Jonathan Crinion Ocean Racing

Well that's it, Cape Town to Falmouth. This last bit of the voyage from Madeira has seen some of the worst weather ever - non stop. My wind strategy worked well to go up the centre of the English channel and ships criss crossed all night. The weather grib files have been hopelessly wrong for the past while but I knew there would be 180 wind shift and I timed it to make the tack across the main shipping lanes.

Yesterday was the worst with non stop squalls from morning to night with the largest waves I've ever been out on. Throughout the day I was constantly surfing down these monster waves at 14 to 15 knots with just the solant and a three reefed main. In the afternoon the wind picked up to a constant 30 to 35+ knots and at one point I hit 20 knots of boat speed - exhilarating but at that point I was wondering how to slow the boat down. A pod of yellow bellied dolphins though it was all great fun, and as I surfed down a wave they would, in unison, leap out of the face of the wave on either side of the boat. David Attenborough type image. They brought the kids along too and the little ones were very cute.

As I came across I could see that the strong winds had blown me more off course than I calculated and that I couldn't safely make it around the rocks at Lizard point and so I had to tack back out against the huge waves. The top batten of the main snapped in the process. Going off the backs of these huge waves was a different matter than the surfing. The backs are steeper and the boat now protruded off the top of each wave and then slammed very hard off as it tipped off the back. I was hungry and tired from a full on day of this. A rescue helicopter came out and hovered over me for a while to see that everything was alright - reassuring that they are around now.

Then the wind dropped completely. Fortunately I was on a good line into Falmouth Bay. I managed to drop the sails before the flogged but the enormous swell was now propelling the boat on its own at 8 kts, thank fully in the right direction. It was at that point a huge rainbow appeared over Falmouth and the dolphins came back - they must have followed me all the way, and now a military helicopter now came out to check things out And the wind came back to 30 knots - The full Monty arrival.

I was still a ways off and the sun was setting so now it was time to start picking out lights off the chart. I hate coming in to an unknown harbour in the dark but here was no option at this point. Miraculously I made it in to Pendennis Harbour after a small foray up the River Fal by mistake. I've awoken this morning in the beautiful town of Falmouth and can't wait to explore. My father, who introduced me to sailing, passed away recently in Kingston, Canada. He always spoke of Falmouth and it was his favourite place that he visited frequently. He dreamed of sailing here one day and retiring with a sail boat in the harbour. I can understand and see why now. So for me, this trip has been in part, for my dad.

All the best for now,
Jonathan