Sam Goodchild Sailing

Firstly, apologies for the over due update. After 19 days at sea, we finally sailed into Southampton earlier this week. Throughout the trip we had a big variety of conditions. We started off upwind, into 20 knots of trade winds,  then that slowly died away and we ended up motoring for a a night. It then slowly built again on the beam and we we’re reaching and then beating in very light winds. Shortly after that the wind built and we had a few days with the spinnaker up, regularly reaching speeds in the high teens and early twenties. About a week out, we had the hardest part of the trip where, for 4 full days we were tight reaching int 25-30 knots of wind, with regular squalls. Even though we were making good average speeds, almost every other wave was coming over the deck, which made being on watch a bit more miserable, especailly combined with the cold. So, the trip finished with a fast gennaker run into lands end and then a final 24 hours of motoring.

During the trip I learnt a lot about sailing these types of boats and a lot about the limits of where to push myself and the boats, to get the best out of them. There were also a few memorable moments, including one of the days where we averaged over 14 knots for 14 hours and hit a top speed of 23knots. Then a couple nights later when we spent an hour trying to get a spinnaker down at 4 o’clock in the morning, because it had got itself wrapped around the forestay.

The next planned event now is the 3 peaks race and the preceding 2weeks for the preparation. I am also, in the process of arranging my plans for the rest of this Month. Will now try and keep the updates regular again.

Sam

No Wind For 3 Days!

We are now half way to Antigua from Tenerife now, with a fairly eventful first half to the trip and a fairly grim forecast for the upcoming week, we are only to wait and see what we get. Since we left, we have had everything from 25knots downwind sailing to motoring through what looks like a pond. Through the boredom of motoring for the last few days we have found a few ways to entertain ourselves from wake boarding out the side of the boat to fishing out the back. Of which both have been fairly successful. In a fairly dramatic fight with a 6 foot blue marlin we eventually lost which in hindsight was probably a good thing judging the freezer space we have on board. On the other hand, we caught a Dorado which has fed the five of us for a few meals.

We are making fairly good progress with and ETA at the moment of the 3rd of December. However, we are not fore casted much wind, with the North Easterly trades not acting as usual. And we only have 24hours worth of fuel left with 1300miles to go, we can only hope for the best.

On board everybody is happy with a lot of book reading going on, which is occasionally postponed to try sailing instead of motoring. At the moment I am trying to get to grips with celestial navigation which is proving harder than I thought but, I’m getting there with help. In the mean time we are working on plans to go to the unofficial youth worlds match racing championships in Auckland, NZ. in February of next year. Well hopefully next time ill be here will be in a mini transat on my own but at the moment i am very happy with the experience i am getting… despite the difference between a Mini Transat and Swan 65.

Sam

Having spent the last Month in Les Sables d’Olonne, the 30 strong fleet of the Vendee Glode finally set off yesterday. The most impressive part of the day was as all the boats left the harbour, with the thousands of people crouding everywhere possible to get a glimpse of the boats as they left. It’s a big shame that such an appearance would not happen in the UK.

Due to the tides, we had a long wait(4 hours) out in the bay off Les Sables which seemed to pass much quicker than expected, with all the entertainment of the boats sailing past, never mind the mass of spectator boats.

Apart from Mike having to return to the start line, the day went quite smoothly for the team, which left everyone happy. Hopefully it stays that way over the next few months. The Fleet have bit of a rough weather for first couple days which has shown with a few returning already but, it should ease of after that. We now only to have pack up the container/workshop, make sure Mike gets away safely and then we are all off to our separate places.

My next stop is going to be the Canaries, after a few days in England, form there, i am going to join a crew to do a delivery to Antigua aboard a old ketch rigged Swan 65. It should be a fairly peaceful crossing in comparison to my one last year where we went the northerly route. I am also going to take my sextant in the aim of teaching my self to use it and, then completing the appropriate procedures to make it the qualifying passage for my Yachtmaster Ocean exam.

I will try and update you on our progress as we go…

Sam