I
was asked to join the Goldrush crew of four earlier in
the year and jumped at the chance of the infamous Biscay
crossing and only a few days before we were about to set
off from Mayflower Marina unfortunately Chris Nail who
looked after the Navigation had to drop out so I was
thrown in at the deep end as Navigator.
I arrived at the Marina on Saturday the 9/7/07 just
in time for the welcome party and was immediately made
to feel welcome / immediately made friends with the
WindnTide / Ebenezer Crews.
Set off at 9am Sunday 10/7/07 and spent first four
hours entering charts and coming up with a course which
we eventually agreed to head for 10 degrees West and
come out wide of the Biscay shelf / hopefully catch some
good NE winds. The first 24hrs was fairly calm and we
motored for the initial 8hrs but soon started picking up
the wind and were soon surfing down waves with winds
reaching 24 Knots at times and boat speed of 7 to 10
Knots which on Franks Freedom 37 was absolutely
FANTASTIC!
This continued while we headed west and stayed with
us right up until Wednesday night when we were
approaching the infamous Finisterre. During Biscay we
saw numerous dolphins and had up to 100 staying with us
for periods of up to 2 hours and I just cannot explain
how exhilarating this was. We also sighted pilot whales
and a couple of shark fins. We had a racing pigeon land
on the deck and after feeding and watering it left 12
hours later only to be replaced by a collared dove.
Eventually we cleared the Finisterre shipping lanes
and as we were approx 60 Km off shore stated to head in
but the wind dropped and the sun showed its face for the
first time so it was on with the engine, on with the
shorts and ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” playing on the stereo
when we spotted another yacht on our Starboard side.
Trevor who was up on watch with me and now in fine
spirits after a couple of glasses of Vino decided we
should alter course and go to say Hello as we had not
had any contact for two days. When we got along side
reality hit home when the shout came " can we have a tow
!". We gathered our thoughts and soon had a line
attached to yacht Ruby which was another Rally Yacht,
and then proceed to tow her in at a steady 3 knots
eventually arriving at approx 18:30 .
I can honestly say
that I could not have travelled with a better skipper
Frank and a fellow crew mate Trevor and it was one of
the most exhilarating events of my life.
Well done Rally Portugal and thank you frank
for giving me the experience of a lifetime!
I cannot finish this log without passing my thanks
onto Brian from Cat-Man-Do for his radio work in keeping
us in touch and for all the crew members who made sure I
had a great send off in the bars of Bayona before flying
home on Saturday after only 2hours sleep!
Neal Ward,
Exeter, Devon.
