princess have offices in the port so it was soon arranged and we suddenly felt more exclusive – that is, until we actually arrived – what a place – money money and more money – everywhere.

The pics tell the story.

SNAP

JennyWren was berthed next to a sister ship - another new Princess 67.

The track for the day was a piffling 37 miles

At Banus, we were kindly invited to drinks with Geof (oldboater) - thanks Geof for your hospitality - it was great to see you and Jill again and thanks for the champaigne.

Stats for the passage from Gibraltar to Duquesa and Puerto Banus are as follows:-
Passage from Gib to Duquesa – 21 miles
Passage from Duquesa to Puerto Banus – 16 miles

Due to work commitments, Mike and Viki left us at Banus – that left a crew of Mary, Derek and me.



Continued on next post (#52)

 

[Hurricane]

Continued from Post #51

The passage from Puerto Banus to Cartagena was a bit of a shock to the system – back to long passages again. As we passed Cabo de Gata our DSC went off on the VHF. Who could possibly be calling us – we couldn’t think of anyone who had our MMSI number. Then it dawned on us – we were transmitting an AIS signature containing our MMSI to anyone in VHF range. It seems that the Spanish authorities had picked us up on their AIS and had decided to see who we were – they’d probably never seen a Class B signal and wanted to know more about us. So with a frantic conversation, we explained our destination port and the left us alone. We did, however see a patrol boat soon after and he too left us alone. Derek’s initial comment was – “I’d turn that bloody AIS thing off” but it may well have helped – if we had been up to no good would we have been so stupid to transmit our position for everyone to see? Maybe it was a good thing after all and they left us alone anyway.

Cartagena - this must be the best kept secret in the Med
New marina - Smashing old town with ancient buildings - and seems to have fab local cruising.

And a sunset over Cartagena

And here's the skipper returning from interrogation.

And - yes - the track to Cartagena

Stats for the passage from Puerto Banus to Cartagena are as follows:-
Arrived 09:31 BST – passage 216 miles taking 9 hours
Next morning we took on 3285 litres by tanker

The passage from Cartagena to Sant Carles was long and uneventful so I will tell you about a radar feature that is in the G Series. I should think it is also in the E and C series but you can check. Those that have used MARPA before will know that you can move your cursor over a suspect radar target and get the radar set to keep track of the target for you – nothing new here but we started playing with the system further. If you position the cursor over an acquired target, a separate menu appears and another vector is drawn perpendicular between your current vessel position and the target’s relative track. Raymarine provide soft keys to keep these new vectors enabled. At the same time, a box appears giving you a time and distance to the CPA (Closest Point of Approach). I like to think of this as the “Crash Point”. We found it very useful when outrunning large ships. There were several situations where Derek and I agreed that we would have normally changed our course to go behind a ship. In these instances, we altered course to outrun the offending ship and pass in front. Without the facility to know where the CPA (Crash Point) was, neither of us would have taken the risk. In fact in all cases we passed well over a mile in front of the offending ships thus reducing our distance travelled significantly. It’s great when you know how all these little things work.

On this passage we passed close to Javea and Denia before striking out across the Gulf of Valencia. There seemed to be loads of interesting little anchorages and bays that might need a bit of exploring sometime.

Another of Derek's videos - the obligatory wake shot - with a difference.



And finally as dusk fell, we arrived at our new home – Sant Carles. We were greeted by the duty dock masters but went straight to our berth and a meal out before a long nights, well earned, sleep.

Here's the final track to Sant Carles

Stats for the passage from Cartagena to Sant Carles are as follows:-
Arrived 09:31 BST – passage 214 miles taking 8.5 hours
Next morning we took on 2805 litres by tanker

The total distance from Torquay was 1709 nautical miles and if you take off the “lay” day in which we had a relaxing cruise to Duquesa and Puerto Banus, it was 8 days from Torquay to Sant Carles.
Another statistic that has to be beaten is UK to Gibraltar in 6 days (in fact 74 sailing hours).
We hereby “throw down the gauntlet”

So here we are

And yep - a final fuel up to leave her tanks nice and full

Finally, thanks to
Rickp for keeping you updated as we went along.

To Mike and Viki – the crew

To Derek (djefabs) for his pics and video clips - and expertise

To Mary for her support and great food.

And to all at Princess – in fact as we left Torquay on a dreary wet Sunday morning one of the young lads fishing off the breakwater shouted out proudly “good luck I helped build that boat”.

Jennywren is truly an amazing boat – everything I’d ever hoped for – she literally didn’t miss a beat – all the way
Oh yes there was an incident – the nut behind the wheel failed – me – On entering Cartagna the engines were all synchronised up and under the control of a single throttle lever. Like a twit, and meaning to reduce speed, I put the inactive lever into reverse – as a result, the starboard engine was being told to do two completely different things. So, not knowing what to do – it simply shut down – that’s modern engine management systems for you – looking after the idiot driver.



So
Was it a good thing to do? – Absolutely yes
Should I have transported her by ship? – Nop this was an adventure of a lifetime
Would I do it again – not arf

Oh yes – the story is to continue.
JennyWren is to visit Malta early next year so the next big adventure will be from Sant Carles to Valletta – early next spring – another 1500 mile round trip – I can’t wait.

Mike, Mary and JennyWren

PS
Just leave you with a caption competition - no prizes though

Now head back to post #2 to read this thread in sequence.

 

[Whitelighter]

Holy thread resurrection batman...

 

[NBs]

Hi, thank you for sharing your fantastic travel with pictures and text, a really nicely executed whole. Here in the dark, cold and rainy, I enjoy getting the sun to read your trip ��.

I think JennyWren is a wonderful yatch combined with seaworthiness and beautiful design.

NBs

 

[derekbland]

Great travelogue and champing at the bit.

Your advice on my thread "is it big enough" is much appreciated. Yo never know perhaps we will get to meet up at St Carles some time.

 

[LBRodders]

Fantastic report ?

 

[Hurricane]

Thanks for reviving this thread.
Just for completeness sake.
It seems that the recent Forum Upgrade lost the video links

So, this was the video that Derek took showing how flat the sea was down the Portuguese coast.

And this is a trimmed version of his video taken inside the boat
Sorry, the inside of the boat wasn't particularly tidy - SWMBO didn't join us until Gibraltar

And then I just HAD to add this clip - if only to annoy Derek!!!
This was a "Logging Event"

And the audio logging system is STILL in operation.
But over the years, I have perfected the voice - we now have a sexier voice.

Here's a clip of the current logger - I've also added a "Star Trek" whistle to announce the "Logging Event"
It was originally just a bit of fun but has become a major part of our longer passages
Here she is:-
And those flat seas again