Carolina - Richard Clark/David Feltham

Blog

Nearly there...

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Thu, 30/06/2011 - 04:40

Good morning, its 4am on Thursday and we are 17
miles ssw of the Manacles (some rocks south of Falmouth) and 23 miles from
the finish line, or about 4 hours and 5 hours from a sit down full english in
one of the cafes by the Maritine Museum.

Save the best till last....

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Wed, 29/06/2011 - 08:28

Yesteday afternoon and night were fantastic,
firstly in the afternoon we had a multiple visits from Dolphins, the last
pod must have been 20 strong queueing up to play in Carolina's bow wave and
cutting close across the bows.

Flat out!!

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Tue, 28/06/2011 - 16:07

We have the pedal to the metal, poor old Carolina
she is nearly 40 years old and we are giving her a hard time, but she is a
Contessa and she can take it.

Tuesday morning

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Tue, 28/06/2011 - 08:13

Feeling pretty tired must be the pressure,Paul let
us know that we were still leading IRC1 last night (thanks Paul), havent had any
uodates this morning I suspect you have all been in bed, while we have been
trimming and trying to find our why there is an occassional loud bang from where
the kicker joins t

Pizza Express

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Mon, 27/06/2011 - 21:11

Monday evening and keep your fingers crossed for us
on a number of counts. Tonight we ate a frozen pizza that was bought last Monday
and has been in the cold box that became the warm box about 4 days ago.

Some days are awkward

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Mon, 27/06/2011 - 14:17

Some days are easy some days arent, today is an
awkward day. Last night we battled to keep boat speed in very light winds, then
at 6am this morning a front came through (cold I think) and within minutes we
were crashing into 18 knts with full sail.

Its sooo frustrating

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Sun, 26/06/2011 - 22:02

Sunday night and we have just enjoyed Davids North
Atlantic old cooked sausage and vegetable stew, which was really quite nice and
made the old Azorean sausages quite edible.

Early Sunday morning about 1/2 way

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Sun, 26/06/2011 - 06:25

Its 04:47 on Sunday morning and we are waiting for
a veer in the wind that should have been here by now according to the gribs
(weather files) I am very pleased that its delayed as we have kept the pink
spinnaker all night again from 11am yesterday morning and have made good
progress., unfortunately so hav

Position tables

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Sat, 25/06/2011 - 06:04

I would like to clarify thye situation with the
position tables as it can seriously mess with your head or at least mine. One
minute you alre leading and the next you are nearly last.

Tricky situation

Submitted by Rclark1977 on Fri, 24/06/2011 - 14:26

Sorry about the delay today but the mailasail
server went down early this morning, it cost me valuable satellite minutes to
phone them and find out. You cant escape IT problems even out here, maybe that
says something? Anyway, we are still marching on under spinnaker which on the
whole is behaving itself.

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Carolina
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Richard Clark
Skipper Nationality: 
GBR
David Feltham
Co-Skipper Nationality: 
GBR

Type

Contessa 32

IRC

0.870

Class

Carolina was originally registered in 1973 to Winston Churchill MP. She is an old lady but much updated and regularly competes in the Contessa 32 Association Solent Series.

Skipper Profile

Started sailing yachts in my early twenties, RORC racing on a Contessa 34 OOD (Cognac) in the 1980’s, bought a GK24 (Gilkicker) in mid twenties which was sold when children arrived. Chartered with family and friends in 1990’s, bought Carolina Contessa 32 around 2004 and got back into racing, crossed the Atlantic in my 50th year (before I died) in 2009, first heard about the AZAB about twenty years ago and for some unknown reason it has remained an ambition since. During the ARC crossing in 2009 decided I would enter and did so as soon as we reached St Lucia. The eventual motivation to enter was that I felt sailing across in the trade winds on a new 55 foot yacht (not mine) with “everything”, showering everyday, practicing sextant work and catching fish was cheating and not real sailing. This will be our first long distance of-shore race and as far as I know Carolina's.

Co-Skipper Profile

David has been sailing and racing Contessa’s literally since he was a child, in fact one year we told the Round the Island PR people he was actually born on a Contessa 32 and they printed it. However, it is highly probable that he was conceived on one. David has competed in Solent racing, Cowes, Fowey and Cork Weeks as well as longer distance delivery trips. When he is not saving us all from being buried in our own detritus (he works in recycling management) he spends his time climbing and sailing, in that order. He is bringing his climbing gear to the Azores. Why the AZAB? Because he is a very good sailor, loves a challenge and let me talk him into it.