Corran Narrows

The last challenge we faced before the end of the race, after bobbing around in the North Channel off Portpatrick and struggling up past Jura, Mull and Lismore, was to pass the bottleneck at Corran. Mike was steering and the tide had turned. The current was getting steadily stronger and the tide was falling. We tried on the starboard side of the channel and bounced back off a rock. Then we tried further out in the tide. Too strong. Stormer and Torbellino came up and took our wind and sneaked past with superior boat speed. Dismayed we dropped back to regroup and have a think about it. Then in the distance we saw the cheering sight of Kithros 2 with her Topsham SC spinnaker up rowing feverishly towards us. We decided to watch the masterclass and see if we could get any tips from Uncle Bill. The crew of Kithros collectively had about 25 years of Three Peaks yacht racing to our six. Creeping up the port side on the eddy they made it through in one go followed by the Helly Hansen girls we had been battling with all night. We tucked in behind them and followed them through, heart in mouth as we scraped past the ferry. With a sigh of relief we picked up the first of a chain of katabatic gusts and set off up the Loch again. Thanks Bill!

Menai Straits

This was the highpoint of the race for me. We left Victoria Dock in 7th position thanks to the superb running Pat and Paul put in on Snowdon. The plan was to stay on the mainland side of the strait and creep along in the shallows out of the tide. The only rocky area on the chart was up by the Brittania Bridge so we dodged along in and out of moorings and through fleets of children training in Oppies in Port Dinorwic. Out in the adverse tide the big asymmetrics gybed downwind and we crept closer as we approached the first bridge. There were four boats out in the channel including Journeymaker and GFT Adventure. EADS was stuck on the middle span of the Britannia Bridge. Flying our blue and red symmetrical spinnaker we sneaked along the shore. About 50 yards from the bridge I could see the tide ripping about a metre off the port bow, and Patrick was shouting "rocks off the starboard bow". Heart in mouth I steered through. With one bump on a rock we made it through at the first attempt. We carried on past the Swellies Rock and crossed over to the left side of Menai at the Platters passing the photographer in his RIB. Due to our invisible force shield he could not capture our image but we popped out ahead of everybody except EADS and one other boat. The wind then died away at Puffin island and the whole fleet bobbed in the Irish sea for the next 12 hours. And so ended our moment of glory.

Bardsey Head at night

Home again and having caught up on sleep I have been reflecting on our race. We had such a lot of fun and enjoyed ourselves so much the result seems almost immaterial. The weather was so fickle it was a battle to find enough wind to progress against the tide. Some of the night sailing off Bardsey Head was the most difficult I have ever done. While Pete was steering Mike was rock spotting in the dark and I was using the plotter both to estimate our distance off the rocks and calculate our progress against the tide towards the next waypoint. If we strayed too close to the cliffs we were in trouble, but if we went to far out we got caught in the tide and whirled backwards on a mad tidal merry go round. We past one rock three times! The other boats were doing the same and it was common to have a boat coming towards you backwards and out of control in the dark. Eventually we grasped the exact nature of the problem and steered our way out of the tide and escaped towards Caernarvon.

Champagne moments

These shots come from the official website of the smiling photogenic Patrick and Paul enjoying their run and some champagne moments after the finish. The ”champagne” is a superb sparking Rose, a kind donation, from the award wining Pebblebed vineyard just outside Topsham. There was a celebration meal on the restaurant boat on the Thursday night. On Friday the famous five set off either home directly or to take the boat back – it has been an adventure after all.

1811 Topsham Toe in the Water has finished, finished well and finished 10th !!

What a finish it was too! First it was the sailors who fought back through the night with Pete and Mike rowing past 5 boats and the first half of Lismore Island when the wind died. Then Mike slept while Kate took up an oar for the next half of Lismore Island. So Pete rowed a 40’ boat 18 miles in a night. These Marines are made of something special! They reached the Corran narrows and found 5 knots of tide against them. They had three attempts to shoot the narrows and could not get through and thought they would have to wait for the tide to turn. Then they saw the other Topsham boat Kithros II steaming up towards them. They watched in awe as they gave a master class in how to get through! Our team are fast learners and Mike immediately copied the technique of the masters and got through straight away. They were also followed through by the all girl team of Helly Hansen UK who they have been with all the way round despite the girls having a faster boat. All was going to plan as they steamed up towards the finish when suddenly the wind died again! A desperate bit of final rowing saw them get in ias 12th boat just ahead of 3 others who finished in the next 12 minutes and within 41 minutes of the two boats immediately ahead of them. They beat Helly Hansen UK by only 4 minutes after nearly 5 days of racing giving Kate the title of first lady skipper although she would be the first to say she would never have been there had it not been for some very, very special men.
Two of those special men were the runners, Paul and Patrick. They had helped greatly by rowing and sailing on the last leg but still were raring to go. They did a quick transfer and set off at great pace. Despite the hot sun they did a remarkable time of 3 hour 6 minutes which would have been easily been the fastest time for the run last year but they were just piped this year by GFT Adventure who beat them by just 3 minutes. They also rapidly overtook both the pairs of runners who were started off 43 minutes ahead of them. The runners 3 places ahead of this had already finished before they set off and to beat these would have been tough call even for our super heroes!. How do they mange to look so fresh and smilely at the finnish of such a tough run?

This final series of star turns meant a top ten finish – a remarkable result out of 32 starters in a very tough race in testing condiitond which 8 boats failed to finish 5 ofthem because the only way they could escape from being dashed against the rocks was by using their motor.

Thursday 1300 The tricky Corran Narrows and tricky Bill Ricketts

A major challenge about 10 miles from the final destination is the Corran Narrows which has tides of 6 knots! Topsham Toe in the Water sat while the tide was at its strongest unable to get through. As the struggled Kithros II the other Topsham boat skippered by race veterans Bill and Neil Ricketts was steaming towards them at 6 knots with their spinnaker up making up lots of distance having chosen to go the East rather than the West side of the Isle of Lismore. Just as Kirthros reached Topsham Toe at just before 1pm they both got through the narrows together. I am sure there will be a full on race to the finish for the privilege of being the first Topsham boat in.

Spirits are still excellent aboard although the chronic lack of sleep must take its toll at some time. The report that they may be about to get Scurvy having run out days ago of fresh fruit and veg. which was already in short supply due to the sacrifices by Pete to the wind gods. I am sure David will have emergency fruit standing by. One last push in the boat and then a final tough wind.

Thursday 0800 The prospect of a very hot run ahead

Overnight Topsham Toe in the Water have held 11th/12th position but progress is slow and they are rowing hard against the tide. Ben Nevis is looking beautiful in bright Scottish sun but this may make it a very tough ordeal for the runners especially if they try to improve on their place in the runners standing. After the climbs on Snowdon and Scafell Pike Patrick and Paul lie 4th on total climb times, they are 32 minutes behind GFT Adventure, 18 minutes behind Penmaenmawr SC and only 2 minutes behind EADS Innovation runners. There are no strong threats from behind for the runners as Hazard Chase and Team Isle of Manhen are 47 and 56 minutes behind them. The difficulty is that Topsham Toe in the Water still has 20 miles to go but the other leading runners team have either arrived or should arrive in the next hour. This means that the other runners will compete at least some of their run in the cool of the morning but Patrick and Paul could be running in the hottest part of the day. However it may still be an evening run as Topsham Toe may need to wait for the tide to turn again to get through the Corran narrows.