Sunday 28th December
Position 43'43.016~S 71'32.683E
Wind 263 Degrees 11.9 knots
COG 59 degrees SOG 7.1 knots
Distance Covered 2,987 Nautical Miles
We are so sorry to hear the news coming from Nico Budel that his boat Hayai has suffered further major problems, this time with his keel. From what we can gather, he also suffered badly in the storm that we were caught in - he was a good bit behind us and further to the north so it shouldn't have been quite so bad but he has had serious problems with his mast and communications ever since. This new development with his keel must be extremely worrying for him. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. We understand Michel on Roaring Forty has turned round to go to his assistance and we wish him God's Speed and good luck with his efforts.
We have had another day of repairs and have finally managed to get everything up and running again just before nightfall this evening. First thing this morning we applied strong glue to the split section of our boom and lashed spectra rope around it as tight as possible. All the advice we have received so far indicates that this should solve the problem for now at least. We will just have to be careful from now on how aggressively we sail Mowgli. We aim to always have slightly less mainsail up than we would have done previously.
Fixing the broken halyard was more difficult as it involved trying to feed a new line down inside the mast and out again at the right point further down. When the boat is rocking from side to side, a position at the top of the mast for extended periods in not a comfortable one! It was not until our third attempt that we managed to find a solution and all credit must go to David for his perseverance.
Now that we have everything fixed again, we are able to start sailing the boat a bit faster and hopefully in the right direction! The winds are still not being kind to us, putting us on a more northerly track than we had hoped for. At the same time, there is a new low pressure system and cold front due in tomorrow and further north will suit us well.
Once everything was fixed, we finally had time to sit down to our Christmas dinner!!! Confit de Canard and roast potatoes followed by Christmas pud and brandy butter. How good it that in the middle of the Southern Oceans!! Really, it was lovely to be able to relax a little after the strains and frustrations of the last few days.
We now have quite a distance to catch up on the leaders and we will once again be pushing as hard as we dare. There is still a long long way to go!
Love to all.
Jeremy and David
Saturday 27th December
Position 45'19.192S 68'31.095E
Wind 254 Degrees 14.7 knots
COG 53 Degrees, SOG 9.0 knots
Distance Covered 2,820 Nautical Miles
Well, the winds Gods haven't been kind to us for the last 24 hours and we have finally relinquished our lead position to Beluga and are only a few miles in front of those Red Hot Chili Peppers. We have been flying our masthead kite all day and early this morning everything looked good for us as we were making good speed directly for the gate whilst the others were heading further north. It didn't last and soon the wind came round for us all and we were on a much more northerly course and they were headed due east for the gate. At the same time the wind had dropped somewhat for us and appears to have strengthened for them.
This evening however we have some much worse news to report. A major crack has been discovered in the outboard end of our boom. The crack is right through the carbon fibre running forward for about 35cms. We do have some basic repair materials on board and will do everything we can to prevent the crack growing any further and this will be our priority tomorrow when it is light. It will inevitably mean however that for the rest of this leg, we will have to be extremely careful of how much pressure we are putting on the boom and this will mean under sailing the mainsail, reefing early and keeping further off the wind than we might like.
Welcome to the world of long distance ocean racing!!
On the plus side, the weather has been lovely today and we are finally managing to get everything dried out down below. The water temperature has increased from just over 6 degrees to over 11 degrees in the last few days as we have moved further north and this makes life on board much more bearable - we are actually in double figures for most of the time!
With any luck we will still have time to enjoy our Christmas dinner tomorrow evening and are looking forward to that immensely. Must be better than a non-stop diet of left-over turkey!!
Love to all.
Jeremy and David
Friday 26th December
Position 46'37.824S 64'21.752E
Wind 15.6 k knots 320 degrees
COG 93 Degrees, SOG 7.5 knots
Distance Covered 2,625 Nautical Miles
We never did plan to have Christmas yesterday and we started out with all good intentions of work, work work - see pictures attached but...
Well, we did manage to have our Christmas yesterday as the weather settled down in the afternoon. We still ate freeze dried food but enjoyed some champagne and even a bottle of fine Cape red wine. We sat on the bench seat opening all our presents, wearing our silly Santa hats and had a merry old time. Pip had very kindly given us a pair of fine Cuban cigars so we puffed away merrily with our glass of red and had a fine old time.
It was very strange for us both being so far away from family and friends but all your emails have been a wonderful support for us both. We managed to speak to most of our close family yesterday too via the satellite phone and it was lovely to hear their voices.
Today has been a very frustrating one for us. The wind finally dropped sufficiently for us to get our fractional spinnaker up and realy start pushing again for the line. However within 15 minutes of getting it up there the halyard (rope that pulls the sail up the mast) broke leaving the sail dragging in the water. These sails are pretty huge and pulling them in by hand from a moving boat is a hard and difficult job - but we managed to get it in without causing any damage. The problem however is fixing the halyard. The seas have been too rough today to go up the mast and have a look at the problem but because it is a 2:1 purchase system on this halyard, fixing it is likely to be difficult in any case. In some ways it is the most important rope on the boat for this leg as we are unlikely to be using our main spinnkaer much and the smaller headsails all use this one line. We will find a way!
So, in the meantime, our boat speed is seriously affected and our chances of crossing the scoring gate line first are diminishing rapidly. The Chileans are already further east than us and the Germans aren't far behind. They have had an amazing few days of competitive match racing between them, pushing each other really hard and whilst we are frustrated, we are also impressed with the race they have had so far too.
We expect some calmer weather tomorrow and will hopefully get everything fixed up then and get back up to speed.
All our love.
Jeremy and David
Wednesday 24th December
Position 47'42.971S 49'20.896E
Wind 32.9 knots 266 Degrees
COG 55 degrees. SOG 6.5 knots
Distance covered 1,982 Miles
Well, we knew we were going into a big storm but nobody told us it was going to be hurricane force winds! Overnight the wind and the sea just grew and grew and by this morning it was a pretty steady 50 knots and gusting higher. Through the morning the wind continued to build, reaching a peak of just under 80 knots - well into hurricane territory. The sea state was quite incredible, monstrous rollers you could easily hide a house behind and spray so thick and heavy it was like a fog. We were down to reefed staysail and three reefs in the main but this was clearly too much and the staysail started to flog. David on the helm so Jeremy to the foredeck to take the sail down and secure it safely. (Sadly by this stage it had a tear in it - we are just going to have to get the needles and thread out tomorrow!). No easy task in 65 knots of wind with literally tons of water crashing over you. Indeed so much water that the auto-inflate mechanism on my lifejacket triggered both making life much more difficult and providing some amusement for David!
We then decided to put the fourth reef in the main and sail under this alone. We were still sailing at over 22 knots surfing down enormous breaking waves - ones that any board surfer would give his eye teeth for! Every now and then one of these breakers would catch the boat side on sending her spinning into a broach which proved to be very hard to sail out of. Then one of these huge waves broke over the stern of the boast, nearly taking David with it. It did however cause some damage at the back of the boat, ripping the aft pushpit out of the deck on both sides, washing away the jonbouy and knocking out all our satellite comms and leaving four holes in the transom allowing some water into the boat.
We were now under serious pressure and felt in danger. It wouldn't take much more of that to push us and Mowgli beyond our limits. Jeremy called Josh on the handheld Iridium to report the situation and he advised a sail change to storm jib and no main. This improved the balance of the boat and we felt better that someone knew what was going on. We were still in over 60 knots of wind and hard pressed. Although very slowly the wind started to back off, the seas were now at the height of their fury.
Three hours later, Jeremy reported in to Josh that everything was now under control. Within five minutes, we suffered our most serious knockdown yet sending Jeremy flying from one side of the cabin to the other followed by the cooker, contents of cupboards, anchor chain and all our spare drinking water. Utter chaos!
We then took turns for a couple of hours sleep followed by a bit of a tidy up and basic repairs to the transom before heading back to bed for some proper rest. We haven't eaten all day and now have no cooking facilities - we will fix that in the morning.
All in all, quite a day. How's the run to your Christmas going??
Love Jeremy and David
Monday 22nd December
Position 47'13.666S 42'47.710E
Wind 30.2 knots 32 Deg
COG 128 degrees SOG 10.2 knots
Distance Covered 1,672 Miles
We are facing our toughest test yet with a two separate low pressure systems coming up behind us one ofter the other. The first is expected to be the worst and we are looking at winds well in excess of 50 knots later on tonight. Once this system is past us, the second system is expected within 12 hours and looks as if it is tracking further to the north. Whilst the winds may be slightly lower, if it does pass us to the north we will be facing strong headwinds and extremely confused and angry seas.
Mowgli and her crew are well prepared and we have already put a third reef in the main and reefed the staysail forward. We have, for the first time, donned our new Musto one piece Ocean suits and they are performing well keeping us warm and dry. We had a good meal of freshly cooked pasta - with Parmesan cheese - Yippee! - as the chances of cooking within the next 24 hours don't look good.
Already it looks as if we might have to postpone our Christmas by 24 hours but from what we can see that far out at the moment we are then in for a relatively settled period of weather. A couple of days or so at the most!
Until tomorrow...
Love
Jeremy & David