RACE 4 - DAY 15 - by Dan Oliver (Gold Coast Australia)

Challenge of a life time, that's exactly what this is... from cooking for 19 people on a boat, on a angle of 30 degrees to helming over 22.9 knots in winds of 50+ knots down 40 foot waves. With all the numb fingers and 4am wake ups calls in between.

People mention the highs and lows on board... I struggled with this one because the only low I have found so far is the fact I'm only doing one Leg!

Week 1

We had an amazing race start leaving Cape Town in first straight into a headwind, which caused for a bumpy ride, yet was a nice way to start my race, the 1st two days were heading up wind south, past the Cape of Good Hope, first thought were was I going to be sea sick... Answer NO...I did feel a little queasy but I wasn't sick :) sailing then got into a rhythm with the four hour on watch four hour stand by and then four hours of bed. Day 7 was my first shower. On board Gold Coast Australia we have a luxury power shower (a hose pipe linked to the tap). It works really well with hot water pumped to the scoop (very back of boat).

Week 2

This is where it gets really exciting. Still heading south heading a course of 130 about south east... Winds building swells growing weather turning COLD. By now I'm fully up to date with how the boat runs and how some people like there teas and how others have a specific way to get ready for watch. My watch (team) consists of Dan the man, watch leader, Me, Tim, Taz, Babs and Erich aka Green watch. Later changed to boobies or young watch... I have got on really well with all my watch and the rest of the crew. We are all really lucky to get on so well... (so far).{rokcomments}

Day 7/8 was a day to remember one forever... I was just about to go on deck for our handover when "ALL HANDS ON DECK" was called. As I got on deck I saw a massive problem the pole that we fly our kite on had snapped like a match stick, bear in mind this is a 20ft metal pole, as a result of that the spinnaker had wrapped around the forestay. This was only made ALOT worse by as it was pitch black and the 40 knots with 60+ guests of wind and the huge 40ft tower of waves heading from behind. Skipper Richard had to get the harness on and get hoisted up the forestay. Getting battered with 10ft swings by the rocking boat. He had no choice but to cut away the sail, this was no easy task. After two hours he had managed to get though half.

Then Richard got back on deck after a lot of struggling with tangle lines with the sail, he looked so tired and exhausted. To see the Skipper getting battered like a rag doll on a piece of string getting flung around was horrible... just watching hoping he does come down was hard. I remember doing everything I could to make sure he did. We then made it safe as possible and left the rest to daylight. It took another two hours to finish the job. That night was about surviving and not racing, we were thousands of miles from civilisation. I could go on forever about it, but let’s move on...

Wildlife :)

We have seen many dolphins, the normal grey ones and some really cool black and white ones, whales you could hear them from your bunk if it was really quite, sharks, and lots of birds...

Another big day for me was when I had to go up the mast 3 times and out on the pole twice. I found muscles I didn't know I had.

As we are heading straight for Antarctica it is getting colder and colder.

Coldest so far a few above freezing, "feels like factor" is about -5. The furthest south we have been is  latitude  48 (basically very very South) not many people have been here before. We have had a few days of snow and ice. For a few days we have been on iceberg watch as a preconscious, one of the other nine yacht racing spotted a huge one about a mile from their position and they were about ten miles North (warmer) than us.

Last night had a few small problems that lead into large all night problems for the watch on deck. When below in your bunks you can here every movement. Last night was like a roller-coaster ride with a band playing in your ears... one point healed over at about 45 degrees, trying to sleep on the wall/bed.

Have I mentioned our skipper yet... He is rubbish, he just plays Playstation and watches Prison Break.... Jokes! He's like a yo-yo up and down from bed to nav station to on deck. Really, really really, good skipper. Does anything for anyone, he is here to make us love sailing as much as he does. Gold Coast Australia works really well because he leads us in the right direction and we get on and do it.

Last few things... I hope Facebook is doing ok without me. I haven't seen my face since I've been on the boat. No mirrors I want chocolate I might be missing a few people (a little).

Thanks for reading my first ever blog :)

DESTINATION:  AUSTRALIA
Dan Oliver aka Tigger
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