Sam Davies Diary - Part 4

More lessons learned during the Mini-Pavois

I need to put some more footholds in my cockpit, as at one point when there was a big gust and a big wave, we were knocked over and I fell from my steering perch down to the leeward side, taking the tiller with me and therefore initiating an unplanned tack. In Aberdeen this is not ideal. You have the keel up and therefore now down, the wrong runner on, the wrong rudder down, the wrong daggerboard down. You can’t just tack back because you have absolutely no control. You have to set everything 'mentioned above' to the right tack, get going again and then tack back. A long process in which you can lose vital miles. If there is anyone else around, you also feel pretty stupid as you know that they will have seen it. Fortunately, at the time I crash tacked I had just been trying to decide whether to tack or not anyway, so my mind was made for me!

The decision-making is another big lesson that I am learning. When you are on your own there is no one else there to discuss your options with or help make decisions. I am finding this hard, having done so little solo offshore racing. I spend a lot of time thinking over the ' what ifs' and wondering or hoping that the way that I have decided to go is right. The good thing is that at the end when you do get it right you feel very pleased with yourself. The bad thing is when you get it wrong there is no-one else to blame. The French guys at the front of the fleet spend quite a bit of time chatting about options to each other (and telling each other where us English are) on the VHF (on 1W) Brian and I decided that next time we will do the same in English.

Sometimes, you do get a little help from others by seeing where they are going. Around the back of the Isle of Wight, Karen followed me tack for tack. After the race she spoke to me about it and said that she knew I was local and thought I would know where to go. Unfortunately for her, she then fell asleep at the helm for a long time and when she woke up I was gone - 'merde!' I wondered what happened to her. I was also really tired that night, but so tired that my autopilot was steering better than I was. It was really steady breeze and flat water so I used the pilot a lot and got some good cat naps - probably about three hours worth in 10-15 minute shots.

We had a stopover in Portsmouth for two days for those of us at the front of the fleet two hours for those at the back. I ended up ninth and first girl just ahead of Jeanne and Karen which I was very pleased with.


See page 3 to read about leg 2...