Thursday Day 6 – Cleanup, Birthday Party and Loss of Steering

Finally the sun is out and the breeze is 20-25 knots.  Cleanup begins. We haul the carpet to dry on the coachroof.  We hand wash our sodden clothes and the boat looks like a junk all day with clothes haphazardly pegged about the boat.  

Washing Day

Its bath time – bliss!  We bathe by sitting on the transom and having someone pour a bucket of salt water over us.  This is followed by shampoo and rinse.  Our final rinse is with fresh water.   

We are running our engine twice a day to charge our batteries and also to make fresh water.  Our water maker makes 30 litres per hour.  Each water making session, we fill our water bottles for on deck (tastes better than tank water) and then fill our tank below. 

Rubbish Duty - we keep all our plastics

Lyn preparing lunch - tomatoes on the floor

Barman John - yey!

Making tonic with the soda stream

Happy Hour resumes

It’s beginning to warm up now we’re in the tropics.  The Chicken Cacciatore we were meant to eat on Tuesday  is thrown overboard as its gone bad. We enjoy a homemade Spaghetti Bolognaise. 

Finally we are able to have a party for Graeme’s birthday at Happy Hour.  There are gifts, party poppers, ouzo, G&T’s, red wine and a happy, humorous, harmonious crew.  The conditions are still rough: big seas, 20-28 knots and bumpy.  We settle in for the night with a usual watch system in high spirits and feeling good.  It will be smooth sailing from here.

Happy Birthday Graeme

 

Blue spinnaker up; washing on kites sheet

Just after the sun sets, the starboard steering cable snaps and is irrepairable.  Luckily we have two steering wheels so we are now reliant on one wheel.  We advise Fremantle Race Control and continue on.  Both cables are brand new and were fitted in preparation for this trip. Incredibly, two hours later the second steering cable comes adrift and we have no steering.  Now an emergency, in the black of night, its all hands on deck.  The boat has gybed. Those who are were sleeping below are instantly awake and scramble up to drop the spinnaker and the mainsail.  The boat bobs like a cork in the once again rough seas, 5-6m swell and 20-25 knots.  We are bare-masted as we re-group to discuss our options and realise we can use the auto-pilot.  We have two options: we are 550 nautical miles from Bali with the breeze behind us or 280 nautical miles from Exmouth beating back into the wind.  We decide to continue on to Bali. Tentatively we start the auto-pilot, hold our breath and yes – we have steerage.  We put two reefs in the mainsail and half unfurl the jib. We realise our race is over and advise Race Control. We are ecstatic that we have steering and deeply disappointed for our race to be over.

Breeze: 20-30+ knots                                                                                            

Happiest Person at Happy Hour: Heather

Wednesday Day 5 – Raining and Sodden

Everything inside the cabin is soaking wet and smells disgusting. The carpet is squelchy, the portside mattresses sodden, all clothes on the floor dripping.  We transfer wet mattresses to the v-berth and make do with what we have.

Happy the storm is over - still very rough

 Lyn is at the chart table below and getting wet through the companionway.  It’s way too rough to do anything but sit tethered on the rail – we’re all tired, wet, smelly and hungry.  

Glimpses of blue sky

Its still to rough to start the cleanup and food is quickly prepared snacks and wraps. The day drags on and on ...

Sodden clothes are throughout the boat

Breeze: 25-30+ knots                                                                                            

Most Lost Personal Items: Jan

Tuesday Day 4 – The Storm

Its Graeme’s birthday and unfortunately the perfect weather is over.  The wind is from the north west at 20-25 knots which means dropping the kite and beating into the wind. We’re all on the rail in wet weather gear and thermals, we’re completely soaked and the bruises are starting. Its hard-going trying to move around the cabin and a few of us can't go below without feeling or being sick.

Looking ominous

Build up before the storm

No dinner tonight as its way too rough. Those who are not queasy are treated to a hasty vegemite sandwich. 

At about 10pm, north of Shark Bay, in the pitch black night, the front from the south met the low from the north and BOOM.  The seas erupt into huge mountainous waves, the wind screeches in at 40+ knots and the torrential rain and lightning is everywhere.  All around us is black and ominous cloud – the usual faint horizon gone.  Race mode turns into survival mode.  Each time we tack means transferring the five 20 litre containers into the cockpit and hauling the dinghy over the coach roof – no mean feat in these conditions.  We put a second reef in the main and down-size the headsail.  This lasts until the sun comes up and the wind starts to abate to 25-30 knots.  The seas are still 4-6m and the sky dark grey.  

Please let this be over soon.

The morning after the storm

Breeze: 25-40+ knots                                                                                            

Spews: John, Robbie, Kevin, Graeme

Monday Day 3- Settling In - Feeling Fine

Another brilliant night, very much the same as the night before.  Great rides down waves with the kite up – sometimes a little challenging.  The breeze died to nothing so we wallow for a while. Eye-spy at 3am is a bit limited: stars, sea, waves, galaxy, moon, winches, sails – you get the gist!

Sunset

We have five 20 litre containers on deck – four with water and one with diesel.  We have named them Di, Gorbar, Trisha, Kate and Phil.  Thank you all joining us!  They are great on the rail but a bit cumbersome to tack as they are slow to move over the coachhouse. Note: a few days later, Graeme lost his grip on Di and she slipped into the ocean - she is probably in Madagascar by now :-)

Gorbar, Trish, Kate, Phil

Pre-cooked meal message from Clare to John

Breeze: 0-15 knots

Spews: Graeme

Sunday Day 2 - Great Sailing Conditions

Last night was clear with a million stars and a quarter moon.  We have a very pleasant 15-20 knots and sail with the big spinnaker (A2) which means quite a few round-ups however mostly under control. 

Sunset in a calm ocean

Our 4-hour watch system seems to be working well however it’s taking a while for us to sleep while off watch.  We are ‘hot-bunking’ which means as one person vacates their bunk, the next person moves in.  We generally have 4 people off and 4 on watch at all times.  When on deck after dark, we wear a PFD and harness tethered to the deck. 

Checking the course

Our basket of night-time snacks is working well with small snap-lock bags of fruit cake, nuts, biscuits, biltong (yes- we have 1.5kg of the smelly stuff), snakes, ginger, chocolate – tis a well-fed crew :-)  Dinner is home-made Beef Casserole with Mash and all is well.  Happy Hour has been changed to 4-6pm.We are all happy and having a fine time.

Breeze: 10-20 knots

Spews: Jan

Saturday 4 May 2013: Day One:The Morning of Race Day – Yippee!

The crew - bright eyed and bushy tailed!

The weather looks great.  The boat is packed and the crew well rested. We’ve enjoyed our last night of clean sheets, real coffee and terra firma.  Brian is famous for his radio interview with James Lush on 720AM.  Family and friends are milling around Fremantle Sailing Club to say goodbye. 

There is excitement and anticipation in the air – and no rain. Our cruise around the harbour waving at friends we can see at C-Shed and North Mole is the last piece of normality we will have for a while.

Shortly after the start

The Start

The gun goes at 12pm and we have a great start.  We make our way to the Day Buoy and round to hoist the spinnaker.  Its a great feeling and all is going along nicely.

We hear a loud bang and realise that there's a problem with the bow sprit.  Brian goes forward to fix and we're back on track.  Then the wind dies and we sit in a hole for ages.  The wind picks up and we round Hallbank and set course to Bali.

Fixing the Bow Sprit after rounding the day buoy

We settle into the race and have our first lunch – Subway – yey!  Our watch system doesn’t start til after happy hour.  We have ‘Happy Hour’ scheduled every day from 5-7pm so that everyone is up on deck.  It is a joyous occasion with nibbles, G&T’s, Ouzo and red wine.  Our bar-sized fridge makes 2 ice-trays daily – and it’s wonderful!  We have a soda-stream to make up to 4 bottles of tonic a day.

Deep concentration

Our first radio schedule

Dinner is home-made Lasagna, however we left it at home, so it is now Meatballs in Tomato Sauce with Mash, however we ate too many nibbles and home-made sausage rolls so had no dinner!

Breeze: 3-19 knots

Spews: no-one

Happy Hour

John - the barman

Sorry about photos - will correct them later!

We have arrived in Bali safe and sound!

We have arrived in Bali safe and sound!  Thanks to everyone for following our progress on the tracker and for your good wishes.  I wrote the blog along the way so will update in the next few days... Stay tuned.