Cork on the rocks, Team Finland to the rescue

As if our watch wasn't eventful enough last night as we were making
progress chasing down cork we had a sudden increase in wind to 26-28
knots as we sailed into a storm cloud with our Yankee 1 and full main!
After hauling in the yankee, hoisting the yankee 2 and taking in a reef
in the pouring rain, my watch finally got off deck and into bed at
0230hrs.
I was woken 1.5hrs later to quickly come back on deck and help prepare
the boat as Cork had put out a Pan Pan message they had hit rocks after
rounding one of the gate marks and were taking on water.
As we approached in the dark we kept our distance until dawn when the
image of Cork heeled over on rocks by a random island in the middle of
the Java sea appeared infront of us. After assessing their position in the
day light it became obvious they were going to have to abandon ship. As we
readied out boat and ourselves for potentially another 16 crew members
needing extra food, hot tea, clothes and ?medical attention a plan was put
in place for them to ready their life rafts. They lauched one raft at a
time , leaving the boat behind to be washed ashore the tiny island just
off the rocks. Once all rafts had safely made it to the island they
combined into only 2 as once had punctured and again one at a time
launched off the island set adrift with all their trust in us to retrieve
them and get them safely on board. By this time California had also
arrived and took the first life raft. After about 15min the raft had
managed to drift far enough to be in safe waters for California to
retrieve them. Once all 8 were safely on board the second raft left the
island and Skipper + 7 crew were rescued and lifted on board Team Finland.

All the following boats have caught up now and we're all still circling
Cork on the rocks. I finally made it to bed for 4 hours sleep since i
had only had the 1.5hrs since 1100hrs yesterday! Cork is still on the
rocks but heeled over more than 45 degrees and the starboard side is under
the water. Our skipper has been transferred to Qingdou and Qingdou's
skipper launched on an inflatable boat back to Cork to assess the damage
and whether she is salvagable.

So, race over but thank goodness all Cork crew safely recovered, feed,
watered and now dry (well dryish) with no serious injuries. We're
starting to go back into our watch system tonight and trying to organise
how to hot bunk with our new guests - it's now a very full and even
hotter boat but like I said at least everyone is safe!

xx