Day 18 - Heading home

About 12 days was the expectation. So into Day 19.

My passage is not over yet. The journey from Falmouth to Milton Keynes is almost Dickenson, rewind to early 20th Century. To Fly takes 4 hours, train takes 7 hours and coach is 10 hours. Forget HS2 this beautiful part of Britain deserves better infrastructure both physical and digital.

Today's picture is the dark truth behind ad-hoc crewing. You have to get to the boat and get back home. Sitting on my bright yellow sail bag it's cold and darker here in downtown Falmouth at 0630. The big white coach will arrive soon. Brrrr very soon I hope.

My reader may think WOW it's fantastic, a bit of a jolly, has Ken finished working, is this his new job? This passage is part of a shared vision for Jane and me. It's about gaining knowledge and experience so come the day the Catamaran "Young at Heart too" slips the moorings all those who choose to sail or cruise with us can do so safely - it wi be fun in da sun man. After all in our first season we've done a F10 Storm and got home. This passage had something of everything for Sailor Kenny and via Blog and personal log book Skipper Jane too.  My personal log will be presented to Senior Skipper Jane for a full debrief (big on that sort of thing in nautical circle) and inspect. Do hope it passes with flying colours.

This simple trip Ibiza to Falmouth was beautiful, eventful and challenging too. We had good winds, no winds, too much wind, sailing, motoring, bare pole drifting, sail repairs, dolphins, whales, Italian cooking lessons from Abdullah, full on board and submarine Customs inspection, crew loss, short watches, long watches, shared watches, night watches, hailing ships, sunshine, rain, fog too, a great Catamaran and great company. It was only a simple trip. It was supposed to be 12 days or. It was 18 days. But it's been worth the extra days, every degree, every minute, every second. Next time Skipper Jane will be there too. Next time it might be the Azores.

Till next time the passage home which already is full of incident the A39 closed just outside Falmouth. 3 legs and 2 ports already time is moving but not the traffic. 😣

Day 17 - Au Revior Brest

We have left Brest.

We got the sails up in the sunshine outside the harbour. The Catamaran R5 flys out of Ras Dde Siene hitting 10 knots.

A French Flotilla apeears. They are following us. The pull up on the portside. Its a race. They went to the left channel and we to the right. Local knowledge vs brutal speed of R5. The cat pounced on the waves as the smashed into the bows. The sails full of wind. The Frenchies with full Gennikers billowing with wind arr cutting through the smooth waters far to our left. Onward, onward, half a league more R5 charged ahead cutting down the choppy waters. Onward, onward we sail despite drop in speed Fabio felt confident enough to put the kettle on for a brew. Were are the Frenchies? But to the stern of course. (See picture)

So good buy to France and thanks for Vodafone 4G. 

We will drop off AIS later today. So long for now folks.

Day 16 - Rest in Brest

Today is Friday.

We are all tied up. The boat ia tied up. Not the crew, although that could be fun practicing knots.

Today maybe a little boring as we wait for the wind to abait. It will not as exciting as the last few days. In fact yesterday afternoon the excitement continued..........

We had a full French Custom Inspection. There were 9 officers in Black Uniforms with guns and forms which arrived on a RIB  (big black inflatable powerboat) with 2 divers too. Under the pretence of compliance of rules, ownership, employment, there was a strong suspicion there was another agenda. Yes folks, BREXIT.

We believe this inspection was a shake down seeking Brexiteers.  Abdullah aka Fabio relaxed as the focus about identity fell on the Chief and me. All questions in faltering Fronglias was meet with faltering Fronglias too. We were not going to get caught as in the movie "The Great Escape" with a simple line "have a nice trip" was not going to get the Chief or me. 3 hours later we were given a certificate and freedom to leave France. (They failed to find the Brexiteers ha ha ha)

Today in the cold grey of a dockyard morning it's been decided we need new identities. New identities so we can sail continue around Europe unchallenged. From now I am Count Carlos Maria Bianco Chikken of Venice, this new persona feels good. Abdullah is sticking to Fabio it work yesterday. The Chief who was born in South Africa is now a Zulu Chieftian, we have kindly suggested it maybe a little implausible as a 5'10" surfer dude might not be tall enough the blue eyes would be unique and South Africa is in Europe. No good the Chief is adement he's a Zulu. 

We the band of three, we a happy breed go about our ship chores, laundry,  washing, cleaning, coiling ropes and packing till dinner.

Fabio is working his identify as he's taking us to Church and Friday mass. The Chief and I seeking affirmation in the brassiere whilst Fabio is on his knees.

The final leg to Falmouth begins tomorrow, Saturday early and it's blog Sunday. Soon R5 will be moored on its pontoon and the crew dispersed. But not till Sunday.

Day 15 - Brest or Breast a nightmare for dyslexic

Phew. Land.

Showers which don't move around.
Toilets that don't rise up and down.
WiFi, phone calls, SMS, emails, Facebook and Twitter.
Calls to loved ones. (My Christmas list this year includes an Iridium Satellite phone).

Latest weather forecast, fill up with water, fill up both diesel tanks (we can have the heaters on with the radiators in the shower rooms aboard too). More Red Bush and odd sods too, Chief has his needs

So we are here in Breast till Saturday due to winds, fatigue, repairs for defective predictive text and spellerr checkers.

Day 14 - Bugger

"Bugger" so we are told by the Chief is an old nautical term. It's all about the bugger factor and being buggered although Fabio and I still lock our cabin doors.

Today we feel a little buggered, some nights can be excileraring but leave you tired, did someone left their door unlocked? The last winds of yesterday's gale have chopped up the sea and while around us the wind at Force 6 (25 knots) is blowing from the right direcrion to get us to Brest. Helpful I did suggest to The Chief the sails might be broken and should he should take them back.

We are still going to Brest but in a short tack up and down up and down slowly head eastwards. If you're follow us on Marine Traffic you will see our track, the tack or triangles as I like to call then,  cute aren't they.

On our boat we have a little saying "it will be 3 o'clock" in the morning. Why? We seem to be out hoisting or dropping sails, rigging sheet, drags. The heavy seas and gale force winds means that we should make Breast for Midnight Wednesday 14th. Fingers crossed.

Day 18- Falmouth. All tied up.

Home. R5 has returned safely to home port. Boat safe. Crew what's left of it are safe. We are all safe from this simple trip.

The passage has been uneventful as we've been under Iron Sails since we turned North. (Nautical information. A catamaran has 4 engines. 1 mainsail, foresail smaller sail and 2 iron sails - aka  engines 1 in each hull so excluding becalm and storms it's mostly sails)

Abdullah disappeared in the night. So did the locker of empty water bottles and all the Gaffer Tape. We are unsure if all three events are related. It was remembered that in a recent Bear Gryills series there was a task making a raft as a task.

Fabio cooked for Arrabbiata Pasta which was yummy and hot. Essential comfort food as the crew morale crashed down just like the temperature. Gone the carefree nature of shorts,  T-shirts and barefoot to thinsular underwater,  fleeces, socks and sea boots (my gloves and hat were consider extreme bit I was warm) all to ward off the cold. English Channel at night was bloody cold.

We saw old Blighty at 0630.
I went to bed end of my watch.

We tied up R5 at 1000
It was just like Chief said 20 hours earlier. Boy he'd hasn't stopped asking what time we moored up.

We hugged. Not sure if it's a sailing thingy but seems big on it. So why not when at sea and all that.

We together this happy band of brothers have gone to get a Full British Breakfast.

This isn't  blog in this adventure as I've got to get home somehow. Pictures videos and a little commentary will follow.

Remember more will be in my first book called "Cruising with Sailor Kenny"

Day 13 - Are we there yet?

We start day 13 under motor as we catch a little storm at the end of yesterday evening bringing down the Spinnaker.

There were "Big issues" aboard such as "disappeared" biscuits, excess water comsumption (a sailor boy has got to look good), fuel (can we have the heaters on Chief? Oh yes Catamaran are toasty warm in the cold), wind (people made)  and wind the lack of stuff for sailing. All this noise about the mundane, little did we know!

We knew that a Gale was head from the Atlantic. Correctly it's  a Depression.  It was running from Ireland down to Portugal and heading east towards us. Buoyed by sunshine, a lovely breakfast with luxury coffee it was an easy decision so we turned towards Brest, France. We had a recommendation for a Fish Restaurant too.

Now sail boats sail, motor boats motor and winds carries weather these self evident truths became very evident by 16.00BST on the 40' Catamaran R5. The wind has brought down on to us a Force 8 Gale (see picture) in all its glory.  At this point I would like ro thank my friemd Maria Ostergren for her warnings of The Bay of Biscay.  It delivered as Maria forecast. Yes Folks we had ourselves a F9 Gale and winds gusting through to 50 Knots F10 with Rough Heavy seas too. Or put another  57mph winds or 92Kmh and waves taller than the length of the boat over 40 feet or 13 metres.

NOW we've a real adventure.

Meanwhile inside R5 the excited crew ran around chasing photos and video of the crashing waves on different sides of the boat. Squels and giggling filled the salooon with joy as tons of water smashed into the hulls and coach roof. The kettle gently whistling for a cuppa, hot dogs simmering in the pan, the rummaging in the cupboards for mustard, mayo and tomato sauce, it was more of a scene inside a caravan in Cornwall.

The day and the night proved equally exciting, waves crashing over the coach roof, night excursion onto deck for this and that, a small incident with a French fishing vessel (he alone was a reason to vote Brexit - b'stard). That day adventures and others all feature in my forthing coming book " Cruising with Sailor Kenny" a Brummies guide to yacht cruising.