SolOceans - News - Liz Wardley is in the Right Pace now (12/14/2009)

Liz Wardley is in the Right Pace now

Monday December 14th 2009 News RSS

Since her departure from the Bay of Concarneau on Saturday 12 December at 1.00pm (1200 UT), Liz Wardley (Skipper Sojasun) has quickly crossed the Bay of Biscay. Thanks to a NE 15-30 knot wind, she kept a steady rhythm onboard the SolOceans One-design. She sailed 360 nautical miles during her first day with an 18 knot per hour average speed on Sunday Morning, 13 December. But for her first night at sea, Liz Wardley wisely decided not to keep her spinnaker when the wind was over 30 knots even though the SolOceans One-design easily planed. Liz also slowed down when rounding Cape Finisterre (North-Western tip of Spain) as the state of the sea was ‘horrible’, there was a great number of cargo ships all that in a stable 30-knot wind - information collected by the scientific instruments onboard the SolOceans One-design, transmitted via satellite and available on the website dedicated to the weather ships international network. In a good spirit, Liz Wardley is getting ready to face from Monday evening two successive storms off Portugal. She will be facing 45 to 60-knot winds (Force 9 to Force 12). On Sunday evening, Liz Wardley sent us a description of her first hours back in the Around-the-world Reference Tour of the SolOceans - OceanoScientific^® Campaign 2009-2010.

Start of Liz Wardley from Concarneau - December 12th, 2009 On Sunday afternoon (13 December 2009), Liz Wardley rounded the first major cape of the SolOceans’ racecourse : Cape Finisterre, the Northwestern tip of Spain.
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Photo Liz Wardley - SailingOne

"I started off the East cardinal buoy Linuen at the entrance to the bay of Port-La-Forêt last Saturday at 1200 UT. There was 15 knots of NEasterly breeze, a bright sunny day without a cloud in the sky. It was cold, but picture perfect, the visibility was great so I had a spectacular sail spinnaker through the Glenan and Mouton Islands with the wind increasing and dolphins jumping along beside me. It was quite an emotional depart as I could see Loctudy (where I live) and it was really like leaving home this time.

Throughout the afternoon and the evening the wind continued to increase and I continued to sail VMG downwind. Taking a reef as I saw 25 knots and then dropping the spinnaker when I saw 30 knots. The boat felt good and we were making great progress towards Cape Finisterre. It seems I dropped the kite at the right time as shortly after I had 30 - 35 knots gusting up to 38 knots. The boat was hooning along so I took a second reef and settled in for the night with the Solent up front. We hit regularly high teen numbers and highest speed last night was 20 knots.

It was a fast way to start my voyage, the night was really dark and thankfully there was very little traffic so I managed to curl up in my beanbag and get some good naps in. Early morning as I approached the Spanish coast the wind started getting very irregular with 20° wind shifts and gusts up to 40 knots so a rolled the Solent and unrolled the staysail and started considering a gybe - I decided to wait until daybreak to do my first '+30knots of wind' gybe and that was a mistake because I ended up going over the shelf and into shallower water and the sea state was horrible.... I survived my gybe and nothing went flying so that’s a good sign and shortly after the wind eased down a little and became more stable so I unrolled the Solent again and here I am - heading west and just got thru the last of the shipping lane off Cape Finisterre.

I will gybe in at about 2200 UT tonight to start my dive SW in search of the warm water and sun... I just spoke to a cargo ship and I had to tell him 3 times before he believed me that I was sailing to New Zealand solo - he thought I had been smoking something funny...

I am feeling pretty good, I am leaving land behind me and my sea legs are coming back - this morning was pretty hard emotionally but I went and drove for an hour to blow out the cobwebs. I am taking it easy until my gybe south as I still have a pretty big seaway, should be able to accelerate down the Portuguese coast in the next 24 hours. It is always a big hurdle to get past Cape Finisterre. Alrighty, that’s about it for now. Cheers. Liz"