Once out of Kip I packed away all the fenders etc and hoisted sail.
The wind was blowing 15-20 knots at this point, so I rolled away a little Genoa. I was still making good speed, so after a while I put a reef in the main as well. The Moody doesn't like leaning too much. I hadn't as yet decided whether to go down the Largs channel or West of the Cumbraes.
I decided that the Largs channel was favoured as it would put me slightly further to windward for later in the journey. As I passed Cumbraes Watersports I saw another forumite who is often wandering around the Clyde, but as it was only 06:30 I didn't call him.
I then made a mistake. I wandered a little too far left as I was passing Hunterston. No great disaster but I did notice that the depth was showing 5 metres! No problem as I quickly reentered the deeper water and continued South.
As I cleared the Largs channel I saw the Ardrossan/Brodick ferry in the distance. I had now given up on my hope of bacon butties as it was quite choppy, and I had done the sums to realise that I might be home in time for tea.
I pushed on, and South of the Cumbraes it got really choppy. It often does here, so I continued, having considered returning, but decided that it would ease out after a while.
It didn't.
I got to about 10 miles North of Ailsa Craig, and started to wonder if I could climb enough to pass to the East of the rock. To this end I was steering manually as the autopilot hasn't got a button marked 'climb to windward but don't let the boat get stopped by the waves'. The wind was now showing 26-30 knots fairly steadily with peaks of over 35 knots. As I said earlier I was now well reefed, and the only hassles were that I had to hand steer and I couldn't get anything to eat. Spyro - that's why I couldn't answer your 'phone call - things were a bit frenetic!
When I got to about 4 miles away Billjratt called me on the VHF, but I was only on to him for a couple of minutes as his signal kept breaking up. He has reported that he couldn't see me, and I think that is because I would be completely lost in the big troughs. Eventually, once to the South of the rock I had to gybe. I left myself plenty of room, and accomplished this without breaking the mast. Once gybed I followed the curve of the rock round to the North West corner where I suffered from back eddies and a lee which nearly caused a gybe back. Fortunately this didn't last long and I was soon cruising at pushing 7 knots again.
By the time I had passed Pladda the wind had died a little, now just under 20 knots on the beam so I rolled out the full Genoa and shook the reef out of the main to maintain a speed of 6+ knots.
It was about here that I realised that the forehatch was left on the first stop which leaves it open a crack for ventilation. Because of the solid water which had been coming over the foredeck the foreward bunk was
slightly damp, and the carpet in the forecabin was soaked.
This time I left Cumbraes to Starboard, and soon saw the Kip chimney in the distance. The wind was suppposed to be ESE veering South later, but as is the way of these things it actually settled in NE which meant that I couldn't sail straight to Kip, but had to go diagonally and ended up about a mile off Kip where I dropped the sails and headed home. Very tired, but very satisfied.
I was back tied up in Kip at 19:45. The GPS said that my maximum speed was 11.7 knots, which I don't believe, and that my average speed was 5.6 knots and the total distance covered was 81.5nm, both of which seem more likely.
On my way South I considered turning back at several points as it was physically very demanding, but then I thought of the cause I was sailing for, the people that this has affected, the backing of forumites here and
elsewhere and my colleagues and continued rather than let anybody down.
And finally, when I got back to Kip, my wife and daughter turned up and presented me with a gold medal!
Oh, and a cake when I got home.
If anybody else would like to support my cause then please do so at http://www.justgiving.com/petes_trip
Sorry about the quality of the pictures, but they were mostly taken in very adverse conditions.
