Crew Blog

Heavy weather, heavy shipping

10 February 2008

I’ve been concerned that those crew members on this leg only might never truly feel what it’s like to be fully challenged on the open ocean in a racing yacht. On the way to Singapore from Fremantle we never even took our foul weather gear out of the wet locker. That half of this leg was all down wind, flat boat, bare feet, bare limbs and sun tan lotion. The most clothing we ever needed was a breeze jacket on a few of the night watches.

That’s not an issue any more. These last few days have been the roughest of the entire voyage, far worse than anything the southern ocean had to show us. Every four hours saw one group of crew members zipping up, wrapping up, and pulling up hoods to go on deck with another group, exhausted and dripping of sea water, struggled simply to get down the companionway ladder without being tossed off it mid way. 

Every time this boat heels hard in the wind, though I know it feels like 45 degrees much of the time, I know it’s actually only 30 degrees or so. However while on the helm in theses last two days of Force 8-9 winds, I know that several times I saw the mast lay over momentarily at least 50 degrees and could hear the noise below of the shifting pans, flying books, and unattended personal items changing sides of the boats. 

Everyone, night or day, wears two safety lines, so that if we need to reattach to a different hard point, we can attach the second before releasing the first. Safety is always first. We were challenged, but no one felt threatened. It’s amazing what these boats can take, for we’ve certainly put this one through its paces these last 48 hours.

And if that wasn’t enough, we also had the heavy traffic of the China Sea to contend with.

Spirits are high, however, despite our performance in the storm dropping us back quite a few places overall. There’s still 700 miles to go. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Timothy Ettridge