Are we there yet?!

Well i can't say this is plain sailing or particularly pleasant!
It's 0130 and I'm still on watch until 0400hrs. I've just come down for
my 30min off deck to warm up after helming and am sitting in the nav
station stuffing my face with chocolate and a hot chocolate laced with
coffee to keep me awake. It's cold and wet up there and we're rolling
around like we're in a washing machine. I'm already wearing my full
base layer, midlayer and foulies!
We were basically hit by a very large confused sea as soon as we left
the breakwater outside Hua-Lein which after 3 days back on land and very
little sail area to keep us stable almost turned us straight into a
vomit comet! We still have a few confined to thier bunks while the rest
of us are keeping a close watch on each others sickness and coldness
levels and sharing around sea sickness pills and patches like lollies
(translation - sweets). The sea has settled a little and we're not
crashing down the back of as many waves but it's not nice helming. Its
raining too so its a matter of sqinting into the pitch blackness trying
to make out the tops of any breaking or steep waves while the rain is
like needles hitting your face and eyes! We have no idea what winds we
are in or from what direction exactly as all our wind instruments are
currently at the bottom of the south china sea along with the top
section of our mast!!
It's already quite hard to sleep, with only our trysail up we're not
heeled over which is easier but we're being rolled around a lot more
(picture a toy boat or rubber ducky in the surf!). I found for most of
my first off watch I was in a half wake half sleep state and constantly
thought i was up on deck, lying in our cockpit. Everytime the boat
crashed down a wave i cringed as i expected to be hit by a wave. Only
when it never came I would realise i was still off watch and in my bunk!
Until the next time it happened that is!!
We're nearing the top of Taiwan and actually not making to bad a
progress. With the current behind us we were making about 10 knots at
one point but are down to about 8 knots now as we seem to be out of the
current and have had to cut back the revs to stop launching ourselves
off the top of the waves.
Right time to go back up, wish me luck from your toasty warm beds!!
xx

Time to go!

Well we arrived in Taiwan 3 days ago, no idea where but it's called Hua-lien!
It was quite an experience bobbing up and down as we cut away our
rigging at 4 in the morning in the pitch black. We couldn't turn our motor on until we had it all cut away and
no lines or anything hanging over board. As we were cutting away all the halyards from the mast and lashing the largest
broken bit to the part still standing we couldn't help but be under the mast and as more of the shrouds/diagonals gave way
one of the guys had a spreader fall and land on his leg while i deflected a second
one from his head! Luckily he was ok though. It's weird it was never really scary but it was an awful noise and sight. I was just really worried we were
going to end up the the broken top end of the mast going through our hull before we could cut it off which would
have caused much more of a problem. Everything went so smoothly with getting
it cut away, there was a significant amount of calm discussion about how to
go about it and what needed to happen in what order but everyone was really
calm, safety concious and one thing i can say for the team is, we all really look out for each other,
especially when it comes to the safety on deck.

It's pretty disappointing. We were coming first and it was just starting to get fun - love the rough
stuff! Gutted thats the race over for me at least I did one leg/race
where we finished and even got first. The people who are only doing this leg oz to
china haven't even finished a race!

We've been feeling a bit delicate the last few mornings! The first night we were invited to the coast gaurds mess by commander Chen where we were well and
truely looked after with some taiwanese food, more than enough shots of some local spirits and finished off with some kareoke! We then moved onto a great
bar that we felt the need to return to for a second night in a row to celebrating the fact we
were on land and alive (well thats our excuse and we're sticking to it!). They were massive nights out! I don't think we've ever
had nights quite like it actually! There were plenty of shots (including a round of mixed up Jagerbombs, where something got lost in translation and we
ended up with 16 beers with vodka - didn't stop us though!!). Dancing went on late into the next morning with everyone having an awesome time, there may
even be video evidence of me crowd surfing....aghhhh cringe!!

Despite the hangovers our days have been productive here in Hua-lien. First on the to do list was a crane with our skipper dangling at the end of it up
at the mast stub removing the remaining 7 metres of broken mast. Next was some innovative rigging to set up a jury rig using the remaining 7-8 metres (out
of 25!) of mast left attached to the deck. We now have a makeshift standing rig (forestay/backstay and shrouds) and a sail plan using our trisail and storm
jib hoisted upside down! A guy from a boat ?building/repairing company helped us with a quick fix for the holes in our deck (who funnily enough is
actually from Auckland) so hopefully we're not as leaky as we were! We've also had an 'agent' working for us to help us
get things sorted and find our way around this place!

We've just had the go ahead to leave and start limping our way up to China. We're expecting it to take up to 8 days but hoping it will be less. We've
filled up all our diesel tanks and have our lazarette and snake pit full of extra containers. Oh, and of course we have our amazing new rigging to fly our
sails from!! It looks quite hilarious and will be interesting to see if it holds up in the winds and seas we're expecting, we've been hearing reports of the
other boats facing 50 knot winds!!

Time to go!
xx

Demasted but all ok

Well i guess everyone has heard by now and mum and dad have had the phone
call no one wants to get! At least they will have been able to let you know
we were all ok!
I was on watch when the rigging went. Standing by the helm having just
handed it over 10 minutes before. We were pushing along nicely at about 9.5
knots over the ground with our main and one reef and staysail, didn't even
have a yankee up. (I think we were even in first place!). We went over the
largest wave we've seen yet and couldn't control the crash down the back of
it. As we were all recovering there was a massive crack and bang and the
other watch leader on deck beside me yelled out 'we've lost the rigging'.
The skipper was woken and everyone else was sent down below while a few of us
remained on deck figuring out what to do next.
The mast had snapped in two places and was flogging up and down with the
upper most bit in the water and at risk of going through our hull.
While Emil and Andy systematically cut through all our standing rigging
starting with the forestay and innerforestay then the shrouds and backstays
the other couple of us cut through all the running rigging.
We lost our stay sail with the innerforestay but we all managed to haul the
boom back in board and recover the mainsail with it. Although not before it
had pulled 2-3 of the stansions out of the deck - not a nice sound! So we're
without part of our gaurdrail along the beam of our starboard side and have
some holes in our deck that are keeping us busy with emptying the bilges and
lockers in the galley every 30 min or so.
Gotta go comms comp in hot demand, we're being escorted by the taiwan coast
gaurd into a port there.
xxx

Chafe is the enemy!!

I'm exhusted so this will be quick. I've just finished my 6 hr day shift at 1400hrs. Been on the helm for about an hour ad a half trying to make our way
through the gate and snatch some points up with it. The wind is is up to 30 knots true and the waves are big!! It's been an eventful night with only
really skip, 4 watch leaders and a couple of otheres helming in the dark under these conditions so it made for some long stints on the wheel for us. My
shoulders and arms are feeling it already after all the light wind stuff since australia!

I woke in my bunk this morning wondering who the heck was on the helm and what the hell they were doing as i was thrown from side to side in my bunk, Where
they tacking or not?? What way did i need to ajust my bunk to get back to sleep! Could soon hear Emil's voice shouting out commands though and chaos was
managed. I found out later we had lost our working yankee sheet due so some sort of chafe. Then while trying to sort that out by tacking i understand they
lost the halyard and then the number 1 reefing line snapped too. By the time we made it on watch things had been sorted and we hoisted the yankee 3 then
had the 'pleasant' job of flaking the yankee 2 down stairs in the tiny saloon and sleeping quaters.

The conditions have made their mark already I've also been playing medic this morning dishing out sea sickness meds, taking care of a laceration to someones
head when they got hit by the grinder handle and dosed up someone else and helped them to bed when they went flying across the gap between the galley and
saloon, landing on thier tail bone.

Not looking forward to checking out my bunk. I know there is a decent leak into my lockers so really hope my dry bags work!! But the guy that sleeps below
me reakons he was getting wet from above so they may be so full it's slopping out the front and into my bunk!! Wish me luck!!

Did someone say wind?? Yahoo!!

Oh what a difference a day makes. When i went to bed mid morning today
it was a beautiful day although we were sailing a horrible course due to
a bad wind direction and at a terrible speed because we were also having
to cross a wind hole to the west of the Philipines.
By the time i woke up for watch at 1400hrs we were preparing to change
down to our yankee 2 as the wind had come up and we were on a much
better course although we did lose a couple of places but only 9 miles
behind the leaders.

In a matter of 2 hours we hanked on our Yankee 2, dropped the Y1,
hoisted the Y2, tacked, flaked the Y1 and stowed it away for the rest of
the race, moved the Y3 to a more accessable place, tacked again, and
took in a reef!!! I think it's safe to say the wind we've been waiting
for has arrived!

It has started to get dark earlier and earlier so the last few hours on
watch until 2000hrs have been in darkness. The waves are really picking
up and some have been pretty huge although probably nothing compared to
what is to come! I've just come off the helm at the end of watch with
my adrenaline pumping. We had a ture wind that gusted up to 30 knots at
times and i had all my weight hanging on the wheel to keep her down and
was still coming up 20 degrees! They guys on watch up top have just
dropped the stay sail so the boat has flattened out (relatively speaking)
so it will be slightly easier to launch myself into my top bunk and stay
there!

Yaaaaahooooooooo, lovin it!!!
Night
xx

Number one!

The conditions did't continue to pick up like we were expecting last
time i wrote a blog so the yankee 1 came back out and we've been
continuing with beautiful blue sky days and no more that 11-12 knots of
wind. We even had a wind angle that meant we flew our medium weight
spinnaker for about 24hours only dropping it in the middle of last
night!! I thought i'd seen my last of the spinnaker!

Every day we talk and prepare ourselves for the onslaught of wind and
waves we are expecting once we get near the gate at the south of taiwan.
It's getting to the point where a lot of us just want to get there and
do it, enough talk!! Apparently althought the wind and sea will be big
it won't start getting really cold until we pass taiwan and head up into
the east china and yellow sea. We've packed away everything that we can
think of that can possibly go flying - galley condiments, knives and
books etc We also finally bit the bullet and sicaflexed ?sp? our
sleeping quaters hatch closed as it is warped and lets too much water
in. Now that the spinnaker is down the poles have been well and truely
lashed to the deck and the jockey pole stowed away in the lazarette.
We've rigged up extra jack stays around the deck to clip our safety
lines onto while we move around up top and we have rope rails strung up
everywhere down below so it looks a bit like a ropes course and has been
providing a bit of a big kids play ground while the conditions are light
enough not to need them in a serious way. We've rearranged all our
sails so we have our storm sails close at hand and positioned in the
cabin so we are walking on them rather than the floor that gets very
slippery when wet and on an angle! Oh and people have re-started their
sea sickness meds. So we're as prepared as we can be and are now just
waiting for the wind gods to flick the on switch!!

We've always had our plan, first to follow the aussies tack for tack as
they are our main competitors at the moment being 1-2 points over all
infront of us on the leader board. Our patience eventually paid off and
our belief that we could outsail them and once we passed them there was
no looking back. Our passage plan is constantly under review with each
new weather file we recieve and change in conditions and there is always
huge discussion. I've learnt loads as being a watch leader has meant
i've been part of the discussions and decision making. I'm now much
more familar with 'Seapro'our computerised chart and weather plotter!
I've also been using the radar and AIS to locate, track and avoid or
outsail other ships, fishing boats or competitors. I've even answered
one of our VHF calls the other night, although it was only from the
aussies wanting to check their barometer reading with ours as theirs had
misread a change of 6+ hPa over a few hours. I was able to check our
log and barometer and reassure them all was ok. It has been awesome and
the mood has been great since seeing all our hours of deliberation over
our course and racing hard paying off as we worked our way up the fleet
to where we are more used to being, NUMBER 1!! However fter getting
ourselves there we have now had an unfavourable wind shift and have also
had to do the inevitable and tack to come further east so we can set
ourselves up for the predicted change in wind direction and force to
head through the gate. It means we are likely to drop at least a few
positions by the next update as we're having to settle for a pretty ugly
course over ground/velocity made good and a fairly average speed
too! All a bit frustrating just as we made it to the top!

Waitangi Day on Team Finland

(Written for Clipper Website)
Yesterday was New Zealand's Waitangi Day commemorating the signing of
the Treaty of Waitangi between the British settlers and native Maori
back in 1840. Being the two kiwi's on board Christel and I found
ourselves designated to mother watch for the day (so much for a national
holiday!!!). During happy hour everyone was treated to some kiwi
lollies (translation 'sweets') and home (or 'boat') baking but only
after participating in a hilarious attempt at the Haka.

Since leaving Singapore we've been slapping on the sun screen on deck
and sweating in our bunks down below. However we've been being careful
what we wish for knowing that it will be a different story that we are
telling in a week or so! Already it is noticeably cooler during our
night watches and the water temperature of what was likely to be my last
bucket shower yesterday was also initially a bit of a shock! Today has
seen a further change in the conditions as the wind picks up. We've
dropped our yankee 1 for the 2 and without jinxing ourselves have
probably put it to bed for the rest of this race. The temperature is
still really hot during the day especially down below in the sleeping
quarters. This morning some of the off watch crew found themselves
quickly cooled down as with the increasing wind and waves a bow wave
made it down our open forward hatch and into their bunks! So with that
said I've had lunch and I'm off to my bunk to check for water saturation
levels and rig up a shower curtain before climbing in!
'Night' :)

My last start day :(

We're 'back on the road again' after a good break in Batam and
Singapore. Batam was an awesome resort with the marina out infront
of it and it was nice to have our own space and aircon in one of the
chalets. We arrived to a hero's welcome with the crew from the 6 other
boats already arrived out on the marina to greet us and the rescued
Cork crew. Then we all grabed our free beer and lunch before jumping in
the pool and throwing our skipper in as he was trying to do an
interview.

It was an early start 4 days later after having 2 nicghts in a row where
we were provided a buffet dinner and entertainment. We motored across
to Singapore each boat flying an ireland flag off our spreaders to
represent Cork left behind on the rocks. Keppel Bay Marina put on a
fantastic welcome ceremony and prize giving for us again with free food
and drinks. Some how we managed to make it into the VIP area so we even
got table service and dessert!! Singapore was quite expensive,
especially to go out to the bars spending NZ$ so i saved money by
sleeping on the boat. It was too hot down below so each night saw a
slumber party with our matresses dragged out on deck. It meant a nice
cool sleep until the sun came up and woke you at about 8 as it was
getting too hot!

It was another early start for race day with alot of us still feeling
the effects of too many late nights out! It was another great send off
after having breakfast put on for us at the marina. Mixed emotions
given it was my last start day on board, couldn't help but think about
how i would be feeling next time watching the team sail away without me
:( I cant believe i only have 2.5 weeks of racing left!

The Aussies and us have taken a slightly different route to the rest of
the fleet initially having us in 1st and 2nd position but more recently
puting us in 2nd last and last place but hopefully it will pay off
later! The Aussies have been in our sights for well over 24 hours now,
yesterday morning they tacked behind us putting us infront as we yelled
a very happy good morning to them off our stern! However as i keep
saying things change quickly and during the night they got a better lift
coming closer in around one of the islands and came out infront of us
again. But we're hot on their tails clawing them down! 6nm, 5, 3.5,
2.4, 1.7..... It's fairly nice sailing conditions at the moment, 10-14
knots true wind so we're heading along at a calm 7-8 knots. It's still
REALLY hot down below but not quite as bad as our run in to Singapore
and we're being careful what we wish for as in the back of our minds we
know that given another 10 days or so as we head up towards and past
Taiwan, conditions will be anything other than hot calm conditions!!

Lunch time
xx