ISORA Race 4 Pwllheli to Wicklow

Congratulations to Stephen and the Crew on Just enough - 1st in Class and 1st Overall. The race report is available here.

The track taken by Just enough on this 21 hour race is shown below.

Vicky from Mojito provided the following report:

Congratulations to the crew on Just enough on the ISORA race 4. Not just for the race position but more importantly for finishing. 

We tried desperately to continue to the end and saw so many boats give in. We were followed round the causeway buoy by English Mick & Gwawr but lost Gwawr in the mist at Bardsey.  Once English Mick deployed their code zero they had started to gain on us quite substantially, however they then struggled when the wind dropped and they ended up motoring past us. We saw the First of September take in their foresail so gathered that they had also quit. We learned later that they had trouble starting the engine and had to change the impeller, but I must admit it did buck our spirits slightly when we eventually sailed past them. We kept on going despite also seeing Wennol 3 motoring past us in the opposite direction. Even when, at one point, our boat speed read 0.00knots, we kept on going.

Sadly the continued lack of wind meant that we were forced to consider our travel plans the other side and calculated our expected time of arrival at North India. Predictions started at 4am at best, and at one point we calculated that at our current speed we wouldn’t get to North India till 19:00 Sunday – coincidentally the time of my flight back from Dublin! Then we calculated the time to Wicklow if we went directly there under motor. When this became 0100 Sunday and no improvement in the weather forecasts, we decided to call it a day. So at 19:15, after about 7 hours with barely any wind, we reverted to motor. It took us 40minutes of motoring before we caught up with  Just enough followed by Raging Bull after another 20 minutes. At full power we got to Wicklow at 00:15 and after rafting up and securing lines we made it into the sailing club bar (still in oilies) at 00:40. 

We are obviously very disappointed that we had to pull out but we calculated that we would only have finished about 1-1 ½ hours after Just enough. Given that there were only three of us and we still needed to sail up to Dun Laoghaire in order to catch flights home, I think we made the right decision.

We’re back out there for the next ISORA on Sunday and although light winds are currently predicted again – I’m not leaving till we’ve finished!! We have all day Monday to get back to Pwllheli and have our own transport waiting at Pwllheli so don’t have all the logistical problems of Wicklow.

Here are a few photos of a beautifully calm Irish sea and also some of the start.