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INDIAN OCEAN FIVE CAPES RACE 2009
www.indianocean5capesrace.com - Übersicht
17th March 2010
INDIAN OCEAN FIVE CAPES RACE
A100 Majan Surviving 70 Knots in the Southern Ocean
Oman Sail's A100 trimaran 'Majan' has been battling hurricane
force winds in the Southern Ocean on leg 3 of the Indian Ocean 5
Capes Race en route to the next stop over in Fremantle,
Australia. The six-man crew led by Paul Standbridge including
new recruit Sidney Gavignet and two Omani crew, who are tracing
out this new course ahead of the official race in 2012, have had
their mettle tested to the limit in these ferocious conditions.
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'Majan' left Cape Town on 10th March and are approximately 2,300
miles into the 4,600-mile leg, with another 5-6 days before
arriving in Fremantle. Read Mark Covell's log below which
expertly describes the force of the Southern Ocean in all its
fury…
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From Mark Covell on board 'Majan':
It's been a long couple of days. As I woke the first day of this
storm Paul, Mohammed and Mike were on watch. The sky was grey
with driving rain that stung your face. The wind was around 45
knots touching 55 in the gusts. The noise resembled a badly
tuned television, on full volume, hissing out white noise.
The waves were mostly broadside, hitting us on our starboard
(right) hull and sending the sea water high in the sky, then
cascading down over the boat. Occasionally, we would be lifted
by the top of a wave and slammed by another, resulting in a
sudden shunt sideways. It felt like King Neptune had cupped us
in his hand, lobbed us in the air and whacked us out of court
with his watery tennis racket.
Although admittedly both nervous at times, (as I think we all
were at times), Mohsin and Mohammed handled the conditions very
well. Mohsin had seen 51 knots in the Cook Straits on his last
voyage round the world, but had never experienced anything like
yesterday before. He commented on how well Majan had handled the
wind and the waves. "When I started to feel scared I just
touched the boat with my hands and immediately felt better - as
Majan felt so solid."
If you weren't holding on tight you were smack, bang on the floor
, for sure. Most of the crew were tipped out of their bunks a few
times. Eventually everyone gave up, and found some place on the
cabin floor to sleep - wedged onto a beanbag or nestled between
a bulkhead and the engine block. The tighter the space the less
damage you did to yourself, in your sleep!
Meanwhile, the roaring wind had started to growl as we saw more
and more gusts up in the 60-knot zone. The waves seemed to
flatten and grow long silver manes of white spume that flowed
out behind the wave face. In fact, all the waves were doing were
'hunkering down' and forming a more powerful and solid stance to
shoulder us sideways – and more frequently.
The air was now constantly full of sharp, biting spray. Every one
lung-full you took of breath, you spat out a two mouthfuls of
brine. It was time to reduce sail and slow down some more. Down
came the J3 beautifully flaking itself as it dropped. Next was
to reef the indexsail down from the size of a squash court to the
size of a table tennis table. Dropping the sails is a very noisy
, wet exercise, exerting yet more shaking on the boat as even
these much-reduced sized sails flap violently in the process.
So why were we getting a good 'dressing down' like this in this
low pressure system? For the initial part of this leg we had not
been able to find the strong winds that normally send you fast
across the roaring 40s to Australia. So when we saw this low on
the weather charts, we ducked back up to ride the low south and
get under a big high pressure sitting in our way. We had to sail
deep into the storm front to hook up with the ride.
It was like stepping out into a fast moving motorway, getting run
down, then hitching a lift with the truck that ran you over. We
then drove into the other side of the low, take the flick flack
wind change, waves and wind going in different directions, and
then drive south east, heading us towards Cape Leeuwin and
Fremantle. It was a crazy ride, but it paid off well.
The gybe was interesting because the winds were up in the high 60
's and gusting to 70! We are all impressed with how Majan has
performed.
There is a B&G (electronic navigational) display in the media
station that read over 70 knots. We were happy that it was dark
so I didn't need to go out side and try to film the madness. So
Mohammed suggested I just film the red B&G display instead, and
keep with my lap belt firmly pulled tight to keep me off the
ceiling!
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