Log Entry No 6 - 6th Oct 07. (Yacht Discoverer)

FROM THE CAPTAINS CABIN

On Saturday 6th October Yacht Discoverer was boarded by King Neptune and Queen Amphitrite and a crew that only contained one shellback at sunrise on Saturday all gained their shellback status.  Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere.

NAV CHECK

Lt Colquhoun and Capt Glover on a watch handover, 100 miles to the equator.

It was with huge relief on Friday night that Yacht Discoverer finally found the wind that marked the end of a frustrating passage through the doldrums. After all the rain and light winds that the doldrums had thrown at us, we were not spat out without a fuss. Sitting beneath a rain cloud the wind gradually began to blow a constant SE, and SE gathering speed and we changed the headsail from Genoa to No.1 Yankee (no mean feat in the middle of the night by a watch of 4). With 2 people on the bagging up progress was slow but the job was done and the Genoa was about to go below – the wind dropped, motor on. By the time the No.1 Yankee was on deck the wind was up again, motor off; No.1 Yankee ready to hoist: the wind was down, motor on; the wind rose; No.1 Yankee hoisted, motor off: the wind dropped, motor on; No.1 Yankee prepared to drop 10 minutes later: wind up and we were off! The breeze, to our relief, remained constant from the SE confirming that we had hit trade winds puffing up to 20 knots leaving Discoverer steaming towards the equator at speeds of up to 12 Knots.

Cpl Smith becomes a shellback.

At 9.17am on Saturday Yacht Discoverer crossed the equator and the traditional line crossing ceremony was played out, the roles were:

The ceremony of crossing the line is an established nautical tradition which commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the equator. Originally the tradition was created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Sailors who have already crossed the equator are nicknamed (Trusty) Shellbacks, often referred to as Sons of Neptune; those who have not are nicknamed (Slimy) Pollywogs. Pollywogs are introduced to "King Neptune and Her Highness Queen Amphitrite and often various dignitaries at the ceremony. For such an important occasion it is of course necessary to ensure that Pollywogs are clean and smart in order to be presentable. They are therefore washed and have their hair tidied, typically a doctor is on hand to deliver a “bitter pill” designed to ensure that they are not carrying a contagious diseases which might infect the Court. Once introduced to Their Royal Highnesses and the Court, the Pollywog is charged with any seafaring crimes that he might have committed and after suitably punishment is elevated to the status of Shellback, an accolade retained in perpetuity as long as he honours King Neptune and his most trusted daughter Princess Britannia.

King Neptune: LCpl Danny Minns

The Queen: Capt David Glover then Skipper Andy Fernie

With LCpl Minns the only Shellback – one who has crossed the line on the sea – on board he had the rare honour of making his skipper a Shellback throwing sea water and a specially prepared concoction of ‘galley slops’ all over him before feeding him the slops. Queen Amphitrite played her part by smothering him in shaving foam before shaving him with Red Watch’s cut throat razor (fake), she finished by cutting a lock of hair with Blue Watch’s shears. The ceremony ended with the skipper being pronounced a Shellback and doused in more sea water. This ceremony was repeated for the remainder of the crew leaving the cockpit covered in shaving foam and galley slops; afterwards a proud crew went back to work- first job: clean up that mess!

Discoverer’s last couple of days in the Doldrums on Thursday and Friday were very frustrating, if not slightly bizarre. Lots of big rain clouds, which at times we were stuck under for 3 hours; no wind and seemingly no end in sight. To have donned our foul weather gear by this stage of the passage was hardly a surprise but no one expected to spend most of the last 250 miles before the equator in them.

Pte Elliot eats the food of Neptune (LCpl Minns) while Pete Nicholls looks on.

Since crossing the line Discoverer has made fine progress south. We are heading near due south at the moment as we are feeling the effects of the south equatorial current which is pulling us West towards the Caribbean. In about 300 miles we will be able to head directly towards Salvador when the south equatorial current gives way to the Brazilian current which will aid our progress down the Brazilian coast. The wind has blown a consistent Force 5 from the South East. It must also be noted that the mood on board was quite subdued after crossing the line, we had been building up to it since leaving Lanzarote and now its happened, the crew need are taking some time to refocus their ’look forward’ to Brazil.

Leadership Training

Having got to grips with the boat and life on boat, this week the crew have started to receive some of the leadership training that forms the title of this phase of the expedition.  Early presentations by Jade and Kris acted as a benchmark but in the last couple of days Callum presented on the Vendee Globe and Velux 5 Oceans, Gavin on the America’s Cup, Andrew on a bar of soap, Will on the history of a bucket and Dan on the clothes peg. A lot of effort was put into them and many good lessons learnt. Earlier today Gav did a very good presentation on the book he has been reading and Jade on Guilford.

The Crew have also been set command tasks – eg change a sail, reef the main etc. The more they do, the better they are getting at it. At first they were looking around for a guiding hand but now they generally have the confidence to complete the task without assistance. Their command and control is improving as they pick up the tips given to them by the afterguard.

In Other News

On Friday afternoon, the Afterguard and Red Watch were treated to a fashion show by Blue Watch. They had been tasked by Capt Glover to create disguises for an infiltration into the girls only clubs of Salvador. Equipped with bin bags and foil Dan, Chris D, Andrew and Will were very creative with the costumes although their ability to pass of girls in Salvador – debatable. - On Friday Red Watch believe that they sighted a small whale off the port side of the boat, it certainly wasn’t a dolphin but as it never came to the surface, could not be identified. The Skipper believes that it was a Kracken – a mythical sea monster! - The crew has been getting used to life at 45 degrees as we spend are first prolonged period close hauled. Having mastered the art of helming downwind, this is a whole new ball game for the crew to learn – but they have taken it in their stride and are learning fast. - Cards has become the weapon of choice on board for off watch time. A number of the crew have picked up Bridge and a marathon game of Sergeant Major is going on between Lt Colquhoun, LCpl Minns and Kris Bhudoye. - After a very successful first effort at making bread on Wednesday night, since the bread has not turned out so well – beginners luck. It is now slowly improving but early talk of making raisin bread and herb bread as variations have given way to the desire to simply get it right – luckily we have time on our hands. - Last night we learnt that England had beaten Australia in the Rugby World Cup. Lots of banter emerging from that result as half the crew had England losing in their prediction for the world cup!!!.

LT AJ COLQUHOUN

FROM THE CREWS QUARTERS

From the Blue Watch

Chris D:
Sun 7/10 “Crossing the equator was a really good experience and I am glad to be a shellback. The ceremony was really really good, think I got done the worse and found it really hard to wash everything out, fun all the same”

Will:
Sun 7.10 “The last couple of days have been good. Came off mother watch today, me and Callum done hot dogs for dinner. Can’t wait to get to Brazil and have a meal. Crossing the equator was a good experience and a good laugh. Very tired, not getting a lot of sleep, only a couple more days to go now.”

Dan:                
Sun 7/10 “Still having a good time, looking forward to getting to Brazil. The line crossing was awesome.”

Andrew:
Sat 6/10 “Today we finally crossed the equator at around 11 am.  The ceremony was interesting…. The rest of the day was normal with a few sail

changes.  During the night watch 1900 – 2300, a lot of time was made up by David and Jamie as they managed to maintain 7 – 8 knots. Hopefully we will be in Brazil this time next week. Made some nice sweet and sour ham  when on motherwatch. The rice was edible and actually quite nice.”

From the Red Watch

Jade:
Sat 6/10 “We have finally crossed the equator! Danny cool was King Neptune and David was Neptune’s wife. David wore my bikini top but I don’t think he realised he put it on upside down ha ha…The boat is tipping over to the Starboard side because of the wind so you can’t keep you balance and can’t walk properly.” 

Gav:
Sun 7/10 “I was really excited before crossing the equator. On crossing we went through a ceremony which I enjoyed. We have been sailing upwind now for the last couple of days, I have been behind the helm and I have found that it has been harder than before, I have got to grips with it now though. Did a presentation today about The Beach House book, and learnt how to do the structure for presentations.”

Kris:
Fri 5/10 “ Hot again today. Better than last night though, none stop, hammering rain all through watch, from 2300 to 0300 nice. Possible whale , and definite shark sighting at the start of this mornings watch.“

Callum:
Fri 5/10 “Well only 1 hour left of watch , its been fairly hot only 110 miles from the equator, getting 2/3 of the way at last! Last night, instead of a warm night, it decided to rain like there was no tomorrow, not just any rain! Heavy 4 hours of cold miserable rain! It had rained all day yesterday but that had just took the biscuit.”