31 / 1 / 2011

POS: 22d 43.27'S, 26d 09.74W

So we've hit this meteorological phenomenon known as a high pressure cell or as the Yachties call it; "the parking lot". There is basically no wind (7 knots) & we're crawling along at 3 knots. The days of 8 knot cruising speeds & 20 knot surfs are over. Every now & then you hear an excited yelp of "Woohoo! 6 knots!" from the helm, so I suppose it's just a matter of lowering the standards. We can't race racing cars all the time. Sometimes you just gotta race snails.

The slow-down in sailing has had a corresponding effect on lifestyle. There's lots more reading going on (even by Mike) & when going really slowly like this we've discovered even the wheel does its own thing. This was realised when we caught Mr "van Helm" reading his book on watch & steering with his foot! The boat has a couple of spots crew members head for in their down time. The two most popular (aside from the cabin beds down below) have been nicknamed Club Mast & Club Lazarette respectively. These popular hangout joints attract different clientèle during different stages of the day.

Club Mast offers a beautifully secluded spot, away from other crew & usually in prime position for sunset & sunrise views. In the afternoon, wonderful shade is cast by the overhead spinnaker but sometimes the close proximity to the Heads' hatch results in interesting aromas & awkward confrontations. Being near the helm, complete with sound system & beach umbrellas, Club Lazarette is a real winner during the midday heat. Its popularity though is heavily dependent on who is the DJ on duty & though there's been little objection to sharing music time & trying different tunes, the line had to be drawn when one of Andre's play lists produced a 70 minute long "Best of the 80's Classics Medley".

Sixteen days at sea is still taking its small tolls on crew & equipment. One of the Tac-Tic instruments which give us wind speed, boat speed, wind angle etc. decided this ocean racing stuff is not for it & packed up yesterday. The other has found that simply feeding us gobledee-gook information is funnier & had everyone really confused for a while last night. Most depressing of all was the loss of one of the speakers in Club Lazarette. I'm afraid mono sound just does not do Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos justice out here.

In his relentless quest to provide delicious meals Uncle Saths managed to burn his finger. This was actually quite lucky when you consider how much of him was exposed at the time. Treatment was swift & efficient from Me2Me's young Medical Graduates; Alex & Murray. Lathering the wound in burn gel, they ingeniously covered the lot in the detached finger of a latex glove, taped up with elastoplast. I think the emotional damage from having to walk around with a large, gooey, white finger far outweighed the physical pain.

Alongside the Cape to Rio yacht race continues the quieter yet equally competitive Me2Me Beard Growing Contest. Unfortunately the blatant presence of excessive ginger hair in Murray's beard has disqualified him from the competition & word is he may be detained in quarantine at Rio. Alex's growth is, well, patchy and Mike & Andre are keeping up some stable development. Undoubtedly the tops for shear appearance thus far go to Mr Saths Moodley for his rugged "Silver Back" look. The Skipper is always clean shaven! But hey, someone has to maintain the standards!

30 / 1 / 2011

POS: 22d 32'S, 23d 35'W

Some of you may be following us on the official Heineken Cape to Rio tracker website & you may be wondering why we're going we've come up north - again! (We're now at 22d 30' south when Rio is down at 23d 00) Well if you are super into the race, you'll have checked out the latest weather pattern files for this section of the mid Atlantic & starting today, at 23d S there is NO wind!! So we're hoping with this little mission to scamper over the top of the windless zone. Sailing out here has been beautiful. Last night was a perfect night of sailing as described by our skipper below & for the first time in a while there are even fish out here! Yesterday we hooked a HUGE Dorado & the boat was in chaos as everyone scampered to see it. The beast jumping around on the end of the line must have been a metre long at least & pulling it in by hand just didn't look to be possible. So we waited for it to tire out... and well, let's just say we may've waited a little too long. When Murray next went up to inspect the prey, it was gone. Vanished. Retrieval of the lure found a bent hook! Next time ;-) We estimate this time next week we'll be in Rio. So stay tuned!

It is not often that one finds the conditions so perfect for sailing that even at the end of a watch from midnight to 5h00 it is with reluctance that you relinquish the helm to the next watch. Last night was like that, coming on watch, I exited the cabin to be greeted with the magnificent canopy of stars that lit up the sky bright enough to read by, a gentle 15 knot breeze of warm air, perfectly  angled to make trimming of our spinnakers unnecessary, a flat sea completed the set. From behind the helm it was, well you can guess? - Skipper Derek Shuttleworth.

29 / 1 / 2011

POS: 22d 40'S, 20d 40'W

The 1AM-6AM watch this morning bore witness to an incredible sunrise. The inky black sea became was gradually crowned by layers of pinks, ambers & marine blues. A delightful finale to a rather terrible night. This is what happened:

Yesterday had been a day of rather tricky, frustrating sailing. The wind dropped badly & insisted on blowing in a direction that made it impossible to sail the way we wanted to. A little excitement happened when we spotted the vessel Perie Banou II on the horizon. We quickly made radio contact & they nonchalantly informed us that they were happily potting along, watching 1 or 2 movies a day & were currently having tea & biscuits!! This sport is rather strange at times. Another depressing hic-up was when the Destroyer (the main sheet) struck again & in one swift movement managed to whip our most valuable double handed winch handle overboard.

When night fell things weren't looking much better, despite Saths' effort by surprising us with Guava & custard pudding. I knew they had got a whole lot worse though when I awoke clinging to my bunk; the boat pitching & rolling frantically & Murray's voice yelling "Al! Quick on deck! We need to get the spinnaker down!". I followed him up into a torrential down pore & swirling winds, all cloaked in total darkness. By the light of the instruments I could make out the skipper swinging the wheel frantically this way & that as the wind chopped & changed at random; threatening to wrap the spinnaker around the forestay.

20 minutes later the spinnaker was down, Saths & Andre had returned to bed & three of us sat drenched on a glass still sea. There was no wind, no waves & without moon the starlight allowed us to just make out the

black, puffy cloud ahead; taking his rain & crazy winds with him. Eventually the wind came back to us, blowing slowly from the SW, turning S & finally again to it's usual SE. Our frustration at a slow days' sailing

had us toying with launching the spinnaker again but when another cloud burst struck an hour later we deeply appreciated the fact that we hadn't. It is impossible (I think!) to control a yacht when the wind has the

directional commitment of a 5 year old in a candy shop & the complete darkness is incredibly unnerving & disorientating, even making one sea sick. Eventually we crawled to dawn with our Genoa up & the comfort of sunrise brought with it a consistent 14 knot south easter. So begins day 14 of the Cape to Rio yacht race.

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27 / 1 / 2011

The middle of the Atlantic ocean is a rather remote place. Even albatross, which apparently do little else than fly around all the time, don't bother venturing out here much. So you can understand our surprise & excitement when we spotted a small fishing vessel steaming toward us on port side yesterday afternoon. As isolated men's minds are prone to wander, the crew were soon voicing thoughts like "Where on earth are they from?", "Are they trying to catch us?" & even "Maybe they're Somalian pirates?".

Isolation is no means of protection from us harming ourselves though & we've had a few more minor mishaps. The main sheet came flying across in a rather timid crash gybe last night & ripped the GPS & wind instruments off the helm  - again! This time The Destroyer (as it is fondly known) took no prisoners & our primary GPS is now properly deceased. We do learn eventually though & have relocated the rest of the stuff.

Dirty Dorris the diesel engine was acting up again today, but some TLC from Skip & a fuel filter change got her purring happily again. Our only standard size Spinnaker left has been taking some strain over the past week of non-stop use & the patchwork repairs are getting rather extensive. This has the advantage of offering the crew a creative channel through which to practice the craft work as Saths has almost perfected the cutting out of circular patches & Murray has decorated the Spinnaker extensively with smiley faces, angry fish & Pac-Man action scenes.

Weather prediction say we're in for some really light wind on Sunday/Monday. It's going to be a seriously psychologically testing patch this deep into the race & the sailing will be frustrating & hard work!

POS: 23 21'S, 16 49'W

26 / 1 / 2011

All is well in the Republic of Me2Me which, unlike most small nations, will be halfway between switching continents at 13:00 today. Obviously such a prestigious occasion as reaching the halfway mark must be celebrated accordingly so at lunch we will have the official "Turning of The Chart" ceremony. You see our skipper (Diesel Derek) keeps a chart on the wall with which he monitors the progress of the whole fleet. The wall is only big enough to show half the chart so as we pass halfway she must be turned. The crew will be wearing their Sunday best (probably a sarong & a vaguely clean shirt) & the moment shall be commemorated with the momentous & much anticipated opening of the only box of Zoo biscuits. How we ever managed to leave CT with only ONE box of Zoo biscuits still baffles me & our lack of Zoo biscuits has undoubtedly been our greatest

downfall in the race.

One of the most intimidating & challenging aspects of ocean racing is that it is going on all the time even at night. Helming a sail boat is hard enough as it is, with subtly shifting winds, rolling swell & very temperamental spinnakers but at night the difficulty increases exponentially as one loses all sense of one's bearings. Not being able to see the waves approaching or the horizon, it quickly feels like the boat is simply spinning in circles & one is hard pressed to have faith in the compass & maintain the slight of hand to keep her on her bearing. We were fortunate in the beginning to have a full moon about 3 days into the race, making those cold nights of sailing up the west coast far easier & less intimidating. The moon is waning fast now & increased cloud cover is making night helming a real challenge. Of course, Murphy dictates that since things can go wrong they shall do - at night! For those poor crew members who are off duty at the time, stumbling half asleep onto a heaving, rolling deck & being showered in sprays of water & urgent commands is, well, an understandably traumatic experience.

Night watches though are also the settings for some of the most valued & beautiful moments at sea. In the early days the neon glow of bio-luminescence in the boat's wake & cresting waves was beautiful & the clarity of the silver moon & stars out here is unsurpassed. Watches are done in pairs on these quiet evenings & afford a good opportunity for crew to get to know each other properly; though conversation may eventually run dry & has been known to turn to many things from General Relativity to how we're going to avoid flying-fish attack or even Andre's 5 minute monologue on how a pair of clouds looked like two dancing bears. Though cloudy, night watches are now warm & calm & over a cup of coffee they will undoubtedly conceive some of the best memories to be taken from this race.

25 / 1 / 2011

This morning was the first day of what the Cape to Rio is supposed to be like - apparently! We're right up North, skirting the South Atlantic High Pressure cell & are firmly in the 12-15 knot breeze fondly known as the

"Trade Winds"; with baking sunny days & warm, cloudy nights. This does mean an end to our awesome 180 mile/24hr runs for now, but at least we're sailing at 270 degrees - straight to Rio!

Adjusting to the Trade Winds was not all that easy though. We got into them yesterday & so for the first time decided to hoist our very light (0.5 Oz) spinnaker. 10-12 knot breeze made it hard to keep the bag flying

& so helming a 2.5 hour shift in the baking sun was hard work. It was then no surprise when poor Mike lost concentration for a moment at the helm & wrapped the spinnaker around the fore stay - thoroughly! Lots of exotic

language was used as we fought to try unwrap it; the wind wrapping it tighter & tighter at every chance. Eventually after 45 minutes of struggling & rather crafty manipulation we got it out, flying perfectly save for a few pin prick holes around the top of the bag. Apparently that was enough though when 20 minutes later (poor mike still helming!) the bag just tore through at the top & came drifting down to deck. Just to top it all off the halyard somehow got jammed too & the shredder frame of the bag refused to come down. So in a mass maintenance manoeuvre the main was dropped & Murray was once again hoisted 15m up in rolling seas to free the trapped halyard & fix the mast-head halyard block which broke about a week ago. The hour long session of delicate work while swinging back & forth through an arc of at least 5m proved too much for Murray's stomach & soon we were all treated to a spectacular show as he projectile launched his lunch from the top of the mast. The crew unanimously agreed that at 15m up & using the roll of the boat this must be a record distance for this type of thing. Neptune seemed equally impressed as shortly there after the winds picked up to a handsome 15 knots.

A final highlight was the capture of our first Dorado yesterday. Wow those fish are ugly. But under the magnificent preparation of the (near naked) Chef Saths Moodley it made for exquisite eating.