Blogs

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40 degrees South

All the crew on borad Qingdao are suffering from Cape Town sickness,
its a confused sickness between 30 knots on the nose out here and the
wonderful hospitality we all recieved from the South Africans in Cape
Town. It was a truely wonderful stop over and one we appreciated so much
more because of the tougher conditions we faced on leg two. So here I am
on leg three from Cape Town to Western Australia, my final leg. On this
journey we will be dipping down into the roaring fourties and likely to
experience even more extreme weather and conditions than in the south
atlantic. I spoke to many other crew from other boats in Cape Town and
all of which were experiencing the nervousness I was feeling about this
leg. The boats can handle harsh conditions and as a crew we work through
all that is thrown at us. It is the ultimate team building experience
and between each person and each watch we share the load of what is to
come on this leg. There is a great reception waiting for us in Australia
and family to greet me in so I want to race hard and fast. After
passing the shadow of Table Mountain yesterday we were suddenly hit by
40 knots of wind which required us to work fast on dropping our sails
and putting in reefs. There was a collision between Cork and Hull and
Humber on the start with some major damage leaving them late starting from
Cape Town. We are currently trailing behind the other teams but I am sure
we can catch up. Amazing how quickly the fleet can seperate.

40 degrees South

I remember hoisting the main sail in the shadow of Table Mountain a week ago and skip commenting on it being up for the next few weeks as we make our way across the South Indian Ocean to Geraldton. One week later and we spend ten hours at fourty degrees south with our main sail on the deck doing some serious repair work, not something you want to be doing really. We have spent a week doing top fleet speeds and scheds and managed to close the gap between ourselves and the rest of the fleet. We were all working hard at achieving record speeds and reeling in the next boat in front of us. However things never run without small hiccups and you never know what is going to happen from one day to another.

We have had numerous amounts of incidents in the past week of sailing which began with a spinnaker halyard breaking, headsail hanks breaking, our port pole dropping into the sea and being dragged along by only the downhaul and guy. After the topping lift had come off the pole we had to dead end it and hoist the halyard to the top of the mast and wait for a day calm enough for someone to go up the mast and retrieve it.

Yesterday the early morning watch had conditions calm enough to send Wani up the mast to retrieve the pole topping lift and check the spinnaker halyards. Suddenly they noticed that the third reefing line had broken during the night. Our only option was to drop the main so that we could re-run a new reefing line. Then skip noticed a tear in the main sail around the third reefing cringle. Disaster!

Luckily the sea was calm and the wind had settled down so we put in the first reef and then dropped the rest of the sail down onto the deck in order for the repairs to begin. As we were dropping the sail out topping lift on the main broke. Disaster again! We safely managed to secure the sail and boom so that work could begin. It was all watches on deck for the entire day working hard with little sleep. After ten hours of stitching the hole in the main sail, the topping lift was repaired and reefing line re-run. We were all exhausted but a good days work had been done and we were ready to start racing again. We lost a few miles on the rest of the fleet during this time but we know we are fast and we can get back those miles over the next few days.

Every day is different at sea, and you have to be prepared to deal with any possible situation in any kind of condition. On Qingdao we are good at looking after our boat but the wind and the sea continue to battle against us and make us work hard for every mile we gain towards our destination for someone to go up the mast and retrieve it.