Down under

Voor iedereen die mijn blog volgt:

De allerbeste wensen voor 2010! Moge het jullie allen voor de wind gaan!


To everybody who reads my blog:

A very happy 2010. May the winds blow favourably!

200 miles to go

We are 200 miles off the coast of Australia, 14 miles ahead of our
nearest rival and we have been increasing our lead steadily over the
last 12 hours. The temperature of the seawater is pleasant now but
the weather is not too good. Low hanging clouds and the occasional
spatter of rain. The wind is picking up as we are getting closer to
shore and the waves are growing on us. All in all the perfect and
typical conditions of this trip from Capetown. The humidity inside
the accomodation has been the worst so far. The effects of hardly any
dry air and ventilation the cooking smeklls and the fact that 19 people
breathe in the same space are clearly noticable.
After 24 days at sea the smells inside are various and far from
pleasant. We have smelly leather boots smell, smelly rubber boots smell,
the smell of wet lifejackets, unwashed hair mixed with the smell of
sweat and mold. Then there is the undescribeble and definitely
nauseating smell that some people on this boat create when their sweat
reacts with some plastic fibres: the henri lloyd deck shoes are the
worst followed by some sleeping bag liners and thermal underwear.
When it gets wet outside and the forehatch has to remain closed this
cocktail of fragrances gathers momentum as it is carried on thick moist
air. Understandably I am glad to be either asleep or on deck.
As a gift to my nose I regularly open my bag with clean clothes (though
there are fewer and fewer of them left) in order to smell some
arftificial flowers: a very welcome change.
One more day to go if the wind does as it predicted and we will arrive
in the great town of Geraldton with lots of dry warm air. Let's hope
they have showers...

And the world turned pink

We are still deeply stuck in this high pressure area. To liven things up
a bit our steering wheel decided to come off the pedestal which made for
vbery interesting helming: one knee against the axis of the wheel in a
slightly skewed position with one eye on the sail and one on the dials
of the instruments. Not the most accurate way of driving but at least
the wheel stayed in place. In order to fix it we had to take the wheel
off and change to emergency steering. This consists of a short and
inverted tiller placed on top of the rudder stock. It works opposite the
way a tiller works and points in the same directrion as the rudder
blade. This also makes for interesting steering, especially since our
efforts to repair it took enough time to run out of daylight and into
pitch black again. Adding to the fun was the fact that we were
sailing with the big light weight spinaker up and in increasing winds.
Along the way we managed to finmd ourselves in the most spectacular
sunset display ever. The sun was dipping behind the western horizon and
in the process the clouds on the eastern sky turned pink. The pink
clouds created a pink reflection on the waves and the sea turned pink
and blue like a moving caleidoscope. Even the boat and sails turned soft
pink! It lasted for maybe 5 minutes but it was amazing.
Now we are battling 2.5 knots of wind ;-)
Another long 600 miles to go.

Boring!

I never thought it would happen but it did: I got bored while sailing.
We have just ended the most boring of all miles under sail. 800 miles of
reaching with only white sails up (No spinaker, no sail changes), in the
same windspeed from the same direction with the same seastate (apart
from the occasional but regular cluster of small waves) and the same
cloud cover (alto stratus) and the same distance ahead of
Spirit of Australia. Three and a half days of everything the same does
really get me bored. Maybe this is where the real challenge in this race
lies: how to overcome boredom. Despite the boredom I could still focus
on boat speed but it was a lot harder than when things a rapidly
changing.
All sorts of shitty things happen when I get bored. I start analysing
everything. First the current situation: how does the team work and
not work, what sort of characters are there on the boat, how do we
work together how can we improve working together. Al very tiring
stuff. After that I deal with the past and that is even more boring! At
the same time on a more positive not I am designing the interior of my
to be acquired boat and in parallel (if I ever find employment again
and manage to get a mortgage, which is apparantly easier for a house
than for a boat hence the parallel designing) my potential house. There
seems to be a big role in both projects for pipecots, white and blue...
My immediate surroundings does inspire me ;-)
Also when I get bored I have the need to do something: so I went up the
mast to recheck the cracks I found earlier to  ensure they were not
progressing. The wind has been around 20 knots but I managed to goup
in a slightly more quiet spell. Luckily... It was the ride of a
lifetime: I was swinging back and forth, collecting bruises from the
rigging and frantically trying to find grip on other halyards and
stanchions. No harm done eventually but I was dripping with sweat as I
came down. Bloody hell! Anyway the rig was in no worse state and
according to the experts who are safely behind their desks there is no
need to slow down, so we don't.
Last night the weather that we had anticipated already for 2 days
finally arrived. The weirdest thing I have ever come across. The wind
dropped about 10 knots and turned 40 degrees and within several minutes
it picked up and moved back to its old speed and direction, held there
for 15 minutes and then the pattern repeated itself. This lasted for almost 10 hours. Nothing I had ever expected to happen in the middle of the
ocean and really bizarre. It was hard to follow because there was no
moon out and the sky was overcast so there was no light from the stars
either and we had to adjust trim and focus on our course in the pitch
dark. A nice change though from the boring days.
Ahead of us and basically a round us is the last hurdle to Australia: an
impressive high pressure system that does not want to move. We expect 2
days of light airs and unfortunately this system casn make and break our
lead. We are really motivated to finish ahead of our rival Australia and
beat them into their home port.
I am looking forward to finishing the race this time. I can do with a
break from the boat and my new on board family and also very much look
forward to seeing my sister and spending time with her. 700 miles to go!

Southern highs and lows

This time no talk about weather systems but some real highs and a perceived low. On
a quiet morning watch the weather was good enough to do a rig inspection. Despite
the fact that I am not a rock climber and only a starting airacrobat I managed to
find myself in a harness going up the mast. The waves on deck seemes calm and the
boat was moving along smoothly but again this was on deck level. Once 35 m up the
world is different. Every wave you're being catapulted forward and then back and
you need all your limbs and muscles to control your body in order to actually carry
out some work. Tighten a few screws, check for damage (and found some...) and fix
what has come off. After the check I did a few sail repairs on the main again in
climbing harness and luckily only halfway up. By the time I was finished I was
absolutely exhausted. This was most definitely the most exhausting sewing
experience ever and the result is the probably the ugliest! Luckily we need to fix
things and not produce high fashion sails ;-)
I can now say I have been up the mast in the southern ocean! The view was
spectacular by the way. No sign of the ozzies anywhere around us and the boat
looked perfectly small. It must be a similar experience as the moonwalkers had.
The universe (the ocean) is big and our planet (our boat) is only a tiny dot in the
vast universe.
Speaking of our tiny dot: the humidity on board is terrible. Everything that gets
wet, stays wet. Every sleeping session in the sleeping bag ends with damp sweaty
T-shirt/undies, socks don't dry, books get soggy and there is no way of opening a
hatch. There is only one creature that really likes it in here and that is "mold".
My leecloth (that protects me from being propelled from my bunk) seems to be their
favorite hang out. I think it is because that thing is always wet because I live
underneath the only two vetilation points in the boat. Lucky me.
I have discovered this morning that these bunks are only suitable for short
sleeping spells. Yesterday I felt like a rag all of a sudden: massive headache,
nausea, blocked nose and stomach cramps. I skipped dinner and went straight to bed
and my watch ordered me to stay put for an extra 4 hours as nothing was happening
anyway. After a luxurious 12 hour I climbed back out aching all over. I could not
find any position that would not hurt my back or shoulders. Feeling much better
now and with a double lunch in my belly I shall now return to the feared bunk.
Hopefully the mold will stay out my sleeping bag, because that is my real home:
always toasty warm!
Oh and we are in the lead and expanding our lead while all the above was going on.

depressions and celebrations

We have had two days of the most fantastic sailing conditions: a flat
sea and constant wind of 20-25 knots. This resulted in an almost 30
hour spinaker run with constant speeds of about 11-12 knots straight to
Aussieland. As the weather system progressed the wind slowly turned to
our nose and we had another great spell of close hauled sailing. 20
hours of beating but at a slightly open angle (met een knik in de
schoot)and the boat went like a train and like a dream. None of its
usual hard helming work to keep it going straight. With northerly
winds the temperatures have been really good and some of us even managed
to go out in shorts! The sun rises and moon rises were due to the great
visibility and straight unwavy horizon absolutely spectacular.
But is is not called the southern ocean for nothing and the weather can
be very changeable. Last night we got rolled over by a frontal
depression bringing us rain and lots of wind. While putting a reef in
the wind increased to 35 knots  (still on the nose)  and we entered a
busy night. Headsail changes as waves were crashing over us sweeping
some of us a few meters across the foredeck, battling with the wind to
get our headsail down. It was spectacular, tough and believe it or not
great fun! After 12 hours of working our butts off with the enemy in
sight (Australia were a few miles off our bow) the result this morning
was that our sail wardrobe is back to the state it was in before the
wind hit us and we are now looking over our shoulder to find Australia.
Actually over our radar shoulder as they have vanished out of sight
during the morning.
While all of this is going on we had two celebrations in a row: Saint
Nicholas day (5 December) and Finnish independence day (6 December).
Both celebrated in style. We hoisted the finnish flag in place of the
British ensign on the back of the boat, had a crash course Finnish
history and closed the celebrations with army grub, fresh bread,
chocolate and Finnish vodka.
 
The next bit is in Dutch as I cannot be bothered to explain the
traditions around Saint Nicholas day.
 
5 december begon fantastisch met de beste zeilcondities denkbaar.
Terwijl ik in mijn laarzen gleed op weg naar dek stootte mijn teen op
een pakketje: Sinterklaas weet je ook overal te vinden! Een gedichtje,
een chocolade letter en een handpoppetje van het paard van Sinterklaas
in mijn  ene laars en een CD met sinterklaas liedjes in de andere. Een
hele leuke verassing. Ik denk dat de goed heilig man een zwarte Piet in
ons crash bulkhead heeft gestopt, want ik weet niet hoe hij dit anders
met zijn stoomboot of schimmel had kunnen regelen. Het was erg leuk weer
eens Sinterklaas te vieren (ook al viel dat 's avonds letterlijk in het
water) na drie jaar Londen zonder de gebruikelijke gezelligheid. Ik heb
een gedicht voor de boot gemaakt en hel;aas waren de chocolade letter s
niet op tijd geleverd in Kaapstad maar dat mocht de pret niet drukken.
Iedereen was geintrigeerd door de folklore en de handpoppetjes van sint
piet en schimmel kwamen goed van pas om eea uit te leggen. Om 2 uur 's
nachts toch nog warme chocolademelk en kruidnoten genoten na de
avonturen op het voordek. Nu enigzins uitgeput (net als na "normale
sinterklaas") maar dan van slaapgebrek enm fysiek inspanning en niet de
gebruikelijke kater. Dankje Sinterklaasje!
 
Back to realitty: last night we received a pan pan message from the
Search and Rescue unit oif the Ayustralian navy: be on the lookout for a
trimaran with 3 persons on board. They were last reported 600 miles
south of us and have not recieved their destination (Fremantle from Cape
town ) in time. Just shows how the seas can influence our plans and
lives. Let's hope they are OK and have only fallen off the
communaction world and not the real world.

3 December

After a cold and then lovely warm shower I managed to do some reflection
today. Hair clean, body refreshed, a clean set of thermals and a cleared
up mind. The whale incident earlier this week, which left us unharmed
luckily,  made me realise how fragile our existence is out here in the
southern ocean. We are more than a thousand miles away from human
civilisation and all the benefits and ease that that brings especially
when you break equipment or body parts. Out here there is not the
smallest sign of the big cities, office blocks, IT systems, shanty
towns, shopping malls, holiday resorts , traffic jams, wealth, poverty,
war and natural disaster that hide behind the horizon. Even the other
competitors and the possible adventurer sailing the same seas are
invisible to us and mere figments of imagination fed to us via satellite
communication. There is no trace of airliners crossing our path high
above us nor any shipping that will find us on its route. There is
nothing human here except us 19 people on a 68ft moving and hopefully
under all circumstances completely self supporting island and the boat
hook we lost this afternoon. Our world is small and vast at the same
time. The weather and sea state and course to steer determine our daily
routines. I think that if it wasn’t for the fact that we have these
routines and if we did not have to focus on the race we might lose
ourselves out here and get stuck between the horizons.
This is a special place, peaceful, desolate and as remote as the moon
(which came up beautifully yellow again this evening) and I  am enjoying
every second that I am here.
Unfortunately the job at hand entails trying to get through here as
quickly as possible or at least quicker than the competition and I have
to say that this is the only time I regret to be racing instead of
cruising.

We hit a whale

Luckily no serious damage has been detected and since our encounter with
the whale's tail we only slowed down during the night. At first light
and after losing some miles to the competition :-( we put the spinaker
back up for a cath up race to get some of the points at the scoring
gate. All looked pretty grim for some time with us in 4th place for the
gate which would mean zero points for TF again but... 30 minutes ago we
crossed the line in 2nd place : so finally we have scored some gate
points. Two to be exact.
The course we are sailing is quite demanding on the driver. We have a
poled out headsail and have been pushing against a strong current which
creates short choppy waves. The result is that the boat does not start
to glide and surf when the pressure in the sasils increases and it
feels like a tonne of bricks in a tumble dryer. After a series of
driving sessions of 3 and a half hours in total I was absolutely
exhausted and frustrated. It would be so nice to be sailing a big
Cracklin' Rosie (light, well powered and responsive) instead of the
school bus!
Anyway, the two points are a good morale booster despite the fact that
morale on board is actually very good. This team is special and I am
very glad that I am part of it. I am curious to find out how our new
skipper is going to fit in and contribute. Sad to see our current one
leave. Despite his sometimes very foul moods he is a great sailor and we
all have the highest regard for his way of strategising and plotting and
his ability to make this boat go fast and drive our team.
In case you wonder why there are so many typing errors: typing on a
heeling and in this case rolling boat and in the dark is quite
difficult. It is now a quarter to one in the night and I am going to
have some sleep for thje next 2.5 hours so this is my rant for today. Oh
and we are sailing in warm weather with a bit of rain, so all these
stories about the Southern Ocean being cold are very one sided.
Cheerio!   

Dipping in and out of the Southern Ocean

The weather has been typically autumn like the last few days: greyt
skies, low hanging clouds, rain and it has been too warm for the winter
coat and too cold for the summer jacket. The wind has been changing a
lot: it turned from the nose to the back, went up and then down and then
fluky and then the same again. This is caused by a low pressure system
which is passing south of us. The sailing has nonethe less been
fantastic because despite the changes in strengtth the wind has not
dropped below 15 knots. Close hauled sailing is still one of my
favourites especially when we truck through the waves with 11 knots and
the seas are gentle. The additonal headsail makes it very powerfull
sailing and steady and easy to drive.
Been up the mast again (not too high) to do a small repair on the sails
and up the spinaker pole to do the "bow duty" of attaching our tripping
line. I am feeling more and more comfy swinging on the halyards. It is a
great sight looking down from the spinaker pole and mast.
Oh shit! A whale just kicked our rudder! Skip is checking for damage
now. It was a really weird bang I hope we are OK and that the whale is
OK too. We have seen several small groups of whales in our vicinity and
some have been really close but not this close just yet. Hitting whales
is our worst nightmare. Skip just came back: rudder damage :-(.
Let's see how we deal with this blow... 

slowly moving south east

We are now officially in the Southern ocean. The one sailors call the
southern ocean that is. Apparantly there is a difference in opinion
between sailors and scientists where the southern ocean starts. I like
the other name for the place we are in now which is the Roaring Forties.
Our current position is 40 deg 26 min south anbd 38 deg 18min East, 385
miles north of Marion Island which ios part of the Prince Edward
islands, 3770 miles to AAustralia...
The last few days have been fantastic sailing. Down wind in 30 plus
knots of wind (force 8)no spinaker up but with a poled out headsail:
foolproof. I managed top do some aerobatics in the climbing harness the
last few days: I found myself at the end of the spinaker pole in the
dark, some 4m above the sea looking over my shoulder at the boat as I
was tripping the spinaker off the pole to takle it down due to increased
windspeeds. A great place to be because while you trip the kite the rest
of the crew have to take it in and oput it down below and noone has time
to let you come down on the deck. So I could really relax (as far as
that goes) and look at how the crew work on deck while I was watching it
from a distance. A great feeling. The other acrobatic trick was dangling
on the leeward side in 30 knots of wind attaching a second shgeet to our
yankee. It was quite a trick to reach there without losing touch of the
boat and getting back down without spinning round the shrouds. This
definitely beats the best deals and biggest projects I have done :-)
While we were in big winds I had the absolute best surf so far: 21.1
knots of boat speed with 35 tonnes is absolutely exhilarating. I could
not help it and a big YIHAAA escaped from my mouth: what a sensation! My
lungs almost hurt with exitement! This is a better cure than any anti
depressant in the world.
Last night we had our first draw backs: a massive windhole! In 6 hours
we lost 30 miles and our second place became a very tight 4th with
Singapore right behind us. It was a beautiful night though but cold.
I thought at some point that I was seeing martians: there was a
strange red light hovering above the boat. Really strange. Turned out
to be a bird that was lit up by our port tricolor light. It tried for
about ten minutes to land on the top of our mast: without succes. The
sunrise this morning was fantastic. We were surrounded by low hanging
clouds and because the waves had calmned down the birds (yet another
kind has joined the group, a small grey one) cicle the boat quite
closely, including the albatrosses that have been with us again for
several days. These birds are really magnificent. The size of flying
turkeys but absolutely stunning.
Life is great in the Southern Ocean!

25 November

Day 1 at sea was a fairly windy one. After the start we continued to
sail along the Cape peninsula and in the early morning of the next day
the lighthouse of Cape of Good Hope dissappeared behind the horizon. One
more famous Cape rounded. The wind really picked up and we had two heavy
days. I went without sleep for at least 36 hours and only managed to
get some physical rest. My bunk this leg is all the way forward 3m from
the bow and this is the place where the boat moves the most. I was
airborne about 5 times during the first two days as we dropped off steep
waves and the boat was rolling and heaving so much that I thought I
would slide over my leeclotyh and land on the other side of the boat.
Unfortunately I had a very similar fall as I made my way to my bunk and
just as I was moving my hand for more grip a wave knocked the boat and
I flew to the low side off the boat and fell into someone else's bunk.
He was in it! No injuries luckily. The heavy seas did take their toll
and many were seasick and the rest was exhausted. Things have improved
thankfully and all are better rested now that the seas have calmed down.
Last night was very eventfull. We had to change head sails and in the
process nearly both sails went over the side. Winds were up and it was
the first time we changed from 1 to 2 in heavy winds. I was on bow again
and learned loads. At some point I was holding the sail down on deck by
just lying on top of it and it occurred to me that it was the middle of
the night, I was on board a 68 footer with n18 others having the time of
my life! Usually I am too busy to realise that I am actually sailing
around the world. Good to realise that it is so fantastic!
This morning another eventfull watch: wind was shifting all over the
place as we entered fog and then got hit by a thunderstorm, rain and
then fog again with some sunshine. Gybe, tack, gybe, our track on the
chartplotter looks hilarious! Now all is very quiet and sunny though
still foggy. All a bit weird as thunderstorms usually do not occur in
these latitudes and sun is supposed to chase away fog. Let's wait and
see what else is waiting for us. 

Capetown to Geralton

We are already 3 days at sea and again this leg the first days were
tough. The start in Table bay was a fantastic experience which started
with a salute to Bertie Reed when leaving the Waterfront. Bertie was a
legendary South African sailor and his buste was revealed upon our
departure. Then in the leeway of the Table Mountain we had a formation
sail in gorgeous sunshine and surrounded by playfull seals and yachts nd
spectator boats. Then it was time for the start. The start was in the
front of the CApe flats and there was no leeway from Table mountain. We
had 20 knots of breeze. We had a reefed mainsail and hoisted our yankee
a minute before the start. I was on bow. My first race as bow and what a
baptisme of fire. We rounded the top mark as first boat and managed to
scare Jamaica off, who were inside us but didn't think they could make
the mark. Great close quarters sailing and quite spectacular in the
windy conditions. We rounded two more marks and just after the last mark
we were in the leeway of Table mountain again. The wind dropped
dramattically from 24 and we changed to yankee 1. Australia in the
mean time had pulled up beside us. Then the wind dropped completely so
all headsails went down and the windseeker came up (that was sailchange
2). When we were doing thjis we managed to be so quick that when the
wind picked up slightly we pulled away fast from Australia. We quickly
changed to a lightweight spinaker and  picked up enough speed to
pull away further and further. In the distance however the end of
the leeway of table mountain was looming and before we hit the
funneling effect we had to change back to windseeker because the
wind had changed direction and then we made the amazing swap from
windseeker to yankee 3 (our smallest headsail). This was just in
time and 3.5 hours after the start. My first race as bow was a
baptoisme of fire with 5 sailchanges! It was great fun. I had however
not realised what drama s unfolded before the start or on the first
beat. Two boats went back to the marina for extensive repairs and are
now suffering days of delay...

Cape Town

So we are now safely mored at the Royal Cape Town Yacht Club. Second
place coming all the way from 7th is a great result and we are all
pleased. I celebrated with a shower. The last miles to the finish line
have been trying. Every gybe we did landed us in windshift making our
new tack the wrong one, very frustrating! Eventually during the
afternoon the wind stabilised and we managed to get on to a straight
line to CT. When the wind dropped we swapped our heavy weight spinaker
for the medium weight monster to make some miles on Singapore who were 6
miles behind us at that time. But as always the race isn't over 'till
it's over: the outboard end of our spinaker pole failed dramatically and
we we only just managed to get our sail in safely and avoid a drama. We
quickly swapped poles, repacked the heavy weight and put it back up. The
remaining 30 miles to CT passed without any drama. We reached CT in the
dark and had a nice view of table mountain, Liion's head and Green
Point. The crew of Cork who came in first were waiting for us on the
jetty  which was a warm reception and the beer tasted great! The shower
was the highlight though. Deep clean tomorrow but now we are savouring
the delightys of a non-moving boat, shore power and lack of leecloths.
Night night.

nearly there‏

130nm East of Cape Town
It is all very exiting, frustrating, exhausting, thrilling, physically
painfull and hugely entertaining: we are in close battle with Singapore
now for about 36 hours. They came into sight day before yesterday and we
managed to stay close to each other with us overtaking them slowly but
surely. They were upwind (North) of us trying to keep the speed up and I
don't know what made them do it but they finally gybed and positioned
themselves so badly that we ended up in the best possible place for a
good defense: between them and the finish line. We managed to extend our
lead and after they and then we gybed back they were behind us on our
track. Kat in 't bakkie (sorry, no english translation for this). We
have kept our eyes on them physically and through our radar to make sure
we knew when they gybed, what sails they were carrying etcetera. Somehow
the attention slipped when we hoisted our spinaker and had to sail a
slightly higher course. They disappeared from the horizon and I managed
only after 10 minutes watching the raradr to find their reflection on
the screen. Damn, they sailed lower than us and managed to squeeze out
of our (not so) stranglehold: school boy error. Subsequently they
managed to report wrong positions for the hoursto follow and did not
show up on the radar anymore. Confusion and frustration on our boat:
where are they, are the overtaking? At 6 the real position came in and
it appears they are still south and downwind from us but 9 miles further
from Cape Town. What a relief but we need to stay focussed.
we had a few very close encounter with whales the yesterday. One crossed
our bow 30m ahead of us. When doing 15 knots through the water that is
very close. The second encounter was with a whale that surfaced 15m from
the boat and I was very afraid it might not dive deep enoiugh to evade
our rudder. There is not much you can in these situations which makes it
quite hairy. Besides that I would not want to hit a whale and cause
wounds. We are guests in their universe, after all.
The strong winds we have had the last couple of days were great but also
quite draining. The boat keeps moving violently and the noise from deck
from the moving mast, the creaking running rigging, the waves coming
over, the winches turning, the shouting when in manouvres etc make it
hard to sleep. Moving around the boat takes extra effort and the helming
sessions and wetness all contribute to bodily wear. Small wounds start
infecting because they do not dry out and muscles ache because steering
is far more intense and tough: the pressure on the rudder is bigger, the
reaction peed is higher, your wet life jacket and heavy foulies press
down on your shoulders.
During a lighter spell yesterday a teammate unravelled my matted hair.
It has not seen a shampoo nor a brush since Rio and has only been rinsed
by rain or salt water when waves came over. During our first two days at
sea it could knotted up so badly I did not dare brush it anymore. Then
it got too cold to wash it and then I got to the "it's only so many days
left before we reach Cape Town" stage and I didn't bother anymore. It
sounds awfull but it really isn't that bad. It does not smell (!?!) to
my surprise or maybe my standards have dropped. Anyway a nice shower and
a decent night's sleep would be very welcome now but first we need that
second place on the finish line.

035o50.9'S 001o22.1'W

035o50.9'S 001o22.1'W After a two day spell of strong cold southwesterly
winds at gale force, cold and partly therefore sleepless nights (I
should have worn my beanie in bed sooner!) this morning we hiot the
lighter winds between two frontal systems. It was incredible how quickly
the wind died and how it gradually changed direction from southwesterly
to northwesterly. The temperature difference between the two wind
directions is amazing. The last night and day were very cold and sitting
around doing nothing is not very helpfull. The cold has a big impact on
how quickly you can think and act. Everything took ages to do and there
were many small mistakes in things that normally go perfectly well
without thinking. It is clear that keeping warm is good for the boat
speed. Yesterday we heard the news that another boat had a man
overboard. They have successfully recovered the guy and he seemed fine.
Not a nice thought though floating around in a hostile ocean all alone
surrounded by walls of water.
The seascape is magnificent when the waves are building. When on topof a
big one the views are astounding: high peaks with foamy crests as far as
the eye can see. Like being on top of the world. I remain amazed at the
fact that no matter how high the wave is the boat just bobs along,
climbing the sides of the waves to the top and sliding off the back end,
effortlessly. That is not true of course we are working our butts off to
keep the boat going as fast as possible, but still it is the wind
and water that is driving us.
Today's highlight was few hours helming the boat with our massive
oversized medium weight spinaker up in good pressure. It was fantastic
feeling the pressure and driving the bioat in the right track. The best
was when we lost all our instruments and took the compass out to
recoinnect the displays. After about 15 minutes without any instruments
and only the old fashioned windex in the top of the mast I was bang on
course. One silent proud moment for myself :-)
We are now waiting for the wind to pick up to 35-40 knots for a three
to four day run to Capetown. I am ready, number three of the fleet is in
sight, so gogogo for a podium place in Capetown!

800 miles East of Capetown

I am exhausted but still cannot sleep. The much awaited gale force winds
have hit us  and we have gone through almost our entire sail wardrobe.
From medium weight spinaker yesterday afternoon to heavy weight early
evening, yankee two, one reef and then two reefs then only staysail and
two reefs and yankee 3 up and now poled out: all within 18 hours. The
seas have been building and the wind has reached up to 50 knots which is
force ten.
I have been driving in the darkest night ever: no moon,heavy clouds and
rain.  It was like a  rollercoaster ride in the dark with just the wheel
and a set of screens to look at. No way of orientating myself except
the compass rose and the windinstruments. No way of anticipating
the waves because I could simply not see them. The instuments started
failing just as we started hitting 40 knots of wind... then the compass
light sarted flickering and then went dark. So we quickly mounted a
headtorch and continued on our way. Very demanding helming and after 2.5
hours I was ready for bed. But...I couldn't sleep: caffeine, adrenaline
and a building storm outside kept me awake in my warm sleeping bag.
After 4 hours of loungeing back on deck for another 6 hours of physical
punishment :-) The seas are enormous and waves up to 10 meters rise up
around us. This morning three knocked us down. Luckily we were all
unhurt and actually managed to laugh about it everytime it happened.
There just isn't much you can do. They rise up very steeply in the coner
of your eye, lightblue thundering crests and they just jump on you,
flooding the cockpit, throwing everybody around and pushing the boat
away like a piece of driftwood. Our spreaders didn't touch the water so
they were not too bad, but our poo teammate down below who was preparing
lunch didn't really appreciate the devastating effect it had on the
contents of her cooking pots. Lunch was great though!
We are all truly enjoying the rough weather and high seas and the
incredible sensation of speed you can even have on our slow 30+ tonnes.
Sometimes the boat humms like a planeing dinghy and she even seems to
take off a bit, judging by the soft thumping as her bottom hits wavelets
underneath her. We are on the hunt for a podium place. We got number
three last night by a mile and are closing in on number two in the
fleet. Our Nemensis has dropped further behind us so if all goes well we
will be leading the overall standings when we arrive in Capetown. 

6 November: Fresh

We are now just about 100 miles north west of Tristan da Cunha and we
have truly arrived in the South Atlantic. The wind is south westerly and
about force 6 gusting to force 8 and the swell is building gradually.
With the sun out during the day it is absolutely gorgeous. At night it
is fresh! I was cold on deck after 4 hours and was wearing just enough
to last me the entire watch including 1.5 hours of intensive helming .
then the sleeping bag wasn't set up yet for the crisp temperatures so I
was cold in them too. Just finished the 2-6 watch and my butt is nearly
freezing. Time to take the midlayer out of the bag and wear it! Spirit's
are up again and with a short antibiotic treatment my swolen lips may
heal a bit too. Loving it all!!!! :-)

3 November: Team Finland no points

It has been a very variable 36 hours on board. Not only the wind but
also the atmosphere in the goup is variable. Not sure why I think
everybody seems grumpy or maybe it is just me. Not enough food and
the fact that it all sort of tastes the same and contains beans
(again...) and pork sausage definitely does not help me. Obviously
food lessons from the first leg have not been learnt, which is a
shame... Attempts today to put some smiles on faces during happy hour
with two tracks from my "seriously happy" album failed partially. Maybe
it is because we are not in the lead? I don't care much about that; as
long as we get better every day. It is hard though for me to stay
motivated and keep everybody and myself alert on boat trim, changes in
the wind speed and direction if everybody seems distracted by little
annoyances and think they are more important than sailing fast. It is
easy to join! Guess it confirms to me that I am very sensitive to the
atmosphere in the group.
Enough about that because there is so much beauty and excitement (if you
like tweeking sails and driving a sailboat) around this 68 foot
universe (and someone just made me a nice cup of tea). In the last 36
hours we have seen the most amazing changes in weather. From grey
overcast and moist air and North Westerly breeze the wind slowly but
surely went almost full circle around us. We had beautiful shorts and
T-shirt sailing yesterday with spinaker up and 20 knots in the back.
Overnight we gybed and changed spinaker for yankee one, all on the same
course. In the whole process we got caught in a windhole and lost our
chances for a point in the scoring gate to our Irish drinking brother
and sisters. No harm done our nemesis is still 150nm behind us in a car
park. With the wind pirouetteing around us like a prima ballerina we
have to  be absolutely switched on not to miss the small changes and
potential miles progress. Very busy with trim, trim, trim!
As the wind turned southerly we had to swap our shorts for woollen long
johns. This morning felt like a glorious crisp autumn morning. Fresh air
clear skies, sunshine, but with hats and foulies on. Amazing how rapidly
things can change. Three new types of birds have joined the boat and we
now have at least 15 following us. Two albatrosses though a small
variety, petrels and booby's (?) and some other birds are with us day
and night and they barely flap their wings. Very distracting and a
highlight everytime I see them. Today we also met a a big turtle and
yesterday we passed our first whale since Rio.
The GRIB files look very confused so more challenging times ahead. We
have just tacked and are heading further South hopefully towards more
pressure.

Start and South Atlantic

The start in Rio was a slight disappointment: low clouds and rain made
for a less spectacular or say boring departure from Rio. We could just
as well have left in the night instead of 3 in the afternoon. The
regular formation sail had to do without Team Finland as our gascable
broke and it was being fixed by the technician who came on board by rib
and had teh thing fixed before the start. The start was delayed several
times due to changes in the wind  direction. These changes were
accompanied by lower clouds and the sugarloaf was the last bit of
scenery hidden from us. We started and raced around the loaf towards
Copacabana beach and then around a mark out to sea. After the wind that
came with the rain in went quiet and we got slightly stuck under the
steep walls of the sugarloaf. Eventually we managed to pass the last
mark as 7th as we headed out to sea. After a quiet start the wind soon
picked up and there was no way of gently getting accustomed to being at
sea again: force 5 on the nose and proper steep waves to bash into. Our
sealegs had vanished despite all teh caiparinha's and the restless
berth. Half the crew remembered seasicknes from their training sessions
and I wasn't 100% either (no vomitting tthankfully but slightly
selfconcience). This was not really a problem because with so many out
of action there was plenty of distraction. Changing headsails in the
dark was a nice one. It took 4 people to take the sail down and three to
put the new one up on the forestay. I was airborne several times and
luckily managed to land safely in the soft sails as opposed to the hard
deck. Beginners luck? The amount of water coming over was also very
impressive. We have not yet been washed across the deck but were getting
close. In case you are worried now: we are clipped on and wearing life
jackets. Quite an experience and very tiring. Because of teh lck of
manpower the watches were twice as long and the breaks half as short.
Maye that led to the fact that when the weather calmed down to almost no
wind at all and we were experiencing the doldrums all over, I was
feeling  a bit low. Lack of energy and spirit were the main problems.
Maybe a bit of a dip in the immune system. I am fighting a sun induced
cold sore (koortslip) now for more than 10 days and the fact that it
keeps coming back and is rather painfull does not make me ver happy.
And... we got parked up in a windhole once on my watch and that is not
helping either. The next day hoever we learnt that our biggest
competitor got stuck even worse than us did make me feel slightly better
;-) They had been sailing on our tail for almost a day  and got closer
and closer which was quite exiting. Then we decided to break away an put
a kite up and head south. They followed us for a couple of hours and in
a windshift decided to drop teh kite and move further North. We lost
them in a raincloud which left us without wind, but them without even
less wind as we found out later.
The ocean is again a beautifull place even without the expected big
waves and strong westerly breeze. Two birds keep us company and show up
regularly. It is great to see them skim the tops of waves and dip into
the wave valleys to come up into sight after a few seconds. It must be
great to be one of them for a few hours...  

Rio

A long week in Rio was great especially since the rain cleared overnight
and stayed away for at least 6 days.  We were rather uncomfortably
berthed at one of the best Iate Clube's of Rio at the foot of sugarloaf
mountain and under the watchfull eye of Jesus, who occasionally pooped
out of the clouds. Some swell managed to make it around the corner and
through the islands and rocks that mark the entrance to Guanabaran bay.
We had again a long list of jobs to do and I managed to get myself in
the mast instead of the supermarket to work on our rig. Quite a nice
change though I did miss the aircon in the supermarket and managed to
get a few nice big bruises (courtesey of the earlier mentioned swell).
The Iate club had a few good bars and restarants, 3 hangars full of
dinghies (none to be used by us  :-() a swimming pool, gym, and was
guarded 24 hours a day. After work there were plenty of leisure
possibilies, most of which included caiparinha's. I went on a ladies
night (spanish german dutch initiative) had a night stroll on the beach,
drank coconut milk from the the coconut on copacabana beach. We ate the
most wonderfull steak immaginable (picana) and we even managed to do an
unforgettable team effort is Samba dancing. Caiparinha's certainly
loosen up even the most stiff joints :-) One of the highlights was going
on a corporate sail with Sir Robin Knox Johnstione and Thorben Grael on
board. The first on the coffeegrinder trimming to my command and the
latter at the helm. Needless to say we won this inshore race. This was
by the way a wonderfull opportunity to see what the bay was like since
upon arrival it was dark and cloudy. Next day we bumped into one of the
corporate gusts who liked it so much that he is now considering signing
up for the next race...
All good things sadly come to an end and the southern Atlantic was
calling. After a long week of jobs, Caiparinha's, Copacabana and Ipanema
beach great meat and fresh fruit it was time to leave. Also it started
to rain again, so no real reason to stay any longer... 

finish

After a few agonising hours in which the wind died and came back and
died and came back again and then changed direction and then again
changed direction and every time the GPS gave us a later earlier and
later and then again earlier estimated time of arrival we actually
managed to get quicker to the line then we thought. One more tack to
stay free from the rocks and that was it! First place. We were elated
and glad it was finally over. The way to Rio we did under engine and
with the main sail up. On the coast it was thundering and we ended up in
one of those thundery squalls. First it started to rain; it was
bucketing down! Then the wind started to pick up and within 5 minutes we
went from 6 knots to 36 knots and possibly more but I stopped looking as
I was too busy hoping the boom would not hit the water and we'd wipe
out (we had the full main up and the wind on the beam and in order to
remain upright and in control it was eased out quite a lot). After ten
minutes the wind died and we continued our journey to Rio in a drizzle
and in the dark. No grand-entree unfortunately but at the IATE CLUBE do
Rio loads of team mates and crews from other teams and family were
seeing us in. The beer tasted fantastic and it was really great to see
so many familiar faces.

Back to civilisation

Our whale show marked the end of the solitude the vast Atlantic Ocean
brought us. We have been moving closer and closer to the Brazilian
shore. The first signs of land we passed were the islands in the
archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. The signs of nearby land were the
booby's (ganet like sea birds) that accompanied the boat for hours on
end and made for some good enterntainment. These birds feed on flying
fish and our presence made the flying fish fly and the booby's dive. As
we came closer to the coast (but still several hundred miles off) other
ships became more common again. The majority of the ships we
encountered were bulk carriers heading in an opposite direction.
Unfortunately they were too far away to spot their names or make them
visible on AIS so I can't say whether it was one of Corus's ore or
pellet cargoes... The last two night as we were as near as 50-80
miles to the coast we could make out the lights of cities like Vitoria
as they are reflected on the clouds. For the passed 16 hours we have
been cruising between oil rigs, production and drilling ships,
supply-vessels and tankers. Very impressive kit and so much of it so
close together. Trust me this beats the North Sea in terms of the
size of the kit. Our depth sounder is picking up signs of the sea bottom
again. Yes land is near and so is a cold beer!  

Post equator and 150 miles off the finish line

Some 8 days ago (?), I seem to have lost count of them, we have passed
the equator and were visted by King Neptune who had to grant us
permission to travel through his kingdom. He was in rather good spirits
and after drinking his nectar and showing our worthyness we were all
allowed to pass and continue on our way to Rio. The white sails we had
put up in de Doldrums soon made way for the spinaker again and the days
passed in a rather boring fashion. When we came closer to the Brazilian
coast things started to get more exiting. The weather forecast for the
last days towards the finish showed light airs and we were already in
them. Our competition was eating away on our lead and we all got a bit
nervous: is 120 miles lead enough? How can we make sure they will not
overtake us in the last days or even hours. All this exitement made for
some interesting team dynamics gossip sessions, grumpyness etc. All of
which disappeared when we were increasing our lead again...
For two days now we have been experiencing lots of action. Yesterday we
nearly lost our spinaker block from the top of the mast, this happened
as we were in our happy hour celebrating a birthday with a nice lunch.
Ditch the lunch, spinaker down, repack it, fix the block and up with the
sail again. It is becoming more and more normal now all these emergency
spi drops and hoists. To top it all up while we were sorting the sail
out we were treated to a fantastic display of jumping right whales: big
ones, babies, close by and far away it was absolutely magnificent to
watch! I cannot wait until we start leg 2 and we will see more of them!
Ever since the whale show things have been changing constantly. The wind
has changed direction by tens of degrees every hour almost,we had rain,
lightning, the windspeed has gone up and down and we were in very light
airs for what seemed ages. Plenty of fiddleing around with sail
positions and configurations. We have had 4 sail changes last night and
this morning we tacked, hoisted the spinaker and gybed within 4 hours
just to stay on course to the finish line: crazy but fun ;-)! Contrary
to what our GRIB-files (grid with windspeeds and directions that is laid
over our chart, all digital of course) indicate we are currently flying
towards the finish line with 9 knots. Let's hope the GRIB-file is wrong
all the way and we can keep this wind all the way to the finish
line (which is now at Cabo Frio and not Rio anymore). 140 miles
to go... let's hope we are there first. From the finish it is another 70
miles to Rio, but that we can do in a straight line under engine
(provided our gearbox does not fail us).
 
 
 

The Doldrums.

Two  days after leaving Cape Verde to our left and having spent days to
get West our studies of the infanmous Doldrums showed that passing them
westerly would land us in the worst part of them so we headed nackEast.
I had the feeling we spend at least a day going nowhere and it fel like
waiting for the inevitable to happen. Like marmots heading for the
abyss. Though there aare no signposts telling you when you have arrived
at the doldrums actually being there is obvious. The clouds are enormous
and the variety of species makes for a great chane compared to the
fluffy tradewind clouds. The wind is changing almost every half hour and
as a result our 17 dat spinaker run has come to n end. Our 68 foot
rolling world has changed into a heaving and listing one. We are all
handicapped and need to learn how to move on the boat again. My loo
visit was an interesting experience and the ubicle seemed too small to
pull up my trousers again. Luckily there was no-one about. We have had a
small problem with our watermaker and it seemed we were on our way to
loose our first position in in the fleet in order to obtain additional
fresh water but luckily we managed to get the thing going again.
Hopefully we can keep our current speed and the wind up and squeeze out
of the Doldrums without much problem.    

4 October: The trade winds

After our wind finding mission we finally reached the north east trade
winds off the coast of Africa and we have been saiing in them for three
days now. Spinaker up and a steady 15 to 20 knots of wind.The
temperature on board and the humidity are quite hard to deal with.
Everything is damp and just lifting a finger is enough to make you
sweat. Being back in the lead and being the first to reach the Cape
Verde Islands definitely helps keeping our spirits up. Also the
relentless cooking efforts (I think there is a little competition going
on between two of our crew) contribute. I must say I'd rather stay out
of the galley at the moment because it is hellishly warm in there. Last
night I was jumped on by a flying fish. They are really spectacular to
watch as they swerm just over the wave crests like small blueish birds.
They smell awfull and you only have to follow your nose to track them on
the deck. It goes without saying that we want them back in the water
asap. With they slippery scales that poses a bit of a challenge but adds
to the comedy on deck.
Being in the trade winds in fairly boring though: spinaker up, the
occasional 20 degree wind shift, a gybe and that schedule repeats itself
in a random order. We have not suffered any mishaps except for today
when durng a gybe we had two poles up and then the sheet broke free from
one of the poles. Clew gone and no sheet to pull the spinaker in on
because that was 3m above the water on the other pole. Luckily we
managed to catch the loose clew, take the spinaker in, repack it and
launch it again, from  the hatch on the new tack. No damage to sail or
kit and it probably took us 5 min longer than a normal gybe.
Another highlight was crossing paths with a whale. The whale (we think
it was a Minke whale) swam in opposite direction to us and passed at 30m
from the boat. everybody was exited. In addition to the whale we have
seen turtles, sharks, sea birds and dolphins, but all in fairly low
quantities :-(
It is fascinating to realise that the winds that carry us south at the
moment have been in place for centuries and have brought so much wealth
to Europe (and made it posible for me to do what I am doing at the
moment) but were also the root of many of the inequality issues we are
experiencing in the world today.
Cape Verde in a few hours but unfortunately in the dark or in the
shimmer of the full moon... We'll see.

30 Sep never knew

six hours could last so long! 26deg 15 min North, 15 deg 43 min West.
The wind has finally abondoned us. The spinaker (still our very vesatile
heavy weight) had to make way for the windseeker and the windseeking
game started. A very intense game it is in the heat of the sun. Do wes
top before the next patch o breeze is ging to arrive or are our 35
tonnes enough to keep us going until the next push by the wind. The
track on our chartplotter looks like an artists impression of a mountain
range. We have tried many different varieties of water additives as  the
bland stuff our watermaker produces does not satisfy the taste buds and
we needed to get a few liters down our throats.All this in our never
ending 6 hour afternoon watch. Now down for 6 hrs sleep to rejuvenate
for a 6 hr night watch (midnight to 6) as we have just decided to swap
our 4 hr nightwatches to the daytime and the 6 hr daytime watches to the
night time.

30 Sep 0200-0600 watch

The most interesting of the watches in our watch system is the 0200-0600
watch. First of all it is the time your body is programmed to be asleep
and secondly it is the coldest and darkest part of the night. When
coming on at 2 in the night you first have to wake up, which is quite a
challenge because having had time off from 2200 to 0200 does not
necessarily mean you have actually been sleeping for 4 hours. In my case
sleep does not narturally happen at 2200 and by the time it is 0200 I
am in my deepest sleep, so not so awake. The first hour on deck I spend
waking up. After an hour I usually take over the helm because not many
people are yet able to steer the boat at night because the darkness
works disorientating. Then the battle with the eyelids starts:
open, closed, open, closed... no no OPEN!!! It is amazing how heavy
eyelids can be. I managed to nod off while steering the boat,not being
able to say for certain whether I was dreaming of the wind indicator in
the mast or whether I was actually looking at it. This happens
continuously and feels rather unreal. The second aspect of this watch is
the darkness itself. The moon usually disappeers behind the horizon
sometime before or during the 0200-0600 watch and we are trying to use
as little artificial light as possible. On a clear night (and we have
been very lucky so far) the stars and planets provide enough light to
make out the shape of the spinaker and the horizon so it is easy to
orientate yourself. Otherwise we are trying to memorise where every
rope, block and cleat or jammer is and work from memeory using a torch
as little as possible. The 0200-0600 watch also has it advantages:
sailing ain the dark is very challenging and doing a good job is
extremeley rewarding. The nights so far have been absolutely beautifull.
All different from each other but gorgeous. This morning was definitely
one not to forget. The winds were really light, the sea was like a
mirror, the starts bright and both venus and saturn's light was
reflected in the water. Keeping the boat at speed meant concentrated
helming, staying put not moving around much and all of us on watch just
turned silent. Apart from the occasional flog of the sails all we could
hear were the ripples the boat created in the water. The algae did their
usual job and turned every ripple into a bright lightened stripe on the
water. Fantastic! I am hooked.
Did I alreay mention we have taken the lead in the fleet for now?

29 Sep through the CAnaries, beans and the mysterious landing of the squid

It took us a day and a half too navigate the Canary islands. Shall we go
east west or through the middle and if the latter between which islands
to pass??? Questions which were eventually answered by the weather
forecast: through the islands keeping Gran Canaria on our right and
Fuerteventura on our left.  Yesterday evening we reached Lanzarote,
visible through the street lights in the villages instead of the lights
that are on the charts, but we never saw. This morning we had
Fuerteventura already on our left hand side and enjoyed a beautiful
sunrise over the volcanic hills of the island. We managed to keep the
speed and our spinaker up. The wear problems we are having with our
sheets and guys has been tackeled and we can now fly 'the kite' for long
periods on end without having to gybe to swap them. As I am writing this
we are leaving the Canaries behind us and apart from a short dip in the
windspeed things are looking great: we have moved up in the fleet to 2nd
or 3rd place. The sailing is still very interesting with changing wind
speeds and changing wind directions. We are learning how to maximise use
of our heavy weight spinaker so we don't have to use the supersized
light and medium weight ones, which have caused some other boats in the
fleet serious headaches and in one case even serious injury while
unwrapping/cutting it from the forestay.
Unfortunately we had some injury too on the boat. Despite the calm seas
and favourable winds the sea is still unpredictable: at the moment
someone was pooring hot water to make tea one odd wave hit the boat and
our teammate sustained 2nd degree burns on het shoulder. Luckiliy our
two surgeons on board are great with painkillers and we sent the
victim to bed painfree and in a drug haze. She's doing already a lot
better.
 
Our big shopping operation to supply the boat with food is causing a few
headaches, wind and swift bowel movements: beans for 3 days in a row is
maybe a bit too much... Fortunately we have a number of really creative
chefs on board who manage to make the best food out of whatever we have
lying around as left overs, so we may be able to tackle the 3 day bean
fest in the next rotation of our menu. Today the left over porridge was
turned into a crunchy oats fritter which was a nice desert for lunch.
Evaporated milk with vanilla sugar works well as a replacement of
custard on a crumble, rhubarb juice from a can tastes really good and
there are loads of other things we can do with 'canned stuff'. The next
step would be to use the fresh squid sweepings off the deck. To our
surprise we have found several squid (inktvis) on deck the last few
days. Our deck is about 1.3m out of the water so quite a climb up from
sea level. How do they get on deck? Do they fly? Do the dolphins throw
them at us to make us do tricks?
Sad point to note here is that we have actually seen very few dolphins
'till now and only just this minute spotted our first whale. off for nap
now.

27 Sep Ocean fresh

Just had a shower on the platform at the back of the boat. A couple of
buckets of fresh but not cold sea water, some shampoo and soap, a
nailbrush and sponge and a fresh water rinse afterwards: I feel like
new.
The weather is definitely improving as we are heading further south.
even though it is overcast with some occasional sun it is becoming
obvious that we are now in Africa and not in autumn-ie Europe anymore.
We are now 420 nautical miles west of Kenita on the Moroccan coast and
162 miles north east of Madeira. The wind is still behind us and we are
exchanging spinaker for poled out headsail (mainsail and headsail on
different sides of the boat) and back. Unfortunately the startegy we
have chosen is not paying off too well. We are in 4th place and trying
to keep up with the lead group. Cape Breton Island is tryng to catch up
with us. As long as we sail the boat as fast as possible in th egiven
circumstances I am confident we will not fall back any further.
Last night the sailing was to  my liking: light breeze (15kts) on our
stern, spinaker up, few waves but enough to make for some concentrated
helming and trimming (none of that muscle sailing in heavy waves and big
winds (20-25kts) we had the last few days). We crossed paths with a ship
and had two dolphins accompanying us for a short while. The algae supply
us with the firworks: the sea sparkles on our bow, the dolphin tracks
light up in the water and our wake and the occasional breaking wave
crest emit shimmers of light. Add to that the moon and stars. Need I say
more.

26 Sep 180 miles west of Lisbon

Leaving the bay of biscay has left me a bit puzzled: normally storms
would hit you in the face going south and waves would build where the
ocean floor meets the co ntinental shelf.This time however we had a
lovely breeze, spinaker up and the depth sounder changing from 120m to
no more readings. We discovered how quickly our spinaker gear wears as
we snapped more spectra (the "unbreakable" tough fibre that forms the
core of all our ropes on board)loops just as we were racing closely with
the other boaqts. Funny how every boat chooses to go in a certain
direction and that we then all meet in more or less the same place in
the middle of the night in somewhere in the bay of biscay.
 
Passing the famous Cape Finisterre was a highlight. We passed the shore
so close that there was a mobile phone signal. Everybody took advantage
of this.
 
Now we are sailing in the Atlantic Ocean and we still have the wind
behind us. The boat rolls along nicely and we are making good speed. The
first test run of all the shopping we did is delivering siome good
feedback. Catering packages from the makro underperform on quantity some
meals just don't work (fish pie) but there is also some inspiring
innovative cooking going on. Highlight is fresh bread every morning.
 
In case you wondered: the ocean is really blue. Lunchtime now.

22 sep and off we go

It was early this morning that we slipped our mooring lines in La
Rochelle to (I still cannot believe it) Rio de Janeiro. Unlike our race
from Hull to La Rochelle, this one had by no means a flying start. We
were escorted to the start area in the bay by Joshua which is the yacht
of the legendary french sailor Bernard Moitissier. While waiting for our
start the wind started to come down and down and down. Not mucgh
exitement when going over the line because all boats were trying to
maintain some speed and not cross the line early. We had our spinaker up
amd manage to stay ahead of the competition. After 3 hours of very
light winds and a flogging spinaker finally the wind picked up abit
and we quickly changed to a windseeker (a very special light winds
sail) and then on to our yankee 1 (our biggerst fore sail out of the 3)
Just before a heavy tide would turn against us when we were sailing ourt
of the little bay La Rochelle is located on the wind really picked up
and we managed to pull away from the fleet. Now we are sailing in
beautful circumstances into the sunset on the Bay of Biscay. The
channel and north sea chop is slowly changing into the atlantic swell.
Not sure I really like it though... The shepherd pie is in the oven and
Australia are on our heels as we head into our first night of many at
sea/ocean.
 

I owe you

La Rochelle -I owe you a story on the Hull to La Rochelle race that our team won. But have been ridiculously busy with working on the boat and sampling the local beverages and food. La Rochelle is a really nice old town and they sure know how to feed their people. It is all very exhausting and I am glad in some way that we are going sailing again tomorrow morning. Though it still does not seem real that we will actually leave La Rochelle and not set foot on land before we have crossed the equator and crossed an ocean to arrive on a different continent on a different hemisphere, where low pressure areas flow in the opposite direction and some say the toilet flushes in the other direction as well... I just hope the sailing will be as fabulous as on the way through the Channel from the North Sea to here with the wind in the back and constant comfortable speeds of 11 knots (11 nautical miles per hour) not too many sail changes, no reefs and plenty of spinnaker (big balloon sail) sailing. Also I hope we will get better in making custard...
Big brother (the North One TV camera man) has moved onto the boat and has placed camera's everywhere so no more cock ups. 07:00 we will slip our lines and we expect to arrive in Brazil some 28 days later. I'll keep you posted!

The send off

First I hqve to give you an impression of our stay in Hull. Hull does not have the best name and it seems that apart from a ferry port and  a big ro-ro terminal not much is happening there.The centre of the town is actually quite nice and surely Hull used to be booming: there are plenty of old banks and other impressive buildings around. The general public was friendly but the nightlife very typical: guys in black slacks and girls in tiny dresses...

Passers by were very interested in what was happening and they were observing our every move on deck as our boat happened to be in poll position next to the quay. We showed the fire brigade around the boat and had a birthday girl on the boat amongst all the family and friends and even two of my ex-colleagues. It is a pleasure to show people around because it makes the actual adventure more real. Yes it still has not really sunk in. The attention the race is getting in Hull and in the local media does help. I have been interviewed by the BBC about our stay in Hull and apparantly it was broadcasted some evening during preparation week because on Saturday somebody recognised me: "you were on telly last night!" Yes she could take a picture... Very bizarre, I haven't seen it yet. The weekend of the race start coincided with the freedom festival and there were thousands of people in the area around the marina. A french artists group had a brilliant display of all sorts of fire installations spread over a few streets and on the boulevard along the Humber river and there was a fireworks display on Saturday night. By that time I was so exhausted so had to skip it; I probably slept before I hit the matress.


Then finally it was the day of the race start. Off course we were not ready and the jobslist on the boat seemed still endless but we were ready enough. Time to say our goodbyes and slip our mooring lines. It was an amazing experience. Friends and family of crewmembers, team mates on different legs all gathered in Hull to see us off. Finally it hit me; I am really going to sail around the world! After hundreds of hugs, kisses, tears, promises to stay safe and keeping the spirit alive we were let into the holding area to wait for the official sned-off. One after the other the teams were presented on stage while their team song was being played, official photographs taken, more waving and off the stage. Our team was boiling with energy and we had a ball off and on stage. Our supporteres in the crowds were carrying finnish flags and blues brothers hats so easy to recognise. It was absolutely fantastic and it made me forget about not seeing friends and family for a while and it feels wonderfull to know there is so much support for what we are doing. Then off we went!

leading up to the start

Na mijn vertrek uit Nederland ben ik direct naar de boot gegaan om een week lang te werken aan de voorbereidingen voor de race. Ik heb me (misschien helaas) opgegeven om voor alle eten aan boord zorg te dragen. Met een klein comittee zijn we al een paar maanden geleden begonnen met informatie verzamelen en menu's uitdenken en nu moesten we dan met het beschikbare budget en in korte tijd voor 20 man voor 40 dagen eten inslaan dat makkelijk te bereiden is, niet uit verse ingredienten bestaat, voedzaam is (koolhydraten en proteinen), voldoende vullend en afwisselend is. We hebben een dag gerekend en gepuzzeld, een dag supermarkten verkend op beschikbare producten en alternatieven en dag en nacht boodschappen gedaan om alles bijelkaar te verzamelen. Ik kan je verzekeren de beste tijd om met 5 boodschappenkarren door de supermarkt te lopen is tussen half twee en vier uur 'snachts. De service is geweldig want er zijn alleen maar vakkenvullers en die weten waar alles staat en of er nog meer op voorraad is, ze brengen je boodschappen naar de auto en heel belangrijk: dan zijn er geen andere teams die dezelfde producten voor je neus hebben weggekaapt.   Vervolgens hebben we de voorraad per dag verdeeld en in aparte zakken "daybags" gestopt. Vervolgens hebben we alles in de boot gestouwd. Intussen waren teamgenoten aan de boot aan het werk om te zorgen dat de boot in dusdanige conditie is dat we 'm optimaal kunnen zeilen, dat de WC's werken, de motor het doet, dat we weten hoe we eea moeten repareren. Er zijn zeilreparatie- en communicatiecursussen gegeven en alle benodigde onderdelen, reserve onderdelen, veiligheidsmiddelen ed zijn aan boord gebracht. En... we kregen eindelijk een sponsor: Team Finland. Op donderdag was ik helemaal gaar en ben maar naar Londen gegaan om mijn zeilspullen te halen, want die kon ik niet allemaal in 1 keer meenemen, en om een beetje bij te slapen. Op een restje na alLes opgepikt, laatste inkopen gedaan en weer naar Gosport. Nog een dagje geklust en biertjes gedronken en toen werd het tijd voor vertrek vanuit de thuishaven in Gosport (aan de zuidkust van Engeland, tegenover Portsmouth) naar Grimsby aan de rivier de Humber (Oostkust van Engeland). Het was een bijna complete kermis: er was een jazzbandje, eetstalletjes, gratis brunch voor de VIPs (dat waren de crewleden, wij dus, en genodigden) er was een sambaband en uiteindelijk de toespraken van de burgemeester, race director en Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (de man die als eerste non-stop solo rond de wereld is gezeild en de clipper race heeft opgezet). Toen werden de teams een voor een naar hun boot begeleid klaar voor vertrek. Voor elk team werd de teamsong gespeeld. De onze is de blues brothers inclusief hoedje... Wij vertrokken als laatste en ik had de eer de achterlijn te mogen laten slippen in samenwerking met Sir Robin en de burgemeester van Gosport. Tot mijn verbazing stonden de kades van Gosport en Portsmouth vol mensen, er vlogen helicopters over en er was een kleine vloot schepen om ons uitgeleide te doen en een ferry met familieleden van... en teamgenoten. Echt helemaal geweldig en het was ook nog heel erg mooi weer.

De weersvoorspelling was wat minder rooskleurig met stormwaarschuwingen voor de rest van de week. Na wat schade bij twee boten is de hele vloot Brighton binnengelopen behalve wij. Wij zijn doorgevaren naar Ramsgate en uiteindelijk Lowestoft binnengelopen voor een dag klusjes doen en om onze aankomst in Grimsby goed te timen. Het is natuurlijk een wel geolied evenement met en planning, weer of geen weer.  Dat werd geen weer. Onderweg naar Lowestoft begon de barometer te dalen en uiteindelijk werd een dieptepunt van 979mb genoteerd, met een hele scherpe daling. Het weer was nog steeds wel goed en we hebben een prima dagje in Lowestoft doorgebracht. De planning was om om 22:00 te vertrekken en mijn wacht mocht de haven verlaten en de zeilen zetten en de eerste 4 uur aan dek doorbrengen. Om 22:00 was het weer zodanig slecht dat elk gezond mens in zijn bed kruipt en de lakens over het hoofd trekt of nog maar een biertje bestelt in de kroeg: regen en windkracht 8 (36 knopen wind). De boten waarop we varen zijn zo groot dat het grootzeil hijsen in de luwte van een gebouw oid niet werkt dus dat moest buitengaats gebeuren. Iedereen heeft gebuffeld en uiteindelijk stond het grootzeil, met drie reven erin. Tijdens het hijsen en opruimen zag ik de zee grauw worden en het schuim zich met de lucht vermengen, de wind striemde water en ons en overwaaiend buiswater deed pijn aan je gezicht en oren, zelfs door je capuchon heen. Een van mijn teamgenoten heeft de windsnelheden in de gaten gehouden en er werd in de vlagen tot 48 knopen gemeten. Met de wind in de rug vervolgens richting het noorden koers gezet en onder wisselenede windsnelheden reven uit en en weer ingenomen. Vlak vor de Pilgrim's Race time trial finish boei kwam dan eindelijk de ware storm opzetten: de windsnelheden kropen boven de veertig en uiteindelijk boven de 50 knopen in vlagen. Inmiddels waren wij op de Humber aangekomen waar we vervolgens nog 5 uur moesten heen en weer varen tot we bij Grimsby de sluis in konden. Gelukkig mocht ik ton naar mijn bedje. NA een kort dutje hield de rust echter op: het tij was gekeerd en wind over tij zorgde voor enorme steile golven en we lagen als een gek te stampen. Uiteindelijk konden we na een schietgebedje dor de sluis in Grimsby. Met de storm dwars op het schip, een sterke stroom de sluis in schoten we naar binnen; geen plek voor fouten. En op de kade in het pokkeweer stonden de leden van de Humber Cruising association ons op t ewachten. Helaas waren we de enigen die het time slot gered hadden en was er voor de mensen niet veel te zien, maar wij vonden het geweldig om zo vorstleijk binnengehaald te worden. Tot mijn verbazing stomnd een vriend van me die in Grimsby woont me op te wachten op de kade. Heel erg tof! Het was een geweldig feest in Grimsby! Na twee dagen feesten drinken gezelligheid, teambuilding, mensen te hebben rondgeleid op de boot en nog meer klusjes vetrokken we om 6 uur 's ochtends op zondag naar Hull waar de start van de Race zal zijn. En zowaar... er stonden weer mensen op de steiger in Grimsby om ons uit te zwaaien! Hulde aan Grimsby!

Na een klein uurtje tuffen op de Humber kwamen we aan in Hull waar camera's klaar stonden om onze aankomst te filmen en weer mensen onze aankomst aanschouwden. We gingen naar onze ligplaats aan de kade en verder maar weer met de lijst met klussen...zucht. Dit keer onder het toezicht van de bewoners van Hull, want onze boot lag naast de kade. Erg leuk want de mensen maken graag een babbeltje, willen dingen wetenm en soms laat je ze boot zien, we hebben een 7 jarige verjaardagsprinces aan boord gehad en de brandweer. Inmiddels is ook onze boot voorzien van haar naam en heeft de sponsor een doos met T-shirts afgeleverd (incluief een kerst DVD en boekje met traditionele en moderne finse spelen zoals mobieltje werpen en vrouw sjouwen). We zijn onthaald op een brunch in de gemeente toonzaal (gratis eten en drinken doet het erg goed bij de clipper crews) waar de dramatische beelden van ons 1 uur durende motortochtje  naar Hull werden getoond; erg grappig!

 Op de laatste inkopen na is boot nu zo goed als gereed en ik ben naar Londen gegaan om mijn laatste spullen te wassen, afscheid te nemen van mijn vrienden in Londen en om mijn verjaardag te vieren. Donderdagmiddag scheep ik definitief in en gaat het echte aftellen beginnen. Ik begin langzaamaan te beseffen waar ik aan begonnen ben...

How I ended up in an ocean yacht race

Sailing the worlds oceans has been my dream for a long time, maybe even a tiny bit of an obsession. I remember lying in my bed, I was 5 or 6 years old, with my cuddly toy dog listening to the rain and wind beating on the windows of my bedroom and pretending to be on a sailboat in a howling gale. I'd check on deck whether all was well and then go back below (under the covers) to continue to listen to the sound of wind and rain until I fell asleep. I'd read the book about the Flyer's entry in the Whitbread Around The World Race over and over again and imagined myself doing something similar. Then you grow up and new thoughts, possibilities, priorities, worries and events take over and you end up living the life that you are leading. My life has ended up in a hectic chaos of all sorts, both physically and mentally; a never relenting feeling of restlessness governs my daily routines. I've read book after book about amazing ocean voyages and it wasn't until I read Adrian Flanagan's accounts of his vertical circumnavigation where he describes the exact feeling of restlessness, that I realised I had to do something adventurous at sea, something big. Not as big as his achievement or Ellen MacArthur's or Isabelle Autissier's or Henk de Velde's, or all these other heroes and heroine's of the oceans but my own thing.

After evenings of milking the world wide web for yachts I could afford, countless plans of where to sail to which ocean to cross and how to shape my adventure I got restless and in need of a quick fix: I booked a channel hop sailing weekend in Januari with a sailing school because I needed to go sailing. It turned out the skipper/instructor had skippered the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race the year before and listening to him I decided an event like that could be exactly what I was looking for: a fixed route that would take me to parts of the world that are not easily accessible, a team effort, a purpose built ocean going yacht, affordable AND a short lead time. So... I checked the website, had a few sleepless nights and panic attacks, quit my job, put my earthly belongings in storage and signed up.

In a fortnight I will start in the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race 09-10.