By Elaine Taylor
It’s normally the Irish who have great wakes (the ‘after funeral party’), but this time it was Les Holliday’s wake where we re-kindled old sailing friendships. My husband David (DT) is a long time sailing friend of the family and we flew across to Berkhamstead for Les’s funeral. Late into the afternoon and after a few ‘jars’, David Holliday (David H) invited us to crew on his new Oyster 72 Kealoha 8 for the ARC 2006. Obviously we didn’t take long to accept the invitation and so began the voyage of a lifetime.
Now this is where these jottings start to get confusing – you will be reading about David H, David T and David C. David H decided to bring together the old Kealoha crew of the 70s and unfortunately they were all called David. He succeeded in persuading Dave Cobden (Cobby) to bring his driving skills and DT to go back to his old job of mast man. Now remember that the last time these guys sailed together was over 30 years ago and the talent remains the same but the bodies don’t resemble the slim, fit men of the 70s. Despite all these drawbacks, the team was starting to get together. David enlisted his nephew Chas Holliday, Sigma 38 sailor Neil Aitchison and brother-in-law Alan Marshall.
Next thing we had to do was organise time off work. Since my headmaster didn’t feel justified in giving me unpaid leave from school, I took a years’ career break instead. This meant that I had all the time in the world whilst poor hubby DT earned the pennies! In September David invited me for a short delivery trip from Sardinia to Cannes for K8 to feature in the Cannes Boat Show. It was a great chance to sail the boat, meet Chas and get to know David better. Having grown up in dinghies at Ballyholme Yacht Club and raced keelboats in Belfast Lough, the largest yacht being a J130, I was awed with the Oyster. Now that’s what I call luxury! On arrival in Alghero Marina, I was struck by the sheer height of the mast lit up in the marina. Apart from the simple fact that it was a long walk from bow to stern, electric winches, flat screen TVs and a dishwasher, it was just like the other boats I had raced (not!). I really enjoyed the short delivery from Sardinia to Cannes – the boat trucked along nicely, doing 10 knots boat speed in 15 knots apparent wind. K8’s Captain Jarrod Cripps gave me a guided tour of the workings of the boat and his wife Floss gave me a run down on everything below deck. During the trip we managed to hoist the pink asymmetric spinnaker in light winds and that’s when it struck home just how big everything is – hoisting a spinnaker 100 feet up a mast is hard work between four of you. Sailing the boat was delightful and with all the modern gizmos to make life easier, I was in my element! I did ask David if we would be able to use the washing machine on the Atlantic crossing – he replied that “probably not since it used a lot of water”. Oh dear, washing by hand? During the ARC we did not use the dishwasher since it was a great place for storage of provisions!
Since I had never visited Cannes before, I was bedazzled by the massive luxury yachts and disappointed with the orange ‘easy’ cruise ship. On arrival in Cannes we dropped anchor and played with some of K8’s toys – donuts and speed boats! Cannes was very pleasant at that time of year and we lapped up some of the lifestyle and visited the Irish pub. We had rather a late night and suffered the next day whilst preparing K8 to bring her up to ‘boat show precision’. Upon return home to Bangor, I then gave DT a detailed de-brief about the boat. He had insisted I take pictures of everything, including the engine and under the saloon seats! All this added to our eager anticipation of ARC 2006.
David was well organised and before we left the UK, we knew exactly what to bring and of course we ordered our team clothing. Simple things like a personal drinking bottle, a pen drive to store photos, travel insurance etc. He stated what our aim of the ARC was – top 10 finish, top 15 on handicap and top 2 in Oyster fleet; and to all finish as friends. All realistic and competitive goals which suited DT and I. The watches were discussed and it was agreed that the three ‘old’ chums would be on watch together along with myself. Jarrod and Floss, Alan, Chas and Neil were on the other watch. We used the four hour watch system with dog watch of 1600-1800 hours and 1800-2000 hours. This worked a treat and everyone quickly settled down into the routine.
ARC 2006 was not David and DT’s first – they had completed the ARC ten years previously on Kealoha 5, a Moody 42. Along with Les Holliday plus a novice and a diver, they completed the course in good time finishing 7th in class. At that time DT was tight on time and only arrived a few days prior to the start, so he suggested that I go out to K8 early and give a hand with prepping the boat for the trip. This was a great experience and really added to my overall enjoyment of the ARC. I had picked our berth on the boat, so apart from Jarrod and Floss, was the other married couple. No I didn’t put David out of his Master cabin we opted for the smaller guest cabin with flat screen tv! I wasn’t too sure how DT and I would sleep whilst sailing, since we would both be on the same watch together. As it turned out the lee cloths proved very useful.
On arrival at Las Palmas I asked the taxi driver to take me to the biggest lit up mast on the Texaco garage pier. I was almost correct, the only problem was that it was the mast of a 100 footer. So we weren’t the biggest boat. As it turned out we were a few berths down and in the company of some awesome yachts.
The next day Floss and I traipsed around the area of Triana looking for the nearest supermarket, but unfortunately my sense of direction is not great so we walked about 10 miles and never really finding the centre of the town! We both decided the next time we would just get a taxi into Las Palmas town centre to do our provisioning.
The build up to the ARC was super – just being a part of the sailing fraternity who were all thrown together in the harbour was great. Attending lectures on provisioning and sextant use were fascinating plus it also gave you a chance to meet and chat with fellow sailors. There was an incredible amount of safety equipment on board and we were kitting out the grab bags to be stowed on deck. There were two bags so Floss and I decided we’d have a ‘girly’ bag, so tied a pink ribbon onto the handle of one. We put in extra chocolate, lipstick, nice smelly soap, hairbrush and a magazine. Any of the gentlemen were welcome to come into our liferaft, but only if they could put up with us.
Since David had appointed me as ‘Social Convenor’ I had to live up to my title, so managed to do a bit of networking; ie talking to crews and finding the best pubs to go to. One of the best crews we met up with was the young team on board the Oyster 61 ‘Sea Eagle’. Tash and her crew were a lovely bunch with an average age of 23, so we managed to teach them how to party harder! There were welcome parties, happy hours, cocktail and boat parties – plenty of opportunities to socialise with the other crews. One of the highlights was Pedro’s dinghy race – Jarrod and I joined in with the other 100 dinghies and got pelted with soggy maize, water balloons and anything else soggy and yucky that could be chucked. Jarrod and I reckon we ‘almost’ won the race, we were pretty far in front and were able to paddle the blow up canoe pretty quickly. As we came alongside K8 to have out pictures taken, David turned the hose on us and added to our maize mix.
The boat was continually being checked and prepared for the ARC – the Oyster team were great and we got to know them quite well. A dedicated bunch that worked long hours, missed dinner reservations and always came on board with a smile on their faces. We had a problem with our autopilot and David had visions of ARC 1997 when the autopilot broke down on the first night at sea! After several days and umpteen sea trials where the boat continued to go round in circles, it was eventually sorted.
The provisioning was a major part of the build up to the ARC. Floss and I managed to get away with only three trips to El Corte Ingles – a trolley each was our limit. The great thing about El Corte Ingles is that they deliver and the fresh food is particularly good. We did suss out the local market, but the fruit and veg looked ‘tired’. It’s great fun spending someone else’s money, so this chore was not too painful for me! I also got a great insight into on-board eating and learnt lots from Floss’s experience. Once the food was delivered it was washed, labels removed and tins marked and stowed for the trip. The only hiccup in the food delivery was that we received over 100 tomatoes too many no onions, whereas ‘Tillymint’ received 100 onions and no tomatoes! David’s nephew Chas was delegated the task of painting the Kealoha 8 wall mural since we reckoned he had the most artistic talent. Chas was the youngest member of our crew, and he took great delight in everyone admiring his artwork and his pecs!
The remaining crew arrived out four days prior to the start of the race and after that it was all go. We managed to fit in a short shake down sail before the start of the race, but no spinnaker hoist. We all had an early night before the start on Sunday. The boat was stowed and tidied and we left the harbour to the sounds of brass bands playing. We played our battle anthem trying to blast out the competition who were playing pop and rock whilst we played a hymn! The harbour was bunged with onlookers and all the boats got a great farewell from the locals. The start line was created from a cruise ship at one end, with a large wind shadow, and a buoy at the other end that we never quite found! We had decided on a conservative, mid line start, so didn’t hoist our pink asymmetric spinnaker until we had cleared our air and there was less congestion. It was a wonderful memorable sight seeing over 200 boats setting off at once. After a few hours the fleet had spread out and by the time we came to the south end of the island the fleet was choosing which route to take – steer clear of the lee of the island or take the direct route. They always say that the ARC route is to sail south until the butter melts and then head west.
Our first sunset lived up to expectations and with the wind blowing 12-18 knots from the north east, we trucked along nicely. As the wind freed, we changed to the big turquoise spinnaker. This was the first time many of us had seen the big yin and at 4000 sq feet, it was twice the size of our house! We started our watch system at 2000 hours. During that first evening there no moon and it was surprisingly black. We followed a stern light and had a light to windward, but after that first night we did not see another boat until the approaches to St Lucia. That night I reckoned I saw a fantastic shooting star over Africa. The first few nights sleep were fitful with your mind racing – was the boat broaching or just heeling; the grinding of the winches; thankfully no one on board was sick and everyone remained hale and hearty throughout the trip.
Day 2 of the ARC saw us broad reaching with surfing boat speeds up to 11 knots. The wheel was heaving in the following sea and the helms were steering on instruments, which was new to me – having always used land as bearings previously. We spotted a lonesome Petrel but no dolphins or flying fish. K8 did the first radio net since the allotted boat was unable to do so. Since Alan Marshall was our ‘master mariner’ having spent many years at sea, he was designated navigator and radioman. It was a delight to watch and listen to Alan do his jobs so efficiently even though he did once say “over and out”! During the radio net, it was difficult getting replies from boats, we didn’t know if this was due to a poor signal or them wanting to keep their position unknown. We only managed to get 20 replies out of a possible 50 boats. We also found out that ARC had not received our emails, so K8 and 20 others were listed as “missing”. Slightly worrying for friends and family at home.
We had our first roast dinner the second night out and Floss made us a great roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings. It amazed me how she managed to juggle everything and still produce the meal. On once occasion Floss was serving out the roast beef dinner when a spinnaker drop was called for. By this time we were trying to juggle the plates and keep them in one place with the food not on the floor! About an hour later we settled down to eating our dinner. We ate in watches and it was always nicer to be eating after coming off watch – you could take your time and appreciate the good food. If you were going on watch you tended to bolt your dinner down to get on deck to relieve the other watch.
We tended to drop the spinnaker when the winds were gusting over 25 but inevitably there were times when we were roaring along in 30 knots of breeze with the boat stable and everyone enjoying themselves. That was when it was really hard work snuffing the kite. In general it took us 20 minutes to snuff the kite and inevitably this was nearly always done in the dark. With the spinnaker down we goose-winged the genoa and in 20+ knots wind speed were still averaging 10+ knots boat speed. We tended to use the autopilot whilst white sailing and this gave the watches additional rest since only two bodies were needed on watch, whilst with a spinnaker up four were always needed.
I was on watch with hubby DT, David H and Cobby. David and Cobby were great helms and DT and I trimmed the spinnaker. During a four hour watch we ‘spelled’ each other every 30 mins – the drivers found the wheel very physical at times and trimmers were getting cricks in their neck. I tried many different positions, trimming from windward, leeward, lying down etc. Still got a crick in my neck and achy shoulders! David and Cobby both loved to helm the boat and since she handled so beautifully, just like a 40 footer; they were always fighting to get back onto the wheel when the 30 minutes were up. They had it timed down to the nearest second! Sailing a boat this size at times is just like a 40 footer. Sitting on the bow trying to dangle our toes into the water, you see a wave and urge the boat forwards hoping she’ll surf down the waves. Then you remember that 55 tonnes of boat does not ‘surf’, the waves just glide past her. Oh well, it felt good anyway – especially seeing the water temperature 26° on 1st December.
We had plenty of drama on Day 3 – the wind had dropped and we were about to hoist the turquoise spinnaker when we found a ‘T’ shaped tear near the foot of the sail. We did a rapid and remarkable repair with spray glue, the Daily Mail, Homepride Flour and matching sailcloth. We hoisted the sail and all stood back to admire our handiwork – pretty effective. Just when it was starting to get dark and the off watch crew were having bangers and mash, there was a loud bang. The snuffer shackle had opened and down came the spinnaker, leaving the snuffer up the mast. Jarrod quickly turned the boat head to wind and all hands gathered the spinnaker – actually it was just a case of lying about the foredeck with crispy turquoise sail cloth all around. We found another tear, did another quick repair and since we had no snuffer we ingeniously ‘tied’ the sail with masking tape. The sail was re-hoisted with a lot of grunting of crew power helped along with great dead downwind steering from Cobby. All in all a pretty hectic day but starting to get warmer with more moonlight. Cobby complained that at night he was getting “moon-burn”, so needed “moon glasses” and “moon-cream”!
With all the up-to-date navigation instruments on board it was a delight to track approaching squalls on the radar, plot the competitors’ progress and see Africa on the chart plotter. The squalls came at dawn and dusk, just when you were least expecting them. We had some real beauties track down either side of us on the radar and just miss us. It was a difficult call – do we drop the spinnaker or grin and bear it? We didn’t get ourselves into too much trouble but it was frustrating to drop sails and then find the squalls missed you. Mind you, some squalls caught us out – three days from St Lucia, we had two broaches on whites. During those broaches we lost a diesel can and Cobby lost his washing overboard! On the other hand there was the DVDs – what’s better than watching “Pirates of the Caribbean II” in 25 knots of wind with popcorn served at the interval! As Cobby told Nora – “No, I’m not going on holiday – I’m going racing. Here I am watching a bl**dy DVD mid Atlantic!”
Every few days we put the clocks back one hour and both watches did an extra half hour during the ‘dog watch’. This was one of the most social times of the day with all the crew up and about. During that time we would start off with afternoon tea where we managed to demolish David’s Mum, Joan’s fruit cakes; then have Happy Hour at 1800 hours. Happy hours consisted of presentations by David H to crew members for different achievements. Cards were presented to crews for either the worst matching t-shirt and shorts, or outstanding crew work! Alan’s birthday took place during the trip and we managed to produce party balloons, face masks and of course a birthday cake! We even broke out the champagne at the half way point in true Oyster fashion and celebrated with bow ties and silly hats. Towards the end of our passage, Alan composed a great Calypso song – “We’re On Our Way to Rodney Bay”. We typed up song sheets and all tunelessly sang along accompanied by maracas made from plastic bottles filled with pasta and rice.
Life on board was obviously very comfortable and the crew was all getting along well. The two watches were competing with each other to see who could get the most mileage in during their four hour watch, so this kept the boat at optimum speed. The turquoise spinnaker repairs were starting to show fatigue, so we changed to the pink asymmetric and still maintained great boat speed. We poled her out and she acted just like the symmetrical spinnaker – and she was pink and pretty! She loved running deep and in 25 knots wind speed we were getting 12 knots boat speed – champagne sailing. By this stage we were using 400 litres of water and running the generator for 8 hours a day. The boat was becoming humid and the air conditioning made sleep more comfortable.
Still little sign of wildlife – more flying fish appearing on the deck and the tail and spout of a whale was spotted briefly. A gannet style bird, possibly a Booby was circling the boat and we thought that he was chasing flying fish and was disturbed by our passage. We were always looking out for dolphins, but have not seen anything. With continuous sailing the wear and tear on the boat was immense and during the day there were plenty of jobs to be done. Jarrod taught DT how to repair a damaged spinnaker foreguy trapped in the electric winch. He used Jarrod’s Swedish fids along with lots of advice and the end result was about 15% down in strength due to a damaged core, but a very satisfied DT and a reasonable looking job. We had more foredeck drama when the guy slipped and came off the end of the pole. It went off with a real bang and the off watch crew came scrambling up on deck bleary eyed. We dropped the kite and went to whites for the rest of the night. In daylight we saw the real damage we had done to the pulpit and the port guard rails. This gave a real indication of just how much power is behind everything.
Two days from St Lucia we spotted the QE2’s distinctive funnels on our port beam. David called her up on the radio and had a chat with an Officer – probably the 24th Officer. She was en route to Madeira and we told them to look out for another 250 boats that would be racing across the Atlantic. He thanked us for the information said he would inform his passengers of the fleet’s progress.
As we approached St Lucia we found we were well into our routines with bonus bouts of sleep when the white sails were flying. Appetites were diminishing in the heat and we were taking plenty of fluids. Despite the diminished appetites we still all really enjoyed the sirloin steak dinner before landfall. It was on the approach to St Lucia that we saw ‘Dark & Steamy’ skite past us with her spinnaker flying. We spoke on the radio and discovered they were on their last spinnaker, had gone through three sets of sheets and guys and had to re-tie and use them. She was a DK46 and no wonder they hit top speeds of 22 knots! She finished an hour in front of us. They were all tired and damp on board, so we christened her “Sweaty Betty”.
The last few hours before landfall we changed watches to give the helms plenty of sleep and keep them fresh for the last big push. When the wind went down below 25 knots, up went pinkie and we started putting in more gybes. Had a great cooked breakfast and all the crew put on their nice fresh crew gear for arrival. We dropped the spinnaker and hardened up for the finish line. As we rounded Pigeon Island into Rodney Bay we saw David and Alan’s wives, Diana and Judy waving and cheering us on from the fort. We finished at 1700 hours on Saturday 9 December after 13days at sea, tied up with a great rum punch welcome from the St Lucia tourist board and the ARC organisers. We were 11th boat across the finish line, 2nd in class and won the Cable and Wireless Trophy for Line Honours in Invitation Class 7.
We all had a well deserved meal in Spinnakers Restaurant and then finished off partying in Scuttlebutts ‘till the wee small hours. Sunday was boat cleaning with severe hangovers – David had no sympathy for our self induced headaches and then we played on the beach for a couple of days before flying back to a cold UK in December.
A big thanks to David Holliday and all the crew of Kealoha 8 for such a great experience. We enjoyed it so much that we are coming back for Antigua Week and the Valencia Oyster Week!