SitRep 17

[oldbilbo]

JESTER AZORES CHALLENGE 2016

SITREP No. SEVENTEEN 031915AJune

One new arrival to report.

ARRIVALS - 5
Julien Pipat in Bula at 301030AMay
Roger Fitzgerald in Ella Trout at 311005AMay See below for Roger’s initial summary.
Claude van Martyn in Oui Oui at 211220AMay
Denis Gorman in Lizzie-G at 011300AJun.
Doug Pingel in Jekeeda at 031130AJun. BRAVO ZULU, Doug. A cracking performance under some trying circumstances, superbly overcome.

Well done, Eric

INDIVIDUAL REPORTS from those at sea - 3

Glen Maxwell in Tao Zou at 0630A. 39º 20’N; 26º 1’W co 240º.
I estimate this evening that Glen has less than 30 nm to go at his average speed.

Basil Panakis in Jaba at 1300A. 39º 38’N; 23º 44’W co 230º.
Trevor Leek in Jester at 1300A. 50º 31’N; 22º 31’W co 240º.


There has been an interesting exchange of signals today based around Trevor’s northerly position and track:

Hello Eric, This is different…..secret Jester. Keep me in the loop so I can ice down the “Sam”. Best to all who are sailing to the Azores. Kind regards, Norm. Newport

Bonjour Sandra, Norm and Ewen, Relax man, Trevor is a bit east of the Azores longitude but at 50° north. He is far from reaching any destination. It's not yet time to ice down the "Sam" or it might be emptied before he arrives. At present status, just some curious followers questioning. Amicalement. Eric

Hello all. Good to hear from you. Tony persuaded Trevor to take his sat phone with him otherwise the prepaid minutes would be wasted. He has been sending weather info and I believe that Trevor is skirting round a low and will soon be heading south. Don't worry, he knows where he is! You are doing a great job with ocean race track Eric. I have been adding Trevor's positions as it seemed quicker than sending to you. Love to all. Sandra

TODAY’s NIL REPORTS - 3

Olivier Delebecque in Godot
Peter Orban in Tisza
Tim Luke in Medusa

PAUSED - 2

Peter Crawley in Sheldro in Torquay.
Roy Tall in Spirit of Venus in Southampton

RETIREMENTS - 11

Bill Churchouse in Belgean: returned to Plymouth, reason not known
Ertan Beskardes in Lokum returned in good order to Falmouth.
Colin Reid in Tui returned in good order to Falmouth.
Guy Willing in Blue Grass returned in good order to Falmouth.
Tony Head in Triple Venture returned in good order to Plymouth.
Howard Chivers in Sandpiper returned in good order to Plymouth.
Duncan Sclare in Freebird: returned in good order to Baltimore.
Thom d’Arcy in Fathom returned in good order to Ria de Caedeira.
Jonathan Hopper in Francesca returned in good order to Plymouth.
Graham Humphreys in Tenacious returned in good order to ‘Blighty’.
Steve Hickey in Newlyn Maid returned in good order to Hayle.

PERSONAL REPORT

The following report was received from Roger this morning:

The Run into Praia

The final run into Terceira, Praia de Vitoria lived up to all the foregoing bad weather. All day I had been sailing into the next deep depression with the winds getting stronger. As they strengthened they were forecast to swing further south, my present best course was due west and Terceira was to the south west so I hoped the forecasters were right. As predicted they went south and increased to 25 knots but I could just lay Praia de Vitoria. At 20.00 Monday evening I had 34 miles to go and hoping the wind would hold it's direction. As it got dark I could see the glow of the island and the next time I came on deck the bright lights of the American airbase made it look ike a Christmas decoration sat on the sea.

Terceira is elliptical in shape and Praia de Vitoria is in the middle of the eastern side and by 03.00 hours, Tuesday, I was 13 miles off and desperate for sleep. Unfortunately the wind had got stronger, now over 30 kts, forcing me north of my course which would mean if I kept straight on I would hit the middle of the north side of the Island. When I reached the north side of the island, however, it would give me shelter from the southerly gale and then hopefully I could work my way along the north coast back to the eastern side. At my present rate of progress I would reach the coast in about 3 hours. My choice was turn south east away from the island while I slept or carry on and rely on the alarm to wake me in time. I had slept through the alarm a couple of times before but having fought my way west for so long I was very reluctant to turn away so I set the ships alarm and my phone alarm to wake me in an hour and a half and got into my pit. Even though Ella Trout was crashing and banging along I was asleep almost immediately. It's amazing how the heightened tension of the situation is in your mind even though you are sound asleep because suddenly, after only an hour, I was wide awake; something had changed! Everything was quiet, we were not crashing along but just rising and falling with the waves. There had been a lull in the storm, consequently ET had wandered off course and she was now drifting north. It took me a while to work out what was going on before I realized I could alter course and sail directly back towards Praia and get to the east of the island. I tentatively raised more sail, this change had not been forecast and I expected the wind to come slamming back at any moment, and I set off back in 15 kts of wind. The lull lasted about two hours before the strong winds returned to 25 to 30 kts from the south but by then I was 5 miles east of Praia de Vitoria and could easily lay the harbour. Somebody was smiling on me that day because without that totally unforeseen lull in the storm it would have had at least another day’s hard sailing, as it was I entered the harbour at 09.05 Tuesday morning. Phew!!!!!

It's a big harbour and even inside it was quite rough and it took me an hour to get the sails down and drop the anchor at the south end under the harbour wall. Having got safely anchored and sorted out I thought I was there for at least the next 24 hours before the wind died down and it was safe to enter the marina in the north western corner of the harbour. But no! At midday Oui Oui arrived and made immediate radio contact and Julien (Bula) told him to come straight in and they would catch him and help him moor safely. So I called up and was told the same, come in, we have a berth for you and will help you. So by 13.00 I was safely moored alongside with a very excited and happy bunch of sailors. These are really joyous times because only those who have been out there really know what they have come through and it all overflows.

Poppa/Dad/Roger

Ps I do not know when you will receive this as I cannot get an internet connection, the marina wifi is hopeless and the satellite phone cannot see the satellites from under the hill where the marina is so I may have to go into town and find a cafe to send it when I'm sorted out.

I will try to summarise the whole trip but I'm not sure if circumstances will allow to quietly sit and rationalise but I'll send a message whenever there is something that may be of interest and of course I will blog on the way home.

P/D/R