Crew Blog

The End of an Adventure

14 February 2008

And now, the end is near, the final curtain….

Well, today the sixth race was officially finished and also my little adventure on the seas, away from the office. I’ve been thinking what I’ve achieved and I can safely say a lot! In the space of three months, I’ve lost weight. So much so that none of my trousers fit any more without judicial use of sail ties. I’ve developed bruises on muscles I never knew I had, gained upper body strength thru excessive winch grinding but lost aerobic fitness on my legs from long hours sitting on the rail.

There have been plenty of laughs, a few at my expense. Not being tall in stature, I was filmed trying to climb up the downhaul and reach up to spike the spinnaker clew for a drop and watched Marcus spike it, as I was taking too long, by simply…well… standing on the deck. Another time I got asked to climb up the mast to retrieve the topping lift and promptly got stuck at the top! How all my safety lines got twisted I’ll never know.

I’ve felt what I thought was extreme heat crossing the Equator sailing to Batam. Met Neptune and his court and got covered in three-day old slop, proudly becoming a Shellback. As we head towards Qingdao, I think I’ll be feeling the extreme cold during the night watches!

I’ve seen plenty of wildlife. Dolphins dancing on our bow wave, a seal sunbathing 1000 nautical miles from Fremantle, majestic albatrosses in the Southern Ocean and flocks of flying fish with gannets acrobatically diving down to feed on them. Alas, sadly, no sharks.

I’ve experienced a great deal, a few lows but a lot more highs. One thing for sure - I did it my waaaaaay!

Pirate Steve