Leg 1: London to Rio
We have a few minutes of reception off the Canary Islands, so trying to get a quick post published! I'm afraid no photos possible though.
Crew members
Starboard crew - me, Ros, Pablo, Jan, Leo, John, Karri, Andrew, Tino, and Amancio
Port crew - Ana, Lucy, Chris, Sean, Suzie, Lazlo, Patsy, Jesse, Mick, and Emily
and Huw as Skipper!
Days 1 - 7, August 31st - September 6th, 2015
Sunday morning, race start day, was full of excitement! We had one of many team meetings to get us focused on the tasks ahead...although technically the race started on Sunday but lots of events to get through including going through the teams and then parading the boats under the Tower Bridge! After the parade we set off to moor for the night in Queensboro.
I had a friendly face in the crowd! Thanks to Jane, my sister-in-law, for coming out to support!
On Monday, the race officially started around mid day. We were still doing last minute repairs to the boat and barely got our yankee up in time for the start of the race! Our goal was just not to hit any of the other boats and stay somewhere in the middle of the fleet. We decided to head straight out to have a better position once we had the spinnaker out, so we ended up being the last one with the kite up, but it paid off later on when we overtook several boats and ended up in the middle of the fleet!
Today is day 2? I've already lost track of the days! Yesterday, I was on mother watch, which means you make the meals and clean up for the day. Unfortunately, my mother watch partner was out for the count with seasickness so I had to handle the load for the entire boat. It is a lot of freakin work! Not to mention, I was only going on about 3 hours at this point since I got caught staying out late on a watch helping out with a gybe and then got up earlier on another watch to help wool the kite. Luckily, many crew members offered to pitch in and help at times, but Amancio was star helping out with all my questions!
Towards the end of my mother watch, we had our first bit of a scare. As I'm below deck, I just hear from above, there is a boat on our port side, we are going to hit them! Mind you this is in the middle of the night and there isn't much visibility. I about near had a heart attack, thinking this is day 2 and we are about to sink the ship already! I frantically called for Huw to get up on deck, but our crew was able to nearly miss the boat or so it seemed from down below deck. Turns out the boat was on autopilot with no one on deck keeping watch. So they were in a collision course straight towards us from behind and didn't even know! Lesson learned, don't ever sail at night with no one on deck! and remember to look backwards for oncoming boats when up on watch.
Today was a great day and helped that I got about 8 hours of sleep as a reward for mother duties! Not necessarily in terms of sailing though, we may have been drifting backwards at one point since we were against the tide with no wind, but weather-wise it was nice and sunny and only one quick light shower and then....we saw our first whale!!!! Woowho! I was currently off watch taking a nap in my bunk. Jesse had been by about a half hour or an hour before to announce dolphins but that is old news now. Then I heard the shouts from above that there was a whale! I jumped between the top bunk and my lee cloth and flew to the wet locker, threw on my life jacket and was on deck in probably less then 30 seconds! It usually takes me 30 minutes to get up on deck, so this was an enormous feat. And low and behold, there was a whale! It wasn't very close but close enough we could see the tale, it come out of the water and blow water out. Still quite cool! And just as I'm writing this now, another set of dolphins rolled in! Okay, so they are not old news yet, still exciting every time you see them. I think I got these ones on video, so hopefully I can figure out a way to post that!
Day 3: Wednesday, September 2, 2015
We had another doozy last night. MOB! Man overboard. It was around 10:00 pm and dark outside with just the stars lighting the sky. The wind was picking up so we needed to change the code 1 spinnaker to code 3. We got the code 1 dropped nicely and down below deck. Code 3 was rigged and ready to go. We did the hoist and it went up perfectly without dropping in the water. Then we noticed the line was caught inside the runner preventing us from pulling the sheets in. Amancio and I were closest so we pulled the sheets in to try and retie the sheet outside the runner. Amancio was working on the knots and I was holding the line with the assistance of Andrew who had just come up to help out. Suddenly the wind picked up and the spinnaker blew open, snapping the sheets from Andrew and I, slamming my arm into the shrouds. The kite was flailing everywhere. We tried to get it under control but there was no chance now with the wind up. We were ducking to keep the sheets from flogging us. Amancio ran up to the bow to try and control the sheets from there and I followed behind him. We tried several times but the wind was too strong and kept pulling the sheets from our hands. By this time, the off watch was up and a new crew member came up to the bow to try and help us. We tried to explain the wind was too strong but he took a shot anyway. On about his third try, the sheets pulled from his hands but he didn't let go and he went flying over the side with the sheets! I'd never seen a 6'5, strong man flailing in the wind like that before. It was the scariest thing I'd ever seen. Do I shout man overboard or not? He was still attached with his safety strap but he was overboard and his line could snap at any moment. My efforts to help were fruitless and I shouted back, "He has gone overboard but he is still clipped on! Get someone up here to help!" Jan runs to the bow and they somehow successfully pull him back onboard.
At this point the kite is still going crazy and is wrapped several times around the forestay. Skipper yells at us to drop the kite, we all take our positions to pull the kite in as it comes down. We get as much in and down the hatch as possible, but now we have to struggle to get the bit that went into the water out. We finally get it in with some extra effort. We've now lost about an hour and need to get something else up quick as we are still in a race, so next we get ready to hoist the yankee 1. We get that up with no other issues. We all go back to the cockpit and go through a debrief with Skipper of what happened. Now there are two kites to wool and we need to check the code 3 for any rips and tears, we are now an hour over our shift and are set to get up in two and half hours later for our next shift.
Day 4: Thursday, September 3, 2015, Happy Birthday to Ana and Karri!!!
Today we celebrated Ana and Karri's birthdays. Ana is the party planner on the boat so she did all the decorations, hung up signs and balloons so when we got up for our watch the boat was ready to party! However when it came time for cake decorations, she had a hard time letting go of the reigns and trusting someone else to make a decent cake. Little did she know she was working with the person in charge of making birthday cakes at her previous job! Ana sat by anxiously while I frosted the cake, then we sent her and Karri up on deck, not to return so the final decoration would be a surprise. With very cautious hands on a shaky boat and many prodding fingers trying samples of the frosting, we ended up with a great looking cake representing our Visit Seattle pride! I had to be a bit creative with the corner since the cake doesn't cook flat on a tilted boat and we ended up with a missing corner! All and all good fun!
Sailing wise, there wasn't much wind and just as the wind started to pick up while I was helming, the tack line blew and the spinnaker went flying. As a team, we are already learning what to do in these situations. Someone ran to grab Huw, but we were already dropping the sail as he was coming up taking quick action to get it down. Mission Performance was right on our tails, so we didn't want to lose too much ground with only the main sail up, so we quickly rehoisted the spinnaker from the hatch at the bow and somehow successfully pulled this off in time before Mission Performance was able to overtake us! Meanwhile I was still at the helm during this trying not to steer us in to too many circles!
Day 5, Friday, September 4, 2015
The wind finally picked up today! We were hitting up to 22.4 knots of speed! Definitely some champagne sailing! I got to do some fun stuff up at the bow too! I helped prepare one of the tack lines which involves going out to the bow and sitting on the bow sprit which is the little bit that hangs out in front of the boat. While tethered on, I scoot out on my butt and then wrap my legs around the sprit connecting to the bottom of the boat and then pass the tack line around the front. It was awesome! Was like I was flying over the sea! I'll have to get back up there the next time the dolphins are swimming with us!
The previous night's watch from 11 pm to 3 am was quite fun! I decided to play 40 questions with everyone on the grinder to find out more about them. It was great fun and we all got to learn a little more about each other and funny random facts. The fun continues tonight!
Day 6: Saturday, September 5, 2015
Nothing to report today...absolutely no wind. Not sure if we even moved a couple of miles. Complete 180 from yesterday after almost breaking a Clipper record for distance covered in a certain amount of time by these boats. On the bright side, it was warm outside so we got to shower and shave on the deck! Such luxuries! No rain water, but just filled a bucket with salt water, use some salt water shampoo and then a quick rinse with a cup of fresh water and you are like a whole new person! Might as well shower while the conditions are nice!
We are also finding ways of exercising on the boat when we aren't doing anything. So far we've had some plank competitions, squats, step ups on the deck, sit ups on the bean bag while trimming and of course grinding! To make it a bit more interesting, I've added the yankee sheet on our shoulders for added weight when doing squats, lounges, step ups, etc. and also used for arm presses.
Day 7: Sunday, September 6, 2015
Last night we found out the devastating news about Andrew from the Icorcoal boat. I think it happened Friday night when the wind had picked up during the night. We don't know much but sounds like he was knocked unconscious from getting hit by the boom of the boat and didn't make it. This is the first time since the Clipper race has started that anyone has died during the race. We are only a few days into the race and it is a reminder to the rest of us to remain safe and stick to the safety procedures that the training has laid out for us. My thoughts and prayers go out to Andrew's family and friends and especially the team of Icorcoal who must be deeply affected by this. We had a moment of silence today on each of the Clipper boats at 1:00 PM UTC in remembrance of Andrew.
Random Photos:
This photo is for Tiffers...porridge!
Roz working her reflexology on my continuously numb hands.
Me trimming the spinnaker.
Me on the helm...I can barely see over!
Don't think you can beat this daily view!
Me trimming with Amancio on the helm.
Andrew in the sunset with me on the grinder.
Tino with his Barbadian sauces!
Jan and Lazlo on mother watch in the galley cooking up some dinner.