Nicky Sails for Black Dog

Well I did it, my gig is up.  My time on Bob, or the Big Orange Boat is over & I’m very happy to report that I didn’t embarrass myself or my kids by falling in!

As this will be my last blog for nickysailsforblackdog.com I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to my family, friends and supporters for your kind words of encouragement all along the way.

It made a huge difference knowing I had so many people following me from the moment we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, were picked up by the huge Pacific rollers surfing at 28 knots down into the troughs while California & the Baja slipped by, the fluky & fickle breezes blowing us backwards or not at all on approach to the Panama Canal & finally making our way through the sailing playground of the Caribbean and out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Having dealt with the tropical heat & challenges coming from every quarter of the compass  it was such a happy moment to see a girl in a white dress bouncy up & down and from side to side under the palm trees and a tall handsome lad by her side as we motored into Port Antonio, Jamaica at the end of the race last Tuesday,

There to welcome me were two of my children, Libby & Thomas who had flown in from London the night before. To make sure they didn’t miss the boat’s arrival, Libby had woken Thomas at 8.30 am and they had been sitting on the beach next to the Errol Flynn Marina waiting patiently until 4.30 pm when the Hull & Humber finally rounded the peninsula & followed Spirit of Australia into the harbour. It was such an emotional moment & one I will treasure forever.

Having had my feet firmly back on dry land for the last three days, it is now time to reflect on the end of my relationship with the the boat, the lifestyle and the adventure ,

I have gazed on thousands, if not millions of waves by day and thousands, if not millions of stars by night. I have seen the deepest of deep blue seas.,.I have experienced the incredible beauty of 25 sunrises and 25 sunsets, I have experienced the ocean, one minute so unkind & harsh and the next so peaceful & relaxing and more than once the big baddie ‘ The Wind Hole ‘ duly tried us in Neptune’s Court.

I joined the three mile deep club swimming around the boat when the wind left us in the Pacific and I have seen schools of dolphins swimming and leaping under the bow, twisting and turning to look up at us in their cheeky way as they watched us watching them from the guard rail.,

Helming was exhilarating, whether it was surfing the waves by day or under a canopy of stars at night, with Jupiter behind us & the warm wind on my face, it was my favourite thing to do and I couldn’t wait until my turn came around again. Being so near the Equator in Panama, the horizon seemed shorter and the world smaller. It was as if there was a sharp line at the edge where you feel you could have sailed off it. Mind you, after seeing nothing but ocean for 20 days in a row there were times when I thought, there was just too much water out there .

Every day on the ocean is about simple survival, deep reliance on & trust in your crew mates and adjusting to living far outside your usual comfort zone. The sea does not distinguish between Olympians and novices and as a crew we needed to be ready to face exactly the same challenges as those experienced by the professional racer.

I was not a sailor but I have learnt so much from my skipper, my watch leaders & my crewmates.  They patiently explained how to helm, how to anticipate what the boat will do by watching the movement of the bow, how to set course to the wind rather than the compass, when to use the Yankee & Staysail & when only the Windseeker will do & how to sweat up the halyard & work the winches.

As a team we made mistakes, We irritated someone or were irritated by someone, we suffered seasickness and sleep deprivation, we put up with the rank smell of 18 unwashed bodies, wet sails and sweaty bunks and even cried, but we also improved, apologised, discovered how to see things from 17 other perspectives, persevered, tried to keep focused, adapted, & most importantly, laughed & joked with each other.

As an individual you don’t have time to sweat the small stuff, you just sweat. My hands got so sodden with sea water, from washing in it, washing up in it, washing clothes in a bucket of it and heaving ropes in the rain, at times they looked more like sponges & I wondered if they were ever going to return to normal. You begin to dream about everyday conveniences such as a push button loo without a lever which has to be pumped twenty times and harpoons your backside when you sit down and a comfortable bed which doesn’t throw you up & down leaving me pondering if this is what it felt like to be the poor cat I once read about which was scooped up in the dirty towels & thrown into the heavy cycle of it’s owner’s washing machine.

I have felt extreme highs & extreme lows & yet every single one of these events was not experienced alone. In the end it’s all about attitude. the only thing we can change when things get a bit tough is our attitude. My father always told me, it’s 10% about what is happening to you and 90% how you react to it.

Having lived with these discomforts I have such respect for ocean racing, & how tough a sport it really is.

I count myself very lucky to have experienced sailing in the North Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea and coming second, our first podium finish in the race was the icing on the cake.

Having been starboard to Spirit of Australia’s port from early morning on Tuesday, hour after hour passed with the entire crew sitting on the high side with virtually no wind, It was a case of whose flapping spinnaker caught what wind there was & then we somehow drifted our way over the finish line, just 3 1/2 minutes behind the Australian boat .

When I wave goodbye to my team on the 24th it will be with a real sense of achievement.

I will wish them all the luck in the world but for me, my big adventure is over & it’s time to pass the baton..

From now on if I tell my husband I want to go on another crazy adventure I hope he will hit me on the head with a hammer.  I’ve had my midlife crisis & from now on,being a normal mummy again, doing normal mundane things is what I’m looking forward to most and as far as sailing goes, a nice fair weather sail around Pittwater north of Sydney will do me just fine!

The final race results - 2nd place!

Sailing into Jamaica - 2nd place by 3 minutes!

Finished the race at 15.49 and 50 seconds just three and a half minutes behind the winners, Spirit of Australia!
Very slow finish as the wind died but very excited to come second and get a podium finish.

More to come, so stay tuned!

We’re really flying to the finish with just 117 miles to go & Skip Brendan announced at lunchtime that we are currently sitting in first position!

Spirit of Australia who have had many race results in the top three are only one nautical mile behind us. We still have to bear north east to make it to the way point, Morant Point which is just off the north east tip of Jamaica near Port Antonio. Brendan Hall the skipper of S.of A thinks that the top four boats will cross the finish line within seconds rather than minutes of each other.

Helming in the pitch dark last night was such a thrill. It was a bit like driving a 68 ft bus at 100 miles an hour without lights down a pot- holed hair-pinned road with a gradient of 25 to 30 degrees and the brakes failed! Only difference was most buses don’t go crashing through waves which come over the boat without warning soaking us to the skin.

Luckily they are warm waves so it doesn’t matter unless a delivery of hot teas has just come up through the hatch as happened last night and then they become undrinkable & whoever is the Ship Slave has to start again from scratch. Jo was on the helm at lunchtime looking a bit like Cruella da Ville in one of her mad moments at the wheel and just as I was half way through one of the few meals I actually eat, hot baked potato with beans & mayo, top gourmet stuff, over came a huge wave & that was the end of me lunch!

Brett & Mike refer to my hair state as if I was a poodle, a dirty one at that.I have it in a hairtie on top of my head & it looks like I’ve been living in a ditch. Nothing a shower won’t fix, it’s what dreams are made of on this boat & what we girls talk about all the time.

To write this has been another pilates extreme work out, both legs prising my weight up so I don’t fall off the bench so I might give up. My adventure is almost over & the end will be very exciting, less then 18 hours left living at silly angles then just 2 hours with the kite up & then we should be there, hopefully in the top three.

It’ll be a wonderful end especially because Thomas & Libby will be there to meet me. Come on Umba!!!

Day 2 of the race to Jamaica & we’re coming third with 429 miles to go to Port Antonio.

It was always going to be a fast race all upwind at 20 – 28 knots wind speed & all at a 25 degree heel making life on board extremely difficult. In order just to write this I’m bracing my leg against the engine board, I’m holding on to the nav  station with one hand & typing with one finger of the other just to keep upright & not slide off the seat & into a heap on the floor. Only good thing is there was no queue for the laptop!

On watch we have to sit on the high side of the boat, one, to increase our speed and two, to not fall across the boat & fall in, so we’re constantly wet with each wave that crashes over the bow.

Sleep is in my cupboard, no longer is it possible to stay on my bunk such is the angle. The slam dunking is continuous but remarkably I sleep.

The other yachts are all on our tail as we are of the two in front of us with distances ranging from one to ten miles. The only exception is Cork which is sailing with a handicap.

Come on Umba…we can do it this time!

This morning we made our passage through the Panama Canal which was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far.

What follows are a few interesting facts about the canal which I’ve thoughtfully included for the next time you’re seated next to someone particularly boring at a dinner party & you need to use some trivia to liven things up rather than be rude and fall asleep. So, here goes:

• The Panama Canal is a lock type canal approx 80 kilometres long that unites the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans at one of the narrowest points of both the Isthmus of Panama & the American Continent.
• The Canal officially opened it’s doors to international trade on August 15 1914 & since then more than 970,000 vessels have transited the waterway. it is estimated that the one million mark will be reached by October 2010
• The canals three locks, each of which have 2 lanes, operate as water lifts to elevate ships 26 metres above sea level to the level of Gatun Lake in their transit through the Continental Divide and then lowers them back to sea level on the opp side of the isthmus
• During canal construction days 152.9 million cubic meters of material were removed. Were this material to be placed on railroad flatcars, it would circle the globe four times.
• On August 15th 1914 the SS Ancon officially inaugurated the Panama Canal
• At noon on Dec 31 1999 Panama assumed full responsibility for the adninistration, operation & maintenance of the Panama Canal from the Americans
• The new Panama Canal locks will be 427 metres long and 55metres wide, the size of 4 football fields
• It took us about 12 hours to do the transit but high priority vessels can get through in about 8 hours. It cost probably $1,000 for each Clipper boat to pass through.
• Finally, my personal favourite regards a certain Mr Halliburton who was charged 26 cents not long after the canal opened for swimming through the locks, the fee was calculated due to the amount of water he had displaced.

My first born’s birthday…23 today. unfortunately couldn’t get hold of him by phone as he’s in Haiti so sent him birthday greetings by email.  We had the day off today so it was off to explore Panama with a walk up Cerro Ancon which is the hill where my B&B was. At the top, you get this amazing view of both the modern city of Panama and the old city plus the shipping channel and the canal in the distance.

Later I got a taxi to San Felipe or the colourful Old Town & had a wander through the plazas & past old colonial buildings, some of them very delapidated. In the Plaza Santa Anna where the church of the same name dates back to the 16th century, I bought a ‘genuine’ Panama hat for $13. Even at that price I would have paid more than double what it’s worth but the label did say it was genuine!

Finally, after a visit to the Panama Canal museum, (will talk about the canal in my next blog), I had a nice cold Mojito & then I went shopping. My husband will be very happy to hear there were only two things on my list.. new batteries for my fan…an absolute must for survival on the boat and a Cinnabon for the morning as we had to report to the boat by 04.30 for our departure and passage through the Panama Canal.

Instead of the usual lumpy cold porridge I had a breakfast made in heaven, a plate of papaya, pineapple and  watermelon plus eggs & toast with real butter. Delicious.
Then it was down to the boat where I was Bilge Babe for the day which meant scrubbing them clean. I wore my cossie because it was so hot & one of the girls from another boat asked where I’d been for a swim when she saw me come up for air, I was so covered in sweat.

After that the next job was to relabel all the tins which were laid out in rows, luckily under shade. To do this we have to rip the labels off & write the contents on the top with a permanent marker. Unless you do this the labels,after days at sea go moldy & you can’t read what’s inside the tin.

As I was doing this I saw the bags of oranges and boxes of apples get delivered to Uniquely Singapore, the boat next to  ours and thought to myself, why does our boat have tins of fruit salad???

Then, when I heard Arthur, who is in the bunk above mine say he wasn’t go to wash his sheet I dropped it into a bucket of bleach which just so happened to materialise from nowhere.  Funny that?

We finally finished about 6pm. After a shower, (still a novelty so I had a long one) it was off for a cocktail or two, a steak and a nightclub.

Very sore head the next day…

Arrive in Panama

Rolled up to the dock of Flamenco Marina in Panama about 8pm with Clipper staff at the ready with an esky full of cold beers. Being a G&T person I decided to wait till we made it to the bar…Shock, Horror…they didn’t have any!! Guess this  is Rum & Coke country.

I should have had a Marguerita but I had a white wine which wasn’t the best BUT hey, first drink in 3 weeks, it hit the spot!

After a very nice feed,( there were no takers for pasta or rice, not surprisingly) it was off for that first shower… YES ! air con…YES !…and a comfy bed…

Bliss!

Race over!

The last night-watch before we crossed the line was the same no win(d)situation as the last few days. We were eeking out any tiny puffs that rippled over the otherwise flat,lake-like sea state with wind teasers such as ‘Get your safety lines on, we’ve got 3 knots’ and Mike’s ‘Right, we’re off!’ with 6 knots boat speed.

At 5.45am to our delight, we saw the yellow finish line stretching ahead of us like a golden welcome ribbon tied around a tree, and when we finally crossed it at 05.59, the dolphins leaped, the turtles danced & clapped, the boobies swooped over the boat in a line formation a la the Red Arrows but minus the red smoke, and the whales waved flags and whistled.

OK, that didn’t happen and Edinburgh Inspiring Capital managed to sneak past us robbing us of 6th place by 28 minutes, but being the token Scot on board, I was pleased (secretly) that it was them.

By 6.05am Mike & I unshackled the windseeker, another great excuse to stand on the pulpit railing to unclamp it and three minutes later, the spinnaker was down and because it was Mother’s Day in Australia, I told Mike (my watch leader) that I didn’t have to pack it (worst job Ev..ar!)

For Mother’s Day I had a lovely email from my first born Andrew in Haiti currently helping in an orphanage following the earthquake, one from Sophie and one from Sarah in which she said she had written a Mother’s Day message on a piece of paper,torn it up into little pieces & thrown them into Parsley Bay so I’m still looking out for a piece or two to float by. Libby had sent a message earlier and I will see her & Thomas when the boat pulls up in Jamaica. I can hardly wait…not long now!

This morning (it’s now Monday) the engine was switched off for about 30 mins or so in order for it to be checked and we were allowed to have a quick swim around the boat.It was just fantastic and after all that grinding and holding on to the wheel which keeps pulling strongly to starboard, I had the strength in my arms to nearly haul myself out with only a little help from Arthur.

The treats for the day don’t just stop there, Jo has just handed me a ‘surprise’ cocktail….Tang powdered orange drink with strawberry jam in it…..Hey! I’m not knocking it but tomorrow’s real cocktail in Panama Marina’s nearest bar will be something else!

The fabulous crew aboard Hull & Humber (prior to hitting land!)

Then with only the mainsail left up we cranked up the engine and at 8 knots of boat speed we are now doing 192 miles in every 24 hour period which will have us into Panama by Tuesday lunchtime. Yeha!

PS. The next post I’ll make will be from terra firma – dry land in beautiful Panama!  I’ll have some time to answer questions if anyone has them, and perhaps put up some more photos.

What do you do when the wind does not want to come out to play?

Yesterday we relived the DTF, (distance to finish) with under 100 miles to go, twice in the right direction and once in reverse. Maggie was on the helm bored out of her mind as the wind speed had been logged at 0.0 knots starting at 6pm and carried on like that hour after painful hour for the next 9 hours. The SOG (speed over ground) had been only between 1.4 – 3.2 knots and the windseeker sail was not doing what it was supposed to do, i.e. seek wind!

The skipper came up from the nav station (navigation station where the radar, charts and navigational charts are) with the news,’We made it to 98 miles to go and now we’re back to 102 miles…basically we’ve gone backwards’!

Next step was to put up the medium weight spinnaker (kite) on the port side and close reach which we did twice, bringing it down once in between due to a threat of a nasty looking squall on our port side. All day we’ve been sailing a course between 90 degrees east and 180 degrees south but who cares what the heading is meant to be, five boats are already over the finish line and the beauty of the spinnaker over the port side is that it gives shade… YEAH !

As I type this looking at the DTF now on the nav screen behind me, it says we’ve got 42.5 miles to go on a course of 214 degrees ( the finish line is at 131 degrees). On the course we’re on now it predicts it’ll take us 64 hours 32 minutes & 56 seconds to get there! This morning the skipper said to us ‘Focus on trim’, by this afternoon he was under the shade of the spinnaker with the rest of us fast asleep under his hat lying on the flaked staysail.

To pass the time on the 3 to 7am watch as we were slowly going nowhere I made pizza out of dough that Tom had left to rise in the oven before he went off watch but due to the heat & the fact that it had sat un-kneeded for 4 hours, there was what Maggie described as an Armageddon explosion on the port side of the oven & one almighty frothy mess on the baking tray which the bread tin had been sitting on. I had only very limited ingredients, a half jar of sun-dried tomatoes, the oil of which I mixed with ketchup, a few dried mushrooms which I fried up in cheap Chinese vegetable oil with powdered garlic and a sprinkle of Italian herbs mixed with powdered Parmesan cheese on top.It was a change from the normal tasteless bread we normally get but in Sydney you wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.

As I went off watch last night I got my one litre of fresh water in a small icecream container and in my bikini top and shorts I had a wash with my rose scented soap in the snakepit (where all the ropes, halyards are in the middle of the boat)… Bliss. I’ve got so good at it I can wash my body, my clothes while they’re still on me, my towel and still throw about 500mls over the side.

Today I was learning about clouds from Jo’s book ‘Weather at Sea’ & learned that tradewinds are characterised by trade wind cumulus extending over hundreds of miles called ‘cloud lanes’ which themselves can be one to three miles apart, the wind being somewhat stronger and more veered in the clear lanes than under the clouds. Well away from the coast as we are, with light airs, it says it is advisable to sail on port tack and gybe until you find the strong wind. Having found it, change to starboard tack (wind blowing onto the sails from the right hand side of the boat).

We’re still looking….