GREY SQUIRRELS IN THE IRISH SEA
Now, a large grey squirrel is not the sort of thing
you expect to see scampering across the coach
roof in the middle of the Irish sea when it's blowing
30 knots. But see it I did.
The Mini Fastnet was my first taste of Mini racing,
I was not entirely sure what to expect and was
prepared for just about anything, which was just
as well because we got just about everything. We
went through every sail combination possible and
conditions ranging from 0 knots to 40 knots of
wind. Throughout all the conditions Children Action
was awesome, incredibly well balanced and
incredibly tough for such a small boat.
The Pogo, fantastic thiough it is, was not designed
to go upwind for long periods of time, which
unfortunately was exactly what we had to do for
six days and six nights. And believe me trying to
sleep in soaking wet weather gear on the sailing
equilivant of a rollercoaster is decidedly
amusing. But no where near as amusing as trying
to go to the toilet in the same conditions.
The grey squirrel incident was not the only strange
thing I saw. We were working a 2 hours on 2
hours off shift which worked extremely well but
at times the lack of sleep was beginning to show.
I
saw old wooden dinghies breaking in the waves in
front of us, various bits of land that needed
avoiding in the middle of the Irish Sea at night,
in fact most of the strange stuff happened at
night. All of which at the time seemed very real,
much to Herve's amusment. One thing I definately
did
see was dolphins which joined us shortly after the
depression hit us after passing the rock. It
was such a fantastic sight to see amidst such foul
weather it bought a huge grin to my face and I
felt strangely relaxed after that and even began
to enjoy the miserable conditions.
Herve is a very fine skipper, always cool and calm
whatever the conditions, incredibly motivated
and disciplined, which I found very reassuring.
We beat several of the Prototypes and finished in
the top half of the series fleet, which is a great
achievement considering many of the skippers are
proffessional and do nothing but race.
A fantastic time
Thankyou
Most memorable moment: Surfing at 12 and a half
knots coming into Douarnenez Bay
Most scarey moment: The big ships at night
Toughest moment: Changing the head sail in 35 knots
Weirdest moment: The squirell
All in all a very memorable Mini Fastnet
