Sailing with the Treleavens

The trip across was a challenge for me to undertake, two + weeks at sea, no turning back, getting seasick, I did consider flying. Then in the back of my mind something says "if they have a great trip, I would regret missing the once in a life time experience".
Would I do it again?

It was a long time at sea, I didn't get seasick and I never at any time wanted to go back. There where fabulous days and scary nights but I don't have a need to do it again.

As for Ian he is in is element with all the downhill sailing, we have only been without a spinnaker for about 6 hours. Almost as good as sex he says. This is Ian's 4th crossing of the Atlantic, the first in 1970 being the same route on the 72ft "Stormvogel" a previous Sydney Hobart line honours winner and yacht used in the movie "Dead Calm" starring Nicole Kidman. The amazing thing is that trip took 14 days on a fast ocean racer and we on our cruising yacht will do it almost as quickly. How design has progressed.

When daily positions were received last night we learned that we are in 15th place in the race to the line and that the yacht that passed us wasn't the X Yacht 55 but a much longer X Yacht 61 complete with full racing kit including a code zero for the light conditions.

Day 11. Slowly the wind filled in and we had the most stunning hot day. Trade winds from the east at 20 knots are cooling with a rolling 5 metre sea and the ocean is a gorgeous blue as is the sky. Enjoying the sound system in the cockpit , everyone bought their own iPod, with favourite music including Crowded House 'Take the weather with you', seems to some up our days.

Day 12. The squall that went through last night was very scary. One minute you are sailing along doing 9 knots under a starry night and the next thing there is a black cloud right behind and you can see the rain underneath looking like a mushroom. When they hit its 35 knots and the yacht is instantly surging to 18 knots, driving rain, drenching everyone and then back to normal in 10 minutes. No we don't take the spinnaker down as they seem to enjoy these little challenges.

Ian chases pressure systems to maximize boat speed; we have low pressure coming to the south and have gybed North West to get a better wind and angle for our home run.

We were still maintaining 15th position before this move and will not know for another day whether skirting the light winds will pay off.

Day 13. Daylight arrives with an Eastern wave wind system of 35 knots and we ease away on our final course to the northern end of St Lucia, 640 nms to go or as Ian put it one Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Rain squall's all around us we romp along riding the big rollers. The boys are in full wet weather gear, not what you would expect on the 17th parallel and close to the Caribbean.

Several squalls pass through at 30+ knots and strapping down the spinnaker we manage to run with it.

Just before lunch another eastern wave hits us with winds gusting over 49 knots. After a broach and getting back on track the spinnaker was snuffed and lowered, still in one peace. Thanks to Simon Willis from the Bay of Islands who made it. Michelle and I were not happy with everything flying around down below and we are now sailing along under a granny rig of poled out headsail. Lasted a few hours and out came the spinnaker again.

Land fall will be amazing. We can nearly taste the rum punch; hear the beat of the drums and dance the salsa, anything different will be welcome.

As the race has progressed the weight in the yacht has got lighter. In liquids alone we started with almost 1.4 tonnes made up of 500 litres diesel, 500 litres of water, 120 X 1.5 litre water bottles, 240 cans of beer, 72 bottles of wine and 48 large bottles of soda waters. And then there was the food!!

Position results for 1200UTC Friday 7/12 have just been received and it appears as though we are still in a top position. The larger yachts are starting to roll through us but we are very favourably placed with the yachts that we had originally identified as the ones to beat.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 1:25 am and is filed under 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.