Day 8 of our first race down to Madeira ended with the birthday celebrations of crew member Patrick Cooper who was fortunate enough to be helming in ideal sailing conditions surfing waves with regular speeds of 14 knots.  Competition also seems to still be healthy between all the crew as everyone tries to clock the highest speed surfing a wave.



While Skipper Rich was sleeping Patrick managed a fantastic 14.4 knots eventually the vibration of the hull and the rudder was enough to wake him and spur him into challenging Pat's record.  After an unsuccessful shift on the helm Rich managed to break Pat's record with a 14.5 knot
surf.  Happy that he was still a great helmsman Rich decided to retire back to his bunk and handed the helm over to me.  10 minutes later I somehow managed to clock an very impressive 15.1 knots.  This was quite surprising being that I am the amateur here and that this was my first real surf on a wave.  I am calling it a fluke but it was a lot of fun feeling the power of this beautiful boat as the stern swells up on the wave and you feel the bow get thrown forward as you ride the wild sea's travelling so fast that you cannot hear much over the roar of the sea and
the vibration of the hull.
 
During the last few hours of day 8  at around 2200 hrs and just as I was waking up to come on standby watch there was a shout from the deck. 'Rich!'. The voice belonged to Dan who was helming at the time and contained a high note of worry in it.  If they gave out medals for how
quickly a skipper could wake up and fly up the companion way steps than Rich would have taken gold as he arrived at the helm in seconds with a full assessment of the situation and bellowing. 'All hands on deck'. Rich had understood the situation and realised that we had warped our Medium Weight Spinnaker around the forestay and that we were very close to shredding it to pieces.  All the crew were throwing on life jackets and following Rich up the companionway in various states of dress in order to try to save our precious Spinnaker.  Remember this is day 8 of an 11 month journey around the world where the loss of such equipment would be devastation to our campaign.  Rich had by now taken the helm and was in the process of directing the recovery of our Spinnaker.  'Sheet in, everyone grab the sheet and pull down, pull it off the forestay.'  I happened to be the first to follow that last order reaching the sheet through the darkness and grabbing it with both hands.
 
The first thing I realised when I did this was that I am no way strong enough to do this alone and the next was that I was no longer touching the deck of the boat as the sheet pulled me up dangling me like a rag doll above the deck. Letting go I fell back to a stable surface and waited for the rest of the crew.  Wayne was the next crew member to arrive and copied my earlier attempts by grabbing the sheet with both hands only to be lifted straight off the deck as I was.  After letting go Wayne and I both started to work together as the many other crew began to arrive.  The ocean resembled one of those pile on's where everyone jumps onto of everyone else as more than 10 crew had by now grabbed the sheet and were pulling down with all there might.  Finally success as the Spinnaker began to unwrap from the forestay. The shout was given to let go else you may otherwise be ripped of the deck as the Spinnaker re-fills with wind. Unfortunately, crew member Annalies was so worried about the rest of the crew that she held onto the sheet trying to make sure that everyone else had let it go first. Evidently she needed superwoman’s strength to hold on as the sheet tore itself free leaving behind a nasty rope burn on her hands as a memento of her heroic efforts.
 
The remainder of the night we continued to surf waves with regular speeds 13 knots and found ourselves with a lead of 55 nautical miles on Team Finland by dawn.  We were by now flying the heavy weight Spinnaker and had a distance left to run of 230 nautical miles. Sailing is always eventful with our final night holding our second wrap of the Spinnaker giving Dan the nick name of Wrapper-Dan as he was again helming but also the Gimp shackle on the Spinnaker sheet had released it's self when rubbing against the forestay resulting in mayhem as all of the crew try to retrieve the Spinnaker with out damaging it.
 
After such a fun filled night of adventure I was left feeling quite exhausted however with no rest in sight I started about my Mother Duties once again and began the preparations for breakfast.  At 1000 through the haze of a sunny day the Island of Porto Santo was spotted of the starboard bow.  This volcanic archipelago was the first sight of land for days and offered a welcome relief for some and a sadness for others that the end of the journey was near with Madeira only a short 30 nautical miles away.
 
3 hours later the towering volcanic peaks of Madeira were funnelling wind to our sails as we reached the finish line.  Crossing with a film crew and support vessel being our welcome party various crew responded in various ways with some shouting there triumph and other crying tears of salty joy because we, Gold Coast Australia had done it.  We had just won the very
first race in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and not just by a little but by an impressive 60 nautical mile lead. What an achievement.
 
With life set in the fast lane and the stop in Madeira being a short one, three days later we were waving our farewells to the very kind and generous people of this beautiful island.  We had sampled the local Madeira wine, danced the local dances, swam in the local watering holes
and even received a visit from the President of Madeira.  Than it was sails up as the countdown began for the start line we accelerated forward jollying for the best position in the fleet.  Bang! We are off and racing crossing the line in 8th place however we were back in the lead within 20
minuets.  From there it was a Yo-Yo with the lead boats as wind holes appeared off the cliffs of Madeira trapping some whilst letting others though.
 
Our focus was pulled from the race as chafe became our worst nightmare. Everything is chafing and we just can't seem to solve the issue.  Day 1 of the second race found us with bad chafing on the port side Spinnaker halyard so Bow Girl (me) was to be sent to the top of the mast to attach the second halyard as a secondary.  Unfortunately I was just a little slow or a little lucky because just as I was attaching a halyard to my harness so that I could begin the climb there was this all mighty bang and snap went the Spinnaker Halyard..  Very lucky that I hadn't made it up yet as the marlin braid has flex so therefore it holds quite the kickback when the pressure of the sail is released.  Utilising the tools at hand we have now set up a system that may just save our other Halyard but it does mean that every time we hoist a Spinnaker Bow Girl has to go up the mast and manually set the pullie to the head of the Spinnaker.
 
 
Not only was the loss of the Halyard a major disaster but it was not the only one.  We have suffered chafing on the Main Halyard, the Spinnaker Guy's, Barber Hauler, Sheets and just about everything else on board.  We have re-enforced the reinforming and still there is chafe.  On the plus side I am going to be the best spectra splicer in the world at the end of 11 months.
 
Day two saw us wake up to our very first broach...  Luckily this was a minor one and no damage was suffered however it just goes to show that the oceans are still the boss and completely unpredictable. As far as positions go we have been holding first place most of today, unfortunately Yorkshire have just taken the lead as we drifted in light winds for the afternoon.

Don't let that fool you as the excitement does not end there.  Just at sunset the Spinnaker Halyard tripped and ran through the mast resulting in another all hands on deck shout to help retrieve it from the hungry ocean. At first it all seemed to be going okay with the re-hoist but it was only once the Spinnaker was up that we noticed the series of small tares in the sail.  So the mad scramble for retrieving the sail was on again.  Success at last, a retrieval of the Medium Weight Spinnaker and a hoist of the Heavy Weight Spinnaker followed quickly by a short trip up the mast for me and I was off to clear away the dinner plates and begin the repairs on the Spinnaker.  Two hours down and a few more to go before this Spinnaker is ready to fly again.  This is really such a shame as we will be needing to fly this Spinnaker for another 10 months so let us just hope that our repairs hold.
 
After all the excitement of the previous week I am sure that you are wondering what can I possibly write about.  Well there is more.
 
By the end of day 2 in the second race from Madeira to Rio de Janeiro in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, I was exhausted.  As Bow Girl I had been hanging onto the wild python of the Spinnaker sheet trying to attach the new guy, up the mast twice and we also managed a sail change all in a 4 hour period and without achieving much sleep on our off watch thanks to the Spinnaker wrap by Wrapper Dan...  Due to this tiredness I managed to land my first wrap of the Spinnaker while helming.  Feeling the stern being taken by a wave I had applied counter helm and in a laps of concentration I over helmed bringing the boat too low and the Spinnaker warped around the forestay.  Once again the shout for Skipper Rich Hewson went up and he was on deck again in seconds.  Lucky for me it was only one wrap so we managed to recover it quickly.  Rich must have picked up on my tiredness because the next time someone was needed to go up the mast I was given the roll of coach and Timmy was the brave one going to the top.  The log that day reads. 'Bow Boy was born...'
 
As far as positions in the fleet are concerned at the time Yorkshire took the lead, Singapore were hot on our heels and Gold Coast Australia activated the stealth mode.  This is a feature in the Clipper Race where during a leg each Clipper vessel is given the opportunity to activate
'Stealth Mode' where they will become invisible to all the other competing boats and will not be seen on the on-line tracker for 24 hours.  This is the time that the skippers can perform a tactical flyer without the other boats noticing until stealth mode is over.  Rich decided to engage the Stealth mode because we were creeping up on the scoring gates but were still unsure if we were going to go for the gate, we were also looking at going west and aiming straight for Rio.  The Scoring gates are another feature of the Clipper Race where there is a virtual gate that you can choose to cross.  The first three boats through receive points that will go towards there finally race tally.
 
Day three and four were tough as people experienced various levels of exhaustion.  The temperature has increased making it hard to gain even a few minuets sleep with the stifling heat and the Spinnaker keeps wrapping because the helmsman are tired and the crew are becoming increasingly slow to respond.  It was getting to the point where someone was going to hurt
themselves by making a silly mistake so it was with the greatest of pleasure to be woken for watch and find out that Rich had  given us an extra 4 hours of sleep.  I can only say that I woke up feeling once again like myself with energy to burn and a renewed focus to race.
 
As day 5 dawned under a starry sky with a warm pleasant breeze the crew was a bubble of talk as we neared the scoring gate. Gold Coast Australia crossed at 0230 in third position receiving 1 point with warm wind in her sails and a happy crew on deck.  Owing further to the happy and relaxed attitude of the crew is the fact that we are now flying the Yankee 1 sail and Full Main removing all the stress of causing another Spinnaker wrap.
 
Moving increasingly closer to the Doldrums or the ITCZ the winds begin to become variable gusting 20 knots and dropping down to 10 knots but with the boat racing at a slightly slower pace we are able to notice some of the other things around us like the gracefulness of the flying fish with their blue steel wings and inky blackness of the mink whales who come to say hello just before they slip soundlessly below the surface.  Along with the increased variation in the winds is also a increase in the heat and humidity so all of the crew are taking advantage of this and enjoying a luxury bucket bath on the scoop at the stern everyday.  This is fantastic as normally we are rationed to a bath every 3 days but with this heat hygiene is an important factor.
 
I would like to explain the challenges of taking a bucket bath on a boat that leans over more than 15 degrees.  The first challenge is getting the water from the Galley to the scoop without losing half of it on your fellow crew mates.  Then you need to attach yourself to the deck with a safety line to your life jacket so if you should get distracted and fall you will still be attached to the boat, you also need to attach your cup to the deck so that should you lose your grasp than that is not lost overboard as well.  Most of the crew will shower in there swimmers however there is the boat rule that when someone is showering (bucket bathing that is) than all eyes forward.
 
After the scoring gate we decided to take the route through the Verde Islands on the 6th day where we were lucky enough to pick up stronger winds than the rest of the fleet so that by the next morning we had left Geraldton behind by a whopping 60 nautical miles.  Although the sailing was smooth there was still the usual Spinnaker dramas with wraps, chafing and halyards not set on winches so it came as no surprise that when I was helming on day 6 with the Medium Weight Spinnaker and Full Main up that there was this all mighty BANG.  The bang was quickly followed by half of the Spinnaker going one direction and the second half going the other way and me bellowing. "Rich, Rich..."  By the time Rich made it on deck I was laughing from the shock of it and the absolute unbelievably of it.  Rich took in the situation with a similar expression of shock as there was just no reason for it with no excessive winds or big crashing waves, the sail did not even flap once, just the big BANG and a shredded Spinnaker. Without further ado the Heavy Weight Spinnaker was hoisted and we were off and racing once again.
 
The shredded Spinnaker was quickly followed by two of our strops on the Spinnaker Sheet failing the next two days.  The Strop is on the Spinnaker Sheet and is what we attach the Guy for our Spinnaker hoists.  Lucky this time the Spinnakers were left undamaged but there was a heart stopping moment when I thought that I was at the helm again and we blew another Spinnaker.  All of these Spinnaker sail changes and emergency drops meant that I was once again regularly visiting the top of the mast with the last visit occurring at 0330 in the morning with the boat sailing under a full moon and healed over to 15 degrees.


 
On day 7 the heat continued to increase further we approached the doldrums and crossed in a record 4 hours.  This gave us the prefect amount of time for a quick back flip of the bow and a swim by the boat in depths over 2000 meters as she drifted at a slow 0.4 knots in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  Just at the end of our watch the winds filled in and Gold Coast Australia left the notorious Doldrums behind.  Something that we didn't leave behind was the squally weather where we would be comfortably sailing in 15 knots of wind when a mean dark cloud would form and start tracking straight to your boat.  Once it reached you it would deliver driving rain and howling winds gusting over the 30 knots/hr and although short lived it was sail changes to be made.  One to reduce the sail prior to the squall and one to increase the sail after the squall had past.  During my standby watch in the morning of day 8 we managed exhaustive 4 sail changes.
 
By day 9 we were out of the fluky weather in to the stable trade winds offering some wet sailing with the Yankee 2, Stay Sail and Full Main pounding into the Atlantic Swell occasionally interrupted by a even larger wave from the Southern Ocean.  Needless to say that the dreaded sea sickness was back taking out a couple of our crew members and generally making life at sea uncomfortable however with the lunch time sked today it was announced the Gold Coast Australia is once again in first place.  A welcome applause and a renewed focus to maintain first place as we race on towards Rio de Janeiro.