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 closeness
of the coast with its 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 in front of Fort Boyard in light airs and was therefore easier
than the last start at la Baule. The first windward leg 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 was in light conditions and I was
fortunate 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 at the English coast. The strong currents and 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, which was quite a good result for me.
The next day was spent quietly, fixing some small problems on the boat,
sleeping and preparing the second leg. At night, the organisers laid on an
excellent dinner on Sand Fort Pit, a 200 year 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 together we enjoyed
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 was time to « larguer les amarres » (let the mooring lines go), an
operation well executed by Robin. The second leg was only 200 miles long but
it showed me how difficult it can be to leave your family. 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 have similar 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 in 36 meters of water. 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 young
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 next
mark before the tide changed. I had to anchor again but this time, luckily,
it held. I had just nlost another 6 hours on the first boats who did not
need to stop as they 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 my fog horn to
prevent any collision. Luckily, the fog disappeared before I crossed the
shipping lanes, 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 boat
had already crossed the line, I realised that I would finish out of time
(the organisers had put a time limit of 12 hours afther the finish of the
first boat). Then my motivation really fell as finishing out of time by one
hour or by 12 hours, it was absolutely the same result !! My only motivation
was to catch my plane but I missed that 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 in a depth of 2000 meters.

I discovered that solo sailing was even tougher than I expected, specially
psychologically. It is important to have some time when you can have fun on
the boat and during this Mini-Pavois it did not exist. More than 700 milles
beating, almost no spinnaker work, 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 is still waiting for her to be delivered.