Right so this journal has been of late deader than.... ermm well a small mouse in a concrete mixer.

Fastnet race: A bit of a damp squib really. we lasted less than 24 hours before the frankly terrible weather and unpredictable seas forced us to drop the sails and motor for Plymouth.
The storm on Monday night included:

• our mainsail breaking a mast attachment


• at one point the boat going so fast through the water and the seas so high it launched off the top of a wave and was out of the water for a count of at least 2 before it ploughed in to the side of the next wave


• visibility was terrible, causing us to almost run in the fishing vessel (so close in fact that the captain of said vessel felt compelled to swear at us over the radio)


• passing another yacht that only had storm sails up at roughly 3 times its speed as we had kept ours up, mental like that we are


• Other yachts came off worse with 2 dis-mastings, one broken leg, some losing and broken sails


• it was so windy the line honours winner broke the record by 8 hours, finishing the 608 mile trip in just under 2 days

So on Tuesday morning we dropped our sails and ran for Plymouth.

It was at that point i was heaved off the boat.
I was at the mast tidying up the mainsail when as I step to the deck a wave caused the boat to not be where my foot needed it to be. At that point my other foot slipped and my hand missed its hold. In what can only be described as a 'bloody good shot' I slid between the lower life lines and the deck of the boat only bashing my shin and right arm.

After the initial 'shit i'm in the water' moment I realised that my lifeline had held and I was being dragged along with the boat. This is MUCH more preferable to being left by it. After what seemed like an age i remembered to inflate my life jacket*, which didn't help much, but was better at keeping me the right way up. The rest of the crew to whom I am eternally grateful, rigged a set of life lines to get me to the back of the boat and then haul me inboard.

Apart from being soaked I realised that there was something not quite right about my right arm... in that it bloody well hurt and didn't work in certain directions. Stretch was by this time on the radio calling in the man over board as it was likely that i would have hypothermia or various other nasties. As I was on board and the Salcombe life boat was already towing one of the other dis-masted yachts in we were re-directed to Salcombe where i was whipped off to hospital in Plymouth in an Ambulance... By this time i thought it was over kill but you apparently just can't tell with this sort of thing.

At Plymouth they x-rayed my arm and stuff an pronounced me to have not broken it (yay) but twanged all the tendons in it so 1) i was to keep it moving and 2) not to do any lifting etc. with it for 3 weeks. this leads to me being in quite a lot of pain when i move my arm in certain ways (which annoyingly is frequently).


Anyway so we had a nice day or so in Plymouth before Alex and I came home, him driving my car from Warsash. and the rest of the crew had a leisurely sail home from Plymouth.

So that's it. bloody shame we didn't complete the course but loolking at the weather we would have encountered i'm not sure the crew and/or the boat would have worn it. Still always 2 years time where we shall attempt the same in a bigger boat and i do have an exceptional amount of leisure wear out of this trip :)



*it would have auto-inflated but only once i'd got down to about 6 feet of depth

More sailing this weekend, The Myth of Malham race. Fancy name for 'racing to France'. We are off to St. Quay Portrieux on the Brittany coast.Course will look a bit like this:



I shall wave at Guernsey as we go past.

However for the shipping forecast for sunday/monday cotains 'STRONG WINDS DEVELOPING ALL AREAS THROUGH SUNDAY WITH RISK OF GALES FOR A TIME'
Yay

Upon the Saturday morn we did slip our morin lines and make sail upon the Solent water. There we did sight the first RORC fleet o'the year and fine sight it were, arr!
We be second class to be set off so did sailing circles 'til all were dizzy and requestin to get goin'. Ye race officer be kind to us and promtly did announce our start with a flag and gun to windward. But we, being a keen and sprightly crew were found in enemy waters too early so had to get upon the friendly side o'the line afore we be allowed to engage. t'was a terrible shame it were, arrr.
once sails were set and depth plumbed we did start upon the chasin down of our opponents, who were mighty and fast. We did nor shirk no sir! we did gain upon them 'til light airs did becalm us to the south o'Sufolk (a fine county sir, I did have shore leave there once and the women be fine and bountiful! arr!).

Once the weather gods did grace us with a breeze we did make our way t'ward the country o'france, and the friendly port o'Le Havre.
I be doin a double watch this night and be helmin her upon a straight course, so I was. Once the sun was up we saw the coast o'Frace lookin fine in the pale mornin light. We be headin upon a course that be wrong though, so to cross the finish line we were found comin up wind and comin across the line behind our fleet. Brought a tear to y'eye sir, it did. we be sailing for a whole turn of the clock so be in need o'sustenance and did find it upon the shore, strange foreign food it were, bein called a keebab

We be restin for a while and once more slipin our lines for our trip home, yaaar, back to Portsmouth sound. The weather though, she be a harsh mistress and the wind she did blow to a force 6 or 7 upon the scale o'Beaufort. The crew did hold fast and despite our first mate and two seamen rated as able be taken down by sickness we did cross the sea at a rate o'knots. Wthin sight o'the Wight isle hope did rise in our hearts, but hours we still had to sail afore the line we did cross where we were greeted by lights upon the shore celebratin our arrival.
Many ships did not make it cross that line this day, instead they be thinkin 'bugger all this, we be headin to our home port'. So with our skill and courage we be coming 4th in the race, there was an extra ration o'grog for all the crew and we be celebratin our sucess in our first adventure beyond the sight o'shore

Yarr!

right then, this weekend I am off to ply the rolling main fer treasure and bounty.. well not really
I am however off to sail in the Cervantes trophy.

We are taking our j/109 'Alice' from the Solent out in to the channel and racing a bunch of other yachts to Le Havre like this:


We are leaving first thing Saturday morning and ariving sometime on Saturday night/Sunday morning. The we shall have lunch, look at Le Havre for a while and race back again.

Tonight I am bored.
so apart from watchin crap on telly i've been cleaning out my computer (oooOOOooo)
done a few searches for files to remove duplicates etc. *.txt brings back quite a bit but there are two that stood out.
( Contents of the firstCollapse )
( Contents of the secondCollapse )
The second one is from a Playstation ad a while back, why I have it as a txt file i have no idea) the first perplexes me completely, I know I wrote it but beyond that its a mystery.

In other news: Today i painted my hall, therefore I am the win.

You've heard of Chuck norris Facts, you might even have heard of Vin Diesel facts.

They however have nothing on this guy thus was brought in to existance:

RayMearsFacts.com

Whatever you actually believe about the nature of god, or not or whoever, watch the first clip in this post and join me in agreeing that some Americans should not be allowed an opinion on anything . Ever.

The second video is actually quite interesting.

nicked off the rss feed of richarddawkins.net

Steam Punk Lightsabre!
and
steam punk Starwars drawings

coooooool.

"no dear, it would eat the dog"



Watch the video and the tell me you don't want one.

nicked off jwz

This image on mac rumours about the iPod phone had me thinking one thing:
I'm crushing your head! I'm crushing your head!