26.01.2006
Good seamanship ensures high performance level from Dee and Aviva
In Brief
- Project Director Andrew Roberts says condition of yacht and skipper is down to ‘excellent seamanship’ from Dee
- Straight back to business after Southern Ocean birthday
- “We were falling off big waves and hitting big walls of water that doused the deck frequently,” – Dee’s diary on Thursday
Summary
Dee’s birthday may have broken the “sailing, eating, sailing, drinking, sailing, sleeping, sailing routine,” that she described at the weekend, but it was straight back to the business of sailing the next day:
“I started the day by putting a reef in and was relieved to know that the extra year on my age hadn't affected my ability to work the winches. The waves began picking Aviva up and throwing her towards the next wave. We bumped along roughly in the right direction and the longitudes began to count down again.”
Dee and Aviva were making progress in 30 knots from the north-north-west and she was in good spirits, proudly reporting that she had refrained from having a birthday drink as she did not want to “sleep deeply or have the feeling of being indestructible on deck.” She has not had an alcoholic drink for 65 days now…
Milestones such as her birthday are important for giving Dee tangible markers of progress when there is no landmass around, but they can also be reminders of her isolation, so this revelation before she has even hit the halfway mark came as a surprise:
“I was looking at distances to go to various milestones and it suddenly struck me that the voyage was beginning to go quite quickly … I knew I would struggle with the end of the voyage but didn't in my wildest dreams expect to even consider this until at least the equator on my way home. To be thinking of missing the sailing and feeling sad when it comes to an end now whilst in the midst of the Southern Ocean, shocked me.”
Burns Night provided another special occasion for midweek aboard Aviva. Sir Chay Blyth gave Dee a special Burns Night kit before departure so she enjoyed a traditional supper before drama hit while Dee was waiting for a front to close in the next day. She was gearing up for gusts 40 plus and above but the “nightmare“ that followed was, “so bad it was almost laughable”.
Sailing along in 20-24 knots she was, “waiting for the onslaught to begin,” but the wind decreased instead of increasing. After checking her weather fax to see of the expected low-pressure system had changed course, she was taken by surprise by the rapid change in conditions as the front moved in.
“The wind backed very quickly and I grabbed my jacket to tack … Now I needed to do everything at once. I needed to tack, I needed to put the third reef in and I needed to furl some of the headsails.”
While trying to do everything at once, the lazy headsail sheet (rope) “ran free and tied itself in knots along the new working sheet.” This does not sound like a disaster, but considering the amount of water washing over the deck of Aviva, the work needed to solve the problem was not at all comfortable:
“I was wedged on the leeward deck body surfing every time a wave washed along, trying to untwist the rope ... My arms were getting a little tired even with the extra birthday chocolate and now I was unwinding 35 metres of wet 18mm diameter rope. In itself it is pretty heavy and when each wave that you are body surfing washes the rope off the deck into the ocean, the extra drag makes it even heavier. By the time I had all the line clear and had to walk it round the outside of everything and re-feed it my arms felt like lead.”
Although Dee was very cold after the ordeal, everything had been returned to normal and the routine of life in the Southern Ocean returned:
“The wind had its lulls during the day to 25 knots but the sea state was so big we were falling off big waves and hitting big walls of water that doused the deck frequently. It made everything below decks hard work … Here we were back in Southern Ocean living again, it made the last couple of days respite seem like heaven.”
Dee talks of freefalling from the tops of waves and huge waves crashing over the deck as normality now, but since she has rounded Cape Horn the extreme conditions have not resulted in any damage to the yacht or indeed any injuries to Dee – a remarkable fact that is down to good seamanship according to Project Director Andrew Roberts:
“Dee has sailed almost 11,000 miles since the start of her solo record attempt in November,” wrote Andrew. “During those 63 days at sea she and Aviva have encountered most conditions that the sea can throw at them including a 70-knot storm off the Canaries, the Doldrums and 50-knot gales in the Southern Ocean.
“One of the most surprising aspects of this amazing voyage is that despite such varied and at times difficult conditions Aviva has not suffered any damage and Dee has not been injured at all. Dee is very fit and well and has driven Aviva hard but the yacht, her sails, gear and her equipment have stood up extremely well.”
To read Andrew Roberts’ full account of why Dee and Aviva have been performing so well, click the link below to visit the website:
http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=6&thisDay=25&thisMonth=1&view=day
Quick Links
Many of your questions to Dee submitted via the website have been answered and posted on the website. Click here to see the latest answers posted:
http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=42
Read Dee’s latest diary entry:
http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=6
|
