Campbeltown – Coruna (Costa da Morte)   We left Campbeltown, grey and wet and thought of the sunny days ahead.  The journey has fallen into four distinct parts in my mind.

Part One  - Down the coast between Ireland and the mainland, watching familiar landscapes; the  Rhinns of Galloway, Bangor, Isle of Man, Dublin, Tuskar Rock until finally launched out to where we could no longer see land.  Most of this was motoring and conditions were benign.

Ardrossan – ready to go  - Waiting to go I feel like a knight the evening before the battle – my armour is ready, my steed prepared all I need to do is to spend the night on my knees in prayer – but I won’t!  We will go to Jimmy Ho’s and have a good Chinese meal, I will take Stugeron and sleep the fitful sleep of those about to embark into the unknown.

Today I walked to the supermarket and the 20 minutes I thought it might take, turned into 40.  I stuck to my list but then panicked and returned for more lemons and limes, wary of scurvy and threw them into my Bloomingdales bag – what style - to take the taxi back.  Meanwhile our hamster baskets have arrived and my fridge is orderly, still need more room.  The trick is going to be remembering that I have something and then remembering where that something is.  I did try and get efficient and made a table of supplies and where they were but I know me – it’s like making a timetable to do revision for an exam, all the time and effort went into the timetable.

Part Two - I learnt to gimbal and realised it wasn’t going to be a smooth ride sitting in skimpy top preparing for tan.

My old friend Fastnet, where I had been so sick last time was true to form and  very rough.  A lot of the time we were ducking and diving to avoid meeting the water being flung over our bows, lots of water came sloshing down the decks and unfortunately some found it’s way inside the boat.  We think the culprits were the dorade vents and, on passage, when safe, Andy took the cowls off and replaced them with covers which I guess we should have done from the beginning.  I sense a new checklist!

Days merged into nights into days again – it’s true the response to the question ‘how long did your trip take?, ‘One day, because they are all the same!’.  The boat became the great mother especially at night when we descended into the dark, the only light coming from the red glow around the navigation table, to snuggle up in soft blankets on the port bunk.  Selkie Dancer wrapped us in her care.  There was a point however where I remember thinking, I wish this would all just STOP!  I want to be still and quiet; the noise was incredible.  We were thundering along like a rushing train.  We had got very wet and the boat was wet and nothing stayed put, the interior of the boat started to fragment and become chaotic and I think I began to mirror this.  Low point probably day 3 or 4!

Showering on passage when the weather is rough is very difficult but not impossible it depends how desperate you are and by day four when my hair felt like syrup I was desperate.

Part Three  - Passing over the Abysmal Plain, more precisely the Abbysal Plain.  This is the deep, deep bit typically four thousand metres and a kinder bit of sea than that closer to land

There was hectic activity in the shipping lane as night fell, really manic.  Using our new technology, a little screen that shows other vessels in the area as a little circle with a tail extending from the direction that they have come making them look rather spermlike, we can identify the names of boats, their speed and course.  At one point it looked like we were the ovum and there were sperm approaching aggressively from all angles - yikes!, time to act so we called a couple notably Zgorzelec And Colibri.  It was most reassuring to talk to them and that they were aware of us and were altering course accordingly.

Part Four  - The sun and a smooth sea and dolphins, masses of them converging on our bow wave leaping through the water to dive  and swoop, large alpha male, scars on his back became recognisable and made great efforts to be in pole position, pushing others out of the way, opening his mouth, threatening.  We could hear them squeaking from inside the boat and from above.  It was mesmerizing, you could watch for a very long time.

The down side of this was the motoring.  After a while you begin to hear voices and music, veritable orchestras were playing in my head.  We raised a Saltire and a Spanish courtesy flag and although we tactfully raised the Spanish flag higher it is tiny and so we have bought a bigger one.  Twenty five miles to go, water temperature now 19’ (Campbeltown 12’)  As we get nearer, I think, ooh we’ll be there soon better get tidied up and a great urge to sweep and clean came upon me and then I worked out that we were still a good six hours away so I went to catch up with some sleep.

There is now a seal somewhere I am sure who is wearing my snazzy red PRESCRIPTION reading glasses and drinking out of my mug - these were losses along the way.

Our average speed was 6.5 knots, we had three reefs in most of the time, our best run was under sail- midnight to midnight - 169 nautical miles.

We are berthed in an exclusive spot directly underneath the Royal Coruna Yacht Club and looking over towards the working part of the docks where the cranes are in constant motion, bowing and rising, turning and dipping in a never ending dance accompanied by the wonderful church bells, some like sherbet, some like spangles.. The ending of a journey is sad and I am still trying to transform into this different way of being.  The journey was so huge and now what?

Jinti

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