CHALLENGER 4 – CHANNEL ISLANDS CHALLENGE
Day One
How to start a great voyage?
This is the question.
Great company, great food, good weather, fun crew followed by some action packed and energetic sailing. It’s 8:45 and were all ready for bed after what can only be described as a fabulous day. Made all the better as the men washed up and waited on us. Emily has had a wonderful time, and is wishing for a sunny day on the beach.
Day Two
The alarm went off at 5:00am and we started prepping the boat for a 6:00am start to the race. Once the anchor was raised and the main hoisted we lined up next to Challenger 3 for the start. After a quick hoist of Yankee 2 we were off; there was some early jockeying for position between the two boats and we took an early lead over Challenger 3. A quick racing change from Yankee 2 to Yankee 1 was followed by port watch cooking a wonderful breakfast of sausages in a bun for a now rather hungry crew.
As we left the lee of the Isle of Wight the sea started to get a bit more lumpy which was a challenge for those on the helm as the waves were causing the boat to turn as we surfed them downwind. When we hit mid channel our lead over Challenger 3 had slowly increased, with winds up to 25 knots combined with the lumpy sea state made it made for some rather fun downwind sailing.
After a fine lunch of pasta and garlic bread provided by starboard watch we sighted land at 14:16. The wind had dropped a bit from earlier in the day but now we had the tides with us as we navigated through the Alderney Race the boat hit a maximum speed for the day of 15.7 knots over the ground. Challenger 3 were now about 3 NM behind and were just a couple of sails on the horizon.
After a couple of jibes pointed us in the right direction for port we dropped the main and started prepping the boat to enter the marina. Challenger 4 was all tied up at 19:15 having sailing 90.1 NM during the day. Thanks to Monkey and Terry for their tactics that lead to a great victory for Challenger 4 over Challenger 3 and her more seasoned crew!
Jonathan
