Day 1
Thanks to everyone who supported me
through this especially my parents and Nick van Noordwyk who
made this all possible. Sunday morning, I wake up at six for
breakfast at 7:30, I‘m feeling really confident that today‘s gonna
be a good day. Last night was very emotional greeting family,
neighbours and friends who have all been very supportive. There was a
kind of sadness though knowing I was gonna leave everyone close to me
behind but there was a job to be done. I was fighting hard to not let
this distract me especially today when my team needed me the most. 13
years of racing sailing experience I had one more thing to offer my
team mates and that was a little bit of ‘local knowledge‘. A team
breakfast and the traditional VERITAS Crocodile making our way down to
the boat at the Waterfront got the team in high spirits before the
start of the sixth leg from Cape Town towards La Rochelle, France. I
don‘t think I‘ll ever forget Archbishop Desmond Tutu‘s Blessing
of the waves, mentioning my name infront of everyone was real
special and an acknowledgement of the hard work we‘ve all done as a
Team Veritas.
Now that ‘local knowledge‘
was definitely gonna come in handy so this became my primary job going
into the starting procedure. Just before the gun went though, we had a
close encounter of a different kind. Logica and CGU, to windward of
us, decide to cross our bow forcing us to avoid a collision and we
immediately lodged a protest. The racing rules state that a boat to
windward (that is closer to the wind) of another, shall keep clear of
the leeward boat. This rule was clearly infringed and we await the
outcome. We managed to compose ourselves and cross the start line with
perfect timing with TEAM SPIRIT along side us, squeezing them closer
and closer to the wind until they got stuck in the disturbed air
coming off our sails and inevitably behind us. The only boat ahead of
us by this stage was LG making it a sprint for the beach off Granger
Bay, LG then tack( turning the boat through the eye of the wind)
before they could take advantage of the favourable change in wind
direction around Lion‘s Head allowing us to power over them and the
rest of the fleet in no time, but just as quickly the fans got
switched off and there was nothing not a breath of wind. Most of the
boats sat around like rebels without a cause while a few caught a land
breeze off Robben Island, this however didn‘t last long until everyone was
at the mercy of the current. Lunchtime! Cheese rolls, an Aero,
Appletizer and a banana. I was very quickly made aware that this was
luxury and that meals would progressively become worse as the trip
went on.
Barbera Powell, Better known as Babs,
and I would become the first victims of the dreaded MOTHER WATCH. Babs
had done Mother Watch before and promised to show me the ropes. The
team was split into two watches, Port and Starboard. Alistair Taylor
and Peter Clift were the two watch leaders, I was in Alistair‘s
watch and Babs was in Peter‘s so two members of each watch made up
the mother watch havin g to spend 24 hours down below making every
meal for 18 crew and then washing up, clean the Heads(toilet) and
generally keeping the boat tidy, on the up side you get a full nights
sleep and rule the CD player. Unfortunately you get woken up at 6 the
next morning to make breakfast but everyone gets a turn so I‘ll be
doing Mother Watch next week Sunday again.
It‘s about 10:00 pm and dinner has
just been served, chicken, mushrooms, peppers, rice and Mrs. Balls.
Applecrumble for desert thankyou very much and after I clean
everything up will use all 8 hours I‘ve got left and sleep.
Later
sieraj
AKA ‘serge‘
PS we have been split into two groups
for emailing and then can only send every 12 hours so that means that
i‘ll rite every second day. I will plead with Will to be able to
send one every day instead i‘m writing a journal so i‘m still up
to date.
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 2
Lee Floyd, a legger as well, woke me up
at six this morning to help Babs with breakfast. It really looked like
‘mealie pap‘ but Babs assures me that its good for you. Washing up
for 18 people is hell especially when you have ‘pap‘ stuck to the
bottom of the pot. The spinaker got put up last night while the wind
has gone round to the southeast and we are riding the swells
beautifully at around 10 knots. Most of the fleet are going in a north
westerly direction, we seemed to have reached the trade winds already
which is great. While on mother watch, yesterday and last night, Babs
and I had lots of time to talk. I learnt that while they were down in
the southern ocean Babs spent most of her time downstairs voluntarily
doing mother watch because of the harsh conditions they experienced up
on deck, I guess it was hard either way. Getting used to the shift
system has taken a strain on everybody, Charlie Boterill our
maintenance man has just come down stairs and almost immediatelly gone
into snoring mode much to the amusement of everybody else.
After the sched‘ at 0800 hours we
seem to be in a really good position but its still early days with
over 5000 miles left to go and anything can and will happen. We have
enough westward now to get into the trade winds and Will Carnegie (
Skips ) is very happy to go more northwards so a gybe ( turning the
boat through the eye of the wind ) was called for.
There are two sched‘s, 0200 and 0800
GMT, when all 12 boats call into race head quarters and give their
position. This position we get from the GPS (Global Positioning
System) which in turn uses satelites to pinpoint exactly where we are
within about 10 meters. We still have two boats in sight Logica, CGN
and Olympic which makes it excitng because we have somebebody to
compare our speed against. These are those races within a race and we
have set ourselves a short term goal of trying to catch Logica who are
a few hundred meters in front of us.
Whale! Mark Wilson (bowman) spots at
least two whales on our portside(left). Its nice to know we‘re not
alone out here as a thick fog is settling in. Charlie sees another
whale this time its on a collision course with us, it comes so close
one could almost reach out and touch it. Charlie being the expert on
whales says its a Sperm whale but I wouldn‘t have a clue. Later that
afternoon we we have another near disaster dragging a big fat chunk of
weed on our rudder. Now it took a few minutes to priorities and after
a few attempts at trying to fish it out with the boat hook we conceed
to having to lower the sails and slow the boat down completely so
Mark, the voluntar swimmer onboard dressed in swimming trunks and a
climbing harness, can be lowered into the water thats around 15C to
remove it needless to say that you won‘t find me getting undressed
for no good reason.
Will Brammer and Tina Smith were on
mother watch today and dinner was great, pasta with parmesan but I
believe we‘ll be starting on the freezed dried stuff any day now and
possibly going on to rationings because there hasn‘t been much wind
out here and thus hardly any progress made. I was on watch from 12am
till 6pm and will be from 10pm till 2 am later tonight.
Note that we work 6 hours on and 6 off
during the day and 4 hours on and 4 off at night. The hours are really
bad but somebody‘s got to do it.
sieraj
*********
ooo00O00ooo
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DAY
3 ON VERITAS
Last night was really slow with
thick fog everywhere, infact so thick that one could hardly see the
guy at the bow from the steering wheel near the back of the boat.
Remember that this is a 72 foot yacht and that was about as far as the
eye could see so we started a pemanent Radar watch and a report back
every 10 minutes. Otherwise it was really quite uneventful with hardly
any if no wind so very frustrating stuff. A bit of humour though, our
watermaker was switched on last night and along with the thick fog
created an echo that sounded just like another vessel was around us
which gave some of the crew a scare.
This morning however the fog
lifted which raised everyone‘s spirits but like all things what goes
up must come down, we lost out completely to the rest of the fleet
going from 2nd position to last, yes last. You couldn‘t
imagine how disapointed we all were to learn that all our hard work
through the night was invain. We could easily have blamed the wind but
instead a near state of emergancy was hailed and an immediate review
of what we did through the night was done and a renewal of the plan
and our focus was made.We‘ve been working hard now and anticipate
that our position will improve by the next sched‘. The wind is still
very light but the temperature is definitely rising and most everyone
has there t-shirts off, almost everyone. Food has been great the last
couple of days but rationings has become a serious consideration as we
expected to be further down the leg than we are at present. Anyway, I‘m
having a good time and getting to know more about the rest of the team
which I‘ll let you know about later.
Cheers for now.
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 4
Perfect, but not for sailing.
Clear skys, blue water and a light breeze blowing across the deck and
the boats crawling along at 5 knots. Everybody‘s vying for a spot of
sunlight to catch a tan, most of the crew are from the UK so we excuse
them because they don‘t get much back home. I notice that I’m
burning even though I‘ve been using a factor 30 sunblock and its
becoming really hot out here.
I‘m having a problem keeping up
with the days, one really loses your orientation out here like what
day it is or even what time it is. Today I wore my red shorts and got
caught by the ‘fashion police‘( Skip & Mark) and fined with
sometime at the helm. This was initially a welcome relief because Skip
made us change sails every 10 minutes as the wind kept changing
direction but in this heat, it is hard to keep your concentration.
Lunch was Tuna, pasta and Mrs Balls with fresh apples for desert. We‘ve
started a pet-of-the-day just to show how crazy we‘re all getting
after only 4 days at sea.This morning Charlie saw ‘portugese man-of
war‘, better known to us in SA as ‘blue bottles‘, everywhere and
later a swallow graced our presence only to spot a hawk of some sort
circling the boat. You could see it panting with exhaustion but when
it tried to fly away... well lets just say that the swallow came off
second best. This was a touching moment for everyone who saw it, it
kind of symbolized that while we‘re out here trying to conquer the
Atlantic Ocean there were people outhere, somewhere, fighting their
own battles and that life goes on.
Its almost routine really
but we‘re expecting fog again tonight. Our navigator/tactician
Malcolm McVean, a meteorologist by trade, can‘t explain this
phenomenon but for the last four days it has happened like clockwork,
perfect days and foggy nights. We‘ve started on the freezed dried
food now so supper was Tai chicken, it doesn‘t quite taste the same
because its all soya. Steven Fillery, the boats medic, reckons it
doesn‘t give the body everything it needs so every second day from
now he will hand out a ration of vitamin tablets to everyone.
Got to go now, there’s a
beautiful sunset tonight and everyone is waiting in anticipation for
the GREEN FLASH( the orange of the sun meets the blue of the sea
creating a flash of green on the horizon.)
Chow for now
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 5
Woke up this morning to find that the spinaker
had been taken down and we‘re now experiencing northwesterly headwinds so the
yankee and staysails have been put up. This is a big change compared to the
first few days of our trip when we were quite happy to be pushed from behind by
the tradewinds. Emily Lloyd will be kicking herself, a crewmember onboard it is
her birthday today. She chose to be on Mother Watch today, the day with our
first headwinds. Ofcourse this could not have been planned in any way but it is
particularly more difficullt to work down below when sailing into the wind with
the boat going up and crashing down every wave this, beside the acute heel of
the boat to one side.Unfortunately she doesn‘t want to reveal her age but we‘ll
get it out of her sooner or later.Skips gave me a package today apologising
profusely apparently having forgotten about it completely, it was from
Johann du Toit.
Johann, my friend from Parow North, thanks to ‘Reach
for a dream foundation‘ did just that and attended the VERITAS Ocean Academy
during the BT Global Challenge stop-over in Cape Town. Thanks Johann for the
card and the poster, I showed everyone your brilliant piece of art and Babs
(official galley decorator ) wants to put it up on the wall for everyone to see.
Back to Emily‘s birthday party, apparently
tradition aboard the VERITAS Mark has to compose and read an ode to the birthday
girl which was a little short of brilliant.
It is strange to see young Emily at sea It
is not normally where you would expect her to be The Kings Road perhaps, or
Harvey Nicks Or in deepest Soho watching porno flicks Her prefered food is not
really cod stew And she‘s not really one for a builders brew And as for
dressing in foul weather gear Its just not the thing she‘d do if she were not
here.
But despite being rationed and dressed like a man
She faces it all as only Emily can
With the occasional scene in a bit of a funk And
a bottle of fizz stashed away in her bunk. So darling Em‘s on your birthday
today Quite how old you are you just won‘t say
Heres an imaginary toast from this happy band and
we‘ll pop some real corks when we get back to land.
Very good don‘t you think? Mark was also in
charge of another boat tradition namely nail polishing everyones little fingers.
After much ummming and arrring my hands were nearly handcuffed to the table
before I admitted defeat and mine were covered in a purple glittery colour. Don‘t
know what suppers going to be but it promises to be something special owing to
Emily‘s birthday. So what does tomorrow hold for us brave conquerors of the
Atlantic ocean? A laugh or two for if nothing else atleast we‘re enjoying
ourselves.
missing everyone back home
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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sorry
i didnt rite sooner but we‘ve been so busy and i‘m
was quite tired so opted for some rest instead. we‘re now completely in the
tradewinds and expect to have calm weather from behind for atleast the next
week.
Day 6
So far, touch wood, we‘ve had no cases of seasickness at all but wait.....
oh ....urgh! It seems we‘ve had our first victim Paula Balch, a legger aswell,
has succum to the bad weather that has filled in. Overcast and still coming from
infront of us this was completely unexpected as we‘ve been under the guise
that we had reached the southeasterly tradewinds already. I have mother watch
tomorow and am not looking forward to it one bit because these headwinds make
life downstairs unbareable unless of course you‘re sleeping but Skips promises
me that the wind will move round to the south and eventually to the southeast
before we know it.
A bit of excitement today, as the wind increased earlier we were called on to
do a headsail change. This promised to be awesome with the bow bearing up and
then crashing down every wave with the front third of the boat invariably being
covered in water and then spray as Mark, the bowman, lead us into the unknown
grasping anything and everything that was vaguely secure. I‘d hate to imagine
what it was like in the southern ocean but clipped to the deck by our harnesses
( more like dog leashes ) we eventually reach the bow of our boat, which was
only half the job done, clutching at the foresail trying to bring it back to
earth while occasionally being swept off your feet by a wall of saltwater that
seems to find its way under everything you‘re wearing. Now comes the hard part
when, after the new sail has been hoisted, it takes four people to carry a 100kg
sail drenched in saltwater to a relatively safe area on the boat (which is
usually at the back of the boat ) to pack it neatly into its bag and then
dragging it down below and back to the bow area where all the sails are stored.
All this while trying desperately to get a foothold and with every new movement
of the boat trying to get another. This simple manouevre in good conditions
should take around 15 minutes but on a day like today, it took us almost an
hour.
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Day 7
Sunday! Its been a week at sea now and a week since I‘ve been on mother
watch. I was looking forward to a shower, shave and some rest but Babs, my
mother watch partner, is such a workaholic. Now I don‘t mean to say that I‘m
lazy or anything but with Babs leading the way we cleaned everything and I mean
everything from the heads(toilet) to the galley(kitchen), from bunks(beds) to
the floor and even below that in the bilges. I had been woken up at six this
morning and before I knew it my watch read 10:00pm and we were finishing off the
last of supper‘s dishes. There was not much time left for sleep so I had a
quick shower and decided to leave my shave for another day because sleep was
prioritie, because the last two days was hard work with late hours and I had
some catching up to do.
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Day 8
"Wake up Sieraj..... we need you for the gybe."
Spike, the other Malcolm, wakes me up in their time of need which
unfortunately is another mother watch duty. Its pitch dark outside and I‘m
lying in my bunk with only my thermals on. I spring to life ( to my own surprise
) and kit up, boots, lifejacket and a .... "Sieraj on deck!" confirms
to everyone on watch that I had risen from the dead. Now I didn‘t bother with
my foul weather gear thinking that the faster I got on deck, the sooner I‘d be
back in my bunk. The wind had changed direction and we needed to gybe in order
to take full advantage of this change but halfway through this motion Skips
bails out to confirm my worst nightmare, the wind had gone back to its original
direction. I consoled myself with the fact that this could not have been planned
and that the night could only get better, or so I thought, but just to be sure I
went to bed with my lifejacket and boots on which was the only good thing that
night as Spike proceeded to wake me up three times before my own watch started
at 6:00am this morning.
A Kangaroo court was proposed for lunchtimes everyday starting today and our
first victim was Emily the birthday girl. Now Emily is a lady through and
through, more like a rose amongst thorns and I‘m not talking about her looks.
She was over heard asking the skipper whether we were in the southeasterly
tradewinds everyone was talking about but immediately after her suspicions were
confirmed proceeded to ask "..... where do they come from?"
laughing all the way to the bank,
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 10
Everyone is getting quite lithargic as we‘re approaching the equator, its
only 6 days away but getting hotter with every minute with the crew complaining
of the excessive heat down below. The fans are running at full speed 24 hours a
day and we‘re running out of things to do. I‘ve finished the book on Ernst
Shackleton now and have even resorted to re - wipping the ends of some of our
sheets, I havent finished yet and have already opened another book this time its
the biography of Bob Geldof a famous rock star in the seventies. Its funny
though, Shackleton spent over a year in Antarctica between 1914 and 1915
fighting for survival and one of his biggest problems was that there was nothing
to do, his crew could easily have died of boredom. The members of our crew,
though, are doing something to keep busy, you have the choice of Lee Floyds
workout sessions at lunch time when you‘ll find crewmembers in all sorts of
strange positions on the foredeck and the grave yard shift‘s "Dead Poets
Society" where you‘re only alowed to recite poems from poets who are
d........ sorry, past away. Steven Fillery, our medic, is giving a First Aid
course in the galley while Malcolm McVean our navigator says we‘re about to
pass the Island of St. Helena and its not too late to make a swim for it.
Lithargic but enjoying ourselves there isn‘t a dull moment.
Notably though we havent seen many flying fish and by order of the skipper we‘re
waiting to sacrifice the first one to land on our yacht to King Neptune. We‘re
not doing to well in the race so far fighting for the minor places with
"Save The Children" and "Spirit of Hong Kong" but on the up
side the bulk of the fleet will lead us into the the most intolerable place on
the planet, the Doldrums. So we look forward to picking up a few positions then
but for the mean time we all seem to be stuck in the same weather system until
the first boat reaches the doldrums, then the games begin!
No place to go
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 11
Its even hotter today! It is summer in the northern hemisphere this time of
the year so any hope of it cooling down is hoping invain. Down below it is easy
to become a little claustraphobic with the crew complaining about all sorts of
things like their bunks not being comfortable enough etc. Those with initiative
do something about it and practice a little "Home Improvement" like
Lee Floyd who adjusted his bunk and kept me out of sleep in the process, others
have to live with it. We‘ve now had to ration our milk at breakfast times so
cereals are only served with milk every other day unless of course you eat your
cereals without. Malcolm McVean and Alastair, my watch leader, have started the
"Galaxy Rangers Club" practicing the old methods of navigation using
their sextant and having to wait for clear skys like today.
Some of you may know that VERITAS had a near fatal incident when it left
Sydney Harbour in the last leg where two crew members got seriously injured.
Robert Brook sustained injuries to is hand but was able to be with the team in
Cape Town while Charlie Smith was not so lucky, he broke his leg amongst other
things but whats encouraging to hear is that he is steadily getting better.
These days he often e-mails us here onboard VERITAS to let us know his progress.
I personally do not know the man and have never met him but when we read his
e-mails I can see the glimmer in the eyes of the crew who were there that
unfortunate day and know that it must have taken someone so strong to survive
what he went through and then with his optimism, he brings life to this crew. I
look forward to meeting him.
The day has gone very slowly and I‘ll be going on watch soon for the 2:00pm
to 6:00pm shift. Well I gotta go now, skips is waiting to use the computer but I
‘ll let you know what happens next.
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 12
The heat is unbearable out here and has become the subject of discussion on
board the VERITAS. You must know that the fans are working around the clock but
we still spend most of our time on deck even when we off watch. Factor 30 all
around but everybody is at the mercy of the sun. Funny thing, just a week ago we
were all fighting for a bit of sunshine and now we trying to hide from it though
its quite stuffy downstairs. The breeze seems to increase at night but its
difficult to decide what to wear, with just thermals on its too cold and with
foul weather gear its too stuffy and so people try to compromise, you find them
dressed all funny with a foulie jacket and a thermal bottom or visa verse.
Rationing has got to a serious state now because
it seems we're running out of books to read. Some of us have been caught re
reading the "buyers guide for bikers" that Peter Clift, a watch
leader, smuggled onboard. That must really be the height of boredom!
A scheme has been put in place earlier on in the
race already where each person onboard has to assume their talent and also
choose a goal that they would like to reach, when someone else's goal
corresponds to another's talent a healthy sharing of information exists. You'll
see Alistair on the deck showing Debbie how to use a sextant while Malcolm's
explaining some meteorological effects in the sky to me. So we still fighting
that dreadful enemy called boredom but things are going to liven up soon because
the equator is nearing.
Now I shouldn't be highlighting this point as I'm bound to become a victim of
King Neptune's rath myself but there's a strange sniggering around the boat as
some of the crew are gearing up for the big day I suppose leaving us leggers to
watch on in embarrassment. Lee Floyds workout sessions
are becoming popular these
days but as they work above the heads(toilet) it is hard when you relieve
yourself around lunchtime to go about ones thing to the tune of 1 2 3 4 up and
down and again......
whew! just thinking about it makes me break into
a sweat.
Sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 13-15
This morning we woke up to the smell of cooked
flying fish(3 in total)
from experience i know that they smell quite
awful so I was thankful that i wasn`t on deck when they landed. They tasted very
nice though but maybe thats just because the food we have onboard sucks. Mark
has come up with a real extra ordinary discovery and that is that flying fish
have no night vision! He based his findings on atleast 13 days of research
sitting on deck occasionally and noticing that these confused creatures (fish
that fly) only land on deck at night and not during the day. Later Lee Floyd was
heard making an astounding remark about "Darwin would have been so confused
had he seen Flying fish." but to back up Mark`s findings, Charlie B got a
knock over the head by a " Kamakazi Flying Fish" the night before. On
that occasion Lee Floyd, also a UK police officer, leaped after the criminal but
just too late the the soldier slid off the deck and back into the water. There
is a constant lookout for "KFF" now to supplement or ever decreasing
rations, wish us luck. By the way, we know about trawling and angling but if any
one knows the correct terminology for catching flying fish we`d really like to
know about it.
Today is mother watch for me which marks the
second week at sea and about half way to La Rochelle. So just another two weeks
left of this leg but more agonising times to come with the doldrums aproaching
fast and there after we expect head winds all the way around the bulge of
Africa, across the mouth of the Mediterrean sea to LR. I woke up particularly
early this morning to start work that way I atleast get some substantial work
done before Babs wakes up but almost as if it was her calling in life she
cracked the whip and I was religated to washing the dishes. Tonight I`m
determined to get to bed at a descent hour and clock in atleast 12 hours of
sleep to make up for lost time...
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 16
I gave Lee Floyd my bunk last night because he was complaining of restless
nights and no sleep. His bunk, now mine, is the highest with no leg room because
of the ceiling and a bad place for some body who‘s even vaguely
claustraphobic. I on the other hand have grown a reputation of being able to
sleep anywhere, even on deck, so I took it upon myself to make sure that Lee
found some sleep by offering him my bunk which is much more comfortable.
Malcolm McVean, the navigator, warns of squally conditions as we approach the
Doldrums so a constant look out is kept. We did however experience some rain
this morning and everyone flocked on deck to catch a refreshing shower.
Usually we‘re only allowed two squirts of the boat‘s shower, one squirt
for the soap and another to rinse off with. Now you can imagine what free water
means to us. These squals usually bring rain and wind and to Malcolm it was no
surprise to see 26 knots of wind on the dial and immediately the flanker was
called for. The flanker is a spinaker that is considerably smaller than the
rest, made of tougher material it it is only raised in strong wind conditions
bearing its battle scars of days gone by, tears and patches where repairs were
made. There is an air of humour surrounding this sail and Will Brammer who it is
reputed, is responsible for all these scars.
2 knots of current is pushing us westward at the moment and apparently this
is good because it falls right in place with our plan the tactical team
explains. The tactical team is made up of Mark Wilson, Will Carnegie (skips),
Spike and Malcolm McVean. A watch wardon system has been put inplace where by a
nominated person, usually someone who‘s just come off mother watch, is
responsible for things like hot drinks, filling in the logbook and generally
keeping the focus of the team up.
I was watch wardon last night, its hard to maintain the teams focus when you
can‘t even keep your own eyes open at night, never mind six others.
Sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 19
.....and on the 19 day we crossed the equator.
The Equator, a line that sucumnavigates our world and divides it into two
spheres a northern and a southern. For most of the crew they have spent the
better or worse part of the last 7 months since October last year, in the
southern hemisphere.
Finally for them they have reached the home
straight, we are at last in the northern hemisphere. The crossing of the Equator
however bares a special significanse to sailors especially for those who havent
crossed it before and no flying across it doesnt count, I tried that one. It is
so special that we are even graced with King Neptunes presence who takes it upon
himself to judge all Equator Virgins, as we are called, and bares testamony to
our crossing. King Neptune ( Will Carnegie, skipper ) along with his two side
kicks The Terrorist ( Kevin Sinet, his Irish ) and Mark "The
Snich"Wilson ( his always got something on someone ) apparently travelled
thousands of miles to witness our initiation but I reckoned it was a bit of a
waste considering how horendous the three looked. Lee Floyd, Paula Balch, Spike
and myself all alledged to be Equator Virgins, were forewarned yesterday to
produce our certificates, of having crossed, or else and today was the day of
reckoning. One by one we were called before the great and honourable King where
we begged for forgiveness, pleaing for our innocense but our cries were invain
as punishment was inevitable. Simply put, we were ignored. So our punishment
came as Mark"The Snich" read out aloud our more embarressing moments
onboard, before witnesses, and before we could even explain our selves The
Terrorist Kevin Sinet was pouring pots of muck over us. The punishment came so
quickly it was over before we could say, "Cod Stew!" in corus. If you
ever find yourrself in such a precarious position, make sure theres a way out.
Cod Stew found its way into everything, under everything and ofcourse we weren‘t
ones to dissapoint so Cod Stew found its way on to everyone else aswell.
Fun in the sun, a great time was had by all and
if nothing else was a great excuse to have a shower.
ex-Equator Virgin,
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 23
After 23 days at sea who would have thought that the fleet could still
be so close together. Yesterday we caught up to Olympic Group and had
them insight for the whole day. We were sailing side by side about 7
miles apart until dusk fell and our paths seemed destined to cross,
literaly. Dinner was about to be served and then chased away as the mere
presence of another boat got the crew revved up focussing on the job at
hand. At one time we could even hear their halyards ( ropes that pull
sails up the mast ) rattling against their mast. I guestimated we were,
at our closest, about 200 m away when Olympic Group past infront of us.
They seemed to be heading for Senegal where as the course we were
steering would allow us to just miss "the bulge of Africa" on
our way northward. Not long afterward we moved infront of them and at
present have left them trailling some 8 miles behind us.
I‘m on mother watch today and on every Sunday since this leg of the
race started, I look forward to it not only for the sleep but it also
signifies that another week has past. Today in particular was quite a
tough Mother Watch day, Babs and I had to cook supper while the crew on
deck were going through manourves like tacking ( passing the bow of the
boat through the eye of the wind) and dropping the spinaker which
entails dragging about 70 square meters of sail down below, as it lays
down the "passage", covering everything in its path some more
crew have to fold and then tie the sail every three meters with wool.
This makes cooking just a little awkward but never the less interesting.
The Doldrums have come and gone or atleast thats what we think, Skips
was showing us some of the signs like the temperature has drop a touch
and we definitely not feeling as sticky as we did a couple of days ago.
Today we saw Tuna boats and a large school of dolphins paid us a visit,
infact another if not the same school came around again as it got darker
this evening. What a beautiful sight to see almost 50 dolphins
surrounding the boat, these were wild animals yet so graceful as they
raced our bow wave crossing over one another in what seemed almost a
ritual to them. Fellow sailors will know what I‘m talking about, a
boat moving at good speed is often visited by Dolphins and they will in
most instances gather round the bow area racing the bow wave.
We are expecting to be at sea for another 2 weeks before we reach La
Rochelle, France. Mark speaks french and I‘ve enrolled for my french
lessons. Already I can say " Hello, my name is Sieraj" in
french but soon I‘ll be fluent and taking advantage of my new found
talent.
Bon Voyage
sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 25
What do you know? Just a day after we passed Olympic Group we’ve already
caught up to Spirit of Hong Kong. We have had them in our sights since yesterday
around noon, they’re about 2 miles off to the starboard (right) of our bow but
occasionally they disappear into the haze that covers the horizon. Through the
night the two teams worked hard, us trying to pass them and they surely trying
to fend us off. Initially their skipper called us up over the VHF Radio wanting
to know ".. whose that yacht on the horizon?" and much to their
surprise it was the determined VERITAS.
We’re experiencing the beginning of the North Easterly Tradewinds that are
hitting us head on and have raised our " yellow " foresails. Skipper
Will Carnegie says that this will probably be the case for the rest of the race
and I can tell you that already life down below decks is extremely
uncomfortable, crew that are off watch have to sleep on the bunks that are on
the high side of the boat. We struggle to get to sleep in this position holding
on for dear life for fear of rolling out of your bunk while the boat is heeled
over at an angle and occasionally those that do doze off, roll out to find out
that the laminated flooring is tougher than it looks.
These are trying conditions to live in but minor in comparison to what some
of the other boats in the fleet have experienced over the last 48 hours or so.
Will, our skipper, had just mentioned a day or two ago that some of the leading
boats were extremely close to the coast of Africa and this situation would
provide its own dangers in the form of pirates. Yes, they do exist in this day
an age and it was the unfortunate fate of Logica to be visited by such a gang.
Apparently all’s well onboard now and all these people wanted were food and
cigarettes. However minor an incident this may have seemed, it could prove to
become a hazard for the rest of the fleet as well, so immediately the skipper of
Logica sent out a message to the rest of the fleet of their experience but
almost as soon as the word got out "Isle of Man" were also paid a
visit by these menaces but came away unscathed. There is a particular interest
in the well being onboard Logica as Will Brammers‘s( VERITAS crew ) wife is
onboard but with a real danger lurking in our midst a constant look out is being
kept and a decision was made not to venture too close to the coast.
Drama on the high seas,
Sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 26
It seems the leaders are slowing down or we‘re just catching up. The gap
between us and the lead boat has narrowed down to only 139 miles which is less
than a days run for us. We‘re banging our way through big seas at the moment
with the wind reaching speeds of up to 30 knots forcing us to put in reefs and
as soon as the wind dies we have to "shake"( undo) it out.
We‘ve just passed Dakar weeving our way through all the fishing vessels,
this must be a real popular spot because already we have encountered about 20
of them.
A bit of fun and excitement through the night, we had to do a few headsail
changes so again the foredeck team braved their way to the front of the boat.
It was the most fun I‘ve had in ages, the bow dipping below each wave with
the rush of water pushing us back and inbetween each surge the team would
lunge forward with the new sail. It reminded me of a day at the beach except
for the fact that I was fully clothed and soaked to the bone underneath. In
several cases we would get the sail clip on and ready for hoisting and the
wind would go back to its original strength and the change would have to be
abandoned, the sail then has to dragged back and be refolded just to keep us
honest.
Today we experienced a freak squal when on the horizon we could see a clear
line of black cloud that seemed to stretch from east to west, below it was a
haze of brown that resembled a typical Highveld sand storm. In seconds we
dropped the spinaker which was up at the time and almost as quickly the squal
had passed over us. the wind reach in exccess of 30knots and then dropped down
to as little as 10 knots afterward. Never the less, all‘s well onboard and
with just undedr two weeks left to go we‘re already dreaming of fresh food
and solid ground. Its amazing how the smallest things have become so
significant and the mere thought of solid ground has become important.
Sieraj
ooo00O00ooo
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Day 33
Its been a while now since I‘ve sat behind the computer but conditions have
been tough. Will, our skipper, reckons this has been the longest period spent
sailing against the wind in one go. Usually, he says, they get a break in the
weather and get an occasional breeze from behind pushing them along but not so
this time. Sailing into 30 knots of wind for several days on end has really put
a strain on the crew, after every watch you would usually find people sitting
around the saloon ( eating area ) reading a book, playing card games or just
listening to music but in these conditions off watch means racing for you bunk
to get the max amount of sleep in the 4 or 6 hours because when your on watch
its hard work. Dropping and then raising headsails, putting in and then
"shaking" out reefs and the good ol‘ tack is thrown in for good
measure. All these manoeuvres keep you busy during your time on watch but
however tideous these are, ensure the boat is moving at maximum speed.
Its very hard to be sailing against yourself and when ocean covers the
horizon for as far as the eye can see but we’ve been lucky to have on occasion
spotted another yacht in the distance which would raise ones spirits. In fact as
I write this we have "Save the Children" just astern of us on the
horizon and once again the crew are pumped up, its good to know your not alone
out here and with a week left till La Rochelle conversation on the rail is
smothered with French food. We would discuss what we would have for breakfast,
lunch and then supper with wet lips and your tongue on the floor. The finish in
La Rochelle had to delayed by a week or so because during the early parts of
this leg the fleet experienced some unexpected light weather so I’m sure most
of the boats like ourselves have had to ration their food supplies along the
way. Tina Smith is our woman we’d love to hate, she’s in charge of our food
and while we all moaned about the tiny portions in the beginning she has done a
splendid job after catering for the expected 35 days it was suppose to have
taken for this leg but after rationing still have food to last us for more than
a week.
I’m looking forward to one more mother watch on Sunday which will mark our
5th week at see. This will be the longest time that I have spent at
sea and so far has been quite an eye opener, I’ve met 17 people I never knew
before and we’ve had to work together as a team to get this far. Its just
amazing that when people are as pushed as we are, how much further they’ll go
for their fellow crew member or be it human being.
Sieraj
