Blogs

---

Approaching Tristan De Cuhna Islands – 04 November 2009

I am now half way across the South Atlantic between the tip of Africa
and South America en route to Cape Town. Our lat and long is currently
34 23.019S 22 50.41W. and we will dip further south if the weather
systems dictate. Yesterday we had a first taste of Antartic weather
systems with a bitter wind from the south meaning all our thermal
layers, wooly hats and oilies were required for those on watch. We have
had some mixed weather systems over the past few days, with the wind
direction doing a full 360 degree turn throughout 48 hours. It has meant
we have had the spinnaker up and down, plus our white sails taking us
through from close hauled to a beam reach. We are heading south east
directly down our rhum line now with our heavy weight spinnaker up doing
10-12 knots. Over the next few days we will scoop over the top of the
remote Tristan De Cuhna Islands, a place very few people have the
oppurtunity of visiting or even getting close to. This makes it feel
even more special how south and how remote we are. Everyday now we have
several albatross smoothly gliding around us, their wing span is massive
and ideally built for the Southen Ocean. Seeing an albatross was one of
things I imagined a year ago would be a wonderful sight and they have
not let me down. One of our crew saw a whale breach 30 meters in front
of the boat yesterday both terrifying and awe inspiring.

I have been a watch leader for a week now, so I have been more stressed
than I was during leg one. My role is to be a leader of my watch, giving
the crew target speeds and courses to steer, monitoring performance and
sail plans. When the skipper is asleep I am in charge and responsible
for ensuring the crew and boats safety. I had a particularly challenging
watch two evening ago whereby we had been sailing all afternoon with the
spinnaker up in some fairly tough conditions. The wind was clocking
around our starboard side and we were sailing on a beam reach. All of a
sudden things started to feel wrong, the spinnaker began flapping and
moving in through the inner forestay. The helm is confused and unsure
which way to turn. By the time skipper was on deck, the boom was on the
opposit side and we had broached to leeward and had the heavy weight
spinnaker pinned against the firestay. Within a few minutes the skipper
had righted the boat and the spinnaker came free unscathed, it was a
close call. We learnt that night that you can never become complacent
with a spinnaker up or take your concentration away from it for a
minute. Thankfully no one was hurt and neither was our boat, a learning
experience that we have to go through.

We are slowly trying to gain on the leaders of the pack at the moment,
making our way up the positions in the fleet. We are expecting another
ten days at sea before reaching Cape Town and hoping to get that podium
position we so desperately need. To be a watch leader on a boat making
it into a podium position would be a great. I am learning a lot and
getting everything out of this experience as I can, reading the books,
analysing the numbers, helming the boat, helping out on the deck and
leading a small team during evolutions. I have a lot more to learn but
thats why I am here.