South Pacific storm brings drama to the plot

If this were a movie the last two days would have made for some nice drama on the high seas, imagine the context, a fleet of racing boats headed for Cape Horn, a South Pacific gale battering the fleet, huge waves crashing against the boat through the night, the constant noise of haliards hitting the mast, leech lines flapping, autopilot ram overloaded, water sloshing in the bilges, the smell of your own boots turning your stomach inside out, wet, cold, miserable…

The sat phone rings, no one has ever called us on the satphone, you suspect it will not be Bart Simpson pulling one of his Moe’s phone pranks, who is it then? Another competitor on the end of the blurred satellite line sounding emotional sums the reality of the situation “we are considering retiring”. This is always tricky, the decision to sail or retire lies with the skipper(s) of the boat, you are divided between the desire to convince them to carry on racing and the thought that if they carry on and something happens you may have added unecessary pressure on them to carry on… so i suggested what my grandmother always told me as a child, “go to sleep and decide tomorrow”…

A few hours later we receive an email from the race committee, two boats are heading north riding the gale, they have not yet retired but are heading for Aukland, one has suffered damage to boat and crew, the other fears the same fate and decided it is unsafe to carry on.

I only then realise it’s for real, I stop watching the latest Jennifer Aniston film on the pc (a masterpiece of great acting and intense storyline that surely deserves my undivided attention) and wake up Hugo who emerges from under the sleeping bag stretching his arms “wassup dude?” he’s clearly watched too many of the american college movies we have on the hard drive.

At that stage we were sailing under triple reefed main and staysail in 35-45 knots of wind occasionally gusting 50, we were consciously trying to keep warm and dry, fed and slept, and only went outside in the cockpit when strickly necessary. We discussed the situation but as we had no damage and we didnt feel the boat was in any specific immediate danger we decide to press on.

It is sad to see two boats doing a U turn, the fear of damage is always strong and i hope that we’ll carry on sailing in safety with no surprises all the way to the finish line.

This storm is over, we are again under full mainsail and headsail heading for now in the right direction. Who knows what the future of the race will bring but i hope to find a movie to watch that does not require external drama to thicken the plot.

Posted by: firstclass