It was a very eventful trip for Mojito and things started to go wrong right from the start. We discovered that instead of having a simple leaking tap/shower head, the leak was from the water heater where it joined the water tank. Every time the water pump was switched on to use the taps, water would spray out from the tank into the bilges meaning less drinking water and more water in the bilge. As we bounced through waves and heeled over, the water spread throughout the boat. Absolutely everything was getting wet on board including the charts in one of the cupboards!

With the threat of gale force winds, everyone was getting edgy. Candy had not done an offshore passage at all, with her longest trip being from Pwllheli to Holyhead – 55miles. With every coastguard forecast she was getting more and more worried. This wasn’t helped by the fact that she and two other crew suffered badly from sea sickness. Pete’s watch with Jimmy and Ailbhe from Pool Beg sailing club thought that they would have the main bulk of the storm and at the end of Pete’s watch he warned me that I’d have to put in the reefs during my watch (with Candy, and Kevin Legg from Poppy – another Pwllheli boat). In actual fact we didn’t, and only got winds of 10-15kts at that stage. I was secretly hoping that this was an indication that the forecast was wrong and that we’d miss the storm. However, as we lay in our bunks we could hear Pete’s watch putting in a reef. This again frightened Candy and she came out of her cabin mid rest to ask what all the noise was, and were we alright? Just at the end of Pete’s watch his team managed to get the jib sheets tangled up with the furling line inside the furler. My watch joined in the 45min struggle to get things under control. In the mayhem the remaining reefing lines got tangled so that we couldn’t get a second reef in. Again we had to battle to untangle them. My team continued the watch which rapidly turned into a gale with constant 35-39kts of wind and gusts of 42-45kts. We took stock of storm damage and found that a couple of sliders had come out of the track on the mast and the incident with the jib sheets and furler meant that we could not fully furl the genoa. As daylight came, so did thick fog and Candy was now getting concerned that we were too far from land as we couldn’t see any, which took quite a lot of effort to reassure her. At the change of watch, some silly mistakes were being made – the halyard instead of the mainsheet was being eased, followed by grinding in the main and getting a glove mangled in the sheet round the winch. We also discovered that the water pump had been left on at some point so we had lost half a tank of water into the bilge. All of the crew but Pete and I were suffering sea sickness. This, in the middle of thick fog didn’t sit well with us and we had the choice of continuing two handed or diverting to Kinsale to sort out our problems (mainly crew morale), pump out the bilges and consider whether or not to continue. We made sure that we came into Kinsale under sail so that we had the option to continue the ace if we decided we could. Amazingly, as soon as we came into Kinsale the fog lifted and we had glorious sunshine which enabled us to dry out all of our clothes, sleeping bags, cushions, etc. Candy desperately wanted to get off the boat to get a shower and the two other guys had been discussing the virtue of pubs in Kinsale but Pete explained that none of this was allowed under the rules. Candy continued to question the rules and Pete explained that if she got off she would spoil it for everyone else unless she took no further part in the race. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Fortuna Redux had motored up the channel into Kinsale before completely disembarking in plain view of us. After some discussion and Pete reading the sailing instructions out word for word, Candy settled to continue with us.

The limited beer supply (2beers each for the end of race) was cracked open, we put the pre-cooked cottage pies in the oven and discussed the race. Someone mentioned that in a previous Dingle race, the last boat to cross the finish line was awarded a case of red wine as the consolation prize. We figured that that wasn’t such a bad prize after all, in fact we quite liked the sound of it and decided to have a good night’s sleep with no alarms set. When we woke we cooked up a full fry-up – eggs, bacon, sausage, black & white pudding, tomato and toast. Then and only then, we cast off our lines and rejoined the race.

And because nothing is ever simple with us, we started getting problems with GPS. It stopped working due to a flat battery but once recharged, it never seemed the same and worked intermittently and we continued navigating conventionally. Battery life also seemed to be reduced as a result and we seemed to be charging the batteries all too often. Then we lost steerage. Kevin and I got the emergency tiller in place but this is tough to steer so we secured it centrally and then worked on sail balance to steer. Meanwhile we got Pete to take a look at the steering and some hammering and swearing  later, we managed to put away the emergency tiller. Because of our stop in Kinsale we also faced a period of flat calm and Pete floated round Bantry bay for a couple of hours before I took over on my watch. The winds gradually built to 30kts as we approached Dingle and we managed an impressive (for a cruiser) 11.7kts boat speed across Dingle bay where we saw Sgrech leaving in the other direction.

Finally at 13:03:22 on Tuesday 14th June we crossed the finish line and enjoyed the remaining big bottle of Bacardi in Mojitos and the team was formed and at that stage we were finally ready to race. We were 5th out of 6 cruisers and out of 29 entrants overall, only 17 finished, of which we were last but we have learned so much along the way and will definitely do the race again. We chose not to give up, but to continue with safety in mind. As a result we got the ‘Sam & Ella’ trophy for perseverance in the face of adversity. We all enjoyed the party at the end and I think everyone enjoyed the fact that Mojito provided the comedy element to the Dingle race (by stopping for 14hours!). We clocked up 340miles in the race and are still smiling. We’ll definitely do it again.

After the race and partying we then cruised back in the company of Raging Bull and Lula Belle stopping at Lawrence Cove, Kinsale and Kilmore Quay. At Kinsale we took on crew from Betty Boop which had retired from the race and headed into Crosshaven. At Kilmore Quay, our Dublin crew transferred to Raging Bull so that we could sail direct to Holyhead instead of sailing via Dublin. This truly reflects the camaraderie of ISORA.

Vic & Pete (team Mojito)