2002

Ocean Planet Report
Ocean Planet Around Alone Log
Oct 2, 2002
Brixham, England

After a long, murky day, with several dead wind areas, Ocean Planet and I arrived at the finish of leg 1 in Brixham, on Tor Bay in England.

Several RIB’s waited patiently for me to jibe slowly towards the finish in very light air. One was was driven by none other than Pindar star (and 4th place class one finisher) Emma Richards! It was a great greeting and there was a rousing welcome at the fantastic Brixham Yacht Club who served me a great fish & chips dinner. Much better than my recent cooking.

This a great town and a great place for the stopover, much better than I expected. The warmth of welcome and the several talented volunteers who showed up this morning speaks volumes about the long local maritime history.

I am very proud to be here after what has undoubtably been the toughest sail of my life. Over 1,000 miles upwind without a mainsail is not something I’d recommend to you for entertainment. But I must say that having been through it I feel more qualified for what is to come and that is a good feeling. Not to say that I still don’t have my fears and worries, but I’m a better and more experienced sailor for it. My ‘qualifying’ sail to the Azores was an easy trip but a logical first step. Now all we need is to get the boat and sails ready for leg two.

Here are some pics, of the murky approach, the gang attacking the mainsail and 20 minutes later…..fast work!

Also, the beautiful and talented Emma Richards who came by to say hi.

As the only female and only British skipper in the fleet, needless to say she is very popular here in Brixham!

Many, many thanks to all of you who made this possible, I can’t thank you enough.

More tomorrow,
Bruce