Leg 8 - Tower Bridge, London to Ardmore, NW Scotland

Date: Friday 25 June 2004

Day: 337



Notes: Back home (to the boat in St. Katherine's Yachthaven at midnight. A momentous visit to Rome, but just now we are dodging sandbanks and following the maze of buoys which should lead us safely on our final journey to English Rose's anchorage under the wood at Ardmore. Tomorrow, when we are clear of the major hazards I will tell you of the presentation of the Petition of one hundred and five thousand signatures to Save the Needless Slaughter of the Albatross to the United Nations in Rome.



Into the mist...



John Ridgway

Date: Saturday 26 June 2004

Day: 338,

Local time: 1200 BST (UTC +1)

Leg Number:

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 51/31N, 000/57E

Position relative to land: In Barrow Arm, Thames Estuary, heading out.

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 45 nm

Distance sailed this Leg: 45nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 28,513 miles (52,km)

Course: Variable

Speed: 7.7kts

Next Port: Ardmore

Approx distance to next port: 346

Wind: SE F3 (6-11kts)

Sea: Light sea

Barometer: 1016 falling

Air Temperature: 17C, with windchill 13C

Sea temp: 16.8

Cloud cover: 100% with a few spots of rain.

Bird sightings over the day:



Notes: On our return from Rome, we got to bed at around midnight. Daylight woke me at about 0430. I knew that if I fell asleep I wouldn't wake for 0530. We got up and started to get the boat ready for the off. Peter Schumann and Richard Creasey came down to see us off on a still, grey morning. Igor arrived at 0600 and retired to his bunk for the day. We were through St.Katherine's Lock and into the river by 0700, pushing against the flood tide for the first hour and a half.



We worked just two watches for the 45 miles down to the sea:

1. Nick, Ward and Bob.

2. Sanel, MC and me.



It's really good to have Bob Duncan (44) from Zimbabwe aboard again, it doesn't seem 25 years since he skippered this boat for a season at Ardmore and only yesterday when we sailed the shippy on her trial to America in 2001. And it's just great having Ward (31) and Sanel (29), the two American brothers who were JRAS Instructors in 1997. It makes everything fun.



The River went well and light rain set in. We motored along the northern shores of the Thames Estuary, up the Barrow Deep and past Harwich. Night found us off the Haisborough Sand. It was mayhem, ships everywhere amid the sand banks and tides. And it was a lot easier having three watches now.



The Yarmouth Coastguard kept calling all ships to look out for a missing yacht. I remembered just such an incident in July 2000, when we came down here to fit the new Hood mainmast at Burnham-on-Crouch. Wreckage was found weeks later but the whole crew were lost, run down by a ship.



I'm afraid I'll have to spread my account of our visit to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome over a few days. There are so many things to do, just to keep the boat heading in the right direction for Ardmore.



Here goes:



Wednesday 23 June 2004......Noon: Heathrow Airport.



Sanel being still asleep, I handed the boat over to Ward at 0800. They would look after things until Nick returns with Nev at around 2000 tonight, having seen Tommy safely on the plane to Japan.



On a rainy morning, Marie Christine and I took the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow. We carried our small green rucksacks for hand baggage, nothing more. According to our custom, we reached the Alitalia Check-out two and a half hours early. But Dr. Euan Dunn, Director of Marine Policy with RSPB was already in position. Short and quietly spoken, Euan was towing a heavy suitcase containing the many smart books of Petition signatures. The diffident absent-minded manner is an illusion, Euan was busy measuring all the angles to maximise the impact of our visit to UN for the Albatross. Cath Harris, fiercely athletic RSPB Media manager, arrived just in time, having been stuck on the M25 in a taxi.



Rome was hot. Awkward and uncertain, the four of us nibbled some pasta and retired for an early night. What would tomorrow bring? Veteran of an untold number of grand Conferences, all around the world, Euan could only assure us we must be ready to seize the moment when and if it came.



Into the mist...



John Ridgway

Date: Sunday 27 June 200

Day: 339, This Leg Day 2

Local time: 1200 BST (UTC +1)

Leg: Tower Bridge London to Ardmore, NW Scotland via the east coast.

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 53/48N, 000/47E

Position relative to land:Just north of Grimsby, 25nm offshore

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 166nm (307km)

Distance sailed this Leg: 210nm (389km)

Total distance from Ardmore: 28,679nautical miles (53,114km)

Course: 339T

Speed: 5.6kts

Next Port: Ardmore

Approx distance to next port: 407nm (754km)

Wind: SE F3 (6-11kts)

Sea: Light sea

Barometer: 1016 falling

Air Temperature: 22C, with windchill 22C

Sea temp: 14.7C

Cloud cover: 50%

Bird sightings over the day: Guillemots, gannets, kittiwakes and great skuas



Notes: We kept the old Mercedes engine running and motored steadily through the sandbanks, flanked by oil and gas rigs, the whole business kept us on our toes alright. Hot sunny weather without wind. Marie Christine and I can hardly believe Tower Bridge and Rome ever happened, we are back here on the boat on the huge sea, just the same as ever. We were 45 miles east of Newcastle at midnight.



The familiar birds come out to play, just like home. Guillemots, gannets, kittiwakes and great skuas. Maybe we've never been away, it's all been a dream, certainly not a nightmare. I'm afraid the report on our visit to Rome will have to wait for tomorrow. I can't keep my eyes open.



Into the mist...



John Ridgway

Date: Monday 28 June 2004

Day: 340, This Leg Day 3

Local time: 1200 BST (UTC +1)

Leg: Tower Bridge London to Ardmore, NW Scotland via the east coast.

Position - Latitude, Longitude: 56/21N 01/00W

Position relative to land: 55nm east of the Firth of Forth

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 165nm

Distance sailed this Leg: 375nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 28,844 nautical miles

Course: 346T

Speed: 6.1kts

Next Port: Ardmore

Approx distance to next port: 241nm

Wind: W F3 (17-24kts)

Sea: Slight

Barometer: 1016 steady

Air Temperature: 13C, with windchill 12C

Sea temp: 13.2C

Cloud cover: 0%

Bird sightings over the day: Guillemots, gannets, kittiwakes and great skuas


Notes:



We did manage eight hours of sailing without the engine but for the rest it was motor-sailing.



Our luck has held so far. We have an opportunity with the weather right now but the next Atlantic low is massing to the west
of Bailey and so Thursday and Friday could see gales in the Northwest
Highlands of Scotland.



We're making a dash for Ardmore. If all goes well on our passage through the fearsome Pentland Firth, and along the north coast, we should reach the longed-for haven of our mooring under the most
northerly wood on the west coast of Britain at 1000am on Wednesday 30 June 2004.



Everyone is in fine spirits at the end of a busy 30,000 miles. There are seabirds all around us as we slip along in the gloaming of a midsummer midnight in the far north but very sadly the
albatross is not among them. I miss him.




Here's an outline of what happened at the UN in Rome last Thursday and Friday:



"Remember there are 105,000 of us going in here", said Marie Christine
bravely, "from the Prime Minister of New Zealand to schoolchildren. They are all with us."



UN FAO Rome is situated in a massive, cream-coloured block just across the road from the ruins of the 'circus massimo', where the Romans raced their chariots a couple of thousand years ago.

The giant United Nations complex is no ruin. It is beautifully maintained. Acres of marble floor are brightly polished and the delegates are beautifully clad to match. Italian style inspires
everything.



I am an old man, I struggle not to become another rotten old man. I try to keep an open mind. I have dreamed of the world's oceans becoming a well-regulated sustainable fishery, with everything in
balance: plentiful fish, birds and mammals, ever since I worked on the Kinlochbervie salmon bag-netting crew forty years ago, newly-married, in the lovely Highland Spring of 1964. I was full of Hope then.



Beneath painted wooden flags of all the nations, the Chairperson and his Team, up on the masive Podium, oversee hundreds of delegates from the nations, seated in the most splendid conference room I have ever entered. Hushed voices magnify the atmosphere of a cathedral.

At first I was excited: "This is where it can all be put to rights", I exulted. "All these good men and women CAN make it happen."

But slowly a pattern emerged. There really is an International Plan of
Action to halt Illegal Fishing forever. One good man, like Nick, with his lap-top, could oversee the satellite surveillance of every boat that floats on the face of the globe. Already Chile claims to have 100% of its high seas fleet and nearly 100% of its inshore fleet effectively monitored.

The United Nations of the World could most certainly enforce the results of the surveillance.

But some people may have been in that shiny building too long, standing on ceremony too much. Perhaps they begin to believe their own publicity.

The main rich players: Japan, America, China do most of the talking or keep discreetly quiet. The smaller players do the begging.

The decline in world fisheries accelerates, the Albatross has a death
sentence, along with everything that moves. It is simply a matter of time.

After lunch, even Superman's eyes would glaze. And this was only Day 1. "There is still an hour left" gasped the Japanese Chairperson, whom every speaker congratulated on his elevated position in this world of talk. Here was the opportunity for the smaller voices to have their say.

I was seated at the back, behind a sea of sleepy heads. Marie Christine, off against a side wall, her camera under a jumper,
ready to film. Euan slipped back and whispered excitedly, "It looks as if we may have a chance after all!"



The Chairperson asked continually for speakers to be brief. My heart was beating like a huge set of bellows. Ever since lunch I had been been jotting down what I planned to say, double-spaced in my little red notebook.

I decided to break the spell. I would speak very deliberately, very
slowly. This was my one shot at saying what I really felt.



Up ahead, Euan said his piece and handed over to me. I swung my microphone towards me and switched on the red light. I was
live. I delayed. I saw Euan twitch, thinking I hadn't switched the mike on...

Congratulations on coming up with the International Plan. But I understand Illegal Fishing is increasing.

I have travelled through the Southern Ocean in each of the past six
decades. I am closely allied to the Albatross. When I die, which will be soon, I wish to become an Albatross. (Many rows up ahead
Mr. United States of America swivelled his chair to take a look at me). In my earlier voyages through the Southern Ocean, books offered me 80 years of life and one mate.



But now I will be lucky to get 80 weeks. And I need fifteen years to find that mate.



100 million years of Albatross existence are set to end soon, because of us.

My wife and I, two old-age pensioners, last week completed a year-long,
un-sponsored, un-insured sailing voyage. We followed the sub-polar flight track of the Wandering Albatross, round the world through the Southern Ocean.



Our aim: "To prevent the needless slaughter of the Albatross".



We stopped at Cape Town, Kerguelen, Melbourne, Wellington and the
Falklands. And we used these stops to rally support for a Petition. It was signed by 105,000 people from 131 countries, from the PM of New Zealand to schoolchildren.



It calls for Governments to:

1. End Flags of Convenience, close markets and ports to illegal vessels.

2. Ratify the Agreements to protect Albatrosses and Marine Life, including
   the UN Fish Stocks Agreement.

3. Enforce Protection at Sea and intercept pirate vessels.

"Arriba Chile!" 100% Satellite cover of their Offshore Fleet. Almost 100% cover of their Artisanal Fleet within the Magellanic Channels.



Why can't the rest of you follow suit? As a self-employed man, I recommend you borrow the Chile National Plan of Action, shut yourselves in a room, and complete your own N.P.O.A. in 24 hours.

All that is needed to prevent the needless slaughter of the albatross, is a willing skipper on every boat. This means Education. The sea covers 3/4 of the globe. The Collective Irresponsibility of the Nations of the World is killing it.

Thank you....

Date: Tuesday 29 June 2004

Day: 341/2,3,4,5, This Leg Day 4/5

Local time: 1200 BST (UTC +1)

Leg: Tower Bridge London to Ardmore, NW Scotland via the east coast.

Position - Latitude, Longitude: tba

Position relative to land: Pentland Firth

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 160 nm

Distance sailed this Leg: tba nm

Total distance from Ardmore: 29,004 nautical miles

Course:

Speed:

Next Port: Ardmore

Approx distance to next port: 80 nm

Wind: tba

Sea: Slight

Barometer: 1016 steady

Air Temperature: 13C, with windchill 12C

Sea temp: 13.2C

Cloud cover: 0

Bird sightings over the day: Guillemots, gannets, kittiwakes and great skuas



Notes: The sea was like glass, dawn just a steady brightening of the twilight: we could have read a newspaper all night. A beautiful mid-summer day seemed in prospect. I called up Willie Watt as 'Orkney Sunrise' at 1115; we were off Duncansby Head on the Northeast corner of Scotland and Willie and his father were two small dots at the base of the lighthouse, way up on the headland. Thankfully, their local knowledge guided us safely through the rips and overfalls of the Pentland Firth.



It came on to rain as the barometer began a spectacular fifteen point plunge and by the time we were half way along the north coast, the outlook was grim. I began to fear what we might find when we rounded Cape Wrath and began to head south into the wind. Nick ahd told us that while we were away at the UN in Rome last week, London had had its worst June gale for 150 years. But luckily for us, nothing desperate did occur and we motored on, 15 miles south down the west coast.



Into the mist...John Ridgway

Wednesday 30 June - off the mouth of Loch Laxford



Ward Irvin called me just before midnight. We were now off the mouth of Loch Laxford, barely three miles from our home. Rather than go in, we spent a miserable night in the rain, cruising gently out to sea and back, all the while longing for our 1000hrs family reunion at Ardmore.



The magic hour came at last and we we found Will, Rebecca and our two grandchildren, Molly and Hughie, in a small red dinghy, hard under the cliffs of Eilean Ard on the black waters of Loch Laxford. They had with them our old friend Val Greenhalgh who had driven up from Manchester, picking up Isso in Inverness along the way. Young Doug Badcock with Havoc the spaniel, made up the bedraggled team. Poor things, they had been waiting in pouring rain for an hour and some hadn't brought their waterproofs with them. Undeterred, everyone clambered aboard ERVI and we made our way through the highland mist and on into Loch a'Chadh-fi. We had all our flags strung up along the forestay and the mizen backstay, sort of 'dressed over all'. Bruce and Rita had staked a "Welcome Home" banner on Chadh-fi Island and Wilma, David and Rachael were waving their own bright greetings on the steep grassy hillside on the in-by land of the croft.



It was sopping wet. We picked up the mooring and the leader line snapped, sending the chain vertically down the riser. Ward Irvin, who swam the 1500 metres for the United States of America, nipped over the side and disappeared below the foaming billows like a turbo jet. In a trice he churned up with the chain: some kind of superman. After 342 days we were safe, all tied up under the wood again, the magic carpet had come to rest. The hill to the croft was a lot steeper than I remembered and Marie Christine's garden had grown chest-high. "This is how it will be like when we die" I thought, "in one short year it's back to wilderness".



Well, I suppose this is nearly the end of our story, sadly we have no idea who has been reading it because BBC H2G2 has no facility for counting the number of hits on the website.



It only remains for Marie Christine and for me to say how much we owe to Nick. He was with us for the whole way round the World, the very staunchest of shipmates. And also thanks to Igor who stuck it out from Cape Town. The 342 were not grey days.



And thank you dear readers, thank you for supporting the Albatross.



Long Live the Albatross



Into the mist...John Ridgway

Now go on to the final days 1-3 July 2004 packing up the yacht at Ardmore.

Back to the Contents page