Crew Blog

Angles ‘r’ Us

04 February 2008

“Hello, good evening and welcome”, this report is coming to you from our intrepid reporter somewhere in the South China Sea. I could hazard a guess as to our current position but since leaving Singapore our daily routines have been so involved wrestling with endless variations on angles that our collective brain cells appear to be a little on the fuzzy side.

As was previously reported, nearly all of our time has been spent at a jaunty angle of around 25 degrees - ( plus or minus the odd five degrees), throw in the odd tack or 20 and our days and nights are mostly spent lurching from one side to the other, trying to catch the odd flying plate, other piece of equipment or, for those lucky enough to be in bed, adjusting their bunk in anticipation of the jocular “Lee Hoe” before either crashing into the bulkhead or falling out onto the floor. However, whilst horizontal angles differ in magnitude, vertical angles also range somewhere between minus 15, and I am sure near to vertical itself and are just as daunting. The outcome of such undulation(s) causes a range of responses, some from the downright unprintable, to the more common hysterical laughter especially when associated and accompanied by bucket loads of water. To the uninitiated, this is when the boat meets a wave, (usually head on) climbs to its highest point and then comes back down into its trough with an almighty crash which sends judders throughout the boat and everyone in it. This we now call slamming. To make life even more interesting however, we often attempt to get the wave to crash over us at the same time when cascades of water are evenly distributed throughout the boat, especially over anyone lucky enough to be on deck, or indeed near enough to the hatch to take a soaking. We have now called this Dunking. So to all you basketball fans out there Slam Dunking has taken on a whole new meaning.

Of course all of this entertainment is by way of ten boats trying to beat each other to Qingdao and whilst dependent on the skill of the crews this can often be influenced by the wind direction. At the time of writing I believe that nine of us are all pretty evenly matched (go Jamaica go), sailing at approximate apparent angles (yes more) of between 35 and 40. Owing to the direction of the winds and the number of tacks involved, this usually means travelling twice the normal distance to cover the straight line distance required, usually for each tack. The distances are for the little people to work out, (but especially Year 6 at The Academy), - it’s all in the triangles - equilateral or right angled, see if you can do it! All of this would of course suggest that I haven’t a clue where we are, but I haven’t spent nearly five months on this boat without being able to read the numbers, its just that I have to find the chart thing that goes with it to find out exactly where we are! Just for the record it’s 12.25.730N - 114.17.126E. Impressive eh! Another little task for those at home see if you can find us.

For all you folks watching out there, it’s not too bad really and no one said it was going to be easy. Once again, to all friends, family and followers, thank you for your supporting comments and although I understand that the weather isn’t too brilliant where you are at the moment, I’m sure that the snowdrops and crocuses will soon be tempting you into thoughts of spring and blue skies! For us, just around the corner, I believe China is experiencing its worst winter for 50 years, so if you can blow some warmth our way it will as ever be gratefully appreciated.

This is an Angles Production coming to you on this special day from somewhere in the South China Sea.

Safe and Happy Sailing,
John