Movember

One of my good friends, James from the Welcome to Yorkshire boat, grew a moustache for Movember.  This originates in Australia and raises money during the month of November every year when guys grow moustaches in aid of testicular and prostate cancer.  At the prize giving ceremony in Tauranga there was an auction where you could bid to be the person to shave off the facial hair.  I convinced James to go on the stage and my bid won the honour of being able to wet shave his moustache off.  Our pictures made us celebrities at the crew briefing. Great fun in a good cause.

Leg 4 Geraldton to Tauranga NZ

Well I think you can safely say that I got what I signed up for on this leg!  The storms came and they were huge. However, let me start at the beginning.  The race start. Geraldton was a small town but like so many places Scotsmen come out of the woodwork when the purple beastie sails in!  It seems wherever you are you can find someone in a kilt who plays the bagpipes, and Geraldton was no exception except they found 6 piper and a drummer!

At race start I was lucky enough to be helming round the two marker buoys near the coast in front of the marina, it was like dinghy sailing, tacking for position and racing close to the other boats.  Unfortunately that's where the similarity ends, tacking one of these huge boats is slightly more complicated to say the least and much to my dismay some of our new crew members were not up to speed with the drill!  I called the tack to cut in front of Yorkshire and Qingdao which would have given us a mid fleet position but as I shouted "ready to tack" the person bringing the back stay back was too slow and instead of turning in front of the oncoming boats and making them bear away I had to bear away myself and go behind them so very frustrating.  The last mark was a gybe right in front of the crowd on the breakwater (most importantly Mandy), we were in 10th position but thankfully the gybe was brilliant and apparently the crowd were impressed and gave us a huge cheer to send us on our way.

At the start of day two the storms hit and for the next two weeks we had mega strong winds or full storms almost constantly.  This was exactly what I had signed up for, the waves were huge, literally the size of houses and breaking on the top like you see those huge rollers on the beach.  The boat performed amazingly, a wave would come from the side and you would see it coming and think it was going to absolutely swamp us but the boat would just ride up the side of it, wobble a bit and then slide down the other side. Incredible.

As we say on board..There's no such thing as bad weather just an inappropriate sail plan.....and for 16 hours we most certainly were inappropriate!  The foresail halyard (the rope holding the sail up) broke and we had to take the foresail down.  If you have no foresail you are unable to put reefs in the mainsail to make it smaller and reduce the size for the strong winds.  The wind was blowing 50 knots (force 10) and much too windy to put up another foresail so unable to reef the main we sailed for 16 hours with a full mainsail.  In these conditions the boat is really difficult to handle and it rounds up into the wind.  On one of our 4 hour shifts during this period it took 2 of us to steer the boat, Keith on the wheel and every time it rounded up there was me hanging on and trying to force the wheel back.  All this in the howling wind with huge waves breaking over you.  Looking back it was great but I can still remember we were very grateful to finish our shift and pass the wrestling on to someone else.

I cannot begin to explain the sea state in the storms, it was like something you see on the films but worse.  As I said before the waves were massive but in between the waves the sea was all surf and froth with spray being taken off the tops of the waves and blown into the air.  Sometimes we had torrential rain, sometimes hail storms, thunder and lightening, we got so so wet.

On a different day we were up at the front changing the head sail to a smaller one.  This involves carrying the sail from the sleeping area below, through the saloon, up the steps near the wheel and then the length of the boat to the front, quite an exercise in stormy weather, as you heave the sail along the deck the boat is pitching and rolling.  The sail which is up has to be lowered and unhanked off the forestay and the new one attached.  Paul Rayner is the person on our watch who usually hanks the sail on as he is the tallest, I was number 2 feeding the sail to him and Czaba was behind me feeding more sail forward.  The sea was massive and we were pitching up and down with waves crashing over the bow.  Then suddenly we were airbourne, my feet were 6 feet off the deck and I was freefalling towards the deck, an unbelievable feeling.  Fortunately for for me (unfortunately for Czaba) my landing was cushioned by the sail and Czaba (his is ok, I weigh less than I did!).  I staggered to my feet and looked for Paul who had been standing on the front rail, he was nowhere to be seen!  I reached around the front of the sail and felt his life jacket and managed to haul him back onto the boat.  We gave each other a pat and just burst out laughing, more out of shock than anything else I think.
A few minutes later a huge wave broke over us and with a loud bang my life jacket inflated automatically causing more hilarity, just another day at the office as Gordon would say.

As those of you following the Race Viewer will know we won the speed trial and were fastest between two imaginary lines on the chart.  This was great for morale, it's the only thing we've ever won!  I can't actually say we were really trying, it was just during one of the massive storms and we were hanging on for dear life.
We travelled very fast along the south coast of Australia and as a fleet we were making good progress, in fact the arrival window was brought forward.  However this was a false hope as we when we reached NZ it all went wrong.  More storms but this time wind in the wrong direction.  It got very hairy and morale was low as we had made so much time up only to loose it all in the last 250 miles.  The wind was right on the nose and we were crashing and banging through the waves, living conditions were very difficult, sleep was impossible and we were all just so desperate to get there.  Getting dressed was such a trial too and as I said to my crew mate Alex you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy. Having been to the award ceremony last night the local harbour master said that they had not experienced storms like that for many years so I think we were just unlucky.

At one point in the race we were 5th but a bad decision to go out to sea off the East Cape and the fact that we broke reef line number 3 on the mainsail and ripped the staysail along a seam meant that we were unable to sail at the correct angle to the wind and we dropped to 8th.  Arrival at port was 3 or 4am and 5am by the time we tied up on the pontoon, a very chilly Mum and Dad were there to greet us which was lovely.  A quick beer (5am!) and then off to the hotel for breakfast and a shower before we went back to the boat for 9.30 to start the jobs.

The stopover was a whole week with 2 full days off (poor Mandy, the only stopover she hasn't been to and we get time off!!!)  I had a great time with Mum and Dad, on Wednesday we went to Hamilton to visit my very good friend Fiona and her husband Scott and children Islay and Faye.  they live in a beautiful rural location and have a wonderful eco house, a well tended garden and a veg plot, not to mention two jersey cows, chickens and a dog!  Fiona has visited us many times at home so it was lovely to see where she lives and have a home cooked meal and wine with them all.
Thursday we went to Rotorua to see the mud pools and sulphur volcanic geothermal fields.  We had a helicopter flight up around the volacno and the 5 lakes before landing at Hells Gate, a very active (smelly) geothermal park.  It was deserted apart from us and the pilot so we had a lovely walk around and then back in the helicopter to be flown down to the lakeside landing area.  An amazing experience and one which we were so glad we had done.

So tomorrow (Sunday 4th December) we are off again, a short trip (I hope) to the Gold Coast where the boat will be lifetd out and antifouled. Mandy, Penny, James, Jean and Keith are visiting at various times so I am really looking forward to that.
Enjoy the Christmas preparations and think of me trying to cook a full christmas dinner for 12 on two rings with the cooker at 45 degrees, not sure when to put the turkey in, what do you think?
Thanks everyone for your support, for your cards and emails, it means so much to me to know you are thinking of me.

Southern Ocean Sunrise

Of course every day has a sunrise and a sun set and dependant on which watch you are on that day sometimes you see both. However one morning at 4.30, Haggis watch were treated to a sunrise we will all remember. It began from a triangular patch of clear orange sky on the horizon filling in slowly to the East. Above the clear was a few layers of puffy clouds and above that covering the whole sky a canopy of scalloped/cobbled clouds. The colours began as slightly orange fading to yellow in the North, as time went on the colours strengthened and the edges of the cobbled clouds were highlighted bright crimson, stronger towards the horizon. On the edges of the cobbles the orange colour was so vibrant like the burning embers of a fire. It was. So powerful a colour that if you had painted it you would need phosphorescent paint and everyone would say it looked ridiculous. Over 45 minutes the whole sky erupted in reds, oranges and yellows, filling in across the whole sky to the East and above the canopy. As the sun rose fully the colours formed into normal daylight and the spectacular dawn disappeared never to be repeated in this unique format. It was the most amazing scene and the most amazing memory. It's not often you have the time in life to stop and watch this spectacle develop over a 45 minute period and I suppose that is one advantage of where I am.

Photos From Cape Town To Geraldton leg

As promised a few photographs from Leg 3, don't worry I have millions more to bore you with when I get home.  Thanks for bothering to look at the blog and for your support.  David   xxxxxxxx

Wondering if we'll ever get out of Table Bay, Cape Town

Skip asleep in the Nav station!

Dr Bones who cooked up the amazing squid

Wonderful day at the office

Just so you know that we do wash the tea towels

Photo taken by George whilst he was working up the mast

Dr John the fisherman and his pipe.

Please sir can I have some more?

You have to catch up on your sleep whenever you can!

HMAS Sydney monument in Geraldton

Lighthouse in Geraldton

You can tell Geraldton's a windy place!

Captain Birdseye with a 3 week beard arrives in Geraldton

Kite Surfer

Dolphins at the beach in Geraldton

Eating sweets in the Southern ocean as the waves creep up behind!

Well were we 8th or 9th? Who knows but there were rumours that we were only 6 feet behind the next boat GPS when the race was finished. All I know is that this leg was quite different for us, we all tried our hardest to concentrate on racing. The big problem was, however, that we started one day behind everyone else! At race start in Cape Town we were sailing along right next to Finland, the wind picked up and we decided to change the sail. In the short period it took to do that the wind had died and Finland had sailed off leaving us in a very frustrating wind hole for 24 hours watching the fireworks from the Coldplay concert at the stadium! The rest is history, it was a game of catch up after that. We were also very cross and frustrated to have the race stopped 4 or 5 days out of Geraldton. Our whole strategy was just coming good and it wasn't us but Yorkshire who were stuck in a wind hole. Some of the fastest and best sailing we had was after the race had stopped. Anyway we made it in the end and I'm sure you can't imagine how important the 8th or 9th business was to us although we would so much have liked to be 5th or 6th. May have to revise my saying of " come second you've lost". How do those Gold Coast guys do it?

Cold

You would not believe how cold it was on this leg, I mean really cold. To give you some idea I was wearing 2 thermal tops, a thin fleece, a pair of long johns. That was the first layer. Then the next layer fleece lined mid layer salopettes and jacket, next foulies that's another pair of waterproof salopettes and a smock jacket. To finish off a neck gaiter, hat, hood, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks and my sailing boots. Unfortunately as you go to bed and get up three times a day you have to take all this off and put it back on each time. It means getting up half an hour early because woe betide if you are late to take over from the previous shift who are freezing and desperate off deck and into bed. It was so cold I slept in two thermal tops and long johns. My feet were so cold I wore the two pairs of socks in bed but this didn't work, my feet were still freezing after 4 or 5 hours in bed. The best thing I found was to take the socks off and put them in my sleeping bag next to my body and do some running on the spot to cause friction to warm my feet up. If my hat hadn't been so wet I would've worn that as well. You will all be delighted to know that Mandy washed my sleeping bag when I got to Geraldton! She also bought me a hot water bottle and the Booths gave me a wonderful warm woolly hat for Christmas which I will be keeping as my bed hat, it's so cozy. I have probably said this before but you have to appreciate how difficult it is to get all those clothes on, it would be bad enough at home but I have to do it lying flat in my bunk! Well actually flat would be easy, we are usually at an angle of 45 degrees. Getting up is the hardest time. I am often already awake and waiting for the wake up call. The noise of the boat slamming into the waves, water crashing down on deck, pitch black,cold, I have to have a serious word with myself to say "come on David get going" . I reach into my cave locker, grab my layers and the whole process starts again. Some shifts (the night time ones are the worst) are just a survival process until bunk time again. Don't even ask about going to the toilet with all those clothes on!

Wild Life

The real highlight for me has been the Albatross. The book I bought from the USA before I went on Southern Ocean Birds and mammals has been superb. Everyone reads it and you may notice fro the crew diaries that we are now able to identify things because of this book. The various types of Albatross and petrel have been amazing. They fly over us and glide alongside us. They never flap their wings they just get lift from the waves and glide around turning gracefully in the air for another fly past. Another highlight of the cold time was that I saw a group of 6-8 penguins swimming along at speed like tiny dolphins popping out of the waves. I had to do a double take as all the penguins I have ever seen have been shuffling along the ice not 3,000 miles from land swimming along.
One day 3 or 4 squid got washed onto the deck, unlike the others who normally throw them overboard, Dave T (Bones) decided to keep them and they were served up at lunch, fried with garlic Mayo....we know how to live! Our other surgeon on board this leg was John and he was seriously into fishing. He had brought with him a reel which he had attached to the back of the boat and we were trailing a squid lure. There was a bit of interest from an albatross and then BANG a 6 lb Mahi Mahi fish! This was duly landed, filleted and served for lunch with mash ( smash) and veg ( tinned). Wonderful. Sadly both Bones and John were only doing this leg so this may not be repeated.

Bread

You will be amazed to know that I have become renowned for my bread making on mother watch. My most recent signature dish has been a cheese and onion cob for lunch, occasionally made ciabatta style with olive oil. With the rest of the dough I make a fruit loaf with dried apricots and raisins which we have after lunch or as toast the next day and finally a plain loaf for breakfast toast. They keep asking what my secret is and I haven't a clue, I have never made bread before, I have no recipe it must be just luck. I knead it with a metal spoon and think of the Kenwood dough hook in our kitchen drawer at home, unused. Truth be known I have had a couple of disasters when I put too much dough in the tin and it erupted over the side like Vesuvius whilst proving and then erupted again all over the oven! My other trauma was when we ran out of yeast a few days out of port, I decided to make soda bread as we have bicarbonate of soda on board. It looked amazing and rose so well in the oven I thought the crew would be amazed. FORTUNATELY I tasted it before I gave it to them, it was absoloutely disgusting and I threw it straight over the side where it sank without trace, not even the Albatross or fish would touch it. Apparently Mandy tells me it was the fact that I put 3 tablespoons of bicarb in! She said did it fizz when I threw it in the water....what a cheek.

So the final week into port was really hard, 4 weeks at sea is quite enough. I knew that Mandy was in Geraldton but we still had 4 days to go and that's really hard. Even after the race had finished we had really good winds and were heeled over making good speed towards port. It just wasn't fast enough for me at that point.

Geraldton

 
I should really let Mandy describe the place as she and Catriona (Paul Rayner's wife) had been there for four days before we arrived and knew every street and every shop and had done an amazing job of sourcing the cheapest prices for all the things on our shopping list which we emailed to them. Geraldton is on the west coast of Australia about 400 miles above Perth and surrounded by absolutely nothing. It is a small town of 33,000 inhabitants and whilst they made us all very welcome it was apparently like a ghost town before we arrived and after we left. The shops opened at 9 and closed at 5 and were closed all day Sunday, that included the supermarkets which is a problem when you need to shop for 20 people for 4 weeks at sea! One evening I went for a beer with James from Welcome to Yorkshire and we were thrown out of the bar at closing time..........that was 8.30! Also everything was so expensive that it was difficult to stick to budget for the food I think, and really expensive to eat out.
All the teams did a parade along the promenade on Wednesday to the yacht club, and lots of people turned out to cheer us along. Unfortunately Derry and Singapore missed it as they didn't arrive in time, I felt really sorry for them, that's usually us!
Although we amazingly managed not to trash any sails this leg ( unlike everyone else) we did take the main sail off and do some repairs to that and checked over the other sails which took a couple of days so not much sightseeing time but I did get to go to the beach late one afternoon to watch the kite surfers, apparently Geraldton is in the world top 3 destinations for kite surfing! They were amazing, flying along in the constant wind, wouldn't be much good on Coniston. Also we saw some dolphins just yards offshore there which Mandy loved but I'm a bit blasé now. We also went to the HMAS Sydney monument which you may have seen on the Clipper web site as some of the guys went up to lay a wreath on behalf of the Clipper teams. It was a beautiful place, a memorial to 650 men who died when HMAS Sydney was sunk in 1941. A lovely peaceful place to watch the sun set and such beautiful architecture. Mandy wasn't needed on sail repair so she and Catriona chauffeured Scarlet And Doris round the supermarkets and helped with the food shopping for two days.
So that was Geraldton, another wonderful send off, a full pipe band this time (where do they find them?) now we set sail for Tauranga NZ, apparently the weather's going to be a bit rough but at least that should mean no wind holes and I'm looking forward to seeing Mum and Dad there. Oil slick and floating containers permitting.
As always I thank you all so much for your support watching us on the website, please cheer louder it might help. Also for your cards and emails, I try to reply but time and wifi are sometimes lacking. Please continue I love to read them and maybe you could send your favourite bread recipes next time!!!!!! David aka Webbo to the crew.

Photos to follow when Mandy arrives home.

Photos From Rio and Cape Town

In Rio with Mike who left in Rio and will be back to teaching maths!

The beaches of Rio were packed.

Doing the tourist bit!

Leaving Rio

Karen, who took me cycling in Rio.  Also on Haggis watch.

Keith, Haggis watch leader.

Pete, Nicky and Catriona on look out.  Zoom up the picture and you'll see us arriving in Cape Town

Captain Birdseye Arrives in Cape Town

Leaving Cape Town (Me on the bow, saluting)

Me and Pete Baldwin

Where on earth did they find someone in Cape Town to play the bagpipes?

Canapes on the spectator boat at race start!

Firstly sorry there are no photos in the blog but am having trouble uploading them at the moment.  Mandy will put some on for me in the next couple of days.

Well quite a different leg but the same result! Yes, we came 10th, but you all already know that as you all know more about the race than we do on the boat, I gather some of you are seriously hooked. Keep going we need all the support we can get.

Some great friends left the boat in Rio and were sadly missed, but it also meant we had fresh blood on the boat. The three of them on my watch (that's Haggis watch) were George from Norway, Dan from Italy and TT our Scottish/Ukrainian nurse from London who is part of the transplant team. I really enjoyed the first week with new people and lovely sunshine but it went a bit downhill from there! I fell victim to what the skipper called the Tartan Trots and spent 48 hours in my bunk with my head in an empty Haribo tub. I am very rarely sick but when I am I really make up for it, apparently Keith said I sounded like a wounded bear and it was enough to make everyone else feel ill. You don't get much sympathy out here, I have to say that if anyone had sent a taxi at that point I would've got in! 2,000 miles of sea in one direction, 2,000 in the other and 5 miles below is a lonely place. Anyway eventually I felt better and able to eat yet another Twix, part of the quarter of a Tonne of chocolate delivered in Rio.

The middle section of the journey brought rough seas and huge waves, very wet and cold all the time. It was blowing a force 8 one morning at 4am when a reefing line snapped with me 12 feet up the mast, Keith wrestling the wheel and Karen being knocked off her feet by waves on the deck. At the time you just get on with it but afterwards you realise just how scary it was and what could've happened. The weather systems were just all wrong and not how they are meant to be in the south Atlantic, no lovely downwind sailing with the boat flat, it was all upwind so very uncomfortable for us all.  It was a real highlight to meet up with HMS Edinburgh and it lifted our spirits, quite unnerving for Gordon to suddenly see them appear on the radar steaming towards us at high speed.

The final section was ok, we made good speed towards the end but once again a bit frustrating to be 10th. In our crew meeting we had a long chat with Gordon and are encouraging him to be on deck more and improving our deck skills. This worked for a few days before he resumed his attachment to the nav station. We are working on him for the next leg! When the first boat arrives in Cape Town and you are still 500 miles away it really hurts. Mandy, Pete and Nicky arrived on the Monday and we didn't get there until Friday lunch time, I am assured they weren't sitting waiting for me though and seem to have had a good time without me. Not sure why we went into stealth mode just before we arrived, probably just to draw attention to the fact we were last!

In Cape Town we had lots of boat jobs to do, sails to mend (with Mandy's help) and recheck and repack. Nick's mum had done most of the food shopping and organised it all into bags for each day.  Some of the guys took the winches to bits and serviced them and various other boat jobs so everyone was busy. That's the worst thing about coming in after everyone else, you don't have much time to prepare for the next leg and you don't really get much time off. On our one day off we managed a trip around the winelands of Stellenbosch and Franchoek which we really enjoyed and had lots of evenings out with the great food and wine of the Cape. Our accommodation was a brilliant apartment on the waterfront right opposite where we were moored and best of all it had a washer and tumble dryer, needless to say we were popular with a number of the other crew and we should all smell better at least for the start of the next leg.  Unfortunately it did not have wifi as promised and so I have not had chance to reply to emails, if you sent them I HAVE read them and I love reading them so please send more and I will try my best to reply in Geraldton.

Having arrived in port looking like captain birdseye, I trimmed my beard and went to have my hair cut in the mall on the waterfront. The guy shaved my hair which was fine but then proceeded, without so much as asking, to stick a cotton bud with blue wax on it up each nostril and in each ear! He then left me sitting in the window whilst they dried........obviously this is normal practice in South Africa, Mandy wishes she'd been there with the camera. Worse was to come though when he swiftly removed them but one got stuck up my nose and took him three attempts to get out, eventually with tweezers. Will not be recommending this to hairdresser at home but will dine out on this story for years to come.
All too soon it was time to leave, I did feel quite nervous about getting back on but having spoken to everyone I think we all felt the same.  However, we all thought that we wouldn't want the boat to be leaving without us on it so we must love it really!  Sadly Lesley had to fly home to see her dad so missed race start and therefore this leg, we are all hoping he is ok and that she'll be there to carry on in Geraldton.  At race start I was nominated to be the one standing on the front saluting the statue of a famous Cape Town sailor (sorry I don't know his name)as we passed through the swing bridges of the Victoria and Alfred dock and out to sea for the parade of sail in front of the world cup stadium and table mountain.  I'm sure there are some brilliant pictures on the website as it was a really lovely day. A few of our Edinburgh supporters came out on a boat organised by Nick's mum Lucille and apparently, as we struggled manfully on, were eating canapes and drinking fizz! Shame we were only 9th over the line but there's a long way to go.

We have been told to expect storms and huge seas for the journey to Australia (didn't think they could get worse than the ones we had already seen!) but at the moment we are stuck in a wind hole going nowhere!

Thank you all for your support, the cards and emails are wonderful and give me a real boost and its lovely to know that you are all watching closely and that we haven't been forgotten.  I have promised to try to do a blog more often than once a leg and I will try but it's just so exhausting on board that all I want to do when I come off shift is eat and sleep.