Race 3 - Day 18
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 18: Cape Town to Fremantle
18 November

The Sounds of the Sea by Neil Stafford

Friends, family and followers of the Pink Panther,

I mentioned in my last blog that I would try and give you a flavour of the noises you hear while living on a 70 ft racing yacht.

They vary from the normal everyday noises to get at home, typical boat noises to bad boat noises. These bad boat noises cause you to get up and put a life jacket on somewhat automatically.

So I hear you ask, “What are normal everyday noises ?”

These class as noises that you would get at home, on dry land or in any normal life circumstance. Admittedly there are less of these on a boat for various reasons, mainly because we just don't have the luxuries of coffee machines or smoothie makers in the middle of the ocean.

So to list a few of the every day noises they are things like:

1. A kettle boiling with a whistle on the gas stove (we have one kettle for the 20 on board so a round of brews is somewhat of a mission)

2. Music playing normally in the middle of our “dog watch” while we all eat and this is provided by a Bluetooth speaker or as Lance would call it a “boom boom box” and the selection normally comes from the Mothers (cooks for the day) play list and I think so far we would all say that Wozza has the best selection of music.

3.Laughter... this happens regularly on the Pink Panther mainly because of how funny some of our crew can be and how well we all get on. My favourite moment from the last few days has to be Nigel helming in the sunshine while Lance and Wozza and Steve are sitting in the Cockpit area of the boat when a wave literally lands on them from above with no notice (I think the roar of laughter from us all may have woke the other watch up!)

So there are more normal noises on a boat but for now I am going to move on.

Boat noises... these are noises that only a boat by means of the equipment used to run the boat or just the fact boats are in water,

1. Waves – Waves make all sorts of noises from splash noises to rushing water noises to a juddering noise or a bang and this all depends if you are sailing upwind or downwind. Generally upwind is constant banging as you smash into waves and they hit the bow of the boat and plenty of water splashing over the side. While downwind can be quite quiet really but with the constant rushing water noise close to your head while you are laying in your bunk and the occasional judder of the bow as you surf down the waves at great speed.

2. Winches – These are the cause of most of the noise on a boat and believe me you prefer to have got to sleep or be on watch while a sail change is happening as its not the best noise to help you sleep and they are conveniently located about 12 inches above your bunk. This noise can only be described as a ratchet noise of cogs clicking over other cogs constantly and normally a squeaking noise as the rope tension increases as it put under load.

3. Pots and pans – The noises these make define everyday life on board (especially when on Mother duty). Normally mid-serving dinner, you hear “ready to tack” or similar from on deck and a moment later every pot, pan, bowl or cup flies from one side of the boat to the other. I don't have to explain this noise as I am sure you get the idea of the racket it makes and the sight of two people trying to hold down 20 bowls with only two hands each. While casually the people on one side of the saloon lift their legs and place them on the galley wall while the ones on the other rest theirs.

4.Pumping the Heads – The Heads are what we call our toilets on board and if you have followed our blogs from leg 1 then you have a pretty good understanding about how they work etc etc etc, They have to be pumped 30 times and you can hear the hand pump going from the saloon and the contents moving around the piping on the boat out to the sea .

5. Nearly forgot the most common daily noises as they blur into the background when you are so used to them... the Generator and the water maker both have a hum, the generator like a engine running and the water maker that produces a very unique pumping sound for hours on end every day. We need these for the obvious reasons to give us power on the boat and to produce water from the sea water round us for us to drink and cook with etc. So clearly these sounds are quite comforting if very annoying when you are trying to sleep.

Moving on... bad boat noises. These as explained earlier are the noises you stand up and put on your life jacket when you hear them to head out on deck as you will may be needed to sort something out.

It's actually really hard to explain these as the difference in the bangs of the (boat normal or bad) comes with living on one for months on end.

1.The forestay damage noise – As you will have read in previous blogs from Claire and Steve about the damage to our forestay when this happened, the noise was like we had just hit something at the front end it was the loudest of bangs and one of something exploding after being under great load. It also came on a pretty calm morning while we were eating breakfast in a quiet saloon.

2.The sails exploded noise... this noise is quite special. You would think it would sound like a tearing as they are fabric but when “done properly” they literally go with a huge exploding BANG and the sail has exploded from the centre outwards to the edges. NOTE:- This should when racing a yacht not be chosen to be heard regularly (you do not want to look Mikey and Helen in the face) knowing the work involved to fix one.

I am sure there are plenty more noises I just can't think of while sat here in the saloon in the middle of the night but I hope this gives you the general idea..

News Flash! Laughter update: just been on deck for the last 4 hours and between me and Claire we managed to have a quite large water fight using a 70ft racing yacht and some waves... both soaked to the skin (that's at least 3 layers and foulies) but have laughed a lot in the last 4 hours. Think Sophia might have also got caught in the cross fire unfortunately

In other news, we are only a few days away from arriving in our first stop in Australia and for those of us that have been on from the start in Liverpool it is starting to sink in that we have sailed nearly half way round the world arriving some what longer after if we had flown. Would have far less a sense of achievement and with less friendships gained. For me arriving in Australia is extra special as my birthday is race start day from Fremantle and will be seeing my Mum and sister for the first time in nearly 4 months to enjoy the run up to Christmas in Sydney.

Hope you're all enjoying the pictures sent from out pink boat as much as me and the crew enjoy taking them.

Written By Neil “Elvis” Stafford

Remember to “Think Pink” Team Liverpool 2018