The account of the Mini-Pavois by Hervé

This race which led us from La Rochelle to Portsmouth and then to St-Quay Portrieux (Near St-Malo) was for me the scarecrow of the season. This was such a difficult course to do singlehanded due to its length, the vicinty of the coast with the rocks, the strong tides and currents near the isles of Sein and Ushant and finally the shipping lanes to cross. I am therefore relieved that everything went well as this race was the last element missing for my qualification.

The start was given in front of Fort Boyard in light airs and was therefore easier than the last start at la Baule. The first beating led us under the bridge and I took my first good tactical decision when I decided to stay near the shore where I benefitted from a massive wind shift. I must have gained at least 20 places in one go !
The course to the Isle of Sein and Ushant happened in light conditions and I was lucky enough to have the tide with me to round Ushant. I then crossed the Channel to Eddystone Rock off Plymouth in one tack but with strong conditions.

The weatherman from MeteoFrance had indicated to us that we would have very light winds from 5-10 knots but instead we were having 25-30 knots ! I even had to take a 3rd reef, which does not happen very often on the Pogo. When arrived along the English coast, the strong currents and the lack of wind created a difficult situation. However, my local knowledge (Children Action is usually moored in Haslar Marina, Portsmouth) was useful and I could take advantage of the strong currents around St-Catherine’s point to overtake one or two competitors. To give you an example of the situation, imagine that you are heading due east at a speed of 3 knots on the water. However, your GPS indicates a speed of 1 knot due West on the ground!! To overcome the situation, it can be quite tricky because if your boat speed increases from 3 to 4 knots by doing 20° more North, then your actual direction over the ground will change from 270° to 40°. I can tell you that when you have slept an average of 2 hours during 4 days, you can get it wrong very easily. The best solution was therefore to let the autopilot steer and to change the direction only by pressing the autopilot’s buttons.
At the finish I had a good surprise as Muriel was waiting for me. It was 3 o’clock in the morning, I was exhausted but pleased with my result : 10th Pogo and only 2 hours after the first one was quite a good result for me.

The next day was spent quietly on fixing some small things on the boat, sleeping and preparing the second leg. At night, the organisers had prepared an excellent dinner on Sand Fort Pit, a 200 years old fort in front of Portsmouth built to defend the English coast against the French. I am sure that this is the first time that this fort saw so many « bloody french » on board !

On Friday morning, Muriel was back with the children and we took together a nice breakfast in the cockpit of the boat. Robin was particularly pleased to see me as it must now be clearer why I am away for such long periods. Then it is the time to « larguer les amarres » (let the mooring lines go), operation well executed by Robin. The second leg was only 200 miles long but it showed me how difficult to leave your family can be. It will be far worse at the start of the Mini-Transat and I am not looking forward to this particular moment !
After a good start, I passed Nab tower, the first mark 4th Pogo and around 15th overall. I was pleased as I could see that I made some progress and that I started to be able to have the same boat speed as the others. Until now, I always had to compensate my lack of speed by tactical decisions which were not always right….
At the south point of the Isle of Wight the tide reversed and the wind disappeared. I therefore decided to anchor by 36 meters of depth. I was anchored with 4 or 5 other boats and this was the moment when I took the worst decision of the whole race : a pogo next to me skipped by a yound German decided suddenly that there was enough breeze to sail and he lifted his anchor and went. I hesitated a lot, not knowing if this wind would last or not. I finally decided to follow him. I realised 10 minutes later that there was not enough wind again. But this time the anchor did not « bite » and I continued to drift during the next 4 hours for more than 6 milles. When the tide finally changed direction, I had lost a lot on those whose anchor had held. The situation got worse when I could not round the following mark before the next reverse of the tide. I had to anchor again but this time, luckily, it held. I had just lost another 6 hours on the first ones who did not need to stop as they had passed the mark with the tide.

This second leg was really difficult due to the lack of wind and the strong currents. On top of that, we got thick fog and I had to blow in my fog horn to prevent any collision. Luckily, the fog disappeared before I crossed the shipping lances, which made it a bit easier !

From Guernsey to the finish, there were 50 milles to go but it took us more than a day to complete them. And when I heard on the VHF that the first one had already crossed the line, I realised that I would finish offtime (the organisers had put a time limit of 12 hours afther the finish of the first one). Then my motivation really fell as finishing offtime by one hour or by 12 hours, it was absolutely the same result !! My only motivation was to catch my plane but I missed it as well !

This was certainly a good training for the doldrums. The good news is that the currents in the doldrums are with us and that in any case it is not possible to anchor by 2000 meters of depth.

I realised that solo sailing was even tougher than I expected, specially psychologically. It is important to have some time when you have fun on the boat and during this Mini-Pavois it did not exist. More than 700 milles beating, almost no spinnaker, it was really not fun sailing.

The next race is the Mini-Fastnet , starting the 10th June, which will be a double handed race. My co-skipper will be Nick Walters, an Englishman who bought a new Pogo 8 months ago and who is still waiting for her to be delivered.