Continuation Sail, 7-12 November 2002

Thursday, 7 November 2002

I arrived at Southampton Ocean Village as usual and met my fellow crew for the weekend: Alistair, David, Ellen, Laurent, Jeff, Jono, Mark, Martin, Newton, Robin, and Sue. After a hearty supper, our skipper (James Allen) and mate (Lawrence Marriott) gave a short briefing, and then we set off to our bunks for an early night.

Friday, 8 November 2002

I woke up after a fairly disturbed night's sleep, unaccustomed to the variety and volume of snoring. After breakfast, we were split into two watches, Port and Starboard (depending on which side of the boat we were sleeping), and given a refresher tour above and below deck.

A blustery day was forecast, and the weather didn't look promising as we watched the rain pour down. We visited the office to watch a video on sponsorship and catch up with a quick update from Jeremy. So far, BG Group (a.k.a. British Gas) had announced that they would be sponsoring a yacht in the Global Challenge 2004/5, and there was no further news on a race title sponsor.

Back at the yacht, we prepared to set sail around the Solent, planning to moor at Cowes for the night. As we practised tacking and gybing, the weather increased from Force 6 and we put in two reefs on the mainsail. The wind picked up even further, with gusts of up to 48 knots, so we put a third reef in the main and changed to the smaller sized storm staysail. Changing the headsails in Force 8 proved to be quite challenging, as the bow of the yacht ploughed into the big waves, taking anyone lucky enough to be working there underwater!

As my fellow crewmate Jeff recalls, "the weather was really quite rough with steep waves, the bow was constantly vanishing into the face of the wave, not a problem unless you happen to be on the bow at the same time. Our ever helpful skipper James told us to always look forward so we could see the wave coming and not turn our backs, well you do that only so many times then get fed up drinking sea water and watching fish swim by".

We seemed to carry too much sail and the yacht nearly broached a couple of times - requiring us to quickly dump (ease) the mainsail. Hearing that the wind was expected to become a strong northwesterly, James decided it would be best to return to the better-protected harbour at Ocean Village. The trip back was calmer, as we surfed along the waves back to Southampton. Once in port, the heaters were switched on to dry out the boat, and ourselves, then we replenished our energy with beef stir-fry, and polished off the chocolate supply (originally intended to last for the whole training period!).

Saturday, 9 November 2002

Time for our 6am early morning run around Southampton which went quite well - I'd love to see the area's security videos that film us hopping around for our warm-up exercises.

After breakfast, Lawrence showed us how to rig the boat for the spinnaker, which looked quite complicated with the many controls required. The weather was very different from the previous day, with very light winds and a calm, flat sea. We set out past the needles, into the Channel and prepared the yacht for our first spinnaker sail.

James carefully supervised the hoist and soon we were flying under a lightweight (1.5 gram per square-metre) racing kite, although there was insufficient wind to fill it fully. When it was time to lower the spinnaker I volunteered to be 'bowman', little knowing I was about to be sent out to the end of the spinnaker pole to release the sail from the end of the pole. Wearing a climbing harness attached to the spare spinnaker halyard, I climbed up the foreguy, over and outside the yacht up to the outboard end of the spinnaker pole. I didn't feel nervous, but my heart started to race as I climbed up slowly and waited for the call to 'spike' the shackle and release the sail, leaving it free to be dropped and gathered by the remaining crew.

After sailing into Poole, Dorset, we had a couple of drinks at a local pub or two, before settling down for the night.

Sunday, 10 November 2002

The weather had turned miserable, wet and windy again, and we left Poole for the English Channel and France, practising sail changes and reefing along the way. Lawrence shared his tips on coping with boredom, but everyone seemed worn out and took the opportunity for a quick catnap on deck.

As one of the few people feeling confident to work below deck, Laurent prepared dinner, but with a night of rough sailing approaching, many of the crew weren't keen on a big meal! During the night we took alternative turns on-watch for three hours, so our Port watch hours were from 6-9pm, 12-3am, and 6am onwards.

Following our first night watch and reefing exercise in the dark, fearing becoming seasick I leapt into my bunk pretty quickly for a short sleep. At midnight, the sky had started to clear, and we practised a sail change that took over an hour in the dark - conveniently my torch chose to run out at this time so it was difficult to see anything! Otherwise we sat on the high side of the yacht, half asleep, trying to keep safe and warm.

There were some pretty surreal moments looking up at the starry night sky with the mast and rigging swaying back and forth. I had a go at helming which was a bit tricky as I couldn't see over the wheel and anticipate the approaching waves!

Monday, 11 November 2002

Shortly after 6am the difficulties of the night sail just seemed to drift away when the sun provided us with a spectacular sunrise. We dropped anchor for a short while in Osbourne Bay, off the Isle of Wight and cooked a lovely fry-up breakfast. After practising our man-overboard drill, we had some fun attempting to rescue another Challenge yacht's MOB fender, and then returned to Ocean Village.

Dinner at a Chinese restaurant was followed by a visit to the local pub, the Frog and Frigate, where we let our hair down with lots of drinking and dancing on the tables! After more dancing at the nightclub New York, New York we eventually drifted back to the yacht in the early hours.

Tuesday, 12 November 2002

After a really late lie-in, we dashed to the showers through torrential rain, tidied up the yacht, had our group photos taken, packed up our things, had a briefing from James, and headed back home to normal life.

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Challenge Regatta
July 2002

Continuation
Training
February 2002

Induction Training December 2001

Race Finish
June 2001