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FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
To: RHQ Daily Report Things are so dire its funny.... Laughter has become our final weapon against the treachery of the North Atlantic. We have spent more time bobbing along at a serene pace than racing hard and fast. The whole fleet has suffered at one time or another. I spoke previously of a close finish with a tacking duel up to the finish line....um well...maybe not so anymore eh? The final leg of the race heralded an opportunity for all boats to have a last thrash at glory, and the first boat home will bask in that victory regardless of overall placing. I envisaged the last sprint home as being exactly that, a sprint across the 'pond' with all to play for. I also thought our minds would be filled with thoughts of home and of seeing loved ones again. Not so, the weather pictures indicate a lack of wind one day and an abundance the next but a quick look up on deck gives us a more accurate appraisal - there isn't any. Our gameplan has a new aganda - get home as quickly as possible, we are limited with food, fuel and gas. They are our current worries alongside the daily swapping of race positions. We are currently looking at the latest weather picture and highs dominate the situation. Fortunately we've been here before on Leg 5, although this time the temperature is a little more agreeable. However we want to go home sooner rather than later. Later today we will be having a team meeting to discuss rationing on all resources - food, electricity and gas - although it must be said, going to the toilet by torchlight has a good amusement factor. Its strange because the core crew know that when we've crossed the line we won't care - but that offers little consolation as we snurgle gently along. We are still the most northerly boat in the fleet and in terms of extremes it could pay off handsomely - if we get the wind first we're laughing and if we don't, hey, positive thinking. Last night was very cold and unusually dark. The phosphorescence was incredibly intense and the water sparkled without agitation. The wake of the boat glowed brightly and we stood on the bow watching the dolphins, or rather the gleaming trails they left as they swam through the water. We also happened upon a shoal of small fish distinguished by the spiralling paths they cut in the phosphorescence. It is sights such as this that I will miss. The ocean has never ceased to fascinate us and just when we think we have seen it all, it presents us with yet another one of its hidden and majestical treasures. Prospect of life in blighty doesn't surpass our continued fascination of the sea, despite the unfavourable winds and slow progress. In less than 10 days time (a conservative estimate) we will be home and dry, reliving salty sea dog stories with friends and family and catching up on home gossip, I am certain however that it will not take long before we all miss the boat, the oceans and most of all each other. STOP PRESS - the wind is here we are moving again, spirits lifted once more. WATCH THIS SPACE Just before lunch we had a radio/telephone call with HMS Invincible, cuurently at anchor in the Solent. Facilitated by Captain Roy Clare, Ian Johnson our serco Legger spoke to his wife Gail and we also had the pleasure of hearing from the Chief Executive of Serco (our sponsor) Mr Richard White, also a crew member from our victorious Leg 3. He promised the champagne would be awaiting us on arrival
Regards
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
To RHQ: Daily Rport So much for yeeehaaaa. Here we are again, no wind, no sea, no sun and no good. Its almost like being shipwrecked with all the comforts of home. Well, almost all. The conversations are spinning around, from doctors, law, life and families which ends up back at doctors again. Much the same as the boat. That is also going round and round with so little wind, we cannot control the direction we wish to proceed. I'm feeling quite smug at the moment. I have just had a shower. And yes, it was better then the baby wipes, but a lot more dangerous. In fact I would call it the ultimate dangerous sport. Stuck in a small telephone box and one hand grip for support I atempted to wash my hair. All the walls are smooth and the floor is wooden slats. Not too bad you may think, but there was no door, only a canvas curtain. The boat is heeled over at 15 degrees and bobbing around. Both my feet spent ome time out of the box and into the gangway. Leaning against the wall does not help, you just slither around like living in a bucket of eels. Soap, shampoo and water and a silky work surface does not mix. I survived clean with a much better aroma, but more bruised than I have been for the whole trip. The toilets have a feature that might seem improbable. Its something you have to see to believe. As the toilets are flushed using sea water, it is a real experience to watch what happens in the dark hours of the night. You can watch your own electrical storm in a tea cup, or toilet pan in this case. The system works by the depositor pumping the efluence out of the pan by using a hand pump and opening and shutting a sea cock. The sea water swirls round and round in the pan at quite a speed which activates the phosphorescence in the sea water. So you see explosions of bluesih light, varying in intensity, spinning around, lighting up the whole pan. Its quite enchanting in its own way. I think all toilets should use sea water, its much more aesthetic. Ciao Bish
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
To: RHQ - Daily Report We'll Take the High Waves. Yeeeehhaaaaaaa, we are now really flying. The wind has hit us like a sledgehammer and we are tearing into the fleet, eating up the miles. An increase in wind speed and the remnants of a storm we watched off our stern last night has brought us back into contention. The wind is blowing at around 25 knots and with the added force of the waves we have already peaked at 16.8 knots. The bronking bucks are eagerly plying for helm time to increase on this leg record (Chunks has had over 20 knots in the South Seas, with eyes shut and hanging on for dear life). The sky is incredibly clear with a view of a nasty front, due south, which is to our right (starboard for you yachty types). Our calculations have most of the fleet stuck in the middle of it. CU has been on our port beam for nearly 48 hours. BUT, she decided to take a more southerly course during the night, gliding serenely past our bow into a windless ho ho ho hole. The yacht has now taken on a new motion with this weather patern. It now has a twisting yaw. Which has the habit of flicking the back of the boat from left to right. On it's own you might not think that to serious. However, the galley and four bunks are in the back of the boat. The contents of galley and bunks now find themselves also being flicked into the air and dumped unceremoniously onto the deck. I am using the spare PC keyboard as Robert tried to drown the original one with his last cup of coffee. He claimed that just a small drop has spilled over. When Andy tipped the keyboard up side down, he drenched his shirt. You just cannot trust the people on this boat.
Regards
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN I just don't believe it, after the painful calms of Leg 5 the windless holes are here to haunt us again. The promises of constant amd howling winds pushing us home have fallen through. We gave up our 5 mile lead to Concert this morning who took the leaders baton and gained another 5 miles on the fleet. Dinner has just been served and Concert are back in view less than 2 miles ahead. Our battle with Group 4 has been somewhat slowed as the wind has disappeared, as we sit sandwiched between a high and low pressure, moving rather unpredictably across the Atlantic. There is light at the end of the tunnel however, and as usual it will involve a jump from the sublime to the riduculous as a tropical storm tracks north with the fleet likely to catch the edge of it. Life on board has settled into routine very quickly, after such a crazy but exciting start out of Boston. The fleet is slowly seperating from top to bottom but we all have Waypoint Alpha firmly in our sights, it will be from here on that the tactics really begin to show. The strangest thing about this final leg is that we are heading east for a change, left is north and right is south, for the first time all round the world. Our eyes squinting into the early morning sun which used to burn our backs. In this warmth it is hard to believe that we may soon need our survival suits as the fleet head north following the great circle route home. But there is an occassional chilling breeze that reminds us just how far north we are. The Gulfstream and its mysterious eddies and couter currents carve distinct lines across the water, seperated by a few hundred yards, can mean the difference between fast and slow, as we struggle to find the optimum current by monitoring water temperarture. Once again the lightweight spinnaker hangs flaccidly in the rigging as the frustration begins to show on the faces of the on watch crew. They've been there for some 3 hours now, trying desperatley to guide every breath of wind into the sails. Our only consolation is that it will soon be over, but then of course we'll be wishing we were back on board. There's just no pleasing some people. FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
Finally picked up some breeze and we are really trucking - lets hope
it lasts. We are currently making 11 knots towards CT. Can you please
inform the official people in CT as we have no SSB and can only call
in on VHF. I doubt we will maintain this speed but if we do we will
be in at 0300 - yes I know not much chance having seen what the
others had to go through...Keep your fingers crossed FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN This will probobly get lost in the news reports of the leaders fighting it out 2 miles apart after 37 days st sea but we on Save have a question to ask the world - what have we done to deserve this ? With a serious electrical problem that blew up most things on the boat we decided to head north in search of different weather (this was 4000) miles ago. The powers that be saw to it that when 250 miles from the fleet we got the same wind as everyone else. Now with less than 200 miles to go to the line and less that 60 miles from the other yachts we have no wind and are doing 2 knots while they are averaging 8 to 9 - why ? This is painful. This is soul destroying. The loss of our weather fax has ruined our leg and our chance of winning the race as surely as Concerts dismasting - just doesn't look as dramatic...suppose its only a yacht race.
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
Theme tune of Mission Impossible plays in background, Ethan Humt
(unidentified crew member on Save the Children) calls up position
report on SatCom C....attached to bottom of report is following
transcript.... FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
You may have wondered why we appear to be taking a holiday in these
positively tropical latitudes. Well, the reasons stretch back to our
being knocked down in the first of the big storms which the fleet
sustained. Save the Children's damage included the loss of our SSB
Radio (as well as Radar, Compass, computers, heaters, winch handles
etc etc). Without Radio we are unable to access weatherfax and
are therefore 'blind' to the oncoming weather. At the time we were
only 12 miles behind the leaders but without weather information we
quickly slid back as we could only guess how best to sail each new
system.
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
OK so we have been a bit busy and now the Radio won't work so we
can't talk to anyone or get any weather fax's but we are gettiung out
of the SO so there is something to smile about...a bit of a report
for your internet thingy (which by all accounts is a bit slow these
days)
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
To: Pete Goss via Adrian R
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN Ater the knockdown the cleanup,slowly but surely (with the help of a couple of calm days) the boat is gettomg back together again, our intrepid skipper has managed to find a solution to almost everything, the only thing defetaing him is a tea-soaked PC and our wind instruments. The last a little bit of a problem when you are sailing. The crew have also stated that we are glad we have experience 50 - 60ft waves, 65 knot breezes but now that experience is over it is one we would be quite happy not to repeat. This is probably a tall order with 2500 miles of Southern Oceans to go. A couple of crew have developed a mantra 'what the hell are we doing down here' an apt question and one that does not have a profusion of answers. Of course where else would you get to see albatrosses in their natural habitat, icebergs as big as the Isle of Wight and not forgetting the Southern Lights, those awesome alien rivers of colour. Do these justify the sheer misery we are imposing on ourselves sometimes, unitl Caoe Town I plead the 5th Amendment, I sure it will seem all worthwhile after a couple of beers and a hot shower.
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN
A bit of a report... How things can change, 6 hours ago we were leading the fleet having taken 10 miles off Global Teamwork and put ourselves in, what we thought, was a good tactical position. Then behold - a low pressure system formed right on top of the whole fleet - it was as though we were the focal point for the elements to reek havoc. 'Save' actually came out better than some. We lost the lead to Merv - he took back his 10 miles plus a bit of interest, Group 4 closed from 20 to 9 miles and Toshiba nipped a few back - but Motorola and Heath both lost well over 20 miles each and are still stuck in the no wind band. We are, as ever, optimistic. Tropical Cyclone Justin which is destroying the Eastern Seaboard of Australia, is also destroying our predicted weather. Having forced the tracks of the highs and lows well south of their statistical routes, we are all having to rethink our strategy for the next 2 weeks. Unlike the start however, we are many miles apart and what happens from now on could be a result of position due to good planning or just pure luck - so it goes in yacht racing when a tropical storms spoils your day out..... Andy
FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN So here we go again, very hectic start, lots of action (we missed it all thankfully), straight out into big breeze, spinnakers and boats going everywhere. 5 of us went in shore to start, then swapped sides of the course with all the others - only Merv continues to confound by sailing backwards and forwards across the ocean. CU blew their kite and we had a beautiful clear view - kept us going a while. We lost out slightly overnight getting to the east of the fleet - in the most spectacular thunder and lightening storm I have ever seen. We are now beginnig to make up some ground as we have very fast current out here. Still in sight of Motorola, Heath and Courtalds - all separated by a mile or two in the overall results. Yet again we have the tightest global match race ever seen. Only 6100 miles to go now...... Andy Leg 3
Yacht SAVE THE CHILDREN We don't want to send any messages cos we are not going anywhere and we are going to run out of food if the wind doesn't arrive and we may all die....only joking - except we have no wind and we may run out of food. Anyway Sorry RHQ for not sending any messages - totally out of the habit of doing it after so long, which isn't much of an excuse but its all I can come up with at 5 in the morning. So what is life on board like? Well a little different than we are used to at the moment - being near the back with only 650 miles to go is not where we normally find ourselves - still with the high pressure doing just what we wanted it to do it ain't over yet. So keep watching the updates 'cos Save are yet again going to prove they are every bit as good as Gary Glitter... and make yet another comeback...
Yacht SAVE THE CHILDREN So...onward they trod across the Tasman Sea, with only a week on the boat surely not that much could happen that would be worth writing home about? Well not onboard Save The Children. We've been having a whale of a time (but have yet to see any) we have seen sharks though and yesterday we were being stalked by one, a big forty footer with sharp teeth. Fascinated by its prescence and eager to keep it happy we fed it some of the previous nights chilli, and it promptly swam away. Its Valentines Day and the air is filled with love and romance (as well as other more unnatractive odours) its difficult to move onboard for the flowers, chocolates and cards that have been delivered. Ian has established his forepeak tuckshop and is doing a roaring trade on fizzy drinks and kebabs but will come up trumps with his cryogenically preserved crispy lettuce - stock planned for the next leg to Cape Town. On Wednesday we celebrated Warren's 50th Birthday, a rather jovial affair involving a chldren's tea party (with proper cups), balloons adorned the galley and all racing was cancelled during the festivities. We have the bonus of celebrating yet another birthday tommorrow with Robert 'Bertilichi' Stubbs (our resident plumber) reaching the grand old age of 46, but the medic has expressed concern that his swollen insect bite (a souvenir of Wellington) might hinder the celebrations. We are currently planning the party of all parties and have sent invites to the rest of the fleet. It is currently raining, we've got the big white spinnaker up and are making good progress towards Sydney, and although we haven't maintained our usual leading position on this leg, as ever the crew here on Save the Children have a trick up our sleeve - Watch this space. Paul Sherwood
Yacht SAVE THE CHILDREN
12 hours ago we hit a 2 knot counter current that is uncharted in the pilot books and on the routing charts. At first we thought it would pass quickly but it is still here losing us miles by the hour - still nearly there.... Hope things are nice and dry and warm in your office... Andy
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