Volvo Ocean Race

22 Feb 2012

Torture

Leg 4 Day 4

Today is World Thinking Day, so here is a thought for you: Going to the toilet for the first time in 54 hours in the bow of a Volvo Open 70 in 20 knots and dropping off three- metre waves.

Both terrifying and exhilarating at the prospect of how bad things could go.

The sea state continues to be truly tumultuous.

We are sailing with a current of about two knots (which is good) that is going against the swell (not so good), which creates such confused seas.

CAMPER is going pretty well generally speaking bumping from wave to wave coming from all different directions. Every now and then a set of large steep waves with no backs to them come along and the helmsman have to spin the boat on the crest of the wave so as not to crash directly off the back of it. It’s been said more than once that it’s a good thing it is daylight and we can see the waves or else there would be some pretty big crashes down into the deep troughs of the waves.

The waves aren’t the only danger; still there is a fair bit of debris in the water. Only this morning we narrowly missed a full sized pallet by a metre or so. And yesterday we passed a large unmarked and unlit steel buoy. Hitting anything like that has potential to be a real showstopper.

Everyone onboard is pretty good, heads down and hard work, even though we are continuing to sail a course, which regrettably is taking us further away from Auckland. It is something that has to be done if we are to minimise our time in the painful light air forecast and to navigate our way as best we can across the three-knot Kuroshio, or ‘Black Tide’ current which runs north past the Luzon Strait to the east of Taiwan and then north east to Japan- again the wrong way to Auckland… torture!

Speaking of torture Adam has been pretty crook in a world of pain, which he thinks is a mix of stomach bug he had before getting onboard and seasickness. I truly feel for him, he is bravely battling on through it. I think he has stopped feeding the fish by now which is a good sign.

Daryl thinks Adam is coming right since he has got his opinion back.

On a more serious note, I guess we shouldn’t complain too much about motion, when we think of what the brave folk of Christchurch have been living with for the past year since the devastating earthquake. Our thoughts are with everyone down there one year on, especially after we visited Christchurch on our around NZ tour last winter and saw the destruction first hand.

Oh and while we are sending messages - a very special birthday message from all of us onboard to our wise and wonderful shore manager Coxy. I don’t know how old you are, but I do know you are wise beyond your years - and your experience… you are just so experienced!

We will look forward to wishing you a belated birthday when we get to Auckland….

Ah Auckland…did you know in 2009 Auckland ranked fourth equal in a survey of the quality of life of 215 major cities of the world. That’s not hard to believe! I love Auckland.

“Had a few little tastes of current against wind earlier this morning, there are no backs to the waves in those conditions so the landings are severe. Not too much a problem in the daylight as we can steer around them softening the impact on the boat, but a big issue in the nighttime. It looks like we will arrive at the Taiwanese coast in more conditions with strong current and breeze - boat-breaking conditions so we will have to tread carefully to get through in one piece. Boat and crew doing well but a tricky couple of days ahead.” CHRIS NICHOLSON