Noon Position: 49 degrees 32 minutes south latitude 158 degrees 53 minutes west longitude
Day's Run: (23 hours) 175 nautical miles
Friday November 17th, 2000
We have had quite a night. Driving rain, very strong winds from the wrong direction, and very steep seas that have had their tops breaking right across the deck – completely covering even the pilot house a few times. But to go back to yesterday afternoon: a glorious gentle sail in a slowly building NW breeze, clear blue sky and deep blue-green ocean studded with a few white caps. It wasn’t even cold. The hatches were open to air the ship, and as it was Trevor’s birthday we had a great celebration afternoon tea, fresh banana muffins, a very solid (not the sort to drop on your foot - but very delicious) fruit cake and chocolates. The saloon was decorated with a large “happy birthday” sign, and a birthday “mobile” hung from one of the hatches. We all sang happy birthday, Trevor blew out the candles, and everyone tucked in. There only needed to be one person on lookout on deck, as the yacht sails on auto-pilot most of the time. By evening, the wind was starting to rise and veer more northerly. Don and I spent a lot of time discussing what might happen – and it did. By 0230 this morning it was very dark with total overcast and the wind rising rapidly and coming more from ahead. The crew were called from their bunks and in full wet weather gear and harnesses took in a reef to both the mainsail and foresail. The headsail was rolled away, and the small staysail set (a jib on a boom in front of the fore mast). It took an hour from start to finish. And lots of winching. With 2 of the crew out on the ends of the booms (safety harnesses on) tying in the safety strops.
We felt we had taken the appropriate action and had a “cuppa” before getting back to our bunks (those not on watch). But by 0530 the wind had increased further, with heavy driving rain and big beam seas as we were forced well south of our course. We were travelling too fast for the conditions. So, the mainsail was pulled down with much effort. This meant going back up on the boom again. Large rope ties were placed around the sail to contain it. This took some time with the wind now gusting over 50 knots. The surface of the sea was going white with spray, and there were great white patches of foam where the waves were solidly breaking down their faces. But the crew are becoming more used to this extraordinary vessel of ours, and the whole job only took about half an hour. Apart from the odd trickle of sea water down the neck and up one’s cuffs, we stayed dry. To be in the pilot house behind the double lexan (bullet proof) windows watching the solid spray going right over our yacht was amazing. Water was swirling everywhere, caught up in the wind vortexes created by the sails. With our very thick aluminium hull, the odd crash of a wave hitting the sides or the deck means very little. But it is important that our seamanship is as good as possible to avoid problems that can develop very quickly in this sort of weather.
Sir Peter Blake
"Having vision is not enough. Change comes through realising the vision and turning it into a reality. It is easy to espouse worthy goals, values and policies; the hard part is implementation."
Learn about Sir Peter Blake and his journeys around the globe