Fastnet Yacht Race heading for home

Day four of the Rolex Fastnet yacht race sees a big bunch of boats heading east south of the Scillys and the Lizard making slow progress on their way to the finish line at Plymouth..

all the competitors in this classic race can be followed individually by visiting the tracking page of the race website...

which shows just how busy the shipping lanes were - though as can be seen from this image all of the competitors (apart from a couple who ignored the TSS off Land's End completely) heeded the race instructions and kept well clear of the TSS, traffic separation schemes that exist off Land's End and the Scillys.

Inseyandra, missing mast from the Fastnet Yach Race

 Safely berthed after retiring from the Fastnet Yacht Race, competitor Inseyandra was forced to quit the race after losing her mast on the second leg while heading for the finish at Plymouth........

she shows signs of some strong seas, with the Rolex vinyl sticker blasted off the bow of the yacht.

A visitor's view of Newlyn.

The voyage of the French yacht Video Bleu II

It is worth looking at the comments on various blogs of visiting yachts to Newlyn - unbiased customer feedback - hats off to Val in the office for giving this particular visitor access to the WiFi in the harbour office - which should also prompt the harbour to think about making WiFi available within the harbour area - these days a relatively cheap option and a real plus for visitors, service engineers and others wishing to be in contact with the outside world via the internet.

"Newlyn: the largest fishing port in the south coast of England, which contrasts with the wetting of Helford River left this morning and all the other ports of Devon and Cornwall who welcomed us. A working atmosphere, decor and rusty metal, nets, engine noise, big diesel exhaust smells and mechanical grease and of course "fish stock". The leisure boats, oddly, become part of this living picture without offending the eye.

We read in the Imray guide that the The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fisherman in which all who go to sea are welcome (sic) a hearty breakfast is served in their dining hall. So we tested. It is actually cheap and OK (as the French are reputed discerning breakfast eaters  - hat's off to Keith and the crew!) but the reception is mixed, not even a silly question like, "Are you French"?  - it is therefore so obvious that no one needs to even ask us any more?

And the Mission shower is 3 pounds (unthinkable) against 50p to use the only shower in the port where we seem to be more dirty than entering!  Good point: no WiFi on the harbour but the Secretary of the Harbour Office, without hesitation, offered us access to the Harbour Master's office for an hour and a half. Great class!

After a tour of the town (very quickly) and a little food, drink aboard Ithaca, boat and Gilles Agnès Frenchies of Ouistreham. Basically the stop in Newlyn has given us so to speak down to earth as it began to move into a nomadic too comfortable!

Rolex Fastnet Yacht Race is on as they head round the corner.

Picked up on VesselTracker's AIS screen, nearly 300 race yachts make their way past Land's End on the outward leg of this year's Rolex Fastnet Yacht Race. This year's record entry saw the big French multihull Maxi Banque Populaire first to the Fastnet Rock at around 0930 this morning. At a more sedate pace, the bulk of the fleet hit the edges of Mount's Bay on their way to Land's End late in the afternoon with the wind conveniently backing SSW from the NW breeze earlier in the day.

Plenty of yachts pass Land's End.

The VesselTracker AIS system picked up a huge number of yachts making their way past Land's End, a sort of Monday morning get away!

In fact, the fleet are on their way to Dún Laoghaire on the second leg of the Le Figaro - La Solitaire race that takes in France and Irleand.

An idyllic Wednesday morning.

Unique Seafood Ltd parked up for the night......

a fairly slack Wednesday market greeted today's visitors........

though there were a few boxes of superb inshore fish.........

black and white crosses..........

what an idyllic morning greeted the visiting yachts.......

good fishing with the Cornish Sardine fleet with Ollie doing his bit to boost supplies........

whereas the mackerel seem to have gone quiet over St Ives way.........

time to move the St Georges around to paint the other side of her hull while she is up on the hard........

one fish quantification kit hung up to dry..........

the William bound in.........

Through the Gaps.

Falmouth Coastguard coordinates rescue of Dutch yacht crew off Isles of Scilly

Two Dutch crew from a yacht have been rescued in gale force conditions overnight, 75 miles South West of the Isles Of Scilly.

At 8.20pm on Thursday Falmouth Coastguard received an EPIRB (Emergency Positioning Radio Beacon) distress alert located 75 miles South West of the Isles Of Scilly, which they determined was registered to a Swedish 36 foot yacht called Andriette. 

Falmouth Coastguard contacted merchant vessels in the area and a message was relayed from another yacht which had encountered the Andriette on Wednesday and reported that she had suffered some damage but had continued on her passage from the Azores to Malmo in Sweden.

The Rescue Helicopter from RNAS Culdrose located the damaged yacht at 10.40pm which was without steering, lying stern to the wind in heavy seas. With winching over the deck impossible in the conditions, the two men on board had to abandon to their liferaft.  The winchman retrieved one man from the liferaft but the liferaft capsized and on returning for the second man, both winchman and crewman were out of sight in the water beneath the upturned raft.  Thankfully, when the liferaft righted itself the winchman had located the man in the water and both were winched back to the safety of the helicopter.

The two men are Dutch nationals aged 41 and 54. They were cold and wet after their ordeal but uninjured and have been transferred to Falmouth.  Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager Peter Bullard said, "The conditions for the helicopter rescue crew were extremely challenging with gale force winds, rough seas and darkness.  The three merchant vessels which responded to us helped with communications and were always an option for rescue.  However, transfer either to helicopter or a vessel would always be difficult under these conditions.

Rescue story courtesy of BYM