Archive for September, 2009
Last night we had a major drama - we had to rerig all the spinnaker gear while flying the spinnaker because of chafe issues. So that was a mammoth task which luckily I didn’t have to get involved in.
But during the process, Turbo decided that he could beat a spinnaker into submission and lost, losing all the skin off his hands as the halyard tore through them.
I however, missed all this excitement, as I’ve been on motherwatch for what seems like ages. This involves cooking for everyone for 24 hours. It is a nightmare job. The sheer quantities involved means lifting the huge pots is exhausting. I had the joyous job of going through all the veg that had gone off, sifting out any usuable stuff and cleaning it, peeling it and cooking with it. Lots of it was liquid and absolutely reeked. Then I had to make up new recipes on the fly. For 18 people. Plus there are the constant requests for tea and coffee which means ensuring you always have hot water on the go. And then there’s the washing up. My good god. It’s all done in sea water. The top layer of my hands has now come off after spending so long in salty water.
We also have to chuck everything over board except plastic. Plastic you as motherwatch have to wash out and scrunch down small and we stow it until we get to Rio.
It’s meant to be ‘an easy day off’. It’s not. And it’s so incredibly hot and we’re not even in the tropics yet. I am dreading that now because I’m starting to get an idea of just how hot it will be.
I also washed some of my clothes today as they were covered in vomit (I had to wash down the decks after one of the Chinese crew was ill earlier this week). It’s not easy washing things in salt water and right now my knickers are flapping in the wind on the guard rail - a delightful sight for all, especially as my knickers are fairly old and grey and vile.
But at least I managed to spend all my motherwatch time down below without feeling seasick - so hopefully I’m over any feelings of queasiness.
Today is our 6th day at sea but it seems a lot longer because you live the full 24 hours when you’re on watch. Last night I didn’t sleep a wink due to all the commotion on deck directly above my head. AM a bit pooped.
Yesterday we saw two pilot whales surfing the sea next to us and a bit later, a huge pod of about 100 dolphins coming at us from all sides, jumping over the waves. It really was an awesome sight and made me realise why doing this crazy thing is worth all the hard slog.
PS -we’re about 60 miles off madeira island. we can see a beautiful sunset and one of the smaller islands off it on the horizon. Makes a change from the wide expanse of sea we’ve had for the last few days.
September 29th, 2009
So we set off from La Rochelle yesterday at long last. We slipped lines at 7am and headed out for a sail formation, led by the boat Joshua which was the boat that Sir RObin Knox Johnston raced against when he went around the world.
Then we had our race start which I skippered again. It wasn’t a brilliant start but better than last time. Think we were about 4th over the line. But there was absolutely no wind. NOt a breath. Any other race would have been abandoned but not this one, you just had to try and make the boat go. Good practice for the doldrums. We tried to use our spinnaker for too long while the other boats opted for windseekers which meant we ended up at the back. AGain. Skipper admitted it was his mistake.
Our watch had a very long day as we had to stay on deck from when we got up till 8pm - but because we had to adjust for time zone changes, we basically stayed on watch till 10pm. A very long day but we saw a beautiful sunset and some amazing stars.
We were back up at 4am for a watch till 8am. We saw a big pod of dolphins and a stunning sunrise. The Bay of Biscay is weirdly calm (we are extremely lucky as it’s mostly very, very bumpy) and we’ve just had gentle 10 knots downwind flying spinnakers. Sure is different from my normal morning.
Despite starting off far back, we had a good strategy to keep to port of the fleet and it paid off. This morning we were lying in 3rd place. Not sure where we are now as I’ve just had a sleep and my first on board shower. This involves using a shower head in a tiny space. The water you wash yourself with is salt water, but you can rinse with fresh water that is pumped out of a container using a very fine spray.
It is already VERY hot - you can’t sleep with anything covering you. And we haven’t even got close to the tropics yet. Right now we are headed for Cap Fenestre in Portugal before heading down south to the Canaries.
I’m very tired as haven’t slept well - too much excitement - and I have a VERY stiff neck from staring up at the top of the sail for hours. must go because it’s time for cleaning. Will send more news soon.
September 29th, 2009
We are now running down the side of Portugal, having rounded Cap Fenester, very close to land. Weird to see the beautiful spanish mountains really close by but not actually going there - so I’ve still not been to Spain but I’ve seen it!
We’re currently lying 2nd but Australia is hot on our heels. We’ve all been working on our downwind helming, trying to navigate by stars and today I plan to try and learn how to surf waves to build boat speed without collapsing the spinnaker. we’ve also done multiple spinnakers hoists, repacking of them, gybing them and lugging sails about. changing spinnakers at night is hairy when you can’t see what you’re doing.
We’re all trying really hard to keep concentration up so that when we’re on watch, we’re always in race mode. Last night we did have a momentary lapse as we were cruising downwind in the dark with beautiful stars out and we spoke quite a lot of rubbish -but it was fun to relax for a moment.
Life on board is fine - although sleep is very broken we still get quite a bit of rest - much needed as the physical work is killer. Just getting into my bunk is hard work. I can feel i’ve already lost weight and my tummy muscles are in better shape than they’ve been for years.
We’re now on route to the Canaries. And it’s going to get hot! Am loving it all.
September 29th, 2009
We arrived in France, 3 days after setting off from Hull thanks to a strong following wind. Unfortunately, we came 9th. We had managed to creep up into the middle of the fleet but due to a couple of mistakes, we dropped back. However, two of the other boats might be disqualified as they took a short cut that they shouldn’t have.
We’re now sitting anchored off La Rochelle, waiting to go into the marina. It’s midnight, it’s raining and cold. But we’re on anchor watch.
I am taking five minutes out to type this.
Life on board in a watch system is interesting. We have 3 watches - 2 watches are on for 6 hours each during the day, and then all 3 watches are on for 4 hours at night. You end up going to bed in the morning and waking up at night. I feel like jetlagged bat.
I’m also seriously stiff, bruised and constantly damp. It is impossible to stay dry. Apparently there aren’t any shower facilities in La Rochelle for us to use so we might be staying stinky as we continue onto Brazil (we leave next week Monday or Tuesday so quite a long stay in France fixing the boats).
We’re all determined to do better in the race to Brazil so keep tracking us online.
September 29th, 2009
We’re on day 2 and its been pretty full on. We didn’t get a brilliant start as we didn’t want to be over the line and incur penalties. But I got to helm at the start which was cool. I get to say that I helmed the start of an around the world yacht race! Leaving Hull was awesome with thousands and thousands of people cheering us on and tug boats putting on a water display for us.
We gradually caught up with the fleet but we’ve had a series of things go wrong - spinnaker halyard snapped, vang broke twice, spinnaker got a rip in it, and then last night we had a force 7/8 gale coming behind us, so we set a conservative sail configuration which resulted us ending up back of fleet again. But we’re all well rested, well fed and ready to chase the others down. Had great fun negotiating shipping traffic last night. Now shooting past channel islands and aiming for north west tip of France.
I felt a bit seasick on the first night but quickly forgot all about it while we spent 3 hours trying to do a headsail changes, sitting on the foredeck in the dark getting very wet. I’ve never been so knackered but we did it in the end.
Had my first wet wipes shower today. It’s amazing how clean you can feel just using an antibac wipe. My hair looks like I’ve been pulled through a bush backwards though.
My bunk is very comfy - despite being the hospital bunk and more claustraphobic than most. And after hours on deck it is lovely to crawl into.
That’s it for now. We should be in France in about 36 hours or so.
September 29th, 2009
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