I had not expected this. After the very successful Mini-Fastnet seemed qualified for the Mini-Transat in 2011 largely to actually be in the bag. Harder than the Fastnet would not be there anymore, I thought. Ok, a long trip yet - the 1000-mile qualification outside of the race solo and nonstop - but my terms. I would choose the weather for it and I would choose good weather that was clear, and that's what I had done. A very stable high pressure area extending from the Azores to Ireland, when I on Friday, 23.07. evening at half past ten in the port of Douarnenez went out while the town was preparing for a small festival. Light winds, 2-4 Beaufort were, for the next days on my route through the English Channel, to the Scilly Islands off by Cornwall to the south coast of Ireland, from there to the southeast to La Rochelle and back to be expected in Brittany . It was now come, in spite of which I was by the chaotic waves in the English Channel again become seasick, and now this: the inexplicable nervousness really strong at the beginning of the trip has grown into a tangible mental depression. Like a handful of misery I now sit in the cockpit of RIKKI tikki, have just passed the Scillies, without sight of land, however, and stare at the gray sea, which extends around the boat to the horizon. The loneliness seems to be immeasurable, with a time just as the remaining time and distance to destination. I've seen in a half days, not a soul, only a handful of container ships that move like big factories lifeless on the water. Now I am in despair. I want to get out, now wants land, wants to see family and friends, all the rest does not matter. To my surprise is the real challenge of this trip so in myself, in the maintenance of good mental health, is how do I handle it really up to me his own, and not as expected in the possible development of a difficult weather situation in the Irish sea or in of excessive fatigue. In order to calm me something I listen to music. The effect, however, the exact opposite, the emotions accelerated, losheulen I have spontaneously, the idea no longer seems far-fetched to a task. Is he come, the moment of failure? Already, more than a year before the start of the Minitransatrennens?
Ochre Orange light on the rocks of the Ireland's southern coast in the sun when I 24 hours later the first turning point of the route, the Untiefentonne Conningbeg, more. I have not given up and grinning broadly. A closer examination of the situation was but was soon clear that a task would not be the right way. Of the Scillies there are about two days to my home port of Lorient. Two days sailing with the knowledge that my project has failed and the bad in my mental state, I did not do that to me. A second attempt for the Qualifikationstörn I had not considered, not a task that has no technical reasons. Because the trip is a test for the class Mini and for myself, and, if I have sailed solo from eight to ten days, get strong mental problems, then I can not and will not sail a transatlantic stage, which lasts two and a half times as long. But to really find out what a long solo stage with me physically and mentally makes, I thought, I must sail the test over. The only way I can be safe and then take rest in a decision to participate. I'm guilty, for all energy and all the passion that I have to invest here, and that was the agreement that I had taken with me then: sag can pull, and then evaluate and decide alone.
I take a picture by me and the mark for the documentation of the trips, the class calls the Mini, and suggest a the desired south. A quarter of the total distance is done, the lift is. Up to this point I made very good progress, lucky with the wind shifts. Although I had the first 250 miles high sail to the wind, so relatively slowly and against the waves but could still hold almost always heading directly toward my goal. The next day towards La Rochelle should be even better, most of which promise cheaper prices, where can I set the spinnaker, the actual throttle of the boat. As the wind on South West I have to turn to but I wait until two days later, the Ile de Ouessant have happened at Cape Finistere.
announces the passage of a front in with high clouds, the ever lower the closer it comes. The first runs through the warm front, accompanied by wind and then rain. It follows the cold front, the clouds a bit breaks up, the rain comes only in showers, the wind freshened to continue. On the evening of the fifth day I can follow these events as a textbook in the sky. Meteo France has declared for the northern Bay of Biscay a small front and now it is there and RIKKI Tikki accelerated rapidly, while daylight is getting weaker. Under mainsail and spinnaker medium glides the boat, the waves down. The wind meter rises slowly towards 20 knots, and it is increasingly difficult, the boat between the wave crests through this trend, in part because the water surface in the dark to identify only with difficulty. The folded-forward pole base, where the front of the spinnaker is attached is the running ahead crests dangerously close, and threatens every time RIKKI Tikki plunge down a shaft into the rushing water. That can happen in any case, the metal bar would not withstand the load and probably bent and so I want to avoid a loss in any case. A reef in the mainsail takes some pressure from the bow, but not enough for the wind continues to increase to 25 knots. I get to the horror of it as the bug twice submerged completely. Vast amounts of water wash over the deck to flow, passing by a miracle at the open hatch to the cabin and I'm lucky that there all is not under water. Too much sail up, which is now absolutely clear, the spinnaker down and needs it fast. For the rest of the night I will have my peace, to sleep, because recovery is important in an ocean. As my familiarity in the boat and its behavior under these conditions is not large enough to be able to relax relaxed around me, I do not use the smaller, suitable for these conditions, code 5, and step on the brakes a bit.
The party takes place in a large house. There are also other events, we have hired only a smaller room to judge on the basis of more people present, it is a class reunion. Some I have not seen for years, the welcome is warm. In the rest of the building there is hectic activity, it is gearing up for an art exhibition. Epoch Cross as it looks, install oil painter from the Middle Ages, wall-size works of modern artists perform during hologram projections. I've lost something and try to ask the way back to the class reunion. In vain, because somehow I seem invisible for the very busy artist. An unpleasant feeling rising in me, around me I see white plastic and otherwise only in black. The feeling is apparently caused by a high-pitched noise. My gaze wanders through the cockpit toward the red button that is installed between the two control systems. I'm reaching out there, hit the button and the sound goes out, I'm back from a deep sleep into which I was twenty minutes before I fell. At the stage of sleep, I quickly got used. Under good conditions, I get the night together like five or six hours, usually huddled in the cockpit on a small cushion, and will be subject to regular by the deafening whistle of alarm ripped the heart out of control to the dream boat and its surroundings. It only takes a few moments until I'm fully there. A thorough view on the horizon: no other ship in sight. The radar detector, which is signaled when my boat hit by a radar is, no sounds. View of the Wind indicator: the angle is still correct, the course also about the wind strength is unchanged. Looking into the sail: everything is fine. I bow to the Kajütöffnung press on the timer, and fall back into a deep sleep. For twenty minutes.
The shower is good. After five days I have hardly anything of mine water resources consumed in the afternoon doldrums Lichen I offer a 10-liter jerry cans for a thorough wash and feel fresh again. Then there is a hearty meal, potato soup from a can. I have eaten the last few days not much. Once a day I overcome me, the sea sickness on the first day I put any appetite. But eating is important, too little rather than not at all, because I've lost a lot of energy and the remaining distance is still long. A coast guard ship is approaching, is about 100 feet away for a few minutes, or one out there to see anything. The Classe Mini informed the Coast Guard about anyone to Qualifikationstörn compete. Security is important and was able to give me three days ago since my position in Ireland last mobile phone I have not been back in range of mobile phones. The radio still remains, one comes to the obvious conclusion that for me everything is OK and continue.
little later to reach the plateau of Roche Bonne, the buoys marking the next waypoint on my route are. From here there are only a few hours to La Rochelle, then I have met about two-thirds of the route. With code 5, Genoa and large I take courses directly to the east and look forward soon to see the country - and finally to phone can, at least briefly, because the battery needs to hold something. But first, yet to hold two strange encounters. Number one is a small plane. The first thing I hear engine noise, look around and realize a small dot in the distance, coming closer. I rub my eyes, as the small machine is flying just above the water surface, perhaps thirty meters in height, and keeps right up to me. Stunned and helpless I see how it flies past me very close to a few minutes from the other side and back again to do exactly the same. What an idiot, I think. The process is repeated about twenty minutes later, another Sail around me is. After a while I hear the pilots on VHF Channel 16, he apologized and said something of great photos that they had made. Unfortunately, I have none of it. The second meeting is a group of about 10 dolphins. The wind picked up slightly, Rikki Tikki surfing now at a good pace on the Atlantic swells and the animals are great fun to swim through the bow wave. So much so that they stay for an hour, perfect blue water sailing. At dusk I reach the Ile de Re, is that I must go around, and when I under the bridge that connects it to La Rochelle, go through it, it is already night. The mood is fine, from here there are only two or three days, then I did it. Now I am sure I will not give up going.
The last three days are relatively uneventful, with little wind on the way down the coast from La Rochelle, Ile d'Yeu to the past, Belle Ile and Ile de Groix up to the bay of Douarnenez to last mark. Only the two passages through the Raz du Being that I had met in the Trophée Marie-Agnès Péron-only too well, a couple of adrenaline have to offer. I have read wonderful views of the coast from Les Sables d'Olonne and finally the peace of mind to sometimes a few pages in a book, but also Signs of progressive fatigue. The gurgling of the wake, the hum of the autopilot, it turns into the hubbub of a party, in the somewhat quirky too loud radio in the apartment next door, in tatters a moderated folk music show in the distance, while I daydream. Can we have considered the first hallucinations?
reach Lorient I used to drive about half past three early Monday morning, after about nine and a half days. Due to an unpleasant experience in the transfer of Rikki Tikki back to Lorient after the Pornichet-Select-Regatta in April, the harbor entrance is like my nemesis, at least at night. are in the offshore Bay There are two entrances, a very narrow on the east side and a slightly wider on the west. Between two rocks lie directly. Fairway approach each other to unite and just before the fortress of Port Luis. There is the narrowest point with the strongest current, you have to ride a small curve and then passes into calmer water. Numerous marker buoys mark the location, but what it also does not make it easier to find the right nor to the bright lights in the background of the harbor and the city. Relieved I turn into the harbor, past a giant luxury yacht, at Groupama Volvo Ocean Racer, the trimaran Groupama, in the direction of the berths for the Minis. Not a soul can see when I'm laid to 4:19. Incredulous, I looked around me. Now's the War? Really? I am qualified for the Transat? The voltage drops, only now I feel the degree of fatigue. Just a few steps on solid ground, I want to know how this feels now after all this time.
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