As the sun came up this morning there was good humour on deck and
numerous whale jokes going around however the mood was all a little more
serious and sombre late last night. B watch had just recently come on
deck and darkness had set in. We were flying our heavy weight kite
making a good 10 knots. I was on the helm having recently got my
'spinnaker driving licence'. It seemed like smooth sailing and after
our last race update we were making good progress, however as we are all
coming to realise things can change quickly at sea! Suddenly there was a
thud as a sharp jolt came through the helm. I along with others let out
a few confused expletives and expected that I had lost the steering.
However this wasn't the case and those behind the helm looked aft to see
the large tail of the culprit having hit our rudder, surface before
disappearing again into the darkness. Our log book now reads 2105hrs;
'hit whale, rudder damaged??'. With a whole ocean to play in what were
the chances? (since then coming up with ideas as to why has become a
popular pass time – from that whales sleep below the surface to it was
attracted to the hum of our generator). We haven't been far enough
south to need an iceberg watch but maybe a whale watch is more
appropriate, although still difficult in the dark, as like this one, it
was in full camouflage and stealth mode.
Seconds after it happened Eero was on deck and turns were taken by him
and our watch leaders to go down into the lazarette and check out our
steering system. A consensus was reached that there seemed to be some
damage to our rudder. The race office was contacted, while on deck a
smooth and speedy spinnaker drop took place. On the helm it was my
first opportunity to see this evolution take place without being in
amongst it. Instructions were shouted into the wind directing the 7
other crew in their various roles to work swiftly together in the
darkness wrestling the sail almost the size of a tennis court and with a
mind of its own down, through the 'letterbox' slot between the main sail
and boom, onto the deck and down below. It is amazing that something
that looks so chaotic, all comes together so smoothly!
With possible rudder damage we thought our race prospects were over. We
didn't want to believe it and held our breath that it wasn't the case!
As the night went on the steering remained ok and it began to seem that
maybe we had gotten away lightly with no damage after all. As a
precaution our sail configuration remained conservative over night
causing us to lose hard fought miles to our closest competitors and
dropping our position back to 4th within the highly contested top 4.
So lesson learnt (don't hit whales – or don't let them hit you).
However trying to find a positive - how many other people will be able
to one day tell their grandchildren 'back when I was young and sailing
part of the way around the world we hit a whale in the southern ocean'.
As I go off watch this morning we're as determined as ever to claw back
those miles before the scoring gate! The spinnaker is back up and I'll
go to my bunk with the sound of 'trim…..hold' above me. Spirit of
Australia, Cape Breton Island, Uniquely Singapore watch your backs Team
Finland are back in the race and hot on your tails!
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