Around the world with PSP - Martin Woodcock

It’s getting hotter….!

Hi PSP’rs from the southern tip of Mexico and about 130 miles south east of Acapulco.

Since my last message 5 days ago the weather hasn’t changed much at all with light winds predominantly from the north west pushing us down the coast of Mexico towards Guatemala and our destination of Panama beyond. The skies are consistently clear both during the day and at night and the air temperatures have been steadily rising to the mid 30s as we progress further south.

Conditions in the ‘ghetto’ (crew accommodation) are less bearable with the rise in temperatures down below and crew are finding it more difficult to sleep, particularly during the day when the sun is at its highest. Conditions in the galley for the mothers is also sweltering and uncomfortable, making meal times a somewhat sweaty affair. We are getting reports that the weather back in the UK is wet and cold so I don’t expect you’re feeling too sorry for us right now. I only hope that it improves where you are soon.

Position wise, we completed the Ocean Sprint yesterday and despite our slow progress finished in a faster time than any other boat, gaining us an extra point overall. It’s not easy to keep up the concentration when the winds are this light and this extra point is testament to all the crew for maintaining our helming and trimming throughout. We now need to do the same with regards to our race position overall. We’ve moved a place up the leader board to 7th and are only 18 miles off 4th, so there’s everything still to play for. We’ve decided again to try to stay close to the shore to pick up any sea breeze and so far this tactic has not worked particularly well for us, with the lead boats adopting a more offshore route and finding more wind than us. We’re still hopeful that with about 500 miles to the second possible finish gate (the first gate is now only 60 miles ahead), where we believe that the Race Committee may call the race finish, that we can catch up and overtake those boats that are only just ahead of us. We’re due in to Panama between the 9th and 10th of May so still have 12 days potential sailing ahead of us. It will depend upon the strength of the winds over the next few days and our overall progress towards Panama if the Race Committee decides to finish the race early. We have to be at the entrance to the Panama Canal on specific dates in May and if we can’t sail fast enough, we will have to motor some of the way to ensure our arrival by the due date.

There have been lots of sightings of turtles in these waters and fewer dolphins than a few days ago with more birds flying around us for inquisitive looks. Last night whilst star gazing on deck and whiling away the hours with the other members of the watch, I happened to mention the we hadn’t seen any dolphins for a day or two. As if by magic two dolphins suddenly rose up through the water next to the boat, blew water spouts and  swam with us for a couple of minutes before quietly disappearing off into the night. One of those spooky moments that you get every now and then.

To keep ourselves busy other than helming and trimming we’re carrying out the never ending repairs and regular maintenance of the boat’s running rigging (ropes and splices), generator, engine, bilges etc. It’s fair to say though that it’s a lot easier to do these things in these conditions than when it’s rough.

We’re finding time to listen to a fair amount of music also up on deck and sharing each other’s tastes. We’ve gone from Mozart to Andrea Boccelli singing opera, through 70s disco and 80s Mod to modern (C)Rap and the latest artists.

We have Richard on board at the moment who is a Clipper employee and seasoned sailor with a wealth of experience. He replaced the last Yachtmaster (Paul) who left us in San Fran. Richard is happy to share his knowledge of sail trim with us and many of the crew are benefiting from his help, myself included. It’s fair to say also though that his view of sail trim is sometimes different to Gareth’s. So when Gareth comes up on deck sometimes he will ask for a change in the trim which contradicts Richard’s advice which leaves us crew a little bemused and confused. It just goes to show that there is more than one way to sail a boat efficiently and a lot of the time it comes down to experience and knowledge rather than absolute technicality.

A few of the crew have also taken to using Stephan’s sextant to practise sun, moon and star sightings at dawn and twilight. The moon and sun being large celestial objects are relatively easy to sight but when it gets to the smaller, more dimly lit stars it’s much more difficult. If this was our sole means of navigation and there is only about 20 to 30mins within which to take all the sights needed for an accurate fix, this is definitely an operation that requires much practise to perfect.

I’ve attached a couple of pictures of the race start in San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge in the foreground and another of sunset last night showing how serene and peaceful life out on the ocean is at the moment.

Let’s hope our tactic of staying inshore works soon and we start to gain places up the leader board.

Bye for now and best wishes,

Martin

Brian the Bird - Am I going mad?

Hi all PSP’rs,

It’s day 10 of Race 10 and if you’ve been following our progress on the race viewer, then you’ll know that in 48 hours we’ve gone from joint first to 10th place due to the Doldrums. We gave up on trying to score points at the Scoring Gate and have headed east inshore to try and pick up some coastal breezes. Whereas the rest of the fleet has headed south towards the finish. Consequently we’ve lost miles to everyone. We’ve sailed past the Bay of California which apparently is a breeding and nesting ground for migratory whales. We’ve seen a few but not too close to the boat and could hear whale like sounds echoing across the water last night when we were becalmed.

It’s only just in the past few hours that the breeze has finally filled in and we’re now making progress south again at a steady 5-6 knots. We just hope that our tactic of heading inshore pays off and we can claw back places over everyone else before the Race Committee decides to call the race early, which is a possibility. There’s potentially another 1,650 miles to go to the finish but depending on the winds over the next few days the Race Committee has reserved the right to either bring the finish closer or call the race early and instruct us to motor to Panama.

Again life on board is more like cruising than racing and everyone is chilled and relaxing. The girls are chatting on deck and plaiting each other’s hair. The sun cream is out and tans are being topped up by most people. It’s actually quite difficult in these conditions to keep focussed and race the boat. Gareth is doing his best to keep us all motivated and our minds on the prize at the end. He’s also giving us more responsibility to carry out sail changes unsupervised.

The wind dropped right out last night and we went from spinnaker to windseeker, then back up to Yankee 1 headsail, down again to windseeker and finally back to Yankee 1, all in a four hour watch. At least the watch went by very quickly. Today we have a sea fog around us but the sun is trying to break through above. We are keeping a radar watch but there isn’t a great deal of traffic around here for us to worry too much about. The good thing about it is the temperature is being kept down a little making conditions below deck bearable. Gareth is also letting us perform spinnaker gybes on our own at the moment and seems pleased with us for completing them fairly quickly and without any help or damage to the kites. It looks like we might be getting the hang of this sailing lark finally!

There is a lot of phosphorescence in these waters and last night something magical happened. We had a pod of large dolphins follow us and ride in front of the boat at the bow for about an hour. Their swimming churned up the phosphor in the water and it was like seeing ghosts with vapour trails swaying this way and that, very special indeed. We also passed a fairly large turtle paddling through the water as we performed a spinnaker gybe. It’s strange but you can’t help but feel sorry for them all alone in such a large ocean and moving so slowly through the water. There was a bird (dove or pigeon) that used the boat rigging as a resting point for two days earlier this week. We named him Brian the Bird and had great fun talking to him and about him. It’s probably the first sign of madness setting in but he was the source of conversation for a long time.

I’m on mother watch again today and am just thinking about making a crumble for tonight’s dinner to accompany a spag bol. Haven’t quite convinced myself yet.

So here we are stuck again in light airs. Let’s hope our luck changes soon and we can recover the ground we’ve lost over the past two days. I’ve attached a picture of some of the wonderful sunsets that we are seeing each night and hope you like it.

Take care everyone. I’ll write again in a few days’ time hopefully with some more good news.

Cheers,

Martin

Good to be back at sea!

Katie

Hi everyone at PSP from back on the water again after an extended 2 week stopover in San Francisco.

I had a fantastic stopover with my family after we arrived earlier than expected on 31st March and in 3rd place. We had a splendid apartment right in the heart of San Francisco and the weather was particularly kind to us for the majority of the time (which we were told by locals was unusual for this time of year). We took in all of the sights that SF has to offer, hired a car for a few days, went both south to Monterey and Carmel and north through the Napa Valley and to Sausalito and beyond. We visited a seal sanctuary and we were able to do some hill walking as well by climbing to the peak of Mt Tamalpais on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge and near the Muir Woods park, where the giant redwoods are and
got some wonderful views of the Bay area from the top as well as dropping down to go and see the redwoods later. I have to say though that my legs suffered for a few days after with pain and it’s obvious that I’ve lost some strength in them since the start of the race back in July last year. Looks like I’ve got some recovery work to do there.

I met up with Scott Sis from Vantage Point Services, PSP’s partner over here in San Francisco and was able to show him around the boat and share some of my experiences with him. I couldn’t convince him though that he should do a leg or two of the race. Scott joined us at the prize giving party where we, the New York boat, were presented with our pennant for achieving 3rd place on the previous race over the Pacific from China.

The departure from Oakland marina was as usual filled with razzmatazz and some fan fair. I was also visited by a couple of old friends of Frank’s, Bob and Shirley Cheal, just before we left who had driven down from Santa Rosa to see us off. The
weather could not have been any better with clear blue skies and a northerly wind to power us down the coastline. The race start was exciting and close and Gareth did a wonderful job of getting us over the line first ahead of everyone else. The memory of sailing at the head of the fleet under the Golden Gate Bridge on such a beautiful day will live with me forever, it was truly fantastic and there was a flotilla of small and large craft there to wave us on our way on the next 3,300 nautical mile race down to Panama.

We have 8 new crew on board and there was a fair amount of sickness yesterday afternoon as we left San Francisco behind and entered a choppy swell at the entrance to the harbour. Mohan and Paul Robinson both should be on board but aren’t, not sure exactly why but we wish them both all the best and hope to see them again soon. Richard Gould is a Clipper employee and he has joined us as our Yachtmaster and will be a great addition to the team. He has a wealth of sailing experience and knows these yachts very well.

Gareth has given myself and Lloyd a break from being watch leaders and we now have Liz and Roberto looking after both watches. I’m with Liz’s team and we seem to have a majority of girls on our watch which based on past experience will be good as the girls always seem to have a better work ethic than the men. I was on mother watch for day 1 yesterday with Rick (a newby) and lunch and dinner we duly served on time. Dinner was supposed to be a chicken stir fry with rice noodles. The rice noodles are a new addition to the menu and I don’t think they’ll be invited back for the next leg. They were very bland and stodgy and more like the kind of thing you’d paste on the back of wallpaper rather than eat.

So I’ve just got up from an extended sleep that started at about 7:30pm last night and am feeling good and rested although I may be a little dehydrated as I’ve a slight headache. I have got my second favourite bunk this time around on the port side nearest the bulkhead door on the bottom and am sharing that with Rick. We both have too much gear to store in what space is available in the caves and I’m currently looking for a cubby hole somewhere to store my other waterproof sleeping bag. The weather outside is gorgeous and we have a following wind pushing us south at about 8 knots.

We are currently lying 7th and seem to be closer to the shore than all the other boats. Gareth got a tip off from a local the other day about picking up land breezes closer to shore and it seems he has employed that tactic. There was a bit of a panic just after the start yesterday when the navigation computer decided not to work anymore. It has been struggling to fire up for a few days and seems to be affected when the generator is on. So we had no electronic charts. Not to worry you’d think, we have paper charts and just need to use them instead. That would be fine if only we had detailed charts of the area but unfortunately not. We only have large scale maps of the west coast of the USA down to and beyond Mexico - not much use for close coastal navigation and the avoidance of hazards. So Gareth has been busying himself trying to install the same software on the communications computer but with no luck yesterday. However as I got up this morning the navigation computer has decided to come out and play today and we have the electronic charts back. There’s obviously a lesson to be learnt there about relying on electronic equipment and not having the right back up material for when it fails! We are lucky that the waters we’re sailing through at the moment are relatively easy to navigate with few hazards and the continent of North America that we just need to keep on our port side.

It’s nice to be back on the water after such a long stopover. I need to clear the cobwebs away and get back into racing mode now and tuned into the boat and weather. It should get warmer as we go further south towards Panama which will be a welcome change from the cold and damp of the North Pacific.

I’ll write again in a few days’ time when we’ve got some decent mileage under our belts. Keep watching and wish us good luck for this next race. We want to keep up the winning habit and hopefully improve on the four third places that we’ve
achieved so far.

Bye for now,

Martin.

Your PSP Global Ambassador reporting to you live from the deck of the good ship New York, somewhere off the west coast of the USA

Phew! We made it!!

6,000 miles across the massive Pacific Ocean from Qingdao in China to San Francisco, USA.

The race started under cloudy, foggy, cold and wet skies and continued that way for 28 days until we arrived at San Francisco when the sun made an appearance for a short few hours and we were able to surf the waves with the sun on our faces under the Golden Gate Bridge. It really was one of those memorable moments in life, seeing the bridge grow ever bigger as we approached it with its unmistakable outline. Surfing on the rollers that the wind had whipped up and as the water depth decreased the closer we got to shore with spray and spume being kicked up off the bow framing the scene in front of us and soaking everyone at the same time. Sailing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge to complete the race and finish third will stay with me forever. It was a fitting end to the longest and certainly one of the toughest races we’ve had so far and I believe well deserved for all the effort the crew put in over the 4 weeks it took.

There’s a sense now that we’re homeward bound after this leg and hopefully that the toughest races have been completed. But of course you just don’t know what mother nature has in store for us and we’ll have to be on our guard as always.

There was real excitement in the air on board as we finished and a sense of relief that we had come through it relatively unscathed and in good health. These boats are tough cookies too and New York looked after us admirably. She’s got some battle scars to show for this her 4th circumnavigation of the globe but I’m sure will be all set for our next adventure in two weeks’ time.

There’s good news also about the crew of Geraldton Western Australia. They arrived safely this morning to a heroes’ welcome after suffering from an earlier freak wave breaking over their decks. The injured crew are already on the mend and in good hands and the work to get the boat ready for the next race will no doubt have started in earnest already. It’s a case of ‘there but for the grace of god…’. We also suffered from a number of freak waves crashing over the decks, totally unannounced, swamping everything above deck and washing through the companionway down below as well. Fortunately they only caused minor injuries to the crew and nothing serious was damaged on the boat. So we have a good idea of what the Geraldton Western Australia crew went through and are thankful that they are all back with us and safe.

The weather over the last few days sailing didn’t change with the strong winds powering us towards the finish line and the ever present cold, grey skies. As always though the wind gods did have a few tricks up their sleeves to keep us on our toes and on the last night, in the usual pitch darkness we experienced a 180 degree wind shift over a 15 minute period together with a big change in wind speeds over the same time. We went from a easterly heading to a southerly, gybed back on to a north easterly heading only to have to gybe again later to get back onto our easterly course and with the wind speeds changing from 15 to 30 knots in the same period. Gareth came rushing up on deck after the first wind shift, wondering what we were up to and why we had changed course only to discover for himself that it wasn’t the crew but the weather that was mucking us about.

We say goodbye to some good crew members here and hello to a significant number of new leggers for our trip down to Panama, across the Caribbean and on to New York, our partner city. The new crew has a lot to live up to now and we want to maintain that winning habit if we can. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to be watch leader again and hopefully generate a team spirit in my watch similar to the last race. Despite all the difficult conditions that we have to endure for weeks on end I’m confident that everyone enjoys the experience overall and had good times as well as not so good times on board. After all it is supposed to be a ‘Challenge of a Lifetime’ and what kind of ‘challenge’ would it be if our personal boundaries weren’t stretched?

So now I’m in San Francisco until the 14th April and have my wife and two girls here with me until the 12th, which is absolutely fantastic. I haven’t seen the girls since Australia and they are telling me all about their busy university lives back home. We aim to take in the sights of the city over the next week or so and I can’t wait to get out and explore. I’m also hoping to catch up with Scott Sis, PSP’s local representative here in San Francisco before I leave and will let you know about that in my next blog.

Take care for now,

Martin

This is epic! This is wet!

Since my last message we’ve been able to pile on the miles and managed to ride off the back of consecutive high and low pressure systems, achieving average daily mileage of about 250 to 260 miles. This has by far been the most consistently good sailing weather that we’ve had on the whole race to date. Consequently we’re now way past the international date line and a mere 1,370 miles from the glorious arches of the Golden Gate Bridge. If we continue to make these distances over the final week of this race we could arrive early on the 31st March, giving us an extended stay in San Francisco. The weather forecasts that we’ve received on this leg have been surprisingly accurate and the outlook for the next few days is favourable.

After crossing the international date line a few days ago we celebrated with cuban cigars brought on board by Martin Halle and gained an extra day by having Wednesday twice!

For the past two days we’ve been riding on the top of a strong low pressure system which has tested both the crews’ sailing ability and the boats’ rigging. Today with winds gusting up to 50 knots and constantly over 35 we accidentally gybed and snapped one of our two preventers. Earlier we had been pushing to get the maximum speed by flying the medium kite and unfortunately left it 5 minutes too late to drop it before the wind built causing a round up and snapping of a spinnaker pole. This shook up some of the new leggers but because we’ve experienced this before in the Southern Ocean we took it in our stride and cleaned up the ‘mess’ efficiently afterwards and got on with racing again.

Over the past week or so we’ve been in a dual with Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Qingdao and Derry-Londonderry for 3rd, 4th and 5th places. We’ve caught up and overtaken Edinburgh Inspiring Capital and Qingdao and have reduced the mileage to third placed Derry-Londonderry to a mere 10 miles, and that’s how it’s been with them for the past two days. Being in such a tight contest with them is great for team spirit on board and is certainly keeping everyone motivated and focused.

Stephan suffered a rib injury a few days ago and has been laid low in some discomfort today. Paul, who has for some strange reason decided to go on a crash diet and is only eating one meal at dinner time every day, has been feeling weak and was told by me this afternoon to eat more. I’ve suffered a little myself in the past two days by banging my head a couple of times against bits of the boat and have the scars to prove it.

We’ve finished off all of the fresh fruit now and thrown away some cabbages, potatoes and onions that have gone off. The fresh meat that we carry on board is still a great winner at meal times and the current menu is going down well with everyone, apart from the vermicelli which looks more like slime than anything else.

The conditions on board are very wet with the cold, damp, grey weather that we’ve been getting. Condensation builds on the ceiling in the ghetto and drips down on to everything below, including bedding and clothes. The main hatch has sprung a leak and the bunks adjacent are regularly doused with water after a wave breaks over the deck. Everyone’s clothing is wet and damp at best, soaked at worst but still gets donned for each new watch. Hands and feet are getting very cold out on deck with the current weather and we’ve taken to using a heat gun (used for sail repair) to try and dry clothes and boots out when we go off watch. We had a rogue wave break over the boat this afternoon that swamped the whole deck with water and breached some of the crew’s foul weather gear, soaking their inner layers below. So right now the heat gun is out and attempts are being made to dry stuff out. I have a pair of gloves that I spent two days drying out and this afternoon when I pulled them from my pocket were soaking again within about two seconds.

The next milestone in the race is the Ocean Sprint which is approximately 200 miles and the winner gains an extra point. We should be at the start of it by late tomorrow or early the following day and will give it our best shot I’m sure.

Thoughts of arriving in San Francisco at the end of this epic journey are growing but together with real hopes of a podium finish. I expect that the wind gods still have a few more surprises up their sleeves for us before it’s over and hope that they’ll look upon us favourably. It’s likely to be a close finish for all of the boats so keep on watching our progress on the Race Viewer and I’ll write with a further update in a few days’ time.

Cheers for now,

Martin

PSP Ambassador for the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race