The 'new' downwind rig worked just fine. It's great benefit is that it eliminates not the risk of an accidental gybe with all the potential damage to gear, life and limb that that entails. With no mainsail set, the boom is simply lashed amidships with the mainsail stowed. Without a sail on it to catch the wind, the boom is no longer at risk of suddenly chrashing from one side of the boat to the other
After a few hours, our desired course was south west which would put us on a dead run and so I hanked on the spare jib to the second forestay, bent on the sheet and halyard and we were ready to give it a go.
Whilst anchored in Ribadeo I had sorted out the various bits of string and the numerous pulley blocks required and had
I'd left the two poles rigged and ready to be hoisted. However, because I'd never actually used the twin poles before, I had to work out my tactics for transitioning from the traditional fore and aft rig, to the twin headsail down wind rig.
First, we handed the mainsail and then headed down wind under the genoa. Then we rolled up a third of the genoa (to make it easier to pull it out across the wind onto the starboard pole) and hauled it out onto the starboard pole, then I hoisted the jib and set it on the port pole.
To my slight surprise nothing went awry and we were immediately running downwind under twin headsails.
This is the rig I plan to use on our Atlantic crossing, when, assuming the trade winds behave (which does seem increasingly, to be an act of faith,) we will have the wind behind us all the way.
In a moderately fresh wind and with the genoa rolled to the same size as the jib, we were making 5-6 knots. As the day progressed, the wind, as forecast, increased and so I wound more of the genoa in until only a scrap remained. By now Bonny's speed had increased to her hull speed of 7 knots, hitting 8+ when surfing down waves! A trifle alarming on the really big waves!
Last night in Ribadeo, Mick cooked an excellent authentic Carbarna with what I had thought was streaky bacon when I bought it but turned out to be panocotta - which Mick advised was an authentic ingredient. This Spanish version of it turned out to be extremely fatty! Anyway, the deal was that I would therefore cook at sea - he's still not quite got his sea legs working properly! So I set to work in the galley. It was to be curried roast chicken with roasted vegetables all in one oven dish.
Because the motion was pretty lively, I decided to rig my new piece of galley furniture once again - the wooden safety/bracing rail. It turns out to be a most valuable addition. You can just make it out in the photo below.
All went fine until the time came to add the vegetables to the roasting dish. I opened the oven door, Bonny gave a huge lurch to port, the roasting dish flew out of the oven but by some miracle I caught it without losing anything. Breathing a huge sigh of relief I put the dish on top of the gimballed cooker; at that precise instance Bonny gave a huge lurch to starboard, the dish slid off the back of the stove and deposited its contents all over the floor. I couldn't help letting out a loud f***k!
Fortunately the floor was reasonably clean and so I scraped the contents off it, added the vegetables and put the dish back in the oven. Half an hour later we sat down to eat - it was delicous!
After dinner we played one of our favourite games - 'Fishing boat chicken' this involves guessing where the fishing boat is going to go next and setting course accordingly to avoid it. The chicken bit is seeing how close you're prepared to go to collision before realising your guess was wrong and and so have to change course once again. Bonus points are awarded if there are multiple fishing boats all going in different directions.
Then it was time for my 6 hours of sleep off watch. Well, something like it anyway. It was a bit like trying to sleep in a washing machine - I wasn't wet but it sounded like I was and I was continually being bounced up and down and from side to side. It produced some very weired and vivid dreams!
My watch started at 0300 and after a while I realised that to avoid the approaching traffic seperation zone, we would soon need to change course and so take the wind on the starboard beam rather than from behind. This would require another change of sail plan - the twin headsails would have to come down and the mainsail and genoa set normally.
This was another rig change I had not attempted before. It was still dark, I didn't want to wake Mick and concluded that we would be ok for another couple of hours until dawn, when, I thought, with the light, I could manage on my own.
So as dawn broke, I donned my wet weather hear and harness, clipped onto the jacklines (safety lines running from one end of the boat to the other) and made my way up to the foredeck to consider tactics. The sequence I decided to follow was: roll in the genoa completely, drop it's sheet out of the pole end, lower the outboard end of the pole onto the foredeck, re-set the genoa normally but partly rolled up (it was still pretty windy - about 25 knots and 30 in the gusts), drop the jib and lash it to the guard rails, sail close hauled and set the mainsail with 3 reefs, set the desired course for Vigo - roughly South East.
Once again everything went very smoothly, even though repeated trips to the cockpit and back were required to adjust the various bits of string that controlled the poles. I only got completely soaked when setting the mainsail. Sailing close hauled in strong winds and lumpy seas is a wet pastime! The whole operation probably took me 45 minutes to complete.
Once done, I realised that we were further west than desired and therefore a couple of hours of sailing on a close reach would be required to ensure the rest of the passage would be with the wind abaft the beam. This would make life uncomfortable for Mick trying to sleep in the fo'castle but would be preferable to having to do so for much longer later on. So when when my 6 hours was up at 0900 and I had got through the period of feeling very tired I let Mick sleep on.
As the morning developed, the wind eased such that when Mick emerged at around 1100 we had a quick breakfast and shook out all the reefs. That was quickly followed by the cruising chute and that by the engine and we ended up motoring the last 6 hours or so to Bouzas on the outskirts of Vigo.
On our approach to Vigo we unsurprisingly came across an increasing number of vessels which provided the opportunity to witness the AIS chart plotter overlay in action...
Approaching Vigo...
Bouzas coming up ....
Touchdown 2015 local time, Monday 7th August, 36 hours from Ria de Ribadeo
Our new temporary home turned out to be a hive of maritime construction activity with near on a dozen shipyards cheek by jowl along the water front. The berth that had been very kindly been reserved for us by Alberto, the OCC's Port Officer for Vigo, was only a few metres off the slipway of one of them, the Freire Shipyard!
From the shore - Bonny's mast just visible extreme left of photo.
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