22 knots and surfing, Clipper Yacht Singapore in the Southern Ocean 16-09-2011

Posted at 8:33am on 17th September, 2011 • No comments yet

This is getting exciting, Singapore are now in the real heavy lows that circle the Southern Ocean and are experiencing huge waves and gusts that have seen them hit 22 knots! People are getting hurt so be careful but fast! Here is Jonathan’s log from today.

“Dear FlexiSail,

You may now have seen the news of today that Tim cut his head last night.
I was off watch so missed the actual event, but recognise the situation.
Luke and I have been helming alternately on our watch and have seen a lot
of big waves coming through, including one which completely drenched the
three of us in the steering position, and we’ve had more than we can count
which have made some people quite wet. There’s no trouble staying awake
on the helm at night in these conditions, as any sleepiness is rapidly
banished by a shower of ice-cold salty water at about 30kts.

Clipper didn’t publish our other bit of news though it may be in Sherlyn’s
daily blog, which was that we broached in a 50kt gust when Luke was
helming, following which we got down the yankee and were flying along
under staysail and main. I was heavily involved on the foredeck getting
(wet and) the yankee down, following which was having a spell on the helm.
A big gust came through, which you deal with by bearing away, so I ended
up running down the surf, and managed to get the boat surfing at 22.2 kts
which is thought to be a boat record. Our watch on deck were all cheering
and grinning: I was trying to keep the boat straight and in roughly the
right direction. It was AWESOME! All in all it was a big day as we had
several sail changes including getting down the main so we could replace a
broken reefing pennant, We had a fairly quiet, and cold, night doing 30
min off and on the helm in our watch and are now back in a regular pattern
and pushing a bit harder. We had a few quieter hours so people could
recover (Tim is not our only casualty but the others (2) are only bruises
and a couple of cuts) and get some sleep in.

We’ve seen lots of albatross which are fantastic, and huge; also many
shearwaters of several different types. The air is incredibly clear and
the sky blue when not grey-black.

Best

Jonathan”

This update is brought to you by FlexiSail. Jonathan is a FlexiSail member and living out his burning ambition to undertake the Clipper Round the World race from start to finish.

www.flexisail.com