25 September at 2000  September 2009 DDMC 12 Car Rally, Navigators View Point |   |
| Posted: Tuesday 01 December 2009 - 14:04:16 |
Another rally night about to commence, but it didn’t start in a very organised manner. Ending up with only half an hour to prep all three maps (how are we meant to fit three maps into a Mini?), get ready and have my tea, before Chris picked me up. On hearing the Mini turn up I quickly finished off my food and picked everything up. With a quick check that I had at least the three maps we were on our way to the start. Getting to the start in a decent time was good which meant that we had a bit of time to plot all the information that Amy gave us in the handouts, one part of this information actually made up some of the navigation later on. This also meant that we could enquire as to the format of code board that was to be used (didn’t want to get caught out again this rally). With the start being a little drive away we headed off into the lovely evening sunshine. As we lined up 7th and last for the start I think that we were both a little nervous of what lay ahead of us. 1st envelope opened and off we went into the lanes. A piece of paper which contained letters, numbers and symbols, took a little bit of working out before I soon got the gist of what was meant by them all, plotting on the move we left Bradford on Avon to the south west towards Westwood. Most of this plotting could be carried out without the need for the big light on in the car as it was still just light enough to see the maps and navigation. On departing from Westwood we came across another rally car going in the opposite direction to us, a little concerned I quickly checked the navigation and was happy that what I had plotted was correct, just confirmed by just after the next left there was a code board. Continuing south towards Frome I continued to plot on the move, nearly finishing just before we came across some slightly less straight and smaller roads. Plotting just finished in time for a long way round triangle which we took slightly on two wheels. Heading into TC2 we were just on our minute. Opening the next envelope I was faced with a page full of clock faces looking back at me. Plotting on the move again we headed off into the next section, where my first instructions to Chris were to turn left at the end of the road and then right at the first roundabout. Unfortunately the first roundabout we came across was not actually on the map so we ended up going into some back streets in Dilton Marsh with half of the other rally competitors around us, all looking a little bit confused as well. Luckily I soon worked out where we were and how to quickly get back onto the correct route. The clock faces took a little bit of working out but eventually just got there in time to help with navigating through the lanes between Chapmanslade and Lane End. A lot of the way I was only just one junction ahead of where we were on the road. Then with a little bit more plotting of the last line of navigation we found ourselves nearly into Longleat Safari Park as we could not find the left slot near Dertfords. Even on the way back up the same road we still could not find the slot, later we were told that it was a little hole in the hedge, that somehow that we managed to miss twice. Hoping that there was not a code board or two in this little loop we missed it out and headed for TC3 as not to loose too much time. At TC3 we came across a few other rally cars all parked up obviously plotting the next section. On opening the next envelope I could see why they were all plotting, 5 lines of mainly numbers with no spaces looked back at me. We headed off out of the control while I attempted to plot on the move. This worked almost very well, with only having to get Chris to stop twice so that I could plot some very tricky bits, mainly through Sutton Veny and Norton Bavant, which required a little bit of a steadier map which the Mini doesn’t always provide. Plotting on the move managed to keep our average speed up, but annoyed Chris a little bit as he wanted to drive the lanes properly. Changing maps for the fourth time we headed around Warminster towards TC4. Arriving at TC4 a little bit early we waited outside till our minute, but before this we had a torch waved at us and then Amy came to the car door for a chat. During our chat a moth wanted to also join in. When leaving the control we thought that we had got it out of the car, but hadn’t because it decided that it wanted to sit on the list of numbers for the navigation, causing a little bit of a problem, but Chris soon disposed of it out of his side of the car so that I could get on plotting the final section without interference. The list of navigation list of numbers contained both grid references and also crossing grid lines clues which took us through to Westbury and then off to the east to Bratton and Eddington, and yet another map change. Just as I had finished plotting this section we caught up with Jack and Dave who very gentlemanly let us past. This bit of the section was pretty open and flowing which Chris had fun in and somehow we pulled away from Jack and Dave!!!! Another two map changes later we arrived at the final TC. Somehow I think that we were the first crew at the finish, not 100% sure how though as we started last on the road. At the finish in the pub Chris and I were happy that we had had a enjoyable and good night, but not done amazingly well as we had not been able to find one slot in second section. But as we heard how other crews had done, we were amazed to come first. As usual I would like to take this opportunity to thanks the organisers Amy and Roger for a really good rally which was pretty busy for us navigators, and of course to the marshals who came out on a lovely evening to help make this event run. Thanks Rose [Submitted by Rose] Read/Post Comment: 0 |
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