Then there were 6

30 Sept

Well what can I say……Leg 3 has been an experience that’s for sure! We knew this leg would be challenging and it certainly has been for all of us.

With an ambitious goal of sailing over 1800nm in 18 days this leg was not for the faint hearted. With the prevailing winds to be on the nose for most of the leg and rough weather forecast as we got closer to Perth our hearty crew joined us in Darwin with nervous and excited anticipation for what was to come.

With a fair amount of light winds and an unusually high amount of motoring for the first half of the trip, we were lulled into a false sense of security as we navigated our way through the calm seas.

As we set off from yet another refuel at Exmouth, Matt reminded us through his daily weather brief that conditions were about to get worse…..or better for those who were chomping at the bit to go sailing.

The next day conditions did start to get worse with seas increasing to 3-4m waves and wind blowing 25-33kts on the nose. We battened down the hatches with 1 reef in the mizzen and 2 in the main.

My bright idea of tying the fuel cans down on the bow to get them away from the cockpit was not so bright as they started to get hammered by waves and roll around all over the place. Ready for action Alan and Karen agreed to come up to the bow to help me rescue the cans and the dinghy which had slipped sideways on the deck. This was no small feat with waves crashing over the bow. Karen likened it to a sea world ride that her son had made her go on countless times and seemed to be thrilled by the experience rather than terrified(phew!). I commented to her that it was amazing that our lifejackets didn’t auto inflate in these conditions. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. As I went up to the bow a second time to secure another rogue jerry can, a wave washed over the bow and pushed my feet from underneath me. As I started to swim around on the bow I heard the popping sound as my lifejacket starting to inflate. As I let out a surprised scream, Matt was relieved(and amused) to see I hadn’t fallen overboard I’d just set my lifejacket off.

Me doing the walk of shame back to the cockpit

Our new bow woman, Sandie. We’ll make a sailor out of her yet!

The conditions over the next few days stayed the same and my poor crew started dropping like flies as they succumbed to sea sickness. As we were expecting the wind to swing around to a more favourable angle for heading South we started heading for Africa waiting for the wind angle to change. After realising the breeze wouldn’t swing as much as we first thought we decided to ditch our heading to Africa and make our way back to Perth instead.

I was amazed at the resilience of my crew as they stepped up to help fill the gaps left by our incapacitated crew. Sally has proven to be a strong watch leader for most of the trip from Southport and this leg was no exception. Anytime we needed to put a reef in or shake it out, without hesitation she took her team up to the mast and carried out the task with no complaints. My job would have definitely been a lot harder without her! Alan always keen to help with any of the tricky tasks was never one to shy away from getting his hands dirty, and helped me with these tricky jobs on countless occasions. Kaz at one point while trying to get into her bunk was lurched sideways by a wave and smashed her face on Sandie’s bunk. She was an absolute trooper and said it didn’t hurt at all. She’s got an impressive shiner under her eye which would prove otherwise. Sandie was still determined as ever to learn the names and uses of all the ropes onboard, having not sailed at all before starting this trip she has already learnt a lot. Kaz and Barry always brought their infectious enthusiasm for music by singing and dancing along to various genres during their watches.

2001nm! Featuring Kaz and her impressive shiner

Barry you’ve got your hat on the wrong way

The first of our couple of rough nights at sea was made worse by the fact that the lashing on the spare anchor had broken and the anchor fell off the front of the boat(sound familiar?) thankfully the anchor had somehow only fallen 3m into the water and not all the way! As the conditions were too rough initially to get this back onboard easily we had to deal with the sound of the anchor smashing into the hull throughout the night. We were assured by Matt that this definitely wouldn’t put a hole in his ship of a boat and that I may just have to add it to the list of painting jobs.

Once we eventually managed to get this back onboard my sleep deprived nauseated crew started to turn a corner. As the conditions started to lighten and the sea state flattend, one by one we started to feel a little more human again!

Despite this we gave our frazzled crew the option to abandon ship early and jump off in Geraldton. Some took us up on the offer and a few others needed to get back to Perth early to catch flights. We offloaded 5 of our crew……then there were 6!

As I write this we are 50nm away from Perth and have had some lovely conditions over the last day. I’m amazed at the abundance of whales that we’ve seen since leaving Geraldton yesterday morning. It’s ridiculous! The other thing in abundance which we’re not so stoked about is cray pots! We’ve had to weave our way through a minefield of pots and I’m amazed we haven’t wrapped any around our prop!(hope I haven’t spoken too early).

We’ll definitely be ending the trip on a high and I’m happy to say that we’re now over half way round! Whoop! I’m now off to sleep for 2 days……

See you on the next leg,

Jess :)