Friday 27th May was looking like a pretty good day to me as I left work at 4pm on the dot. I was filled with excitement and expectation as I was due to head off for my first triangle race later that evening. The event in question was the Blenheim Triangle race, which featured three races over the bank holiday weekend. The race featured an overnight trip from Guernsey to Perros Guriac in France followed by a lay day in Perros on the Saturday. A short race to Tregieur on Sunday followed by a race back to Guernsey on the Monday was on the agenda. As this was my first proper big off island trip aboard Mystere I was unsure what to expect but what I did experience was the absolute polar opposite of all that sailing has to offer.

A reasonable amount of preparation had been done beforehand on the boat and also in terms of navigation and other planning. The windows that we had removed from the boat where only put back in the night before we left and Shane and I had been off to a local wholesaler to stock up on food and other supplies for the trip. On the shopping list was plenty of water, 24 pots of super noodles and at least one box of almost every variety of cereal bar ever made along with plenty of other random supplies.

We where running a bit late when Dave and Shane picked me and then Helen up as we had about an hour and a half to get to the boat, get some tea in, rig the boat, stow everything and get to the start line. Things did not get off to the best start when with 45 minutes before the start of the race, Dave realised that his waterproofs where hanging up in his greenhouse! Despite this minor setback, we did just about manage to get some food for tea and get to the start line in time. Once we where underway we made good progress down to the south of Guernsey and then off towards France as we had the bigger and faster boats well in sight. Everyone was in a relaxed mood as we watched the sun go down, started filling in the log and checking positions on the chart as per good sailing practice. The weather was good with a predicted Force 2 rising to a Force 3 in the early hours of the morning. Comfortable in the knowledge that it should be a reasonably straightforward sail we sat about chatting and merrily drinking some extra high caffeine and taurine based energy drink that Shane and I had brought the other day to keep ourselves awake and alert for the next few hours.

By about 1am things started taking a turn for the worse. 2 of the crew (including me) where not feeling too good and where leaning over the side of the boat. Things then got even worse as the wind really picked up and we knew that we had to go for a sail change from the number 1 headsail we had up at the time to a number 3. Changing sails whilst racing is a bit of a pain but when it is late at night, pretty windy, the seas are anything but calm it does become a bit more challenging. Dave managed the foredeck part of the sail change without falling in to the sea – although he did come very close!! Shortly after we realised that we where still overpowered and the conditions where getting worse. It was time to reef the mainsail. It was also about this time that Dave`s voice took on a more serious tone and he said “I think it’s about time we all put lifejackets on”. My thoughts at this time where something along the lines of “this is not good – it is going to be a long night”, which with hindsight is something of an understatement. By this time I was feeling somewhat under the weather due to the sea sickness so having to help reef the main in those conditions was anything but enjoyable. We managed to reef the main without too many problems and then we sat down to try and ride out the bad weather. At about 3am we came into a calm ish patch of wind and sea and thinking that we had rode out the worst of the weather we decided to un-reef the main and go back to a number 1 headsail which was fairly straightforward and went without problems. By this time we where all getting pretty tired and at one stage I was beginning to doze off a bit. Each time my eyes would slowly close and my head would slump forward causing me to wake up or someone would shout at me to stop me falling off the side of the boat.

By about 4am the weather started to get worse again. We knew it was pretty windy at the time but we later found out that another boat had recorded winds of up to 40 knots that morning! Once again it was time to change sails and reef the main sail. It was around this time that the waves started getting bigger and we where making pretty bad progress at this stage of the race as the waves where just sapping any speed that we could build up. It was probably about 5am when I was sitting on the rail that I was beginning to think “why the hell did I ever take up sailing and why did I agree to come on this race”. At several points during the early morning I was sat on the side of the boat wrapped up as best as I could be shivering with cold, tired and fed up from the lack of sleep only to have a large wave break near or on the front of the boat sending a wall of water down the boat directly at me which would inevitably manage to find its way down my jacket much to my annoyance and frustration. After a long night of no sleep, sea sickness, waves breaking down my coat and general bad weather I was not feeling too enthusiastic about the trip or sailing itself.

Things stayed pretty much the same until about 10am when we finally decided that we where not making sufficient progress. In fact we where not making any progress at all as the tide was so strong, and the fact that we where 13 miles away still, meant that dropping the engine was not the most difficult decision of the night and one that was welcomed by all of us on board.

It took us about 3 hours to motor to Perros as we where pushing tide all of the way. The waves and the wind where still fairly strong all the way in which did not really give us the rest bite we had hoped for after dropping the motor. After a lot of discussion and checking of charts and Almanacs, we managed to navigate to the marina gate but found that we had missed the gate closing by 9 minutes. Faced with a rapidly dropping tide we needed to find a mooring as quick as possible. The cruising guide we had indicated that there where some mooring buoys just outside the marina wall. After a lot of manoeuvring in the high winds we managed to pick up one of these buoys. Shortly after we realised that the moorings actually dry out on low tide that was not shown in any of the almanacs or guide books. We did not have the boat feet with us but we thought that as we had a wing keel and twin rudders, we could get away with drying out without the feet until we could get in the marina.

[img] What the books also did not indicate was that the seabed that we where hoping to dry out on was actually soft mud. We realised this when the boat started to lean over as the tide went out. We went through a series of emergency steps to avoid the boat falling over including all of us standing on the bow, moving bags and other weight around inside, wedging our dingy under one side of the boat and using the wooden sink cover to stop the prop sinking into the mud! By the time the tide had totally gone out the bow was in the sky and the whole boat was leaning to port quite alarmingly. Knowing that there was not much we could do for now we tucked into the 2 cold and now slightly salty pizzas that we had brought the night before with the intention as having them for breakfast or early on Saturday morning and waited for the tide to come up so that we could get to shore.

It was about 6pm that the tide finally came up enough for us to float again and the boat popped up out of the mud without any problem. The next task was to get showered and freshened up after a trip to shore in the dingy. After everyone had got cleaned up, things where looking up as food and beer where now in sight. On the way back to the boat to put it in the marina, we met up at a bar with all the people from the other boats who made a number of jokes about our mooring ability and also brought us beer which went down pretty well after the events of the previous 24 hours.

The next task before food was to get the boat in the marina before food. It was about 10pm by the time we got into the marina and cleaned everything up on the boat ready for the next days racing. Unfortunately despite visiting nearly every restaurant along the seafront, we where not able to find anywhere to get food as everywhere was closing fairly early despite it being a Saturday night. We headed back to the boat and had to make do with a couple of pots of Super Noodles for tea and a tube of Pringles before a well earned sleep.

Sunday’s race was due to start at 11am so that gave plenty of time for trips to a boulangerie for fresh French croissants and pain au chocolats. We also had time to find a chandlery and buy a kettle to replace the one we had left back home and a more detailed chart of the area. After breakfast and a quick bit of navigation we had to leave to make the start line. The race went reasonably well with our main rival and us on the race, Busker, changing places and keeping each other well in sight. In the final stages of the race we made the decision to go between two large areas of rocks that the chart indicated we could go though. If we could make it then we would take a significant short cut and take the lead in the race. Given our shallow draft we decided to go for it. With myself and Dave leaning over the side looking for rocks and visually checking the depth and Shane helming and keeping a very close eye on the depth sounder we went for it. Apart from one rock that we could see partially visible from a far way off, we made it through without problem and took the lead in the race. After making it to the mouth of the river Tregieur where the finishing line was, we dropped the motor and proceeded down the river to the moorings. We where able to finally cook the bacon that had been brought for Saturday morning and had some bacon sandwiches on the go just as we arrived at the moorings.

After some tidying up it was time to hang the wet gear out to dry and get all of the water out of the boat that had accumulated in the past 2 days. We had the floorboards up and where sponging water out of everywhere. The finger and pontoon was littered with partially wet parts of the boat in an effort to dry things out. After emptying the boat of water it was time to put some music on and relax for a bit. As the boat next door to us, less expense, already had their stereo on and where using an Ipod and FM transmitter we where able to tune into their frequency and play the same music across both boats. We then proceeded to go through various Ipods playing a quite diverse range of music.

The next item on the agenda was a shower before the sponsor’s meal a bit later on in the evening. The showers where the most infuriating poor piece of French engineering I have ever seen. To use them you had to pull on a chain by the showerhead. When you did this a lukewarm trickle of water was produced. Having to shower with one hand holding onto the chain whilst trying to stand under the trickle of water was just a little bit aquward and all my efforts to lash the chain around the showerhead so I did not have to hold it where unfortunately fruitless. After a quick change it was time to head off for pre dinner drinks. Unfortunately we where a bit late and the kitty behind the bar had been exhausted by the other more punctual sailors! We did have time for a quick beer and a few discussions with people about our little shortcut through the rocks before it was time to move upstairs for our meal.

After some jiggling of table and chairs in the cosy restaurant, we where tucking into the lovely meal that had been laid on. By the end of the main course al of the wine on our table had been devoured or bartered with and everyone was in a pretty good mood. After the sponsors speech and a short race briefing and some heckling of the speakers from other boat crews it was time for the impromptu chanting of sea shanties. It was about this point that I realised why I had come on the trip and saw for the first time the real social side of sailing and how much of a laugh it can really be. After plenty more drinks in the bar afterwards it was time to head back to the boat once I had managed to find the right pontoon (on the fifth attempt).

The next morning was going to be an early start as we had agreed with the other boats in our class to go for a 9am start. This went out the window a bit after the first one of us to wake up did so at 8am and it was a 30 minutes motor up the river to the start. None of us where drinking the night before where feeling too good or even remotely sober for that mater at this point but we managed to get the boat rigged and started the race ok.

It was a fairly leisurely race back to Guernsey with us making slow but steady progress. We spent 10 hours in total sailing which was longer than expected for the return trip and we all certainly got well and truly sunburnt sitting on the boat for that long. We where making 2 – 3 knots over ground from the point that we saw the south coast of Guernsey, which was frustrating slow. As soon as we rounded St Martins point at about 8.30PM we massively picked up speed to about 8 knots peak for the final run. We crossed the finish line and headed straight for the harbour as we could not get into the marina for another hour or so. After mooring up and packing up all the sails and tidying up we headed into St Peter Port for some food before heading back to the boat to move it into the marina. I got home about 11pm absolutely knackered, sunburnt and thinking on balance it was a pretty good trip and something I look forward to doing again at some point although hopefully without the bad weather we had on Friday night though!