JOG race to Alderney, 11-12 June 2010
Submitted by Rhian Deakin on Wed, 16/06/2010 - 17:46
I was fortunate enough to have one of the best sails of my short sailing "career" on Friday night when I crewed on Charles' Whittam's Juno for the JOG race from Cowes to Alderney.
Sailing certainly readjusts your view of the weather as what a year or two ago I would have classed as a perfect summer's evening I now perceived as frustratingly lacking in wind at a mere 2-5 knots!
The Class 5 boats just about managed to get away at 7.30pm before the wind died completely postponing our scheduled Class 4 8pm start (although there was plenty of "entertainment" in the form of "container ship chicken" being played out by some of the Class 5 boats stranded with no wind!).
We eventually got away at 8.30pm with a few knots that then began to fill in a bit from the South West up to about 8 knots; just enough breeze for Juno to really start moving. A gentle short tacking beat up the Western Solent trying to play the tidal streams to the Needles followed, in plenty of company as the Class 3 boats started only 15 minutes after us. The sun was setting beautifully over Lymington and the numerous tacks were great practice for the cockpit team and we started to believe we were looking rather slick half an hour in. I was really beginning to enjoy myself.
Past the Needles and the wind had swung round to the North East as forecast so we hoisted our kite, an impressive feat for our bow man, Mark, who managed the whole thing in the dark with little moonlight and no torch, and commenced a downwind sail all the way to Alderney. The conditions were perfect: a good breeze in the right direction; a star studded sky with little moonlight to detract from their brilliance; a calm, flat sea and a reasonably warm air temperature. It was so lovely I was even slightly reluctant to retire to my bunk for a couple of hours at 2am! Fortunately I was back on deck at 4am just in time to catch the sunrise (it's not often you think of coming back on watch as "fortunate"; a testament to the conditions!).
Day break indicated that we were slightly to the West of some of the fleet but with a few other boats on the same route as us. As the Channel Islands came into view Charles and our navigator Julie were deep in conversation about the tides and when to gybe across towards Alderney. Much of this went over my head but I certainly understood that this was a delicate balance between getting as far South as we could to lay the finish line at Braye Harbour and not going so far as to be swept up by the Alderney Race and ending up in Guernsey!
Thankfully we timed this well and were soon running towards the finish line at the entrance to Braye Harbour at pace (6.5-knots). We had a Class 3 boat right alongside and an audience of those boats that had already finished who were tied up to mooring buoys sipping tea and watching the other boats finish. A quick and neat drop of the kite was essential both to save face in front of the rest of the fleet and to avoid landing on the fast approaching sands of Braye beach! Thankfully the foredeck team (Mark on bow, Simon on mast and Kate in the pit) did us proud with a faultlessly sleek drop down the fore hatch. We picked up a mooring buoy, relaxed in the sunshine with a light lunch and then retired to our bunks for a much needed afternoon nap.
From our position arriving with several of the Class 3 boats we suspected that we had done quite well and a quick check of the phones confirmed that we were 4th in Class 4 with an elapsed and corrected time just shy of 15 hours, having arrived at 11.30am.
Showers, drinks and a quick explore of Braye followed, with a well attended JOG drinks party and a lovely (and large!) supper at The First and Last. We returned to the boat at 9pm for our scheduled departure time of 9.30pm and with sufficient wind to sail until about midnight when we were forced to put on the engine. A more relaxed watch system ensured we all had at least 6 hours sleep by the time we arrived back in the Solent.
A truly wonderful sail both ways!
The crew consisted of Charles Whittam, Julie Coleclough, Rhian Deakin, Kate Newman, Simon Hughes and Mark van Miltenberg. Juno is a new X34 and this is her first season.
Beating up the Western Solent at sunset
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Juno crew waiting for the start (front to back, Kate, Julie, Simon, Mark)
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"container ship chicken"
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Sunrise in the Channel
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Braye, Alderney
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