On a Friday?And with bananas!

When to leave?

Ah, the biggest question in sailing. The answer depends on so many things that lots of 'would be' circumnavigators never quite manage to shake off their home marina and escape into the wide blue yonder - there is always just one more job to do, one more piece of kit to install.........

Anyone who knows us realises we have spent 5 years lovingly 'doing-up' Doris - she has spent more time being fussed over by her minions than a ‘D list’ influencer flexing at Champneys. It even reached the point that Tom from Berthon (who were making an absolute fortune out of my paranoia), gently laid his hand on my shoulder and said "Just go Sally". Now I assumed this was a lovely warm way of telling me she was definitely ready to leave, but in hindsight……… 

So, when you’re well equipped, fully provisioned and waiting in Falmouth, how do you choose the date to set off? Things have improved since the Golden Days of Captain Cook who knew roughly the right time of year then just glimpsed at the clouds, grabbed a barrel of rum, and set off to find a new indigenous people to oppress - often straight into a gale. Thankfully, we have PredictWind, a natty little App that not only analyses multiple weather forecasts and ocean currents but also considers how your boat performs with you sailing her – think how many more people would be speaking English if Capt. Cook had this? It then suggests not only what route to take but what day to leave on for the best journey. I had been running this every day for 10 days before we wanted to leave and it always came to the same date, Friday 3rd July. Great, but a Friday???

Given the high mortality rates associated with a career on the high seas, especially back in those supposedly golden days, sailors are a crazy superstitious bunch. It’s unlucky to change the name of a boat, whistle or cut your finger nails whilst onboard, have bananas and/or women with you and definitely don't leave for a voyage on a Friday. 

Bother! Not only was Doris once called Luminous but she has a female skipper! So, what’s a few bananas and a Friday departure going to do? We left on Friday 3rd July. 

The first attempt

It was completely calm and superbly sunny when we departed Falmouth with joy in our hearts and sunscreen on our noses. First, a few man-over-board drills in the Carrick Roads so our new crew can get used to how Doris handles - it might be me in the water so I want them VERY good at it! Cue chucking a fender called Sally overboard and waiting to see how they got me back onboard. All went well, but Melina seemed to delight in completely running over the ‘Sally fender’ – at speed!   I have been treating her especially nicely ever since.

With that done we gleefully waved goodbye to the river Fal and set off for the Azores.

The first 12 hours were glorious, a lovely breeze enabled us to set up a close reach that could potentially take us straight to the Azores! All was going so smoothly I decided to have a  banana then a little nap so headed for our berth at the aft of Doris. This is where the propshaft lubrication pump is neatly situated under the floorboards. I lay down but my spidey senses were tingling, something just wasn’t right. After a while of trying to convince myself I was just going mad(der) I couldn’t let it go and got up to investigate. On lifting the floorboards (ain't boat life so easy?!) I discovered the issue – the newly plumbed in pump was completely filled with air making it sing in soprano. Cue ripping up all the floorboards right back to the seacock* supplying it. There it was, air being sucked in instead of water so the system was now completely air locked – bother**. Much intense discussion ensued with Dave, our Chief Engineer, knower of stuff and general fixer of things. 

After way too many system bleeds demonstrated that pure hope alone was not going to solve this, followed by some fairly intense discussions regarding how this was "utterly impossible" given the seacock "was completely watertight" but it was too soon into the journey for us to be hallucinating, we decided it had to be the hose connection at fault – the negative pressure from the pump was causing a tiny amount of air to be sucked in and over time this was air-locking the system.  Something of a problem as the water maker is also fed by this line so we had the potential of no fresh water as well as a damaged propshaft. Cue Boat DIY on the move. If boat yoga is tough in the marina, imagine doing it whilst the floor is rocking and rolling! But never deterred by such things, our brave Dave once more grabbed an adjustable spanner plus a handful of sticky stuff and stuck his head into the bilges!

After shortening the hose to the point it was almost taut, application of every sealant we had onboard and increasingly ingenious jubilee clip applications, we realised this was just not going to work and really needed fixing properly and sooner rather than later. We were about 80nm off lands End by this point, time to schlep back to Falmouth - I definitely blame those bananas!

*Seacock: Hole in the hull of the boat which allows sea water in, hopefully for an actual purpose like supplying a coolant system, rather than just to give you a panic attack!

** Those of you who know me, know that the actual words expressed were considerably fruitier.