DAVID SYCAMORE54 CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2016TRANSAT IN A GAFFER
Above from left:
carnival in
Mindelo; flying
fish stunned to
be on deck;
taking a noon
sight in Biscaythrough the inboard block and into the sea. Unless I could
get the boom back under control it would be impossible to
hand the mains’l and make the harbour.
At first I tried to haul in the boom by heaving on the
remaining parts of the sheet between the two blocks but this
was a stupid idea. With so much wind in the sail all I got was
torn hands and tired arms. I had to give up and rest for a
while; to think what to do. Then a more sensible solution
occurred to me. I recovered the fall of the sheet from the sea
with a boat hook and after securing the end of it inboard I
could haul the boom inboard using the full power of both
blocks. With the main under control I returned to the helm
and headed for the harbour. I was exhausted on arrival and
very grateful to the marina staff for coming off in a launch to
help us in. Once tied up I headed for the nearest restaurant,
and after a colossal lunch spent the rest of that day and
night in blissful oblivion. It took a week for my hands to heal.HEAD ON TO CAPE VERDE
By now it was late in the year and I returned home for
Christmas. It would not be until late January 2015 that I could
return for the next leg of the voyage, down to the Cape Verde
Islands, 1,000 miles to the south. During the break I bought a
satellite (YB) tracker so that family and friends could follow
my progress; a little yellow road inching out over a blue
ocean. It also meant I could keep in touch with Christine and
receive weather reports from her when needed.
On 4 February Sally B sailed from La Gomera heading
south on a good northerly breeze. The trip to the island of
São Vicente took ten days, the longest I had spent at sea so
far. We arrived in the anchorage of Mindelo harbour just after
nightfall on 14 February and the first boat I saw there was
Nick Skeats’ Wylo II, whom I had last seen in Plymouth
during the winter of 2012/13. The following morning he was
over bright and early for a cup of tea and some catching up.
I had a lot of trouble with anchor drag in Mindelo and so
decided to go into the marina where it was more
comfortable, safe and convenient. We spent three weekscoast, stopping first at Nazaré then Lisbon, Sally B sailed for
Madeira on 4 October, heading way out into the Atlantic at
last. It took eight days to get there, then we ended up
weather bound in Funchal for the next three weeks.BOUND FOR THE CANARIES
We left Funchal on 29 October bound for the Canaries,
making landfall off Tenerife in a rising gale late in the evening
of 1 November. We lay hove to all night under triple reefed
main rather than risking entry into La Gomera in darkness. At
dawn it was still blowing hard as I set the storm jib and we
got underway again. Soon we were in the wind acceleration
zone between Gomera and Tenerife and though it was a
sunny day the wind was topping 40 knots and we were
running hard before it, sometimes reaching the insane speed
of nine knots for sustained periods (normally I am happy to
jog along at half that speed).
Just after Gomera came into sight to starboard the main
sheet suddenly flew out through the inboard block, releasing
the boom to fly out to the leeward shrouds, beyond control. I
quickly saw the cause of it. When in Funchal I had unreefed
the main sheet to do some work on the boom, and when I
rove it back in again I had forgotten to tie a stopper knot at
the end! Now the sheet had worked loose from its cleat, and
having nothing to restrain it, the fall had run itself out“Scared or not, on 2 March the moment came
and we sailed out of Mindelo harbour”