Going nowhere fast

We have been down in the Doldrums for well over a week now and in the last 7 days we have seen our 1st placing drop to 11th (averaging under 50 miles a day), At 6am this morning we were hit by 48 knots of wind----- but it only lasted briefly, it's a shame with all the hard work, we are going nowhere fast and we can see that the first half of the fleet have found the trade winds to Rio. On a positive note Matt has been doing a brilliant job keeping us motivated, when the wind does come we are ready to get competitive again.

I'm in the doldrums

Today I am on mother duty with Jo (doing legs 1,2,3 and 4), this role involves us doing all the cooking and cleaning for the day and tonight we both get the chance of 13 hours of sleep.. uninterrupted!

At the moment I am sitting down in the saloon (only for 5 minutes!) with the music on full blast after a big lunch. The menu so far has included, for breakfast; pancakes and for lunch; macaroni cheese, homemade sesame and poppy seed bread and rolls, all gone down well so far, tonight; a curry of some sort? Jo and her culinary skills are much more imaginative than mine, but it always turns out great.

Our current position is 1st with Great Britain in 2nd. They are further south but quite far east. We have been having some varied and sometimes frustrating sailing these past few days, from good South easterly winds, to sitting for a few hours in squalls with sometimes no wind or wind sending us in the wrong direction! I think at a few points the other day we went round in circles! Other times we have been hit by sudden gusts from nowhere and within minutes the wind increases from around 10 knots to over 30 knots. Our code 1 which was up one time during this gust can only manage up to 15 knots so we were VERY lucky the sail held and didn't rip! But this is the sort of weather to expect when we are near and in the doldrums. Today I can tell we are near the Equator, there is little wind and a scorching sun, making it difficult to stay cool below deck and on deck, the other day I spent my off watch time trying to find a cool place to sleep, trying the sail locker (which does not smell too good!), the Saloon, on the deck, on the floor next to a fan and then in my bunk, with little success. As long as the boat is moving- in the right direction- I'm happy! 

Yesterday, we decided to name our 3 spinnakers, so now when we put the Code 1 up, we will 'Bring out Bruce', the Code 2 we will 'Welease Bwian' and the Code 3 will be 'Unleash Thor'. It makes it a bit more interesting when hoisting them! Overall life on board has been a fun routine of sleeping, eating and sailing, and depending who gets out of the doldrums first, they could be the first over the finish line in Rio, so for now we are trying to get the boat to go as fast as possible with the wind we have been given.

Postscript to sails

I told you yesterday how important it is to have the correct sails up for the wind conditions, as I posted that blog we were sailing in 8 knots of wind, with our code 1 spinnaker up (it can handle winds up to about 15 knots), within a matter of seconds another squall arrived, the wind gusted to 30 knots and as we were massively over sailed the boat heeled over far too much, It was quite scary how far we went! Having quickly got the sail down we were on our way again. This is all part of sailing into the InterTropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ); 'the doldrums,' in another 12 hours we will be right into them.

The sails weigh a ton

We can't get anywhere in the races without our sails, for every wind condition we have a different type, size and weight of sail. Overall there are 13 different sails on board and in total they weigh about one ton. Our mainsail is constantly up, with a weight of 240 kilos, it is the heaviest, we can adjust it 3 times to make it smaller; so we can have a reef 1, reef 2 and reef 3, we can reduce the sail as wind conditions increase. With the mainsail we can have our 2 head sails up, located in front of the mainsail. These sails can be adjusted and are controlled by lines, which we regularly trim according to the wind angles. On the inner forstay we have the stay sail and then on the outer forstay  we have the Yankee 1, which is the largest and heaviest, the Yankee 2 which is the next smallest and the Yankee 3 which is even smaller,again these are used depending on the wind strengths.

mainsail + stay sail + Yankee

                                                                                                       

spinnaker + mainsail

   
In previous blogs I have mentioned the Spinnakers, these fly in front of the boat and have the largest surface area, the Code 1 being the biggest, then the Code 2, then the Code 3 which we would use in heavier winds, we can sail fastest on a beam reach with these sails up (on one the new 70 ft boats new speed records of over 30 knots have been achieved), so far we have managed to get to 25 knots. We also have a wind seeker that is made of very light material to be used when wind conditions are calm, we have been sailing that today as we get closer to the Equator, however we have been hitting squalls every few hours, where the wind suddenly increases and it starts to rain, so we had to drop this before it ripped. Additionally we have our storm sails that are small and strong, hopefully we will never have to use them! Overall it is incredibly important to look after our sails, overpowering them could cause them to easily rip or get damaged, meaning more work for the sail repairers and the race committee can deduct points if they consider we have acted with poor seamanship. So over the next few months I should be getting to know these sails very well!

Flying fish and squalls

We were pleased with our 3rd place over the scoring gate yesterday and the 1 point awarded, although Henri Lloyd just zoomed past to get the 2 points, I am told that Great Britain are the team to watch and that they are making up good ground!

Katherine from Australia got hit in the face by a flying fish the other day! and yesterday we were joined by 2 swallows flying south for the winter, one of them kept flying through the open hatch, then last night we had some squalls so we went on deck, collected the rain water for showers and I washed my greasy hair which is a lot better now!

Today it has again been very hot and progress has slowed down a bit, we are having times with no wind then getting hit by gusts of it, I have just been part way up the mast to repair a tear in the sail just above the boom, In my next blog I shall tell you about all the different sails we have on board.

Getting hotter

Our current location on the chart shows that we are about 250 nautical miles SW of the Canary islands and 600nm N of the Cape Verde islands, I can tell we are getting closer to the Equator; it's hot and it's going to get hotter! Below deck it's even worse and trying to get some sleep isn't easy in these stuffy conditions even with some battery operated fans working.

We have been making really good ground and over the past 24 hours having covered 240nm, with a brilliant position of 2nd place, however if I look out of the companionway now I can see Henri Lloyd hot on our heels about 2 miles away. So we are constantly pushing the boat to its best by checking that our sails are set in the right position and they do not make any more headway. Over the past 24 hours the wind has dropped slightly, and now we are sailing with the wind coming from behind, we have our mainsail and code 2 (medium) spinnaker up, this sail gave me my first job as sail repairer yesterday, we noticed the code 2 had a right angle rip about the size of an A4 piece of paper, so we dropped it, repaired it, wooled it (folding the sail into a sausage shape and tying strands of wool round it so when it is sent up again the wool pops and the sail opens up) and in 50 minutes hoisted it up again! Not bad but next time we will be even faster. As it was David Hindson and Ross Turnbulls Birthdays, we named the repair on either side after them: Dangerous Dave and Terrible Turnbull, Happy Birthdays! My big hope is that the repair holds, although I am sure in time there will be more sails to repair!

Points of Sail

The last 48 hours have been quite eventful and very exciting, but rather than repeating to you the problems we have had, and our brand new spinnaker halyard breaking at 2am in the morning, that Matt has already mentioned in his Mission Performance Skipper report (11th Sept), I will instead give my views on the races and explain some of the basics of sailing this yacht across oceans.

If you asked me a few years ago how to sail a boat I wouldn't have known, having trained with the Clipper Race I know a lot more now, but I am still learning everyday. To sail a boat, it is unlikely you are able to just sail from A to B in a straight line (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Points_of_sail ). Imagine the boat is at the centre of a clock face and the wind is coming towards the boat at 12 o'clock it is not possible to sail in the angle from 10.30 to 1.30 (the no go zone), sailing as close as possible to these, at these angles at around 10 and 2 is called close hauled or beating upwind. This is the most uncomfortable point of sailing, and in leg 5, around Singapore, we will be doing this with a lot of zig zags and not getting much sleep. It will get you in the direction you want to go but it is not the fastest point of sail. Reaching is from 9 to 7 and 3 to 5 on the clock; these can be fast points of sail where you can use a spinnaker, which we refer to as a kite sometimes. Doing this over the past few days we have been reaching speeds over 25 knots. Next comes running, where the wind is behind you, the sails are set out wide and again with a spinnaker. The Clipper 70's will benefit from this and we should get good speeds across the Southern Ocean and Pacific, although this all depends on the strength of the winds and the state of the sea. So if a boat appears to be behind in a race, it maybe that it has done the slower, harder bit first and if the crew get it right, they can then make up good speed.

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For now spirits are high on board, even though we are tired, we are all enjoying the great sailing.

Sea Watch. Race 1 Leg 2

Now our first ocean race begins across the Atlantic. On Monday morning the fleet slipped lines from Brest and we began our goodbye parade outside the marina. At our crew briefing at the local aquarium the previous day we were told that the first part of this race was going to be fairly rough, so we were slightly apprehensive but excited for what the next few weeks were to hold. The start put us towards the back of the fleet, but as this is a long distance race of 4,800 miles (lasting nearly a month), positions now are not too important, it's about getting the best out of our boat in the current weather conditions. So our crew went back  to the watch system  and into the routines of life at sea.

Already I have seen some very interesting wildlife, on Monday evening we were joined by a school of dolphins that followed us for a few hours and today we saw a whale about 50 meters away. On the whole, weather conditions have been good and not too rough. We are averaging between 8 and 11 knots, having done 184 miles in the first 24 hours, with mostly downwind sailing we hope to reach 200 miles a day in the future. After our daily brief today, Matt told us the forecast for the next week, it seems this race will become very exciting, 1,200 miles away there is a tropical revolving storm !

So I will keep you informed of what happens over the next week.

Goodbye London. Race 1 Leg 1

On Sunday 1st September I was up early for a 7am breakfast joined by my school friends , then at 8am reported for duty with all my kit for the next 11 months on board Mission Performance. St Katharine Dock was getting very busy and after a brief from our skipper Matt all the teams stood in line on the foredeck for a service of blessing and prayers. This was then followed by each team walking through the crowds to the main stage and our boat song was played for the first time; 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen (we will have to brush up on the words and dance routine as this will be played many times in the next year). Having been presented to everyone we were then asked to man our boat and under engine we made our way out of the dock (more 'Queen') through the lock on to the Thames to wait for all the boats to get in line for the parade from Tower Bridge down the river, lead by the Great Britain yacht. A flotilla of smaller boats, spectator boats and a helicopter all followed, with crowds on the bridges, on the banks and balconies we waved and shouted all the way with family and friends doing the same back to us. It was a great send off! Having reached the Thames Barrier the spectator boats turned away for the last time and we made our way towards Queensborough, where we moored up against each other for the night.

The next day was the moment everyone had been waiting for and at 9.30am we set off from a mark just off Southend pier for the race to Brest in France, with a good wind we hoisted one of our largest front sails, the spinnaker, which allows us to go even faster when the wind is coming from behind. Unfortunately a few minutes later it partially detached (and again later) causing us to lose speed, but we recovered and sat towards the front of the pack. The rest of the day saw the fleet spread out and we went into our watch systems. That evening the sea got rougher and we had difficult sailing causing some sea sickness (so far I have been alright).

On Tuesday I was on Mother watch with Alan who is sailing to Rio de Janeiro. Starting early; we made hot drinks and meals for everyone, cleaned the heads (toilets), then the inside of the boat before we baked some fresh bread and it turned out to be very good for a first attempt! Over the next few watches we all started to feel a bit tired, as a 4 hour on, 4 hour off watch system takes a while to get used to and we had some unlucky incidents; our main grinders which hoist up the main sails stopped working and we spent the next 3 hours trying to fix them which meant we lost some ground. Also as part of the race rules we were not allowed to go into the TSS (traffic separation scheme) shipping lanes, however we unknowingly clipped a section of one (Old Pulteney did the same). That meant we ended up with a 9 hour penalty from the race committee; although very frustrating it all made us try harder to make up for the lost time. With sometimes little or no wind we made our way up through the fleet and at one point managed to get to first place, then the race committee decided to shorten the race due to our positions in the English Channel with little wind, strong tides and busy shipping lanes. When we crossed the new finish line we were in 2nd place an amazing result.... but because of the penalty we were pushed back to last place! Although very annoying it boosted our determination for the next race to Rio de Janeiro. We were then allowed to turn on our engines to meet an arrival time in Brest travelling in thick fog through the night with our fog horn sounding, while still on our watch system it was all very eerie !

We made it to Brest on Thursday afternoon (the same day as the Mount School term started, without me!), all of us having deep cleaned our boats and cleared customs then went to the prize giving reception in the Town Hall with the Mayor and to see Invest Africa receive their winners pennant for the race. With local cider and oysters to eat, it made up a bit for our last placing. This was then followed by going out into Brest with the rest of my crew for the evening.

So now we are getting Mission Performance ready for the next long race across the Atlantic and the Equator to Rio, which starts on Monday. We are excited and reassured knowing that we are a good team, with a good skipper and a great sponsor and ready to fight hard for the next winners pennant !

Mission Performance

Four days back in Yorkshire and such a lot to do, the weekend was spent washing  and packing my final kit list, deciding what to put in and what to leave out, we have a 20 kilo weight limit per crew member  (otherwise too much weight slows the boat down and we do not have enough room to store it anyway).  On the Bank Holiday Monday I did an interview with BBC Radio York in the morning which was fun,  then I went back to the Mount School with a film crew to talk about my time at school  and how this prepared me to take part in the Clipper Race, I thought this was a bit odd! until a few of my school friends jumped out from behind some pillars to suprise me in front of the cameras,  I think my reaction was just what the camera men wanted and they couldn't shut us up for 10 minutes,  If the footage is used  it will be in a documentary series about the Clipper Race, which comes out next year. In the evening my mum, brother Scott, sister Amelia and I went out for a meal to Florios, my favorite restaurant in Malton.

Tuesday was spent saying goodbye to friends  who were not coming down  to London. My final night in Yorkshire was spent in my dad's new house, so at least I know there is a bedroom there in a years time  to come back to.

A 5.30 am start the next day to get to St Katharine Dock by 10.15 am to report for duty, showing members of the pubic  around the boat, then an evening meal with friends at The Dickens Inn overlooking the dock, the atmosphere was great.

Thursday was to be the big day we were going to officially find out our boat sponsor and have her named; 'Mission Performance'.  Mission Performance Limited are a company who can make ordinary people achieve extraordinary things!  The whole Team and skipper Matt were really pleased to have them as our main sponsor, they bring a lot of expertise to the boat on how best to work as a team and much more, so it was straight down to work, they took us all out for a meal so we could get to know each other better, this is going to be a very good partnership.

The following day more work to be done on Mission Performance mixed  with showing people around her including Christine Doey a Trustee of Contented Dementia Trust, the charity which I hope will make lots of money from people who enjoy reading my blogs donating to it! Then a quick live call from BBC Radio York to wish me well for the race.

In the afternoon my mum,  brother and sister had arrived along with five of my best school friends, just in time to see John Harding the local hairdresser cut my hair sitting on top of the boat with family, friends, members of the public and the film crew again! all watching my waist length hair become shoulder length, it would be very hard to manage on the boat anyway and the cut hair has been donated to the Little Princess Trust, a charity that provides real hair wigs for children with hair loss, look them up, you never know you might want to do the same one day! Everyone agreed my new style looked great and thank you John for donating your time. That evening I was able to show off the new look at the friends and family Crew party at the Grange Hotel before staying there that night.

On Saturday morning all crews and skippers had a briefing and we found out which watches we were to be on when we set sail (I will tell you more about this once at sea). In the afternoon  another best friend Vicky from school and my 91 year old Grandpa arrived along with more family and in the evening a meal at Zizzis' on the dockside for 21 of us, before a last bath and a comfy bed.....