Be brave! Take the next wave

Sent: 03 December 2009

Boat time: 03:25hrs

Position:

40deg 09.178' S

63deg 11.422' E

Well what an exciting couple of days its been, if exciting is the right word! Just as we came on watch yesterday lunch time with a full mainsail, medium-weight kite and skipper on the helm, we were caught by a massive gust of wind which caused us to broach out! Luckily, it wasn't too bad and only the toe-rail and a bit of the deck were in the water, but the call for 'all hands ondeck' was made as we needed to drop the kite, and fast. Port watch abandoned their lunches and joined us just as another gust hit us, but no worse than the first one.

It was a fight to get the kite down. With everybody on deck and lots of people shouting it was hard to tell what happened, but the spinnaker pole ended up too far forwards and bent itself in half round the forestay putting the guy out of reach to free the spinnaker. With the halyards already coming down and the lazy guy through the letter box, the only thing to do was let all the ropes run and ditch the kite in the water. To do this we had to cut one of the halyards and the working guy was shredded in the process. With the kite in the water and the full crew on deck we were then able to recover it and send it down the the hatch. Unortunately, it is ripped right across its full width and possibly in othe rplaces too. Both the pole and the spinnaker will have to wait until Oz to be repaired!

Ironically, after this had happened we had one of the nicest afternoon's sailing so far on this leg. Clear skies and a decent breeze to keep us moving. Needless to say though, few people slept well last night! Luckily, the worst injury was Elaine's twisted ankle but she's fine this morning and crew morale has not suffered to badly. We're a bit disappointed as we are sure to pick up penalty for the damage! However, 12000 miles and this the first serious break is a good sign that crew and skipper are working well to stay safe. Although it was a sharp reminder that we are in the Southern Ocean and that it has its reputation for a reason.

Read more about the broach in Race News at: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/