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.