LISA BLAIR AUSTRALIAN SAILING ARTICLE

Australian Sailing Lisa 19 15_1_12

The crew of Gold Cast Australia have now been at sea for 16 day as they race from Gold Coast in Australia to Singapore competing in the 7th race in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race. As the sun set the crew were enjoying a lovely starry evening of sailing. I was off watch at this time lost in my dreams when the call came for ‘All hand on deck’. Looking out through the companionway hatch I could see that the Heavy Weight Spinnaker was wrapped around the forstay multiple times potential in a position that it will tear. We all scramble on deck to assist the on watch with lowering the spinnaker and retrieving our sail. Everyone is pulling this way and that until it finally decided to come down. We shoved it down the hatch to re-wool for a re-hoist. All the crew took up our positions for a hoist on the deck and up she went. Unfortunately as we were hoisting the boat rolled on a wave enough to cause the spinnaker to once again wrap. ‘Drop the spinnaker’ was shouted back to the snake pit, the place where most of the lines are run too and down she came.

A few minuets later there was a team busy down below once again re-wooling the spinnaker, another team on deck attaching the yankee 2 one of our head sails and the rest of us were looking with a shocked expression on our face at the Main sail which now had a meter long tear in its side just below the third reefing pennant. This was a new scar separate from our previous tear. All of us were just wondering how it happened, there was no excessive winds, the sail did not flog so why then did it tear. Once the head sail was hoisted we dropped the main on to the deck and hoisted the storm Jib to help boat speed up whilst we ran repairs. This time there was to be no bolting the sail back together like last time instead we clued and then sewed patches on both sides and a double patch on the leach (edge) to re-in-force it. The conditions were mild with no rain and a full moon to help the process along but it still took a team of 5 people 12 hours to repair. Lucky for us our boat speed was still showing 6-7 knots so we were no loosing too much ground. Before the main sail tear and the two spinnaker wraps our sked showed that we were in 5th place 43 nautical miles behind the leading boat Derry London-Derry. After our 12 hours of sail repair we showed that we had only lost 34 nautical miles on the leader but this mileage was soon gained back.

By day 18 we were still catching the leaders with only 46 nautical miles behind. As far as our course went we sailed an extra 100 nautical miles north to get into the trade winds whilst all the other boats stayed closer to the Papua New Guinea coast. The Grib files, what we receive for weather data information showed that we should be receiving a steady 20 knots of Westerly winds giving us the perfect down wind run over to Singapore. What the Grib said and what we were actually receiving were two very different thing. The horizon was scattered with dark looming squalls offering 40 degree wind shifts, pouring rain and wind strengths that may be 5 knots one second nd 45 knots the next. Not the best sailing conditions and definitely not the trade winds. Unfortunately for us the rest of the fleet seemed to have found the trades 100 nautical miles to the south of us and where sailing along beautifully.

Amongst other things that were happening a few days earlier we had broken out Medium Weight Spinnaker in half so our saloon was buzzing with the sound of a sewing machine as it was transformed into a not so flat and not so big sail loft with Deb Grant, Deb Miller and Chris Hopkins headed up the repair. They had by now been working for three days almost day and night as they tag teamed out. The spinnaker was strewn all around the boat as they tried to line up the two sides and run a good repair and still there was more to be done. The spinnaker ended up taking 5 days to repair. On Day 19 we bobbed around like a cork in zero wind for most of the day. The sun was fearsome as we drifted under the cloudless sky. That evenings position showed that we were once again in fifth place a whopping 83 nautical miles away. The winds finally filled in for the afternoon.

On the 20th day at sea we were called up for another all hands during our off watch for two gibes that required all crew and a head sail hoist. So no sleep for us making the next 4 hours on watch a struggle. I was finding myself getting more and more sleep deprived as the next few days passed with more all hands calls during our off watch or simply the heat of the crew quarters that we were trying to sleep in. The next day we experienced the mother of all squalls as we were sailing along perfectly with the Heavy Weight Spinnaker up. Shortly after receiving an e-mail from Ben Bowley the Skipper of Singapore saying that they had just been hit with a squall giving them winds of 60 knots I was sitting on deck with my watch when we saw a line of rain approaching, no clouds just the rain. I was on mother duties and due to go below to anyway so I thought that I would save myself the soaking and head down. Dan Aspindal was shouted back to the helm that there was a bit of weather coming and just as Wayne Reeves on the helm turned to look, BAM it hit rounding us up into a broach so fast we didn’t know what hit us. The call was given to smoke the Guy, a rope holding the spinnaker pole, so that it would move the pole forward and hopefully save your sail. ‘All Hands’ Was shouted as the pole collided with the forstay, snapping like a twig. After a bit of a struggle we managed to get the spinnaker and pole down with only minimal damage done to the spinnaker unfortunately there were two crew who received some minor injuries from the incident. Dan Aspindal received a nasty rope burn on the back of his leg as he smoked the guy. This rope is under a lot of pressure and once released can sound like bullets as it whips around the winch. The other injured was of a very lucky Sean Fuller who was trimming at the time and was caught on his arm by the Guy as it flew past ripping him clean off the deck and dumping him back down. The rope was flying past so fast it ripped through his jacket and t-shit. Lucky for him he was wearing one.

After all of this excitement we finally started to alter our course south to the finishing gate. This was not the race finish however but due to some challenging navigation ahead and the very light winds of 5 knots or less the race organiser will be suspending the race between two marks so that we can motor Saltley through the hazards. We are given 95 hours to navigate through these straights and into safe waters. The race will then be scored on a time elapse. Since we had started to come south to re-join the other boats we had started to gain on the leading boat. By the 22 day at sea we had crossed the line in 1st place 14 nautical miles ahead of the next boat Derry London-Derry giving us a 79 minuet and 1 second head start.