Post 13 - Sailing in 2020?

 A catch up...

Some choppy seas and rocky events during 2020 

Turbulent seas reflecting the turbulent times we're living in during 2020. I was hoping to cross the pond this year after last year's disappointing end to my autumn sailing adventures.  The annual ARC transatlantic rally has now left Las Palmas; I was hoping to be a part of it but alas, it didn't happen. We're all trapped here in England by the second lockdown but more about that later. Those of you who followed my progress last year, will remember the Norwegian yacht H.Breed that I sailed on down to the Canneries. The boys left me in Puerto Rico (Gran Canarias) and they had a great passage across to Martinique in the Caribbean, arriving safely on New Year's day 2020. They went on to work their way down, calling at the Dutch Antilles followed by the Columbian coast to Panama, making it to  the beautiful port of Cartagena, a place I've always wanted to visit. 

Finally they reached the aptly named port of Colon at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal, the skipper Grunde found himself there alone, at the start of their lockdown. His other Norwegian crew members had returned back home, so there he stayed for the next 3 months, alone on his boat. The marina arranged for shopping to be delivered to the boat but with the absence of all alcoholic beverages. Panama stop all sales of alcohol during their lockdown, poor Grunde, not even H.Breed had that much booze stashed away...

The always smiling skipper Grunde - a lovely bloke and great skipper

Grunde had decent internet in the marina so was able spend his days working remotely, designing more extraction systems for his clients in Norway. Finally he decided that H.Breed just had to return home. Luckily Grunde managed to recruit another Brit called Dave, who was also eager to get back.

So they set sail for Bermuda, stopping only briefly before heading north, north east with the trade winds to England. They stopped briefly in Southampton, dropping my remaining gear at Hamble Point Marina, before heading back up to Norway via Amsterdam. Their passage took almost 6 weeks. The Azores were completely locked down so he had no options for any stop-offs. He bade farewell to his shipmate Dave in Southampton and was joined there by another Norwegian friend.  

Well done Grunde on your remarkable achievements!  I'd love to have been there with you to have experienced both of your transatlantic crossings - maybe next year...?

So what sailing did I manage during the past 11 months?

Like me, my brother Andy has been boating since a toddler thanks to our Dad's ability to build boats on our driveway and his passion for being afloat. He quickly migrated from motor boats to sailing and we were lucky to enjoy so many fun times around Poole harbour, rarely straying further than Studland Bay. Andy and Dad later went on to own several small yachts between them and I sometimes sailed with them around the Solent.

This year Andy and his partner bought themselves a lovely yacht that was built in the mid 70s. It's a Dufour 33 that they keep in Portland harbour near to their home. 

Baremka moored in the marina at Portland harbour

Proud owner Andy aboard Baremka, in Falmouth harbour

Hot off the press...

Last Thursday 19th November, I received an email from a Polish owner / skipper from the yacht Piligrim. It's a 20 year old, 50' Beneteau that has crossed the Atlantic many times over the past 10 years and will be skippered by Tomek, a Polish friend of the owner. I have spoken with Tomek at length about his experience and I was so pleased that he and the boat ticked all of my growing list of checks.

The Polish registered Beneteau 50 named Piligrim, currently moored in Arrecife, Lanzarote

I will hopefully be the fifth member of the crew, made up of a mixture of Europeans with at least two Poles, the skipper and his 1st mate. I plan to arrive in Lanzarote on Thursday 26th November just in time for their planned departure later that day. We will not be sailing in the 2020 ARC rally but will sail directly to Martinique in the Caribbean; it should take approximately 21 days. 

Our course will be south west from Arrecife towards Cape Verde, after passing Gran Canaria, then bearing west to pick up the trade winds that should take us all the way across. If we encounter any issues with the crew or the boat, we'll stop off at Cape Verde to get things sorted. The temperatures once we get about 200 miles south of the Canneries should be around 28C to 32C, dropping to about 22C at night 😎. The boat is very well equipped with radar, AIS, water maker, new sails, freshly scrubbed and antifouled hull, plus 3 fridges/freezers. It will sleep five very comfortably.  

I'm pleased to find a boat at this late hour, having given up on the chance to sail across the Atlantic this year, I'm just so excited about finally having the chance to fulfil a lifelong dream. 

Unfortunately I won't have much time to get to know my fellow shipmates when I arrive at the boat, I will make it my business to immediately speak with all of them to look out for any warning signals. I won't hesitate to withdraw if I sense any potentially problematic shipmate(s) or boat defects, I've grown a bit wiser after those two awful trips last year that are described in earlier posts on this blog.

Common Sense

Is it just my imagination or has Common Sense become uncommon, it seems such a scarcity these days?  When I look at the UK government's performance over the past 8 months, common sense has been very sadly lacking. Here's just a few examples of this...

To shove elderly COVID patients out of hospitals into our care homes, spreading the virus and killing thousands of our sick and elderly - and they're still trying to do it today!

To build Nightingale hospitals and leave them all empty allowing COVID to spread throughout our other NHS patients, staff and facilities.

To shut zero risk places such as golf courses and to stop folk from fishing when our nation's mental health is currently so vulnerable - expect a massive backlash if the lockdown runs on to the end of January.

To allow senior government officials like Dominic Cummins to remain unpunished for his selfish, crass stupidity. Thank the good Lord his arrogance finally caused him to fall out with shepherd Boris.

To allow £12 billion of our tax payers money to be spent on PPE with no public tenders or safeguards from corruption... You just couldn't make it up. And don't even think that there wasn't enough time. If you've actually run a business, you can usually make the right decisions to make things happen properly, irrespective of time pressures.

Our leaders in these difficult times, have failed us miserably. Both shepherds Boris and Donald have shown a complete lack of any common sense. And don't give me the line I hear trotted out time after time, that this global pandemic is completely unprecedented, excusing this shambolic mess, as if that makes it all OK. Several million Britons have already lost their jobs, many hundreds of thousands of businesses have already been forced to close. They'll never come back!  It just demonstrates a complete lack of any common sense!

I've had to have 2 of these, nasal swabs that is...👀

What used to puzzle me, is that these 'leaders' must surely have above average intelligence, even if most of them have never actually held down a proper job. But I do know that there is little connection between intelligence and common sense from my time at Oxford Instruments plc. I worked there for nine years with some of the world's brightest scientists (boffins) and witnessed many very senior managers making nonsensical business decisions on a daily basis. So what is driving these 'intelligent' people to behave so recklessly? Do their emotions overrule their logic at such times? Many of those really clever boffins certainly had massive egos...

Several times while I was at OI, I took part in off-site management training sessions. Some of my colleagues got pretty frustrated when I was able to run rings around them during some carefully staged role play exercises. So why did a lad from Swindon, with just a few O levels, repeatedly outperform them? Simple, I just used some common sense. It's a shame the CEO wasn't present during those exercises, maybe I could have got to the top? No, ah no I didn't have that Phd...

I'm sure we've all been developing our own ideas as to why governments around the world seem unmoved by the total destruction of their respective economies. I now have my own theory, but I'll refrain from sharing it on here... Anyway just some more food for thought.

Returning home on Monday after missing my flight from Gatwick

Next post...

I'm trying again to fly on Thursday but from Stansted this time. I'll be so overjoyed to be sailing away from this awful mess and not having to watch the bumbling nonsense from Boris and the rest of his cronies. I'll try and post this Thursday with some pics of the boat, crew and anyone else we manage to press-gang 😁

Meet Amy, the harbour mistress, waiting to meet us in Fort-de-France 😉

Stay safe and thank you for reading my blog. Please comment below and I promise to try and get back to you. God bless you all x

A final thought...

Please spare a thought for the parents, family and friends of Harry Dunn who was so tragically killed in August 2019 by a reckless American woman driver who claimed diplomatic immunity and fled back to the States. The Dunn family lost their case today so she's unlikely to be brought over here to face justice any time soon.

Harry Dunn went to the same school as my sons and I drive past the spot (outside Croughton USAF base) where he was killed, every time I play golf. Rest in Peace Harry....