Goodbye Caribbean, Team Desi are off. After
the full moon party in Tortola, where the 3 wise monkeys didn't stick to the
pledge of alternate beer, then rum, it went like this, Beer, Rum, Beer, Rum,
Rum,Rum, giant bouncy hammock, Rum, Rum, sofa, sleep....One crew member was found asleep in the dingy, the other was
delivered back to the boat a few hours later.
850 miles of no alcohol is a welcome relief, we're
all trying to drink lots of water and get some sleep, Ha ! Hatches closed, no
chance. Also anyone on the starboard side is having probs, (Well I am (Beth)
I've managed to fall out of my bunk twice.
Desi is sailing like a dream, we've managed to pick
up some good winds and we're doing a sweep of how many miles she's managed
in 24 hours, it's now 23 hours in to it and we've done 187, think Stuart is the
winner, so his prize is 5 shots of rum when we get there.
Not much else, Kelly and Eileen fixed Shelden (the
monitor), Joyce has lost a pair of her knickers and is currently getting dinner
ready, our last piece of fresh meat, thinks she's marinating on the strength of
catching a fish for dinner, Kelly still hasn't made a cup of tea, Beth is
taunting Stuart (who is a cheesist) with beans and cheese toasted
sandwiches.
Oh there was a tanker on the AIS heading for
Falmouth, but we didn't see it..
More exciting updates later
Team Desi x
Still berthed in Fortaleza. In the last couple of
days, Peter arrived from the UK, closely followed by Rupert.
Rupert brought an excellent cake which everyone
thinks is wonderful.
Because of election day (everything in brazil stops
for election day - including port authorities) we've been
rudely forced to spend a couple of lazy days by the pool.
This is the new crew ready for the next leg of the
voyage.
The weather has taken a turn for the worse yet
again! although this does not come as too much of a surprise now as we are used
to the regularity of the lows tracking NE and furnishing us with 15-20ft seas
and 25-35 kts of wind. It is sensible to not have too many pre-conceptions
regarding the weather on a voyage of this distance and length, but i think we
all had thoughts of the Indian Oceans beautiful, azure, flat calm seas and
sunshine to help us on our way, unfortunately this has been a rarity.
Food has become a routine, functional affair and
the crew has resorted to interesting combinations to spice up meal times, the
current favourites being tinned fruit and weetabix and grated chocolate as
a sweetener for tea. Off watch time has been
taken up with everybody embracing the art of celestial navigation, be it book
study, swinging the sextant or working up sights.
Highlights of the day have been taken up with
talk-offs, whereby the crew discusses the days highlights that often
results in the most profound of insights and the correction of the worlds'
wrongs. Bren has a particular talent for such.
After over ten weeks away from land, the mood
onboard is as good as could be as expected and certainly improved
by the westward course we have managed to take over the last 10 days. We
are looking forward to hopefully finding the Kiwi boys and ushering them ashore
over the next week, ensuring their safe passage.
On a practical note we have enjoyed seeing the two
pairs boats as they look to break the 1000Nm to go barrier today. In
seeing Southern Cross we resupplied them with 10 days worth of food that should
hopefully see them through. Both sets of lads were keen to gauge the
others progress, position and plight and were both in high
spirits.
Following a rare day of high drama involving a
refuel courtesy of an Australian warship the crew onboard Desiderata have
slipped back into a more sedate working routine. The last few days have been
blessed with near perfect conditions in which to continue our progress west.
Duties onboard have consisted of baking fresh loaves of bread of vegiterian
pizzas in what has proven to be a succesful attempt to fatten up our
fourth crew member, Simon Prior.
Our eyes are now firmly fixed on the next few days'
weather (see picture) which should see some interesting sailing conditions as we
head further into the winter in the southern hemisphere. Sanity is surely a
matter of perpsective, from an outsider one may seem to be"insane" but from the
point of view of the mentallist it could be described as a mere abberation, what
constitutes insanity i hear you ask, or do I? We are forecast stronger winds for
the next few days with the barometer due to drop steadily and increases in wind
strength and wave height to 20-25 kts and 12 -14 feet respectively. Conditions
further south will be more severe and as one of the competitors are on course to
be caught out, we are staying close by should we be needed. As it is now winter
at these latitudes the lows are expected to be deeper and more frequent as well
as regularly tracking further north up to 22 - 25 degrees south. Goatee beards
are the new fashion aboard and all have been busy cultivating their own Goatee
creation, prize giving for the finest facial forest will take place in
Mauritius. Entries will be judged on length, texture, colour, style and
suitability. Full pictures will be posted on the blog and you can vote by
e-mailing the duty officer at woodvale challenge.com. with your
choice.
Eventful day for Desiderata and her crew, with the
addition of Simon Prior as a crew member of Desiderata yesterday for the
remainder of the voyage our plans took a shift today, we had enough fuel to
sustain for 20 more days with an additional reserve of 15 days thereafter, the
initial plan was to head for Mauritius and refuel before rejoining the fleet.
Woodvale race office UK liased with RCC Canberra resulting in a rendezvous at
sea with HMAS Toowoomba. We took on additional fuel and fresh supplies and
enjoyed a couple of hours liberty aboard one of the Australian navys finest and
most impressive warships. The whole crew and officers of Toowoomba made a
great effort to make us feel comfortable and welcome for the duration of our
visit and showed great interest in the rowing race and voyage itself. We were
treated to hot showers and fresh food and enjoyed a tour of the ship. Simon was
given a medical examination after his 55 day ordeal and apart from one or two
issues was given a clean bill of health. We are now back aboard Desiderata and
continuing with our own voyage after waving farewell to Toowoomba who we would
like to express our gratitude and warmest thanks
to.
Well a testing few days have passed with all sorts
of weather thrown at us. Due to our current position and route we have been
forced to take (following the rowing boats) we are now positioned in the middle
of the Indian Ocean high pressure system and therefore encountering variable
winds and frequent squalls with showers so heavy they flatten the sea
completely. Our weather routing information constantly shows low pressure
systems to the south of us with strong winds and high wave heights but they are
unable to get above 30 degrees south due to the high pressure system we are
sitting in. We hope to put more northing in our course soon and benefit from the
trade winds with their constant 15-20 kts of breeze from the south east and west
flowing current. Recently we have supplied the Flying Ferkins team with a
replacement tracking beacon and provided the lads on Southern Cross with a good
morale boosting visit, both teams looked in good spirits and had a healthy glow
for their now fifty day plus adventure. We have now been dispatched to a boat
roughly 140 miles to our northeast and therefore new the wind would be blowing
from about 60 degrees as the law of sod dictates, for any direction we need
to sail in is invariably dead upwind or dead downwind. so are currently making
the best course possible. Desiderata is looking fantastic as she has had a
spring clean below decks and constant squalls have taken the encrusted salt and
dull pallour of a long journey from her topsides and deck. Mark and Vincent have
busied themselves with sail repairs and rig tuning and Brenners has done a
fantastic job on the Bumpkin. She will need a good scrub below the waterline at
the next opportunity and some more fine adjustments to her rig layout but is
proving herself to be a pleasure to sail in almost any conditions. Mauritius is
still a distant 1800 miles and our thoughts cannot help but wonder what awaits
us there (beer hopefully) but for now we are content to keep a watchful eye on
our charges and make the most of a very agreeable situation.
Forza !
Well there is only so much you can take being
becalmed and I think the crew of Desiderata are now finding there
limits.
It has been 3 days now with not a breath and the
forcast does not hold a very rosey outlook for the next couple. We have had
pockets of breeze up to about 10 knts which do get the old girl moving but we
just sail through them after an hour or so then it is back to the books, guitar
or whatever is chosen to stay ammused.
There have been promises of wind from various
sources but our very own forecasting to date has been spot on and is
proving (frustratingly) to be correct again.
How ever the most relible breeze that seems to fill
in every evening is of the bloated stomach from freeze dried variety.
This seems as regular as clockwork to build throughout the evening and force
somepoeple on board to have to move to the main hatch for clean air. The general
trend then is to get some sleep in shifts through the night and wake up with
chronic stomach ache.
On the plus side of being becalmed the rowers are
making some progress west and the southern boats enjoying some relatively flat
conditions.
Last night whilst getting an hours worth of wind
(from the atmosphere) we decided to try and ease the intake of freezedried by
catching a fish. We deployed the line from the back of the boat and within 10
mins we were dragging another 20lbs tuna on board. We are fast runningv out of
methods to cook this stuff so any suggestions will be gratefully
recieved.
Well thats it until something exciting
happens
Forza !
Two things come to mind when you are asked the
question " what would you eat now if you could have anything"
of course most people go for roast dinner or
something exotic but occasionally there is a curve ball thrown into the
mix,
now I was taken aback today aboard Desiderata when
one of the crew members announced" plain old Burger and Chips".
Yes burger and chips! not that i am a food snob or
anything like that but in my opinion it was not a particularly tasty
choice
in the grand scheme of things. Coming back to my
first point the two things that come to mind are what to eat for a
start and what to drink with it. The two
things must go together of course and need much
careful thought so i decided on
a bottle of red wine with crusty french bread and houmus for dipping, with pate (
brussels of course) olives and my favourite
cheese (camembert). Our remaining crew member also
thought long and hard and changed his mind several times
until he settled on home reared sausages served
with caramelised onion gravy and a healthy portion of mashed
potato.
Now what to drink with that feast I asked and again
a bottle of red wine was the answer. Beer is what I would have
to drink said Bren. And with that both myself and
Mark said "yeah I'll just have the same as you then".
We on Desiderata can never be accused of not being
inventive, today for dinner we created a masterpiece of pizza perfection from
the paltry ingredients of bread mix, canned tomatoes and tuna fish. Now that may
not sound like a culinary delight to those of you feasting on better fare but to
three chaps whose staple diet has consisted of freeze dried stuff with rice for
the past three weeks it represented a veritable syphony to the taste buds. Other
than that we have spent the past three days in hot calm conditions but
unfortunately no wind, we have kept busy with boat maintenance of which there
has been a considerable ammount and decided today to motor west to maintain
station with the guys out here rowing their way to palateable food and clean
underwear.
There once was three men in a boat
Whose intention it was, was to float
Three thousand miles west
As jolly good test
Of their capacity to have a dry throat
Get the beers in!
forza
Today was a sad day for all aboard Desiderata as
our dear friend "Bird" passed away in the night. Bird was a wee little feathery
fiend who turned up yesterday morning as we were working on deck, as you will
have gathered we named him Bird. He was a tiny dark feathered little
fellow about the size of a robin with green plumage on his tail and from
the look of his short pointed beak obviously a land bird who had either lost his
way while migrating or been blown offshore by strong winds. He was very friendly
and allowed us to stroke him which made him even more familiar and he started
folowng us about the boat even coming inside when the sun went down. We were
worried for his welfare so tried to feed and water him but to no avail as the
first sighting of this morning was poor Birds lifeless body on the galley floor.
We afforded him a sea burial and feel saddened at his loss as he became a mascot
and good omen for us in the short time he spent aboard
Desiderata.
forza
Following Marks birthday celebrations things have
calmed down considerably both on and off the water. Strong south easterly winds
have given way to a gentle breeze and the lack of activity onboard has prompted
Mark to write up a considerable joblist, much to the delight of myself and
Vinnie.
All rowers seem to be making steady progress
towards the promised land of Maurituis with only Simon Prior reporting any
problems, a brave man indeed considering they mainly stem south of his belly
button.
After a bad experience with the freeze dried last
night all onboard seem to be in agreement to cast the lines and haul onboard
another monster of the deep, watch this space!
Now I would like to bring to your attention the
subject of man cleanliness, some men obviously have different ideas
from others on the frequency of keeping ones person in a state of
hygiene, now i wouldn't be so crass as to name names but the boat does have a
shower and it's not just there for decoration. Thats it, I've said my piece, I'm
a man of few words really, just say my bit and get on.
forza
Well well well, Today was Marks birthday so we
decided to celebrate such a special and monumentous event with a bit of sailing,
but it was sailing with a difference as we deemed today to be a Mark free zone
on the helm and gave him the day off to pamper himself which he took full
advantage of by spending his special day baking bread, reading his book and
finally having a shower (well it was his birthday). This evening will be spent
feasting on a special birthday tub of pringles followed by one beer and a cigar
and two episodes of The Peep Show, so from us on board and I am sure from all of
you reading this
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK
forza
Today was potentially a day of being becalmed as
the wind dissapeared altogether, so we turned to the iron sail and motored
towards our next appointment for most of the day until the wind started to fill
as darkness fell and we could at last hoist sails and and make progress with an
ocean swell to help us along, we had a visitor this afternoon in the shape of
what we all agreed was a pilot whale, however brief the flirtation was, it is
always an inspiring and spiritual experience to encounter such stunning wildlife
in their own environment and surely one of the great motivations for being out
here, the Indian Ocean itself has so far been kind to us with it's weather and
supply of food and astounding in its vastness,colour and beauty, we head
further west now feeling our journey with Desiderata is still just beginning and
enjoying a sense of purpose and tranquility with our surroundings.
A fine meal of freeze roast chicken stuffing mash
and veg was the perfect end the sun is setting ahead of us to the north west and
the moon is high and bright in the east
Forza
Since taking to the high seas on Desiderata we
feel, well two of us do that we are not alone out here. Suffice to say
there has been some strange goings on in the night!!! It started with what can
only be described as a few strange noises, not the kind usually associated with
being at sea, which manifested themsleves into voices speaking to us, to date we
have counted seven different voices which minus our own still leaves four
unexplained chatterings on board, now the sceptics amongst you may be thinking
what a dull brained bunch of supersticious numpties we are, and true there is
some mileage in that, but the simple truth is Desiderata is haunted and the
three of us are not alone? Other than that all is well and the Tuna is going
down a treat still,
Then
tody whilst enroute to the north and the fleet we had Doing Time pop on AIS it
was agreed that we would make one attempt to get her under a tow and try to
salvage something for the guys. After a plan so cunning you could skin fox with
it was formed the operation was undertaken with a superb result we have the
boat back and will tow to the nearest port.
Have
to say as a sea farer the last 2 days have seen mixed emotions for me the
demands on seamanship, the witnessing of 2 guys who have worked for 2 years to
forfill a dream have it taken away from them, the leaving of a boat to the
mercy of the ocean and then today the joy of getting the boat back and hopfully
seeing safley back on the ocean forfilling someone elses dream.
So
thats it from Desi.
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So
to recap Doing Time were picked up yesterday after a series of incidences that
lead to them making the tough decision to withdraw from the race. To begin with
the first problem was with the steering and under close scrutiny we discovered
that the pintel on the rudder had completely sheered off. This was a problem
that we thought we could sort and decided to go on the para anchor over night
and sort it out in the morning. The next problem was with the para anchor! We
woke up in the morning to discover that it wasn't there! The bridal lines had
snapped thus losing the anchor and the 50m line. The next phase was to use the
drogue, so we used the anchor line to deploy it. After about 30 minutes of the
boat getting a right hammering from the severe gale and gusting storm
conditions the drogue decided to desert the Big Boys onboard 'Doing
Time' too! As well as all this, the power wouldn't charge so we
were left in a right state and basically left to make a decision
whether to carry on or pull out. Due to all the events that have happened
to us over the last few weeks and the fact that we basically had no equipment
left we decided that we had no option but to abandon the boat and leave
her to fend for herself.
The
support boat was called and sprung into action! When they eventually tracked us
down they struggled to get near us so we had to abandon to our liferaft
and allow 'Doing Time' to drift away! The boat was then expertly put into
position by the tremendous crew onboard Desiderata and we managed to get
onboard. Ben went first and was dragged onto deck leaving Mark bobbing around
until the boat made another pass. After managing to get all the bags onboard,
Desiderata decided to smash Mark on the head but luckily no sense no feeling as
they say, and the boys managed to haul him on deck too. We owe a big thank you
to all the crew of the support yacht for the professional manner they went
about the rescue in such bad conditions and for their hospitality since having
us onboard.
Mark
and Ben 'Doing Time' no more!
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Well
sorry about the radio silence had a few jobs to sort out that restricted our
time to write blog. Despite the usual daily chores of running the
boat we had a call to give one of the rowing teams a bit of help. The net
result was having to tow them in to a place called Carnarvon. There in lies a
story in its self. If any of you have been to Canarvon in Wales by sea
you will know that it is one of the most difficult pilotage exercises you will
have to undertake. The approach is shallow and the banks shift with every gale.
Well here down under the same thing applies, couple that with the lack of
survey in the area which means that charts are virtually non existant, the
challenge just upped the bar. A phone call to a dear friend in Brisbane, Penny,
helped the cause she emailed me some what can only be described as play school
sketches taken from an electronic chart program and the approach was made. The
Terrain is very low and there are just no give aways as to what lies beneath.
After 2 hours of very slow progress we felt our way in to the fishing harbour
row boat in tow.
The
boys got sorted and on there way back to Perth with the boat and we set off to
hunt down the fleet.
On
the fishing front things haved turned a corner. Taking some advice from the
fishing boats in Carnarvon we trawled way out and sure enough at dusk last
night the hit was made. We reeled in a Tuna that will feed us for a week.
Getting it on deck proved straight forward enough with the aid of a gaff, the fish
was very soon cleaned gutted and filleted in bags and in the freezer. One of
the smaller steaks about 1KG was chopped up sauted with some scallops (aquired
from Canarvon) Capers,Sun dried Toms, Artichoke, Balsamic vinegear and a few
herbs and olive oil then tossed in to some pasta to create quite a satisfing
feast that was enjoyed by all.
We
are now sailing at good speeds and racked up some good mileage in the last 18
hours. Life on board is good and it is so nice to have got north into the good
weather.
Forza
!
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----- Original Message -----
From: Desiderata
To: Blog
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 12:06 PM
Subject: Go West
Feeling pretty smug with ourselves tonight as we
achieved sixty miles of westing in the last 24hrs, which although does not sound
a lot it does represent our furthest lurch towards Mauritius in over a week!!
Skills are in abundance this week also as we have determind Brenners to be the
downwind king and expert char whaller, Mark to have the baking skills of Fanny
Craddock with some of the finest tasting bread this side of Mauritius and
Vincent to have the ability to sleep in any position in any weather, fishing
skills are not so abundant as our paltry efforts of fresh fish have so far
produced nothing but seaweed. Made contact with Doing Time this evening, pairs
team of two burly prison officer PT instructors who have made poor progress over
the past few days allegedly due to having very sore bottoms, whether this
occured due to rowing has yet to be established. Shower night tonight for all so
there is a sense of excitement on board Desiderata (what exciting lives we lead
eh!) and then a dinner of freeze dried chicken with rice jamaican style as
opposed to last nights freeze dried chicken with rice cajun style, will get back
to you tommorow on that.
Forza !!
Another day of being a sheep dog, all we are
doing is rounding up the back markers and pointing them in the right
direction.
"Doing Time" who we spoke to last night have made
very little progress in the last 24 hours. These guys are super fit atheletes
but are struggling in this harsh enviroment. From the first time we saw them it
was agreed that they were just to big for this project their bodies are highly
tuned machines but not designed for the stamina and endurance needed for this
event.
The boat was named "Doing Time" because they
are both prison officers this is quite apt at the moment or though I think
we feel here on "Desi" like we have just been sentenced to life watching their
painfully slow progress.
We caught up with the guys later on and and they do
seem in good spirits and are now making some progress. We also caught up with
the not so Flying Firkins, they seemed pleased to see us and again were in good
spirits, they are going for a big push tonight after we had a little word with
them about getting their arses spanked by a boat full of "sheilas" So fingers
crossed by the morning we will see some change.
Our fishing skills have not improved one bit so on
the freeze dried again tonight not sure what it will be. it was very carefully
and lovingly packed by by Sally my lovely wife so that we would get the same
meal each on each night the problem now is we are learming which tastes good and
which does not so when one is pulled out and described to the guys the response
usually consists of " not eating that sh*t" get me somthing else out. So sorry
Sally the filing system has gone out the window.
We are all feeling tierd at the moment as
conditions have not let up we are in the fleet and a vigilant watch is need at
all times, sleeping is proving hard.
On a positive note the sailing is superb as
Desiderata loves to show what she can do on all points of sail and with any
conditions thrown at her. We will be heading west for now as the teams visited
over the last week seem determined to get to the finish line and a rendezvous
with Pura Vida is overdue also frankly we could do with a change of
scenery?
Forza !
As the crew of the good ship Desiderata sail
seemlessly into week two of their Indian Ocean crossing the winds have
thankfully eased allowing their first proper nights sleep in over a week and now
ressemble something slightly more formidable than three asthmatic ants carrying
heavy shopping.
On a more pessamistic note there clearly is not one
fishermen between them as eight days at sea is yet to yeild one single fish. Our
brave heroes are now facing the prospect of having to read Rex Hunts fishing
manual and carry out a task they vowed never to do, take advice from an
Australian.
New crew motto-
We eat our sh*t, talk our sh*t and do our sh*t.
On a lighter note today was washing day for the
first time on this intrepid adventure and Desiderata ended up resembeling a
council flat in the depths of Peckham once she was festooned in underwear
and T-shirts hanging from every yard, a short trip downwind to see the Flying
Ferkins rowing team and everything was dry and stowed away ready for an evening
of frivolities and freeze dried fun.
On a note about the Flying Firkins I think we need
to go back to the start and explain to them it is a "rowing boat" and it does
need rowing. The guys are being left behind by rest of the fleet and do need to
look at there stratagy quite carefully or we will be waiting for them to finish
the 2011 Woodvale Indian Ocean Rowing Race.
Big love to all!
Forza!
