TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

20090912
Since we tacked after passing the front of that big low somewhere south of Ireland, we had some of the best sailing one can imagine. Across the Biscay it was wet and wild, firehose reaching in 25 knots of wind, straight to the northwestern tip of Spain. Conditions on board we hardly livable with the boat jumping and water literally everywhere. Most guys on board had their thermals on as the temperature was far from being pleasant. Still it was great sailing at the backside of the front, nice waves. But one thing we knew for sure, it could only get better. Right after passing Cape Finisterre, we felt warm airpockets hitting the boat now and then, a clear sign for change. Still a hurdle had to be mastered before being allowed to leave North European waters. While reaching at around 20kn the port rudder suddenly lost control, speed went down to 15kn, the wake showed a lot of turbulence and the helm was vibrating heavily. Something had wrapped around the rudder, we tried to slow the boat down, but couldnt get rid of whatever it was. So jib down and gybe. With the keel still on starboard, the boat ended with lots of heel and the airborne port rudder lost whatever it had caught.
We saw our first whale on the trip, well, not really, we only saw the fountain emerging 200m to our port side as the animal underneath didn’t surface. Sure our friends from the WDCS can identify the species even with this little information.
As the wind freed right after the cape to become the Portuguese Trade the spinnaker went up and is pulling us south since then, giving us great sailing I big waves, sunny skies during day or a great moon in the night. I always liked the Spanish and Portuguese coast for sailing, be it because of the European Star championships in Cascais, the cruising along this coast or the victory in leg two of the Hongkong Challenge Race 12 years ago.
With the whole variety of conditions we have on this trip it’s a great dress rehearsal for what lies ahead.  Wouter is great at developing our strategy to get south, Stig at finding better boat speed, Nick at testing the systems and everyone at contributing as much as everyone can. I try to keep the communication going and to facilitate them  all. For now it’s a happy crew, people get on well with each other, knock on wood it stays like that. Sure I will keep an eye on it.
As Ken Read  wrote recently, nobody really knows whether  they are quick or not. Not different on Kosatka. We are confident, we like our boat and would still choose it if we could. The in port race in Alicante will be a first hint, but nothing more. At the first waypoint at Fernando de Noronha we will have seen all the boats in a variety of conditions to be able to understand the different boats.
Position: 38,10.10N , 9,46.64W
Speed: 24 knots, Course: 203 deg.