Heading Upwind!!

After a fantastic stop over in Australia, we were yet again accompanied by strong winds leaving Geraldton heading North. This race was due to be the most tactical race so far up to Singapore. We would face numerous islands, reefs, fishing fleets, oil rigs galore, threats of piracy, squalls and numerous random objects (usually fishing pots of some description) that we’re not lit up that scattered the surface of the sea.


The weather was warm to start with but soon soared to unbearable temperature down below deck, easily hotter than crossing the equator in leg 1. We were slipping into our usual routine quicker and quicker each time we started races now and it wasn’t long until we had 1000 miles under our belts. As we made our approach to the Sunda straight we unfortunately missed out on some gate points after making a solo move far out west after the rest of the fleet headed east. The tables were soon turned when we managed to go from tenth to first so the move definitely paid off, only for us to sail into our own wind hole. Our fortunes were certainly mixed.

Soon after entering the straight we had managed to consolidate a third place with Cape Breton and Australia ahead of us but not by much. Cork were following in fourth with the rest of the fleet following in hot pursuit By this stage the weather was beginning to be particularly squally, and they were far more severe than during Leg 1. The rain was lashing and relentless, the winds gale force and it was a case of doing what you could to reduce the sail plan in as quick a time as possible. We had a knock down of our own (when the mast is nearly in the water) when we didn’t manage to do this in time. I was helming at the time and it certainly eclipsed our Leg 3 broach as the most out-of-control moment.


Within an hour the impact of the conditions was made evident on the fleet. A Pan-pan message then came in from one of the Clipper fleet although it was not clear at the time who it was from. We soon found out that Cork behind us hat hit a reef and were abandoning to life rafts. We were all totally shocked and with not much information minds began to race. We were nearly called back by the race committee to go and assist but this would only have put more boats in jeopardy and the boats behind Cork would be there sooner, so ourselves, Cape Breton and Australia carried on racing. There was soon a press release through saying that everyone was safe but unfortunately they were having to abandon the boat on the reef. It was incredibly sad news that there would only be 9 clipper boats left in the world. When Finland and California left the rescue scene no doubt local fishermen will have looted the boat for absolutely everything. The outcome of an investigation into the situation has yet to be released but as soon as it is I’ll blog about it as its no doubt one of the major incidents in the history of Clipper.


Racing continued although it was not clear because we were beginning to beat to windward who was on the winning and losing tack. As we made our final approaches it became clear we would have to settle for third. Unfortunately we lost out by a discouraging margin in the end to the other two, with Cape Breton finishing about a mile ahead of Australia with us around 30 miles behind. All in all it was a very incident full race but my favourite so far. Everyone is just glad that everyone on Cork is safe.

After a lengthy stop over in Batam/Singapore where fortunately I managed to fit in a great flying visit back to Melbourne we then set out on the ‘infamous’ upwind part of the whole race. To begin with the weather out of Singapore was superb and the fleet made excellent progress towards China, with Jamaica leading the way for most of the start. The first week passed in a blur before the action came to a head as we approached the gate. We had been in the top two for the whole first week but a wind whole and a slight detour east meant we were now in 7th with about 200 miles to go. It looked like we were going to miss out altogether. Obviously Pete our skipper had other ideas though as we soared back up through the fleet just in time to take the full 3 gate points! These were our first gate points of the race and we were overjoyed – it would mean closing the gap in the overall race to Finland and extending our lead over Hull and Humber and Cape Breton.



From here though the race changed dramatically. Off the coast of Taiwan a strong 30 knot plus wind starts to blow with a very strong current flowing in the opposite way. This makes for a truly horrible sea state where the boat would crash off the back of waves. Below decks it sounded like a grenade was going off as the hull slammed back down. The weather only got colder and colder as we headed further north and as bow man it was beginning to get very very wet and cold on the foredeck. We woke up to most watches with ice and frost on the deck, and so sail changes in these conditions were horrific and seemed to take about 5 times longer than usual as everyone was so cold.


It was not just onboard Jamaica that we were suffering though, the whole fleet were feeling the effects. Indeed we seemed to be coping with them better then most as we were lying in second place with only Australia a short way in front.


It was then that we were hit with another huge piece of ‘race news’. Team Finland had been dismasted! It was a disaster for them and the fleet, but again importantly everyone was safe. They were making passage for Taiwan to assess the damage and would motor from there to the finish in China. It only served to add further incident to the notorious Leg 4!


We didn’t quite make it in to China for my birthday which was a shame – I actually spent that in my bunk feeling terrible, so not the best day. We did arrive shortly after though into Qingdao, host of the 2008 Olympics. The marina was incredible and the reception we received was overwhelming. Broadcast live on national television we were mobbed by hundreds of journalists and a huge crowd of people. Having spent so long in such harsh conditions it was all a bit surreal but no doubt an experience I will remember for a long time to come.


Soon after the ceremony was over I just felt like collapsing. I didn’t realise how exhausted I was. It was time for a well earned rest, to enjoy the best that China has to offer and to catch up with my very patient girlfriend.

Leg 1, Race 2 - It ain't over till the fat lady sings...

Sleep deprived doesn’t come close. I’m utterly knackered, beaten and bruised. Physically my body is aching and I have a host of small injuries too great in number to count. My hands are slowly but surely just falling to pieces before my very eyes and I now have pressure sores to add to the list from sitting on the high side of the boat. Mentally the last 4 weeks has been so far removed from almost anything I’ve done before; we have spent time barely moving for hours and hours on end as well as time in excess of 1000 miles from the nearest help if anything major were to happen onboard. But this is ocean racing after all, and its everything I imagined and more. Call me a glutton for punishment but I want more of this. For now though the story starts as we leave La Rochelle early on the morning of 22nd September.

It was an early 7 o’clock start full of mixed emotions. We had had a good, if somewhat busy, stopover in La Rochelle but most of us were now keen to get going. After such a good run down to France and having heard stories galore about the ferocity of the Bay of Biscay, we had all been coming to terms in our own minds with what we were about to undertake. The folklore winds failed to materialise however and we found ourselves crossing the start line for race 2 with all ten boats in the fleet doing less than half a knot of boat speed at best. In fact it was such light winds that some boats pointed back towards the town of La Rochelle in an effort to find some more wind. We were lucky enough to be joined for the start by the boat Joshua, sailed by Bernard Montessier in the very first solo non-stop circumnavigation race featuring non other than Sir Robin Knox Johnson and Donald Crowhurst. It was a shame that we could not have had a more exciting start for such an esteemed follower.

Still, onboard Jamaica Lightning bolt we had a good start and found ourselves in second place for the first half a day of the race. Within 48 hours however it was a different story and a tactical error meant that we began to fall back down the fleet as we left Biscay – we were one of the last boats to start flying a spinnaker, a decision in hindsight which we lament as it would have meant a lot less catching up heading towards the Canary islands.

After a slow few days we began to settle in to our watch systems again and the winds gradually began to build. It wasn’t long before we were well and truly into the North East trade winds with the Canaries in our sights but by this point we were lying in 10th place. It would be lying if I said the role of bringing up the back of the fleet did not have an effect on morale. We were however buoyed by the undeterred spirit of our skipper who still had faith that we were competitive – it was after all a 5000 mile race and there was a long long way to go.

So the Canaries was the first of a number of tactical decisions to be made that would ultimately lead, not that we know at this stage, to us building a significant lead over the trailing group of boats. Due to us still being far down the pack at this point, we made the decision not to go for the scoring gate on the South West side of the islands, instead hugging the west coast of Africa, avoiding as well any wind shadow from the islands. Careful consideration of the weather routing information meant we avoided falling into a big wind whole and suffered only an 18hr period of being becalmed. By shifting sails around below deck, sitting on the leeward side of our Jamaican Lightning Bolt and using water from the high side tanks we were able to induce just enough heel in the boat to keep us moving slowly but surely past the islands. Needless to say it was a welcome relief when the trade winds began to reappear and I was further boosted by a short lived phone signal allowing me to call Lisa.

And so our daily mileage slowly began to creep back up to over 200 miles a day which kept us extremely competitive, and on several occasions the quickest boat in the fleet. 10th, 9th, 8th and then 7th. Slowly but surely we were creeping up the fleet.

From here it was an 800 mile drag race to the Cape Verde islands where good sail trim, correct sail plan and meticulous helming would keep us very much in contention and start our serious assault on a podium position. By this stage the boat was hitting good speeds again and feeling well powered up, so all of our weight distribution was shifted again to the high side to keep the boat flatter. By the time we reached Cape Verde we were only 17° North of the equator (having started at 53°!!) and so work below deck, whether it was spinnaker packing, sail repair, or motherwatch duties was so hot it inevitably left us exhausted and sweating profusely with the disparaging thought that it was only set to get hotter and hotter.

And so slowly the first leg began to roll on and on and before we knew it we had been at sea for 2 weeks. We were getting used to the midnight and 4 o’clock wake up calls and sleeping during the day became easy as the conditions continued to provide us with idyllic sailing. We had spotted our fair share of dolphin and a whale or two by this stage and it was a welcome feeling knowing that we are not alone out here – it is the first time for many of us that we have spent so long offshore not in sight of land. Our most frequent visitors however were flying fish that have an amazing ability to glide gracefully along the ocean’s surface during the day keeping well away from predators, but are dumbly attracted the lights of our boat at night. The deck is inevitably covered with them in the morning having followed a hilarious night or two where people were hit by them landing. It was only a matter of time and sure enough I was hit flush between the eyes (literally it could not have caught me squarer if I had had a bullseye painted on my face) to everyone’s amusement, and I spent the next hour or so trying to wash the scales and stench off my face. Little did I know this was not to be my last encounter and the following night a particularly determined kipper flew perfectly through the forward hatch as I was sleeping and slapped full on into the side of my bunk. Waking up not knowing what had happened, the smell soon cut through me like smelling salts and following a few curses I launched the offender back to the night time ocean.

It was not long however until we had our first bit of drama! We were flying our medium weight spinnaker during the off-watch and snap – the snapshackle at the end of the guy rope had snapped on our pole and it was a race to get the spinnaker dropped before it ripped and became a much bigger problem for us! Fortunately the on-watch were very on the ball and many of us from down below grabbed life jackets to help out as well. We checked the medium weight for rips, packed it up and had the heavy weight up in no time, minimising the time sailing without a full downwind sail plan.

So, when all had returned to normal, it was now time to start concentrating on our strategy for the Doldrums. They were sitting roughly around 9° North of the equator and our GRIB weather files that we were getting through were changing every day, making route planning through this notorious part of the leg extremely difficult. Squall watch and radar checks became a regular feature of life on board as getting caught with the spinnaker up as a 60 knot squall approached would only result in a bad broach, the mast in the water and god knows what damage to equipment. So after a few days/nights being slightly tense at what the outcome might be, it with a wry smile on my face that I can say my first crossing through the doldrums was not nearly as bad as it could have been – indeed we had virtually no period of time where there wasn’t atleast some breeze blowing us further and further South. We were part of the top 5 group that had a quick crossing through. We were ecstatic to see in fact that one of our Scheduled Position Reports (or skeds as they are known on board) showed us in second place for a while in a race within the race with Cape Breton Island and Spirit of Australia. Our ‘every 6-hour’ reports became more and more important to us all each time they came in, to the point now where virtually everyone on board races to crowd round the navigation station to see where we are positioned and our gain or loss to the other boats around us. Its become an obsession that will no doubt stick all the way round the world, especially when the racing is as close as it has been this leg.

Our next major milestone was the equator, where we had a boat party and made all our toasts to Neptune. It was the first time in a few weeks that we’d had any alcohol so the dram of whisky we had had some interesting effects on most crew!

By this stage the fleet had divided into two clear groups, with H&H, Singapore, Qingdao, Edinburgh and California falling further and further back every hour as the doldrums were a lot less forgiving. It was at this stage that the leadgin group got to over 500 miles ahead of the nearest trailing boat.

By this stage of the crossing. It was so hot that sleep had become virtually impossible – indeed it took so much effort just to get into my bunk on the high side when the boat was crashing along through the waves that it was sometimes best to stick to dosing in the saloon area and conserving energy. Having now had a proper nights sleep in Rio, I’ve only just realised how tired I’ve become!

Over the next few days we passed over the point where we were closer to South America than Africa and our winds had progressively switched round to the South East as predicted. It was the first time in over two weeks that we had seen the yankee and staysail headsails, having been lucky enough to fly one of our 3 spinnakers almost non-stop up to this point. So our focus changed again from down wind sailing and trimming to working on shaping our headsails upwind to get maximum speed down towards Rio. Our race position was however not helped by the strop snapping again on the end of the guy rope just before we dropped the spinnaker. Fortunately after a little while wrestling the sail it was dropped without any major dramas.
It was not long before we found ourselves match racing with Cape Breton Island and Spirit of Australia for the two remaining podium positions. After so many thousand miles of sailing it was unusual to say the least for them to both be in visible range on a number of occasions. It was tense and not uncommon for people on the off watch to get up in the middle of the night during their precious hours of sleeping to check our sched results!

As we continued on our approach to Rio, not only was the weather just not playing into our favour, but the strop on the end of the guy failed for a third time. We thought that this would be the end of our podium challenge since we were now nearly 30 miles behind Cape Breton with only 150 to go. Despite our anti-wrap net we wrapped our spinnaker badly round the inner forestay and there was a real struggle to unwrap it. Several hours later there was no real damage to the spinnaker but we had lost major miles to our competitors. It was a real shame to think that having come so far and spent so much time in the top three that we would now finish outside the podium places..

Within 120 miles of Rio there was a huge barrier of no wind between the leading fleet and the finish line. Race organisers decided at this point to shorten the course however it was still not enough to stop us all becoming becalmed at some point. We were therefore left to rue our loss for a little while longer as we bobbed at a very slow rate of knots towards Rio. It seems the race would finish just as it had begun 4 weeks earler in La Rochelle. It was however due to a combination of hard work and also genuinely not giving up until the fat lady has sung that we took over 40 miles out of Cape Breton Island over the last 24 hours. We were all so elated to have finished leg 1 of the race in 3rd place!!!

What a spectacular sight Rio is after so long away from land and I am sure its going to be a great stopover. For now though there is plenty of maintenance work to be done on the boat and then sleep. Hopefully, the first of a few long deep sleeps to feel fully recovered before leg 2. There’ll be more from Rio in a few days.

A beaten but not broken Pete, congratulations to Team Finland and Spirit of Australia.

Fever pitch...

So the final morning has come around!!!! As I sit here, highly unorganised and with a little still to pack into my bag, I am an hour away from leaving home and heading to join the boats in Hull.

A weird weird feeling, but a really exciting one at the same time.

Jamaica's official naming ceremony is at 2 o'clock this afternoon so am hoping to make it over to that in time. I'll be blogging from each of the stop overs, so the first one will be up here when I arrive in La Rochelle in about a weeks time. I'l stick some photos up of the whole start debarcle then.

Well I better go adn finish packing, have some breakfast and hit the road, not going to happen on its own!

Sorry this has been a short and rather lame attempt at a big send off blog, some what lacking in expressing how exciting it all is. Thanks to all for the various send offs from work/london/home, much appreciated.

Keep in touch and keep your fingers crossed - we have alot to live up to now we've been named after the fastest man on earth...

Pete

Don't forget you can sponsor my barnardos fund raising efforts if you fancy - its a great cause and would be really appreciated. Just follow the links on the left hand side...

So close I can smell it...

So the clock is about to tick down into single figures in terms of days to race start and the emotional roller coaster is coming to a climax.

I’m about to set off on a ten month Round the World Yacht Race, and so naturally 99.9% of my mindset is being super excited about the coming months, to the point where I can’t really fathom the correct words to explain it. I’ve already said goodbye to a few people that I know I may never see again, depressing as that may sound I suppose its just reality when you go away for a long time. That’s the bit that makes up the other 0.1% unfortunately.

That’s not to belittle friendships that I have made by any means, (I will or course genuinely miss people, I am human!!!) but the race has been so long in coming for me, long before I knew some of my friends in London in fact. I first heard about the Clippers race when I was 18 maybe 19, so nearly 7 or 8 years its been lurking in the back of my mind. I’ve been incredibly lucky to do some great adventures in the interim (climbing trips to the Alps, Dolomites, Andes, cycling trips, overland travels aplenty etc.), but the 2920 days since I heard about the race is now about to become just a single digit – 9!!!! (I can tell even as I’m writing this article my excitement is rocketing)

As I write this the 10 68ft stripped out Clippers racing yachts have departed Gosport on the South Coast of the UK, where all of our training has happened and many a good beer shared in the Clarence pub. Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Jamaica Lightning Bolt, Uniquely Singapore, Cork, Team Finland (the latest and final entry into the race), Qingdao, Cape Bretton Ireland, Hull & Humber, Spirit of Australia and California won’t be returning for just shy of a full year having complete a full circumnavigation in the mean time…

As for me, I’m finishing work this Friday which brings its own set of mixed emotions. Turner and Townsend have been incredibly supportive and I’ve met some great people here. From London I then head home to see family on the Wirral and on from there to the North East, each move signifying a step closer to the 2 o’clock start gun on Sunday 13th.

I’ll be blogging from each port about what we’re up to and of course writing about the events of each leg and posting photos back. On board, I’ll have a GComms account via the Satellite to send very short emails to a select group of family and friends.

I’ll make sure I blog again before I leave to say a final farewell. Thanks for following

Pete

Oil Skins - Check. Boots - Check. Shorts -Check. Socks....hmmmm how many pairs to take??!!!!

So prep for the race is really beginning to take off (its just over 30 days before I set off) and I'm getting to the stage where I am faced with the usual conundrums of previous trips - what kit to take!

I'm beginning to buy the last bits I think I'll need to take with me and questions of cotton vs. synthetic, heavy weight vs. light weight, 3 pairs or 4 pairs are going round and round my head on an almost daily basis!

Training for a few weeks on the Solent gives you a fairly good idea but that is after all, only a week. Packing a bag for ten months has had me scratching my head a little, since the weather will change so significantly during the race. We'll encounter the full spectrum from freezing temperatures with snow and rough weather for weeks on end, right through to being so hot down in the galley on the way to Singapore that it becomes almost unbearable!

Planning for the trip swings almost always in favour of making me super-excited, but very occassionaly to the mind-bogglingly complex, making me crave the simplicity of adventures where you sling a bag over your shoulder and set off from your front door. This time around though it would be folly in the extreme to head out to the world's oceans without the right kit and preparation.

So while the kit debate is still in full swing, the good news is that atleast I have chosen what book I'm going to bring on the boat! Its called 'Kiss or Kill' by Mark Twight, a climber from North America. Hopefully in times of plight it will give me the mental resolve i need - no matter how bad I think I have it the suffering this guy went through to achieve his goals is epic in comparison...

Until next time...

Last training, done. Next sailing, RACE START.

So the last of my training is now complete!! We had a great week again out on Solent and in the English Channel. A real mix of weather again provided us with some good experience for the race.

Its actually quite scary to think that the next time I sail will be the race start in just 7 weeks time!!! On the one hand I feel ready and prepared and feel like we are really beginning to gel as a crew and have a skipper that will get us safely and quickly round the world.

On the other hand I try and think through the sequence of events needed to gybe the spinnaker in the middle of the night in the Southern Ocean doing over 20 knots and it all seems a bit overwhelming...

The other unfortunate news I had from this week is that I was sea sick for a period of about 24hrs. You might find this a little surprising to read on the blog of someone who is sailing round the world, but its actually quite common and there were fellow sufferers on board. I stupidly stopped taking my anti-nausea tablets and before too long a rolling sea on a downwind leg got the better of me.

Still I am not in the least bit worried, this is something I will get used to and it doesn't put me off achieving my goal of a circumnavigation.

No word on the sponsor of the boat, could be anyone - Liverpool, Cardiff, Jamaica! Who knows. Whilst its nice that we still have the surprise to come it does mean now that we have run out of time to have our boat taken out the water for our hull design. This means that the great looks of Cape Bretton, Uniquely Singapore, Hull and Humber etc. are likely to be in a different league to ours which is a shame...

All of the crew I have now met are fantastic and I'm really pleased to be sailing round the world with them, it'll make the adventure even more special sharing it with this group.

The week ended with a one on one debrief with my skipper which went well. He reckons i'm one of the stronger crew and so a leg or two as watch leader is hopefully still on the cards.

Will keep you posted. There will be plenty more general thoughts and musings over the next few weeks in the run up to the race but please keep checking back, am keen to share the trip with as many of you as possible!

Pete

78 days to go....

If seems a lifetime ago that I started the countdown timer on my website. I remember it started at about 475 days.

Well as you can see, nearly 400 days of having itchy feet have passed since that point. Sure I have kept myself busy with running a marathon, a climbing trip to Northern Peru, walking the entire length of the Thames and of course my training towards the race, but I just cannot WAIT to get going now!

Currently reading a book by an ultra marathon runner called Dean Karnazes that is absolutely incredible. Some of his feats are beyond comprehension (running 350, yes thats right 350 miles NON-STOP) and it has really inspired me! I did my first run again in about 3 months this morning and I plan on keeping that up right up until race start now to get myself as fit as possible.

No news on the boat sponsor yet unfortunately, hoping to bring you some news on that soon and still hoping it will be Liverpool.

Off on my PART C training next wednesday night - really looking forward to sailing with my crew for the first time and heading out into the Atlantic...