The main reason for this was the last 48hours, from the approach to fair well spit to the finish in Wellington proved to be the hardest bit of the whole leg. What made it so hard was a combination of strong winds, big changes in wind direction and continental plates, resulting in a very confused sea way that could only be described as a witch’s couldren, constantly changing with no pattern. We crashed off waves on an all to regular basis and had a couple of waves I’ll never forget, a wall of breaking white water, towering way above our heads and coming strait for the boat side-on. I had never seen a boats reaction to a wave like this so I let go of the helm at the last second and just clung on as the boat disappeared through the wave and popped out the other side.

Breaking the boat while crashing off the back of one of these waves was the biggest concern. It wasn’t until we turned into Wellington harbour that we finally thought finishing was definite.

The hospitality from everyone in Wellington was fantastic, I have never come across so many kind and helpful people in one place at one time, especially considering it was torrential rainfall at 2300 on a Friday night. Being met on the finish line with a bacon sandwich and being cooked a full Christmas dinner the next day meant there wasn’t much left on my cravings list after the first 24 hours.

A massive thank you to Conrad for inviting me on the trip, the Global Ocean Race organisers, the welcoming of the other competitors, the friends and family supporting us and the Artemis Offshore Academy for making sure we were able to make the best out of this last minute adventure.

Now back to figaro training in preparation for a busy 2012 racing season.

All for now

Sam

Firstly drifting in little to no wind where trying to drag the wide rear end of our 40 foot boat is like an ocean plough, skimming over the water is not an option, more trying to push it around which, is not efficient. Now we are going up wind in 25 knots and horrible short and steep waves along the continental shelf where the depth goes from 700 metres to 150 metres deep in the space of a few miles. Here this boat takes the opposite approach, going airbourne off every wave only to come crashing back down landing on its flat bottom. Inside it is almost defening, like being on the inside of a drum, it makes you cringe, hoping the boat stays in one piece. It was exactly these conditions that caused us to drop out of the Transat Jacques Vabre on this boats sistership, just 2 months ago.

The design is fundamentally a surf board with a sail so, going down waves the speeds are excessive for a  boat its size but, similar to a surfer thta takes 10minutes to paddle through surf for a 20second wave, we take a really long time to go the other way up into waves.

For the first time in 4 weeks we started to see signs off life today, firstly we got mobile signal, only briefly as we passed 35 miles from the coast, we still couldnt see New Zealand but as it was Vadafone NZ, i assume it is there. Then shortly afterwards we got caught by surprise by a close visit from a fishing boat…the only human acitivity weve seen since loosing sight of the southern tip of africa at the end of November.

Our current ETA is midday local time tomorrow, but with an unstable weather condition we can’t be sure yet.

All for now from Sam on the last day at sea aboard Cessna Citation

Sam Goodchild in Christmas spirit!

We had thick fog the whole day with visibility to a couple hundred meters at the best of times. However the bright side was, our 3 day wait for wind finally came to an end as we started covering some decent miles again. And with it we were able to make gains on second place, BSL. By the evening we were slamming upwind in 20-25knots. I spent 15 minutes on the bow doing a sail change with every other wave drenching me from head to toe and the only thing I could think of was it was mid-afternoon in the UK and there were millions of people stuffing their faces on copious amounts of good food that I could only dream about. Jealousy reached an all time high!
Boxing day we spent slamming up wind and pushing hard, spending most of the time hand steering and keep activities to the minimum….eating, sleeping, sailing and a bit of navigating. This was because we expected to be loosing to BSL with the weather situation, thankfully though it seems to have paid off for the moment and we are hanging onto a 150 mile lead.

The wind is now decreasing and the slamming has almost stopped. We are 390 miles form Cook Strait where we finally get to turn right for the 100 mile home strait. Unfortunately the weather is all but simple between here and there, with the potential of the wind disappearing again which, could see our lead cut dramatically like last week. We have done everything but relaxed and will keep pushing to the finish, its definitely not over till we have crossed the finish line, which we hope will be in about 3 days.

All for now from Sam aboard Cessna Citation.

With the wind we have finally stopped loosing miles to BSL who have taken 140miles out of us in 3days while we wallow in frustration. There is nothing I can think on dry land that is as frustrating as being stuck in hole of no wind. Its similar to the classic Hollywood scene of being stuck in the middle of an ice rink with slippery shoes. You go nowhere, the harder you try the worse it gets and frustration only builds, the only solution is to sit and wait. Which is excruciating at the best of times but, when you have every other boat in the fleet going at least 5 times your speed it starts testing your patience.

The last chocolate came out the advent calendar today and as usual it was an anticlimax, why is the last one never something special? A bigger chocolate bar? No just the same old crumb of a chocolate. Possibly made worse in this situation as there is no big roast dinner to look forward to tomorrow. There is a mystery Christmas bag, I am told that it will be special. The suspense to find out how exciting a foil bag of freeze dried food can be is unbearable. The hope lays in the snacks and potentially a bit of biltong otherwise my carnivorous cravings are in danger of becoming hazardous.

We now have less than 1000miles to go till Wellington and we are pushing hard to get there in front of BSL who are 130miles to our north-west and if we are lucky maybe catch a few of the Christmas dinner left overs. The closer we get to land the more I start to think of things I miss the most. You may have guessed but any sort of fresh meat is at the top of my list, a big steak, burger, rack of lamb…you name it ill eat it. This is closely followed by some fresh salad, a shower, some clean clothes, a leisurely toilet visit, a catch up on the worlds happenings and a flight home to try and catch up on this short notice 5 weeks away.

The tinsel and Santa hat is out as we prepare for our Christmas at sea. Merry Christmas to every back on dry land, feel free to drink and eat even more in our favour.

All for now from Sam aboard Cessna Citation.
Merry Christmas

Even though we have been expecting this compression for the last 10 days its is hard ot pick up every postion report and watch our lead diminish to a mere 100 miles after our 230 mile lead only 2 days ago.

The weather situation is pretty complicated and we pick up a new file atleast every 12hours. We are struggling to see much consistency, with our arrival date changing by days with each grib. I am starting to think that the files are coming from an art class somewhere and not a weather centre. Every 12 hours there is a drawing competition for the tasman sea, a few pretty lines for isobars, skattered arrows, a splash of colour and bingo…a weather file. This evening we sailed into a hole of nothing, forecast as 7knots on the grib, we spent 4hours with 0.00 on our speed dial. After getting the 24 hour speed record we’re now aiming fo rthe 24 hour slow record. We debated not picking up thr position report but we did, and it was painful…we’d lost 43miles to second place in the space of 6hours. It is inevitable we will continue to loose miles as we are the first to sail into lighter winds but, we are pushing hard to minimise the losses and with 1200 miles still to go it is a loooooong way from over.

As we sail east, we are rapidly travelling through time zones, 11 in all by the time we reach auckland, this means that sunrise and sunset are never at the same time form day to day. Onboard, to save confusion, we never change our clocks. An ongoing debat onboard is which meal to eat when? Currently the sun goes down for us at about 1130 and then rises again at about 1700. When is breakfast and when is dinner? Do we eat our porridge when the sun comes up or our savoury (normally-missing-a-bit-of-meat) meal because it is dinner time? Fundamentally there is not problem, you eat when your hungary but, after eating a curry at sunrise this morning I realise it does screw with your head a bit.

All for now from sam, wallowing in the Southern Ocean somewhere aboard Cessna Citation.

Yesterday was a horrible day, with a high frequency of rain squalls and a continuosly changing wind, we spent alot of time changeing sails and trying to minimise damage as the wind fluctuated between 12knots and 48knots for most of the day. We settled into a little more of a grove last night, with the small spinnaker up and building breeze we were able to eat up a few more miles.

On the Contrary, today was one of those days where I realised why Im sitting here at 50degrees south, smelling like a drowned rat, having not had a shower or changed clothes for 3 weeks, partly damp, blooding cold and still enjoying it.

As the sun came up the wind started to build and we changed from our small spinnaker to the more robust reacher as a ’chicken shoot’. We spent the following 12hours semi-submerged averaging 16-17knots, with surfs of 26knots. Every wave came over the boat like a torrential wall of water, we regularly lost sight of the front of the boat and occasionally our own limbs. There was one wave that I wont forget for a long time. We took off on a almighty surf and barreled into the back of the following wave, the expected wall of water came flying down the deck so, I grabbed hold of the boat and turned my head to cover my face. This wave had slightly different intentions though, it picked me up like a rag doll and dropped me in the back of the cockpit wrapped round the main sheet traveller. as I got back up and reorientated myself, i was surprised to find the boat, not spun into the wind with sails flapping, but in fact having ploughed through the wave it had then taken off on another surf at 20-knots…we carried on as before. Makes me think of and appreciate Halvards’ ‘Young and Fearless’ Stupid comments from yesterday, but by god its fun.

We re now back in some more civilised conditions and reaching at 14/15knots with our bow pointed at New Zealand. The tracker of our nearest rivals, BSL, frustratingly spent the last 24hours being unreliable which, almost caused ours to find some problems but, they are back in our sights now and we can keep a close on eye on them and hopefully not let them get too far away.

All for now form Sam aboard Cessna Citation

We finally reached the end of the second security gate this morning and that means that for the next 2300 miles to wellington, we can go wherever we like. This makes it the slightly more tactically interesting and also opens up opportunities for the guys behind to make up some of the mies lost so, we have to be careful.

Over the last few days we have been benefiting from a ‘rich-get-richer’ weather situation which has allowed us to extend our lead to over 120 miles. But, the same way this ‘bungee’ attaching us to BSL stretches, we expect it to contract over the final 10 days and our aim is to stay safe and minimise the loses.

Yesterday we passed Cape Leeuwin, which is the boundary between the indian ocean and the Pacific, it was a slight anticlimax….It’s no Cape Horn that’s for sure. However, it was conveniently timed with the crossing of the weather front that meant the sky cleared, and we were able to put up the spinnaker. Since then the spinnaker has stayed up and the sun stayed out so, i am a fan of this pacific place so far.

Rapidly approaching New Zealand, I have been learning more and more about the Southern Hemisphere. Contrary to popular Northern Hemisphere belief, Australia and New Zealand are not the same place. According to the kiwi skipper, they say Feesh n’ Cheeps instead of Fush n Chups(or commonly known as fish n chips to the rest of the world)….Apart from that I see no difference, which leads me to conclude that a Kiwi is a Southern Hemisphere Welshman. They are both good at Rugby, speak a bit funny, and have a worrying attraction to sheep and get offended when you call them by their neighbouring country (Australia and England)

We are encouragingly starting to download weather files that forecast as far away as New Zealand and our current ETA is for the 27/28th December however it’s not going to be easy as we have a strong front coming through (that has already dished out a fair amount of abuse to the the fleet in the west) and has an area of light winds all before we have to make a decision to pass to the East or West of South Island. Not to forget Christmas is in a weeks time.

All for now from Sam aboard Cessna Citation.

Occasionally we think how lucky we are that we didn’t get the full brunt of this storm like some of compatriots a bit further west, however heartless as we are, that is short lived. As our 17th day at sea, from now onwards it will be the longest i have been at sea for one time and also we now have less than 3000-miles to go!! Celebrations all around…until we need our hands again to cling on…again.

Sam on the bow for a sail change – you can just see his leg!

The plus side to all of this bumpy stuff, is that we are going fast and since climbing north yesterday, the temperatures have risen to something slightly more bearable again. Still, general day to day happening are a bit of a chore, getting dressed to go on deck can take 15 mins, a length of time I have never associated with putting clothes on before. Making sure all the layers are in the right order and all the overlaps are the right way so that water ingress is near enough impossible…somehow it always finds a way though!

We are still eating a lot just to keep going and drinking hot drinks to keep warm. I am now losing sensation in my tongue as almost every testing sip to judge the temperature of your tea is timed wrongly with every wave and becomes a scolding gulp. Still watch after watch I persevere and the same thing happens.

All for now from Sam aboard Cessna Citation

Since the temperatures dropped a few days ago, life onboard has had to change with it. the priority has been keeping warm as to stay functional. Our food intake has shot through the roof as we try and replenish the calories burnt, keeping warm and sailing the boat. We also find ourselves generally spending less pro-longed time on deck as once you get wet and cold, it difficult to get warm again. We have learnt the hard way that, the temperature of our feet is directly related to the quality of sleep we can get. Everything else is easy to warm up in a thick sleeping bag. We have had a couple hours of sunshine this morning which has allowed us to dry out a little for the first time in over a week.

One of the things I have noticed form the South Indian Ocean is the instability in the wind, it is constantly changing in strength and direction. Last night was no exception and proved to be one of the hardest yet. We were dong spinnaker changes pretty much every watch and shaking reefs in and out on a regular basis. All to try and keep the boat moving fast and in one piece. With 3500miles still to go, a breakage could prove costly. Restraining from getting frustrated was difficult as there was never a groove to settle into. Thankfully, this morning our hard work was rewarded by a few extra miles between us and the leaders. We now have just over 216miles to the ice gate where we are expecting to make a few losses to BSL but, are pushing hard to minimise them.

We have just sailed out of a light patch of wind and the next 4 days is looking to be another windy, rough and fast trip over the top of the security gate at 45 degrees South before probably dropping south again for the final approach to new zealand.

All for now from Sam aboard Cessna Citation

As the front came over, the temperature dropped from really cold (but bareable) to bloody freezing, so now time on deck is kept to a minimum. With a constant flow of water still coming across the deck any bit of skin not covered up with pretty quickly becomes painful. Alternatively, hiding down below with the engine on while the autopilot does our job for us is a little too irresponsible.

Onboard, my vegetarian ways are becoming a little bit worryingly close to the norm. My attempt to convert Conrad has pitted out in failure and I just get a little enjoy from the occasional biltong and re-hydrated bit of meat. The occasional email from friends mentions the thought of steaks and hamburgers is more like torture than ever before.

With the high humidity and low temperature we are learning new ways of keeping warm and dry. We have not got a lot of diesel as our primary source of power is from the hydrogenerator but, when we do turn it on it is like a godsend. We also have a breathable sleeping bag which means, if you tuck a damp bit of clothing in there with you, such as socks or hats, after a couple hours sleeping they dry them selves out. This was a wonderful discovery until you get a little too enthusiastic and just wake up wetter and colder.

Having never met each other before, we have also been learning a bit about each other too, one of the more entertaining traits of Conrad is his ability to sleep talk. I have occasionally had conversations with him, of no relevance nor making any sense, where I go about getting him as frustrated as possible so, he swears at me and falls back asleep. Then an hour later, once his watch is done….he is oblivious to the whole thing. Once your at sea for two weeks its the little things that entertain us.

Other than that, we are still having problems with our chafing halyard and taking new measures to try and prevent it from happening again, unfortuantely these all involve a couple trips up the rig, with the wind, waves and temperature, these are never pleasant and often involve a few hours mental prepartion before being flung around like a rag doll a the top of the mast for 30-minutes, normally not going in the right direction either. Still we wil persevere…

All for now from Sam aboard Cessna Citation with 4002miles to go.