Moloney on board

Nick Moloney reports back from his first solo experience on board his Open 50

16/08/02 : Position 49:24N ; 08:28W

I am currently approaching the English Channel, just over 100 miles from my final waypoint before the finish of my 1000 mile solo qualifier in Cowes which is about 250 miles away.

Day break has arrived with a bright red easterly horizon. Currently cruising along at 4 knots of boat speed in around the same amount of wind. I have been cramming rest throughout the night as there is forecast deep depression arriving this evening bringing strong winds, up to 40 knots mid Irish Sea all the time trying to maintain maximum speed to the south in order to escape the brunt of this storm.

Apart from the ol 'red sky in the morning..sailors warning!' there is evidence of the power over our westerly horizon. The wind began to drop yesterday afternoon but all the time, a large swell continued to roll us around playing havoc with our sails. By the evening I was really surprised by the size and mass. I e-mailed some surf heads on the Isle of Wight telling them to dig out their boards.

This trip has been a bit of a toughie. this has been my first solo experience since 1999 in the Mini Transat. For those in the know you will recall that that was my hardest mental and physical experience ever encountered by myself at sea.

I departed last Sunday from the Isle of Wight in reasonably strong headwinds and my boat OC1 was a real hand full. I was surprised by her characteristics - like many of this generation of Finot Open boats, they'd rather be going downwind than upwind... This was to be the beginning of a tough 500 mile beat towards a waypoint Atlantic. This was a period of deep concern for me. Not making much headway, continual rain, shipping everywhere. I couldn't sleep nor even feel comfortable with myself.

Just before dusk on my first evening I had to conduct one of the most difficult manoeuvres alone, changing from staysail to storm jib. Upwind in rough seas, no back up, no one to look out for you. Memories of the 1999 Mini flooded home - this was very, very difficult for me to swallow.

I became quite closed up and was not enjoying the experience at all. I was very angry with the boat, myself and the sea. I was struggling once again.

I began to set some goals for myself to overcome some of the uncomfortable conditions and emotion. It was very weird, for the first night I would stand at the companionway holding on to the coach house roof, looking for ships, watching the sea, making small changes to course and trim in an attempt to find a better balance. Suddenly I would realise that I had been standing there for hours. I was getting tired which is the most dangerous of all emotions.

My first goal was to sleep. I couldn't bring myself to go below out of the weather so I rested on the cockpit floor. From there I moved to the step just inside the companion way, from there to the floor just inside the companionway 48hours later. I was managing to sleep in a bed-style nav seat, always in full wet weather gear and harness.

This game is tough mentally, really tough. the tour has been a great experience so far. I've had my fare share of struggles but all with some reward. After rounding our offshore waypoint I was struggling with the genoa on the foredeck, yelling to the sky 'give me a break!' one hour later I was surfing under moonlight, dolphins along side taking some wave faces with bursts of 22 knots boat speed.

I am happy to now say that our craft has some fantastic points of sail. She really does struggle upwind so we myst work hard at that. She tears along down wind at speeds that will test any ones level to push and last night we just kept creeping along at 3-4kts in hardly a breath.

I am also happy to have spent this period at sea alone. This has been the real begging of the huge effort required to reach my ultimate goal.

Tonight a storm awaits us, its to be one of many to come I am sure.

nick