SOH skipper log and positions “We are back on the ocean, sailing. It’s a huge step after all that work.” foto©FaNandor/SOH60′

SOH POSITIONS and PHOTOS:

Pos.: 12:30 UTC 41° 43′ N, 013° 15′ W. (7 – 10 kn 60°)

Pos: SOH-Fa GPS location Date/Time:12/05/2015 13:04:58 CET
Latitude:41.66661
Longitude:-13.84665

Nandor Fa log – will be translate asap. Thanks for your patience.

Nandor’s 8m open carbon lake racing boat – 2 x winner around the biggest lake in Europe – TBS Grandprix. (photo©Fa_Nándor_archive)

05. December 2015

Latitude:41.19244 N Longitude: 14.47446 W

GPS location Date/Time:12/05/2015 08:18:08 CET

Nandor Fa SOH LOG 30th Nov. 2015, 23:00 UTC We are back on the ocean, sailing. It’s a huge step after all that work. foto©FaNandor/SOH60′

After the dismast on 30. October we stopped on the East side of Madeira in a port together with the St Michel-Virbac and its whole team. The French crew helped us as we arrived in the dawn and gave us many useful tips as we were having dinner together. There is almost nothing they haven’t experienced, and they were really helpful to share it with us.

After lodging the boat in a safe place, we flew back to Hungary with Peter for a small press conference and I immediately started organizing the boat’s and my future. My final decision was to build a temporary jury mast in Madeira, with which I can sail back to Les Sables d’Olonne, France, using much smaller sails than an Imoca 60 usually has. The easiest and most economic solution was for me to build a short 13-metre iron mast, to which I can hoist the sails of my 8-metre sailing boat (I have a small racing boat at home on lake Balaton). I sat down to draw the structure, then we manufactured all the necessary fittings, packed everything we needed and sent them out to Madeira.

In Madeira we met Hungarian musicians, who immediately found the injured Hungarian boat and offered their kind support. Péter and his wife Rita, and Edina are members of the Symphonic Orchestra of Madeira. A friend of Edina’s, Miguel is a sailor who knows everything and everyone, he helped me discover important sources, places, possibilities. He’s a fantastic guy, nothing was impossible for him and he didn’t hesitate to help me with full energy.

We brought the boat around the corner to Marina Funchal with Miguel, collected all the materials needed and waited for the package and my colleague to arrive. As they arrived, we immediately started working: welded, drilled, painted, etc… Three days later when the crane arrived we were done with the whole job, ready to adjust the rig to the boat. Luckily it was a somewhat calm day so we could put the boat beside the only wall in the marina where the water depth was enough and the boat could easily be approached. (Otherwise the boat was mooring 100 m away from the land, and I could only get in and out with a small wet kayak.) Three hours of hard and concentrated work later the mast was on.

It took one more week to finalize everything onboard, and as soon as the weather forecast seemed fair enough, we hoisted our sails and said goodbye to our new friends, who accompanied us with their sailboat on the way out of the bay. The day before, my old friend Karcsi arrived from home to join me on the way back to our continent. There was 10 knots of Easterly breeze with clouds on the sky.

All together we have approximately 120 square metres of sails to bring us North, with an average 5 kts speed. I’m a little bit worried about what happens if a gust comes in, as this Imoca boat is about ten times heavier with huge power and much stronger forces, than what these small sails were designed for. I feel like if I was trying to sail with handkerchiefs hoisted, I need to be very careful. The goal is to reach Les Sables with these.
We left Madeira at 9:30am local time. At 01:00am we had already made 80 nautical miles, it’s great, given the circumstances!

Thank you very much once again to our new friends on Madeira for all their support!

Madeira Symphonic Orchestra with the Hungarian classical music artists.

Bolba Gábor – double bass

Harangi Anikó – piano

Hennel András – piano

Szepesi Emese- piano

Szepesi László – cello

Tenki Edina- violin

Vígné Boross Rita -Flute

Víg Judit – piano

Víg Péter -Horn