The first night on the Atlantic

Stomach felt a bit uneasy as we came out of the Gironde and met the Atlantic. Pretty choppy stuff, but after an hour or so both the sea and my tummy settled. I seemed to have found my sea legs and just before sunset a group of Dolphins came to inspect us … a couple of them even showed off a few tricks.

I was on watch from 8pm to midnight with Miles and Red. All went well and we even sneaked in a glass of 2009 Castillon from La Brande at shift end. I made my way down to the cabin to attempt some sleep, but as soon as I got settled, legs pointing North, the 'Irene' started to really roll so I had to turn around and wedge myself between my rucksack and the side of the boat to stop me from rolling out myself; not an easy manoeuvre with 40cm of head space. Red on the bottom bunk got a couple of my books hurled his way but he was doing same as me so any accidents were avoided.

The next 4 hours sleep was a roller coaster of this clicks, clacks, shudders, whacks, louder clicks, splashes, BANG, squawking ropes, whooshes, weird deep haunting moaning noses from under the boat and the damn toilet door banging away like Keith Moon!

Then I felt a cold droplet of water right on my forehead, then another, I leaned up to find a torch – banging my head on the beam, of course – only to find water dripping in slow but regular patterns of two drops every 5 minutes or so from three different places. Once all drip areas had been located and mapped I adopted a twisted, 'S'-like position, avoiding the cold drips.

The last hour I managed to get some sleep but was soon back on deck for our second watch. A very bumpy night, but we had made great progress during the night and once on deck we could see the lighthouse of the Ile D'Yeu and the distant glow of Nantes. We picked up some good wind skirting under cloud patches. I went to the control cabin called the Whales Back to look at the GPS map to check for any fishing trawlers, not many around, waiting for sunrise now.

Follow the journey online at laithwaites.co.uk

Aye-aye, Captain!

Early start and its very windy, its never windy must be just for me and 'Le Voyage'! Libby and I arrived at Tony and Barbara's at 6:30 and we, along with Simon, set off for Blaye.

After the many roundabouts it’s a dead Straight road into Blaye, Simon was giving me snippets of info about the voyage … not sure all were true! I was about to find out.

We arrived at the jetty under the Blaye Citadel and there she was, the magnificent Irene. I met the captain David, a mad cap Canadian; the owner Leslie, a real old sea dog and the rest of the crew. Then I hopped onto the deck and suddenly started to get weirdly nervous and excited – I haven't felt like this since I got my first big winemaking job in Chile 10 years ago!

Everyone was there to wave me off from the quayside. Some water was brought on board and once fully loaded we slipped slowly away from the quay. The little harbour launch boat carrying the guide, Tony, Barbara, Libby, Janet, John, Martin and Red accompanied us to guide us out into the Gironde. One small problem was that we were facing the wrong way up the Gironde.














Then suddenly the ship came to life. Shouting, ropes flying through hoops, people pulling and I was called into action, so I just followed everyone else, heaved on the ropes and up went the sails. Then the boom swung to the other side nearly taking my head off! And that was my first jibe, with many more to come.

We turned majestically to face north, with Red Johnson filming from the launch boat. Red was coming on the voyage so he needed to get on board with the camera. The launch boat raced towards us with Red clinging Indiana Jones style on the front and then BANG! The boat hit ours, Red jumped, Tony nearly fell in, Libby waved, and the boat sped back to shore!

We were on our own. We made our up the Gironde passing Chateau Latour on our left. Meanwhile, Mike had done the rota system – Red and I were down for Watch at 4am.

Looking forward to day 2.

Follow the journey online at laithwaites.co.uk

One for the road ... or should I say the sea!

Tomorrow, I set sail for London aboard the good ship ‘Irene’. Normally when I travel I’d be worrying about what to pack … how many pants, socks, shirts? Will it rain? (Which jacket?) Will there be a heat wave in February? (Pack shorts, just in case …) But this time I’ve got to worry about packing something else much more important: 833 cases (or more specifically, 1666 half-cases) of the 2009 ‘Le Voyage’ wine!

Yesterday saw the wine dressed with label, paper wrapped, sealed and wooden boxed ready for the trip. For me, this is a real start-to-finish wine. I harvested the grapes back in September 2009, watched daily the ageing in barrel, bottled the wine and now I’m actually taking it to the customer! Just have to do the pouring on arrival and I think the job will be done.







































Bottled the 2010 SY today … a lovely little VdP d’Oc Syrah from the Midi. It’s a great wine to enjoy and drink now and I’ve kept it simple; just the like wine they serve at lunch down in the Midi. It has a deep colour and oodles of ripe black fig fruit with that classic ‘olive noir’ and ‘garrigue herbs’, so typical of the Midi. I think I’ll sneak a few bottles on board to remind me of the Midi!

I will be blogging and keeping everyone informed of our progress, plus, technology permitting, you can follow the 'Irene's' live progress here. See you in London on the 19th of May!

Visit laithwaites.co.uk