Log Entry No 5 - 6th Nov 07. (Discoverer)

FROM THE CAPTAINS CABIN

From sending the last blog the crew of Discoverer have experienced their first Gale and as one would expect from such a fine crew they have coped more than admirably.  It has been an intensely tiring, hard and trying time for the crew who for many of the more junior members of the crew have found the last 48 hours some of the hardest of their military careers so far. 

Discoverer have experienced their first Gale.

NAV CHECK

The majority have suffered from sea sickness at least once, everyone has knocks and bruises, and all have been cold and wet from the soakings that have at times engulfed the whole yacht.  Even good waterproofs will let in water when you are totally immersed in water flooding across the decks, so many of the guys have been wet for the last 36 hours whilst on watch.  Despite this adversity laughter is still heard and the odd teddy thrown in the corner does not stay there long.

Night Watch.

Today the wind has dropped off, as forecast by the MOD Met Office who had kindly given Discoverer a 5 day update.  Unfortunately their prediction is for increased winds that are due to continue for a couple of days.  The weather Low that we are in is so low down here that the Barometer has dropped off its scaling, something the skipper has never seen before!  However, the lull today has allowed us to square the yacht away again, cleaning out bilges, re-securing all lines on deck, and trying to get some sleep without the sound of an artillery barrage about you as the yacht bounces of waves.  The other good news is that the yachts position and the Falkland Islands now both fit on the 600 nautical miles page of the Raymarine Chart Plotter- the Tom-Tom of the Yachting World that tells us where we want to go, and predicts how long it will take, amongst other things.  This is great for morale but we are still a good 4 days+ sailing, more if the predicted weather comes in, away from the Falklands.  All are looking forward to getting alongside before exploring these distance islands. Still no other sight of human life, though a whale joined us briefly on Saturday morning and we constantly have a couple of albatross and other sea birds tailing us. The watches had new leader appointed again on Saturday and again they have not been found wanting.

Sun 4 November 2007

The above was written on Saturday during a period of calm.  During the early hours of Sun morning the wind blew up again in minutes from 20-60 knots.  In these conditions the Yankee 2 Sail (one of the front sails), was lost.  However the yacht and crew are fine, if not tired cold and wet.  We continue to make what headway we can towards the Falklands and expect conditions to improve then return to current state over the next 24 hours.  Everyone is knuckling down and getting on with their jobs, working like Trojans.  I am pleased to report that the British Forces still recruit the finest!  Morale still remains high. 

Interesting Fact:  Hail stones at 45 knots+ hurt your nose if it is left exposed!

FROM THE CREWS QUARTERS

Standing on the fore deck of a 67ft boat whilst waves crash over your head, and 40+knts of wind seem determined to blow you off your feet is not the image a lot of the crew had in their minds when leaving Rio. Yet there we were, Thursday morning at 0100, trying to put the 2nd reef in the main sail. However, moral didn’t seem to dampen too much and before long the job was done. Time for a well earned rest…or perhaps not! With winds steadily increasing throughout Thursday, simple tasks such as dropping and bagging the staysail turned into a 2 hour battle of man versus the elements, not helped by the fact that the life jackets set off mid way through due to the size of the waves. Sea conditions meant that we had to hove too (stop the boat moving) just so the crew could eat at less than a 50’ tilt! Back on course and back too the wrath of the elements. By midnight Thursday the true wind speed was consistently reaching highs of 38knts, meaning that the apparent wind speed (the wind you feel) was managing highs of 46knts. By this point the crews’ mental and physical strength was being pushed to the limits, which seemed like the perfect time to drop the no2 Yankee foresail and hoist the storm staysail. Mother watch were dragged from their pits to assist the on watch with finding the storm sail as all hands available were needed on deck.

Mid way through the sail change myself and my rather dryer watch came to relive the on watch. As soon as the sail was raised it was then onto the main sail to put in the 3rd reef. This started off as a fairly simple task (well, as simple as anything can be in a force 8 gale!) until we found that 2 of the 3 reefing pennants (the ropes used to hold the reef in) had worked their way loose, meaning that the lads had to drop the whole sail whilst I scampered around underneath it getting pleasantly soaked trying to re-rig the pennants. Finally everything was sorted and we were back to wrestling with the helm keeping the boat on coarse. All in all it was a pretty perfect storm with a lot to laugh about after, lots of memories and lots of life jackets for the skipper to re-arm. What a great way for the crew to start their sailing careers!

Rfn Jamie Doy, 5 Rifles - Blue Watch Leader