Diary of a Clipper Racer Around the world in 333 days with Mark Osgood Supporting my chosen charity - "Dreams Come True" Final Diary entry, 54, added Monday 6th October 2003. |
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Latest Diary News 22
- Race 6 - Hawaii to Yokohama - Feb/Mar 2003 We have been at sea now for 11 days since leaving Hawaii and life is about to change drastically. This is another race which is effectively split into mini-races and we are coming to the end of the first one. Since leaving Hawaii, we have simply headed west, trashing a kite and crossing the date line (see below) in the process. We've managed to get into first place for the first time since we left Liverpool and we're locking horns with Glasgow and Hong Kong to maintain that position at the moment. It's been a race with spinnakers again and the sun has been out most of the way. The
change will come when we turn north, which is due any day now. Japan is currently in the middle of winter, and has
hurricane-force winds building on its coastline regularly at this time of year,
so we can expect it to get very cold and windy. We're also about to start heading into the wind so the
spinnakers will be packed away and we'll go back to living at 45 degrees for 2
weeks - which is nice! So, no more
sunshine cruising - just cold wet and windy days to look forward to. Going fishing The
crews are required fill in a form at the end of each race giving various details
of the race to include the size of the biggest fish caught.
To date, London hasn't caught any except those that have given themselves
up and jumped aboard to join us. We
tried to put that right last weekend - by trawling our heavyweight kite behind
the boat. You
may recall that this isn't the first time we've trashed a kite.
The last time was across the Atlantic when I was driving and, despite
initial fears, that kite was repaired and we've been using it successfully since
Cuba. This
time, I was safely tucked up in bed when the "all hands on deck" call
was made. My initial fear was that we had lost a crewmember over the side, as
I'd heard nothing before the call was made.
But
when I got up onto deck after jumping into shorts and my lifejacket, (with
earplugs still in place) I saw the kite ripped in two and in the water to the
left of the boat, being dragged by two ropes.
What had happened was not the fault of any of the crew, but a small bolt
at the end of the spinnaker pole had failed, releasing the pole from the kite so
that it swung around and speared the kite, cutting it in two.
The kite had to be cut free from all but two lines before we attempted a
retrieval from the sea. During
the retrieval, one of the lines got caught and we ended up trawling the kite by
two lines. We managed to free the
caught rope safely but the damage caused by the trawling meant that our
heavyweight kite was no more - headless and clewless by the time we had all got
it back on board. Chappers' account
of what happened on deck whilst I was still asleep is below. The
total damage was quite major. We
lost most of our spinnaker lines, which were attached to the parts of the sail
that went to the bottom. The pole
was broken and bent. And our long
range radio aerial was snapped in two (although one of our new crewmembers,
Simon, is a telecoms engineer and was able to fix that).
Most importantly, there were no injuries to the crew apart from one
slightly bloodied nose. But we
didn't catch a single fish! Whales For
the last two days, we've seen a large pod of about 30 to 40 pilot whales each
morning, jumping out of the water in our wake and swimming alongside us, a
massive shadow to port or starboard We
hope they're guiding us to our first victory, although for their sakes, we hope
they're not intending to guide us all the way to Japan. Pancake Day We
crossed the date line on Pancake Day a few days ago, which signified that I have
now sailed halfway round the globe. This
involved losing a day in our lives as we went instantaneously from 12 hours
behind the UK to 12 hours ahead. The
timing was perfect as we lost Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so none of
the crew can give up sailing for Lent this year. A Salutary
Lesson, by Chappers It
was a beautiful starry night with the sails lit up by a brilliant full moon. The
wind was strong and we were sailing down-wind at good speed with the heavyweight
spinnaker up and powering us through the Pacific waves.
It was around 23:00 - Fox's watch was on deck enjoying a good night sail,
and our new skipper, Rory, was up with us.
Suddenly
there was a loud bang from the front of the boat.
We looked up to see the huge spinnaker apparently broken free from the
spinnaker pole and now flogging wildly across the bow.
The spinnaker pole, detached from its lines, was careering madly from
side to side and smashing into the forestay.
We all rushed to various stations, first to try to deck the pole before
it brought down the rigging, and then to try to unwrap the spinnaker which had
now wrapped itself around the forestay and was flogging itself to pieces.
We tried in desperation to unwrap and deck the kite which by now had been
speared in several places by the out-of-control pole. After
endless and fruitless attempts to release the spinnaker Rory was forced to give
the order to smoke the lines holding it up.
To
hear the shout "All hands on deck" is a frightening experience for the
off-watch as they clamber into their life-jackets and scramble onto deck half
dazed with sleep and fearful of what disaster will confront them.
It took a good 30 minutes with all hands to get the spinnaker back on
board. The damage was irreparable.
In the process we had also twisted back the six foot long-range aerial at
the stern of the boat. On examining the spinnaker pole, which had almost bent double
with the force of hitting the rigging, we discovered that the end of the pole
had ripped out. The whole nightmare
had been caused by the failure of just one bolt. It
was a shocking experience at the time and we are very thankful that no-one was
injured beyond a few bumps and bruises. It
is not an experience we wish to repeat but I think we are all a bit more
conscious of the forces involved in powering our 30 ton boat through the oceans.
" It
is a scary moment when you release the lines from the winches and the phenomenal
force rips them down the boat and through the clutches and blocks at tremendous
speed, but it had the desired affect and the spinnaker came crashing down into
the sea. It was still attached by
the remaining line on the port side and it was a shocking sight to see this once
elegant and powerfully billowing sail now being dragged like a vast wounded
beast through the waves. We could
see the huge rips in the fabric and at some point the head of the sail and one
of the clews ripped off dragging our two halyards and one of the guys and sheets
to a watery grave. The weight of the kite in the water was tremendous as it dragged back behind the boat and we realised we couldn't haul it back in without help.
Click
here for entry 23 - race 6 - Hawaii to Yokohama
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