Salvador to Durban SA

We left Salvador in very high spirits fully rested having spent a few days on a fabulous island which was truly idyllic in every sense. Salvador was a place with a very mixed population though a significant number were very poor, many, many children begging in the street. Crime was rife it was unsafe to be on the streets after dark, it was essential to take a cab from the marina if you were to travel at night.

We lined up for the start hoping for great things, unfortunately our start was poor, things didn’t really go well from then on, we headed along the rhumb thinking this was the best route given the weather conditions at that time, most other boats went South of us straight away, the remaining few followed soon after, we wondered why as we wallowed with no wind; soon we realised they went South for wind to fill their sails, they were making much better progress than us.

Hull and Humber unfortunately had a casualty on board; he was medivaced off in good time and is fit and well now. H&H were able to exploit the South that everyone else was making and set a course which allowed them to blast through the fleet with a mere 4 hour penalty as a consequence; very well done H&H. The sail through the South Atlantic was amazing, we went for a number of days and saw nothing at all, no wild life no flying fish, no other boats, no birds no … nothing; then we saw a ship!! then some birds, then some floating debris .. phew we are not alone after all. In the end as we approached the Cape of Good Hope we saw a lot more shipping a significant amount of wildlife including whales, many of these seemed to rise vertically from the water and then slam back down sideways creating a big splash, we saw an abundance of dolphins and seals swimming along with the boat, jelly fish by the score glowed in the phosphorescence of the sea, we even sighted a great white shark. There were maybe 6 or more different species of bird the most impressive by far were the albatross the largest we estimate had a 3 metre wing span!

I celebrated my 51st birthday whilst we were on this leg I woke to find the saloon decorated with candles, I was given a present and had a cake with candles I just could not blow out. That will always be a truly memorable birthday.

We unfortunately suffered many breakages on this race we broke two guys and had a spectacular breakage on the front of the mast when the spinnaker pole slider mount completely broke off along with a section of the slider track, ok there was 52 knots of apparent wind at the time! As if the pole mounting breaking wasn’t enough the pole swung back and sliced the mainsail completely in half from luff to leach just below reef two.
The seas in the southern Atlantic were nothing less than awesome the waves were high, the swell long leaving massive craters for us to surf in to and surf we did regularly at 15 knots, our maximum boat speed was in excessive of 18 knots, as you looked behind you as the swell came in from the South-West the wall of water towered over the stern of the boat, as the wave got nearer so it picked the boat up and off we went!! We all really enjoyed the speed, a definite taster of what the southern ocean will have in store for us. The weather was challenging we went from periods of no wind to very light winds to squalls and near broaches.

Our chances of our position in the race seemed to be improving, the whole boat had been working really hard with what seemed like continuous sail changes to get us from what was clearly the wrong position North to a more competitive position further South, New York were in front and had been from the start, those guys deserved it after all the bad luck they had experienced. Hull and Humber were storming through the fleet with the benefit of their restart after dropping off their casualty and seeing the best line to take, Qingdao were ahead also but taking what was seen as the wrong route East, we had our sights on Glasgow and Liverpool, we could move from sixth to probably third if we got everything right. As we headed up the East coast of South Africa around East London we were virtually alongside both Liverpool and Glasgow, Qingdao were now behind us with Singapore and Western Australia some distance back. Then a series of further wrong decisions, we were inside the main Aguhlas current stream as the wind died however Glasgow and Liverpool were well inside of us just off shore where the currents effect was obviously significantly less, with only a few knots of wind and less options of spinnakers than us both Liverpool and Glasgow pulled away and in no time it seemed were 20 miles ahead. Those guys sailed really well, in the end they both finished the 4,000 plus mile race less than 2 minutes apart from each other, 2nd and 3rd respectively, H & H losing out when their 4 hour penalty was invoked. We continued to make very slow progress, stubborn and resisting the seemingly better line to move closer inshore as Qingdao and Western Australia both sailed past us. We eventually limped over the line at 3 minutes to midnight GMT (almost 2am local). It was pouring with rain but we did receive a very warm welcome, the city of Durban welcomed their boat in and we took pride of place in a prominent position very close to the quay in the marina. We were greeted with a Zulu dance with the dancers in full costume after the normal pleasantries at around 4 am local we enjoyed a cooked break fast washed down with pints of beer and glasses of whisky compliments of the yacht club, that long awaited shower seemed less important than it had a few hours ago, we had made it and I have to say I think the majority of the crew were so pleased to be in Durban after what was a very frustrating and difficult race albeit there were loads of fun times, two birthdays and some amazing sailing when we had wind.

The boat was deep cleaned the following day and the list of maintenance and repair jobs started. I had booked along with 7 other crew members to go a 2 day safari later in the week, we learnt in Salavador you do need to get away from the boat for a few days if you possibly can. The Safari was a great experience and something I would love to spend more time doing in the future. Durban made the fleet feel really welcome and spoilt Durban crew with shirts and various other gestures within the two local yacht clubs.

Since before we left Liverpool I had been trying to set up a link with Daniels school in the UK and a similar school in Durban, I had been in contact with the school liaison person in Durban but progress was painfully slow; I decided whilst we were in Durban it would be great if we could get a live web cam link with HCC in the Uk and a Durban school. Daniels head of year and the head of the school in Durban were really enthusiastic and were really supportive, unfortunately despite a series of emails and phone calls, technical problems in the UK and matching free curriculum time scuppered the plans. I was really disappointed as I was prepared to cancel my Safari plans if we could pull it off. In the end I went on the Safari and my fellow crew mate Ericka went along with her husband and met the children in the school in Durban, they loved every moment apparently and were so enthusiastic asking loads and loads of questions, thanks to Hank Pike, the headmaster there.

We are now preparing for the next leg to Fremantle Australia, we leave the mooring at 10:00 am on Sunday, the race starts soon after midday local time. We have four new crew on board, five crew having got off in Durban. There is a change in watch leader, once again it was surprising how we all found out and the mix in the watches is intriguing, I am not particularly happy but we are learning communication on this boat is very poor; our skipper is a great and very competent guy but he is really a single handed sailor, he therefore keeps a lot to himself and carries out a lot of the work on deck himself, I’m not at all sure he is comfortable sailing with a crew, certainly the sharing of responsibilities and the involvement with running the boat is very little on our boat compared to many of the others, we will see as time goes on whether that’s the right or the wrong way, I am trying to keep an open mind but do have significant reservations just now.