Race 3 - Day 1
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 1: Cape Town to Fremantle
01 November

What an experience this Clipper Race is! Our last blogs leading into Cape Town were from the perspective of a team isolated in the South Atlantic Ocean just fighting for every minute of time not for any result but simply for an extra minute on land. We had expected a welcoming party, but what we got blew us away and lifted us up. Arriving mid-afternoon on a beautiful sunny Saturday, we found Clipper boats in their berths with sailors on every one, the choir signing, dock filled with spectators, and the beautiful Table Mountain in the background.

We were honoured to receive the #StormhoekSocialSpirit award. I had personally felt that we as a team had spirit to overcome our setback, however when the award was presented the line was something like, "for the spirit Team PSP Logistics has shown, and how it inspired the whole Clipper Fleet to rally together to help get PSP Logistics turned around and ready for the next race." So we had the bubbles to spray and a pennant to fly but the spirit was the whole Clipper family and for that our team is truly thankful.

I'd love to say more about Cape Town but the time was just too short. The people were amazingly helpful and friendly and the scenery breathtaking. My local coffee shop / cafe was Bootleggers in Green Point. My first morning I rolled in and asked if they made a Flat White (very Kiwi style of coffee) and was welcomed in with the response, "Of course, we make the best Flat Whites." It was the best as was the breakfast too so I ate there each morning. I guess the short stop means I will just have to return with my family and explore the whole of South Africa another time.

So our other big surprise on arrival to Cape Town was our team debrief. This we expected as standard arrival procedure but were blindsided by our Skipper Roy's resignation. His explanation that he felt we were a competitive team that wanted to race hard and he was a cruising skipper that enjoyed stopping in at Islands makes sense. But we had shown ability in Leg 1 to take it carefully and route plan to good effect so we didn't feel that his desire to cruise had done anything other than settle us into a strong safe team. Then again, a year out of your life with a hectic two week turn around is far from a cruise so we fully support Roy in his decision. The processes put in place and new Skipper Matt Mitchell soon had our minds at rest when he laid out his sea miles in the Clipper 70s. The only clue (that none of us picked up on) was a full team refresher sail, not just the new joining leggers, which was to take up half a day of our two days on land suddenly made sense.

So now we are off again, with 6 new leggers, new Skipper, and a bunch of new Garmin tech on board. The start was fun, we opted for a smaller sail plan and to keep our spinnakers in the locker which was a sound decision. As we were only going to get 1 point out of Race 2, and a very short turn around, we sailed from South America to South Africa under white sails only. If we had popped a kite up it could have been disaster as we were super rusty. As we sailed around the bay we could see a big kite up on Garmin only to notice moments later their Code 1 was waving out behind, either an accidentally tripping of the tack or an issue with the clew. Then GREAT Britain hauled us in with their big Code 1 but later as we watched them sail deep they had troubles gybing. So feeling satisfied with our decision and 2nd behind Sanya Serenity Coast around the last mark we headed for the Southern Ocean.

First nights seem to be a thing for PSP Logistics and Leg 3 was no different. Port watch was on deck and Nigel Holcombe on the helm when a thud was felt. Skipper Matt was quick on deck having heard and felt it from the Nav Station and jumped on the helm. We had lost 3 knots of boat speed and the steering was heavy; Dave Wilson quickly checked the steering gear but unlike last time all was intact, so out with a spotlight and boathook to see if we had anything around the rudders. We were on Port tack so I leaned over the side and saw a line around the rudder, this was quickly removed but didn't resolve the issue and turned out to be a red herring. We gybed to get on starboard tack and lift the starboard rudder (the brand new one fitted by Sir Robin Knox-Johnson himself in Cape Town) up a little and instantly the boat handled better so we knew we'd found where the issue was. Again leaning over with boat hook in hand hanging from my knees like on monkey bars, I could see a dark mass stuck to the rudder. Using the boat hook I managed to shift the thing further down the rudder half a metre but now out of reach of the boathook. I was exhausted and was pulling myself up when Matt turned a little and our unidentified object slipped off the rudder. No damage done, but clearly some confusion as to what we hit, and why we keep on hitting objects with our Starboard rudder.

Life on board is now into routine. This was a long blog due to being the first but we will as a team work to get daily (shorter) blogs out.

Thanks to everyone for their support, the volunteers who cleaned and provisioned, the shore crew for the speedy safety checks, the partners and families back home. Big high fives, hugs and kisses depending on which category you fall into.

Goodbye Cape Town, it was not long enough but you gave us everything you had.

Ben Acland

PSP Logistics