Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

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Due to the fact that I moved house over the weekend I did not update you all on John’s progress as much as I had planned to. Unfortunately John has had to turn back some 1490km out due to severe storm damage. He is safe but no doubt disappointed.

However here are his messages leading up to and after his decision to turn back.

Day 4 – 26th May 2010 12.12hrs

“50N 15W PBRANT HELPING ME WITH AUTOPILOT USIN ARIES YESTERDAY CRAZY 30 CRASH GYBES 10 SPINNY WRAPS. SUFIN 13KNTS”

I continued to ask in my daily message to John if the auto pilot was fixed but never got an answer to this.

After a discussion via text with Paul Brandt, Paul sent me this message.

“I have not heard from him since last night. He gave me the error code and told me that 1 of his 2 control units is down. I am 99% sure the one down is the master. I have split the instructions for configuring a new master into 160 character (all that can be received via sat phone) chunks and sent it to him. Nothing heard since then. His line is good. Weekend will bring more breeze. Current plot shows him in very good shape.”

Paul was delivering his own boat to Torbay on Friday and was going to try to raise John on his satellite phone.

Paul then put me in touch with Eric Andlauer (the winner of the last Jester Atlantic Challenge) who was keen to include information about John in his website.

Day 5 – 27th May 2010. 17:23hrs

“HOLIDAY OVER FOR 12HRS.  WIND HAS MOVED 200 DEGREES. NOW DEAD ON NOSE. HEAVY RAIN, OILIES ON. AM WAY OFF COURSE. ALL OK.”

Day 6 –  28th May 2010. 08:49Hrs

“ROUGH NIGHT. RAIN, GREY, & LOTS OF WIND. MESMORISED BY SPEEDO 8KNTS ALL NIGHT HAD FULL SAIL TILL SHEET AND OUTHAUL BUST. ONLY SAFE IN BUNK. GETTING BRIGHTER”

Day 7 –  29th May 2010. 13:37Hrs

“LAST 48HRS TERRIBLE. STRONG WIND. COLD. EVERYTHING WET. TACKING TODAY BIT BETTER. CAN MAKE COURSE. FATIMA’s OK SHE NEVER COMPLAINS. THOUGH SOMETIMES AT NIGHT SHE MOANS.”

Superb humour in the face of diversity!!

Day 8 –  30th May 2010. 07:36Hrs

“TERRIBLE GAIL FOR 18HRS. BOAT BEHAVED WELL AND NO DAMAGE TO BOAT. DESTROYED HEADSAIL. I HAVE A SMALLER ONE WHICH I HOPE WILL WORK, AM NOT IN DANGER”.

Day 9 –  31st  May 2010.

Although I had been sending John replies I received no further messages from John. And started to enquire. Yesterday there were whispers that unfortunately due to severe damage John and Fluffy have had to turn back. This was confirmed to me this morning 1st June 2010 and subsequently via an e-mail kindly sent from Isabel (John’s wife). I’m sure she will not mind me sharing it.

Day 10 –  1st  June 2010 (Discovered on return to my office)

Hi

had  a text message  from John.

AM ON MY WAY BACK BAD GALE LAST NIGHT SHREDED JIB CHAFED MANY LINES ROLL REEF BUST ELECTRIC PROBLEMS AUTOPILOT BUST EVERYTHING INCLUDING BEDDING IS WET NOT EATING WILL BE OK  13:50:56 30/05/2010

I am glad he decided to come back. He was doing  fantastically well, but without sails and proper equipment he has made the right decision to turn back.

I am sure he is terribly disappointed, and he would not have made the decision to turn back lightly.

I spoke to him today, he was  very tired but assured me he would be fine coming back. I better starting watering his trees.

Just hope he gets rid of FATIMA on the way back.

Love

Isabel

I text Paul this morning (01-06-10 09:52) and received this e-mail.

Morning All,

I spoke with John about 10 minutes ago. He was 500nm from the Scillies and making steady progress. He had a terrible time of it in said gales and is happy in that he knows his decision to turn around was the correct one.

I will keep an eye on the weather and attempt to route him back given his currently available sails ( Number 3 and mainsail ).

Regards

Paul

I was also copied in on this message forwarded by Paul.

Just had a signal from Tony Head who is full of sympathy and suggests that once John has liked his wounds he should try the southern route and will still reach Newport before many of the others.

He may, though, feel he has had enough!

Best wishes,   Ewen.

So there were a lot of us rooting for John……..now I am sure we all wish him a safe return.

So there we have it………a brave and gallant effort that should not go unsurpassed. I agree John must be severely disappointed yet to me it was still a fantastic achievement. I calculated today from his “Spot” position that John had probably completed 1500km (810Nm / 932 miles).
He is currently as I write travelling at about 5knts and is 1047km (565Nm) from Plymouth.

I am sure like me we wish him well and a safe return. We’ll have a beer waiting!!

I shall continue with words of encouragement to lift his spirit.

Regards
Wayne A Miller.

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