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Gobsmacked, I’m lost for words to describe the atmosphere as we left Fremantle. After a fantastic 2 week break over Christmas, in which I caught up with friends and enjoyed a fabulous time with Mum & Dad, it really was a tremendous departure. Following a tall ship around the harbour with thousands lining the dockside, it was reminiscent of leaving Liverpool, only this time with a little less fear, a little less trepidation, a bit more confidence and really looking forward to returning to what I almost now consider home, the wide open ocean. Cheered on by the hundreds of boats in the flotilla following us, as the home port boat we dutifully rounded the last mark and set off for Asia leading the rest of the fleet after a great battle. A fitting start to a fantastic few hours, owed mainly to the phenomenal local support we’d received throughout our time in Freo (and a bit of local knowledge!)

Sailing alongside Western Australia’s beaches seeing the thousands of miles of pristine coastline was spectacular. Sadly our local knowledge and weather files meant that we stayed a bit too close to these wonderful places and as the predicted winds never materialised, we slipped back into 7^th position. On such a short race it was always going to be tough to get back into it but we battled on. However, “the sooner you slip back, the more time you have to catch up” as our America’s Cup celebrity had told us on a corporate sailing day.

We were soon back into the swing of life onboard and our 2 watch system. In complete contrast to the weather we had for our Aussie arrival, we were on deck sailing in bordies and not a lot else! The sun was hot, the winds were fair and our position apart, all was well onboard Western Australia 2011.com. With 7 new crew onboard for this leg and a 7:10 male to female ratio, the dynamics were very different and there was plenty of new conversation to be had and the exciting buzz of the unknown.

In conjunction with my position as Assistant Watch Leader, having so many new crew helped me to grow in confidence in sailing terms as I was able to help and guide those new to the boat. There were also plenty more opportunities to work up on the bow, which I have to say is much more inviting when the sun is scorching hot and a wave dumping on you is a pleasure rather than a chore! I also thrived on the helm and when my time was up each watch, a crow bar was generally required to get me of it!

The dominating feature of this leg though was the heat. The deck was too hot to walk on in bare feet, standing on the helm demanded regular buckets of water poured over my legs to cool them off and my tan has developed to the extent that most crew suggest that if I want to return and live in Oz, I could apply for indigenous population status! Sleep isn’t something I often struggle with but lying in a pool of sweat in over 40*C and over 75% humidity is no easy task. Thankfully there is no shortage of water around us and so I was able to freshen up with a salt water shower at least once a day!

Navigationally, it was a fascinating race and generally we did extremely well, although I can’t take any of the credit for our tactics. On other races we haven’t seen other boats for 3 weeks at a time but on this race, we were regularly in sight of each other, which added to a heightened level of competition onboard. We managed to claw our way back into the race and initially enjoyed a great dual with Glasgow. We made up lots of ground sailing East of Christmas Island while they were becalmed on the western side. We finally lost sight of them as they went into a massive storm cloud on the horizon and weren’t seen again until they arrived in port! After passing the plumes of smoke emitted by Krakatoa, reputed to be the loudest explosion on earth when it erupted, we were engaged into a battle with Hull & Humber. To make things more interesting, we also had to negotiate the numerous ferries, 200,000 tonne tankers, debris, random unlit fishing sticks and fishing vessels laying miles of unlit fishing nets. The first time we encountered one of these, we ran straight over it! (Unfortunately I was on lookout duties!) We watched, we held our breath, we watched some more as the floats just bobbed in the water, we breathed again. Others we came across in the daytime led to us going miles out of our way to avoid becoming entangled. Rumours are abound that our next passage up to China is even worse… we’ll see!  

Unfortunately our detour came shortly after we thought we’d broken away from our rivals onboard Hull & Humber. We were back tacking, covering and tacking some more just a few hundred metres from each other. It made for a fascinating final week with lots of tacking and lots of fun. We were very relieved to cross the line in one piece and in third place, another podium position, brilliant!

A great race, with some very competitive sailing and we managed to avoid both the tropical cyclones and becoming becalmed as was expected (I think our experience in the Canaries is enough to last us a lifetime!) It meant that we arrived into Indonesia a few days earlier than expected so we’re currently enjoying some ‘r and r’ in a luxury resort prior to heading over to Singapore, where we’ll pick up our 2^nd pennant of the voyage. There is a new air of confidence onboard and a realisation of what it takes to achieve a podium position but there’s a steely determination to get the full set by the time we arrive in Qindao – just need that elusive 1^st place!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 10:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.