Pacific Cup 2016

September 15, 2016   

Ashley raced aboard a J124 Albion to Hawaii in the 2016 Pacific Cup as watch captain/helm. Unfortunately 450 miles from the finish structural failure of the chainplate bulkhead occurred and we had to drop sails. Turn the boom into a mast and use the trysail as a mainsail. We then were able to pick up fuel from a cruising boat doing the race and continue under power to the finish.

Here is our Pac Cup in a video by Angel our Mother Hubbard onboard who looked after the galley. He truly turned into an asset after only sailing for three years and not having been offshore for more than a day.

Over a decade ago! Video of Atlantic Race in 2005

  

Over a decade ago I raced with the Hubbards for the first time on a boat they chartered called Tempest. Stephan Lirakis was one of the watch leaders and sent me this video link for you tube . We won our class and were winning the entire race until we got to the English channel and there was no wind. The race these days finishes off the Lizard rather than off the Needles for this very reason.

 

First Race in over 50 years SORC Miami to Havana

February 22, 2016   

The skipper of Dragon the Class 40 I raced on wrote the following report http://sailinganarchy.com/2016/02/18/cuentos-de-dragones/

Merf the designer of Dragon wrote the following release http://www.owenclarkedesign.com/Class_40_Dragon_wins_inaugural_Miami-Havana_Race

And Sailing Anarchy did an interview with Mike at the finish. https://www.facebook.com/SailingAnarchy/videos/10156478555940375/?pnref=story

So I don’t think I need to write anymore 🙂 It was awesome fun and I enjoyed getting the top boat speed of 16.7 knots. She is a beautiful boat to handle offshore in big waves and breeze.

 

Truth is on the move

September 13, 2015   

RYM was hired by the new owner of Open 50 Truth to break down the boat and organize the logistics to ship her from San Francisco to Hamble, UK see http://www.owenclarkedesign.com/famous-owen-clarke-open-50-returns-to-race-in-the-

Zac’s trip to Antarctica

February 17, 2014   

I promise I will post something soon about the trip to Antarctica this northern winter southern summer. In the meantime read Zac’s take on the trip!

A whirlwind trip

December 10, 2013   

DSC_0062 (800x536) DSC_0125 (800x536)I took 2 weeks off from the boat in Chile and went home to England to see my parents we did lots of Christmassy activities and put up a fake Christmas tree.

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Next stop was New Jersey to see my brothers family for Thanksgiving where we cut down a real Christmas tree from a farm and went to see the Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It is cold in New Jersey so they are making use of the synthetic down jackets I got them in Nepal last year.

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Then back to the UK for work on the 82 footer that is being rebuilt at Oyster in Southampton, early Christmas with the Whytes and Perrins and work on my 30 footer Santana that I own with my brother.

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During my time away we (my brother’s family and myself) decided to adopt a dog from Puerto Montt who had been hit by a truck in the Marina just before I left. So I have been in full investigation mode and organizing Pincoya’s paperwork and transport.

The trip back from UK was a nightmare and involved a few hours in a hotel room in Madrid (if you could call it a hotel!) and a few hours in a hotel room in Santiago. It should have taken 24 hours and instead it took 48 hours. Zac was at the airport waiting to board the flight I got off of and told me where the car was. I got back to the boat mid morning and just started working as I was in that mode. When I finally got to sleep on Monday night I had slept around 9 hours since waking up Friday morning in Cowes Isle of Wight!

 

 

 

 

Try out please?

November 23, 2013   

Thank you so much to everyone who got involved with this video I was blown away by your comments and everyones support. And Sam you are a genius and very much deserve a position on the Volvo as an onboard reporter.

River Rafting down the Petrohue River

November 10, 2013   

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I left the boat at 5pm on Friday night and drove to Lago San Todas just up the road from Ensenada. It was raining and getting dark when I arrived on the shore of the lake and luckily there was a single boatman looking for his last fare to the other side of the river. I had called ahead to a farmhouse that was listed in Lonely Planet (though without a phone number but Google solved that) and in very bad Spanish I asked if there was a room available. The room was rustic (chipboard walls) but there was a lovely fire going and the old lady using mime put dinner in front of me. There were piglets running around in the yard along with the usual cats, dogs, roosters, chickens etc.

DSC_0135 (800x539) DSC_0178 (800x531) Saturday morning I woke up to a beautiful view of the lake surrounded by mountains and went to the CONAF to log in a walk which took me 4 hours through the forest and then alongside the lake. DSC_0208 (536x800)1426179_10151985480408815_906957310_n

I called the rafting company to see if they had room for one. Quickly jumping in my car I managed to join in with a group of 5 guys from Santiago. It was interesting trying to respond to Spanish commands from the guide. Had a great time and even went down a rapid outside the raft when they said we could jump in if we wanted!

Back in Puerto Montt by 6pm and in time to watch a soccer game at the stadium across from the boat. Quite a fun filled Saturday off and Sunday is a work day but as the weather was not nice I didn’t mind so much!

Volcano Osorno

November 3, 2013   

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The first thing you see when you arrive by sea into Puerto Montt is snow covered Volcanoes all around. So being a climber it was necessary to climb one especially as it is topped by a glacier. The closest to Puerto Montt is Volcanoe Osorno in the Los Lagos region it is 2,652 meters high and perfectly conical.

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Osorno is on the shore of Llanquihue Lake and Todos Los Santos Lake. It is considered to be very active with 11 eruptions between 1575 and 1869. The conical shape reminds me of Mount Fuji which I went to as a little girl when I was either 7 or 8.

On Friday after work I picked up some rental equipment from Ensenada as I hadn’t brought my harness, boots, ice axe, crampons and helmet.

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Then on up to the Teski Refugio on the side of the mountain just above the snow line at the ski resort. The view of the lake was stunning and got even better as the evening wore on.

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After a tasty dinner it was time for bed in our bunk room as I had to be up at 4am to head on up the mountain with my climbing partner/guide Paulo.

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The CONAF office is 100 meters from the Refugio so at 5am you fill out the permit application and get a permit to attach to your backpack. Then head on up past the ski lift as the sun comes up lighting up the underside of the clouds which you are soon above.

P1120697The shadow of the volcanoe can be seen in the clouds.

P1120708We put on our crampons and continued up to one side of the heavily crevassed area of the slope. The mountains of Patagonia spread as far as we could see ranks and ranks of them on all horizons.

P1120711 As it gets steeper time for ice axe and then roping up.

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The ice features were incredible all swirly shaped from the wind.

iceclimbIt was very icy and we really needed an ice axe and hammer preferably a technical set as it became steep. But we made do with an ice axe each and had to cut steps.

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To get onto the summit it is necessary to climb under the cornice which is very stable along a very exposed shelf.

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The summit was spectacular it is a large flat platform that was windy and cold. We were the first up to the top after a bit of an ice climb! Other volcanoe summits popped out above the clouds.

Total return trip was 10 hours. It was hard work getting down hill as the snow got soft in the hot sun above the clouds.

Roll on Chile

October 22, 2013   

Pasta has become a bad word. I don’t want to eat pasta when I touch land for at least two months. Kristy has don’t a great job with the food but we have eaten pasta everyday for the last 14 days and my body just wants a big argentine/Chilean steak with two plates of fresh vegetables. I must be getting soft in my old age. It is normal for people to start talking about food on the 10th day of a trip but normally I don’t end up with such an adversion to one particular food group.  I am ready to not drink out of a sports bottle and eat out of Tupperware everyday.

The last three days have been groundhog day. The same squally conditions but last night was a really doozy with massive wind shifts both direction and speed. It was pretty hard going. Not to the level if we had been racing but the big morale killer was looking at the Distance to go (DTG) which was actually more when I came off watch after 4 hours then it was when I started. And before you suggest it the route hadn’t been changed. We were heading it seems to the Ross Sea and Captain Scott’s cabin instead of to Chile. Two days before due to route changing at 5am we were 1200 miles to go and at 9pm that night we were 1200 miles to go. It would all be fine if we had plenty of fuel then we could motor south and set ourselves up for a reach into Puerto Montt. But we have 4 days of motoring left in the tank. The last section of 75 miles we will be motoring to get from the ocean through the canal to Puerto Montt so we need fuel for that section.

This boat is certainly not a race boat it goes upwind at about 50AWA so the tacking angles are like a square rigger. However, after sitting down this morning and looking at the numbers I am pretty certain that when the rig was put back in last year the instruments weren’t calibrated as we are 20 degrees off the wind on one tack and 130 degrees off on the other tack. Even taking into account waves that is just wrong. I still have to persuade Tim (the captain) of this. But it is pretty important if you are basing your tacking on shifts on TWD (true wind direction) and the TWD you are getting from the instruments is rubbish.

This morning the sky got light but there was not spectacular sunrise and it is just gray outside with the occasional mist of rain. However, there was a beautiful albatross swooping around but not for long and also a petrel.

Roll on Chile.

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