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Pipped for the podium

Thursday, 22 October 2009

Tom Gruitt and Cape Breton Island finish Leg 1 in fourth place...

"So here we are! Cape Breton Island Clipper has finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro! We finished fourth overall at 0505 (Rio time) at the line due south of the headland at Cabo Frio in a fickle breeze with Cork chasing us hard all the way to the line, they only finished about 10 minutes behind us. It was an agonising finish to the race

with us mainly drifting in the tide over the line only making about 2 knots boat speed with sails flogging as we rolled in the swell. We were so pleased to have finished inside the time limit set by the race officials, if we had not finished by 1200 UTC then the positions would have been taken as the nearest to Rio, the satisfaction of actually crossing the line was great! After the finish was a 6 hour motor sail to Rio itself, this was due to light and flukey winds on the approach to Rio, it made sense to finish us on the headland were we could race in a better breeze.

"On arrival to the Rio de Janiero Yacht Club we had a quick beer before getting on with the menial task of cleaning the boat, all the boards came up, the bilges cleaned, and everything wiped down with antibacterial spray. I have serviced most of the winches on deck yesterday and today, getting rid of all the salt and other matter that end up in the cogs, it needs a good memory to put all the bits back in the correct place, only once did I end up with a bit left over!

"At the moment all the sails are being cleaned, mended and re-flaked with Hyde Sails adjusting all the light weight spinnakers by chopping a good few feet off the bottom, this is due to it catching on the forestay and the pullpit and ripping all the time, rumour has it Team Finland only used their heavy weight spinnaker never hoisting the medium or light.

"Once all the work is done today we are get time to relax and enjoy ourselves out and about in the city until nearer the start of the next leg where more boat preparations begin. I fly home tonight to a very autumnal England, I can't wait!"

posted by Hyde Sails at

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In 'stealth mode'

Saturday, 17 October 2009

From twisters, to daydreams of a Cornish pint, Tom Gruitt shares the story from Cape Breton Island, which is currently in 'stealth mode' and battling for second place.

"Sorry for the lack of communication, we've all been busy sailing trying to catch up the miles on Spirit of Australia and put extra miles on Jamaica. Currently we are in stealth mode, so none of the fleet know where we are. We are in stealth mode for 24 hours, this will end at midnight tonight unfortunately, but hopefully we will have been gaining on the boats ahead of us.

"Due to very unpredictable light winds near Rio the race has been shortened to a headland off of Capo Frio, this is roughly a 6 hour motor sail from Rio and we should be finishing in 3 or 4 days, depending on the wind. It's looking like it's going to be a close finish between us and Spirit of Australia for second place, we have a slightly different tactic that we are sure will pay off in the long run, keep watching the tracker to find out!

"Just a few minutes ago we sailed under a lot of grey clouds and even saw a small twister reach down to the water. I grabbed my shower gel in anticipation of a nice freshwater wash on deck but was sadly denied as only a gentle spit of rain actually fell on the deck, what little rain fell was refreshing all the same.

"The temperatures here are almost unbearable, the sun feels like it penetrates through any layer of clothing and no matter how much sun cream you apply shade is needed readily. We are all glad the watermaker is still working as we are drinking litres of the stuff every day, I just long for the taste of some orange squash in my water, pure water does get boring after a while.

"On board we have mainly been talking about all the things we are looking forward to back on land and the people we want to see. The main things seem to be steak and chips, a full English breakfast and to have the option not to eat angel delight nearly every day (it does get rather sickly when you have no fridge to set it in). I think the thing I'm looking forward to most is a nice pint of Cornish ale down my local and some cheese and crackers, we only had cheese on here for the first few days before it was quickly demolished. Fresh fruit and veg all rate pretty highly among the crew, along with having a bath and sleeping in a bed that doesn't wobble from side to side. On board we only have 7 different menus for food, this means that cous cous comes up much too regularly for my liking, I always look forward to the beef stew with mashed potatoes and the Thai green prawn (from a tin) curry, it tastes better than it sounds honest! Lunch mainly consists of bread and soup, or tuna, salami or corned beef rolls. A highlight from the night watch last night was that we found a few bags of M&Ms in the cupboard, eating nice chocolate again was a luxury, but it soon disappeared and we were left with the cardboard muesli bars that no one likes.

"Hopefully my next update will be about the close of the race near Rio!"

posted by Hyde Sails at

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In the Southern Hemisphere!

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Tom Gruitt crosses the Equator.

"One of my sailing dreams came true today, I sailed into the Southern Hemisphere! We crossed the equator at roughly 0100 on Monday 12th, with strangely dressed people and a bar set up down below with rum, gin & tonic and one bottle of pear cider we had a small party on the boat. There were glow sticks a plenty and some of the guys dressed in leotards, tight vest tops and Phil dressed in a pink cowboy hat and a blue towel/skirt. I shall spare you all the photos. We all cheered and celebrated the crossing of hemispheres before listening to Jan make a little speech about how Neptune was so kind to give us wind all through the doldrums, for this we gave him a few gifts including a nice measure of Benromach whisky.

"Soon enough it was back to the reality of sailing after letting our hair down for an hour, oh how those rum and cokes went down nicely after being at sea for so long! A close battle with Spirit of Australia is on at the moment with us in second place only one nautical mile ahead, we believe we are in a far better position than them so should start to put the miles on them soon. Poor California is about 900 miles behind the leaders, Finland, and making slow progress. I can't bear to image what life on board that boat is like, the morale must be at a complete low. Contrary to this, life on board the 'Big Blue Canoe' that is Cape Breton Island Clipper, is great, there seems to be a great sense of harmony within the crew with hardly any arguments or bad words said and our skipper seems to be able to rest easily (this means generally he is in a good mood and does fewer Meer Kat impressions sticking his head up through the hatch!).

"Today I was on mother watch with Rob, I think we were dealt a little bit of a bad hand with the food bags, we had soup for lunch which seemed only enough to feed about five, so this had to be bulked up with water and sachets of powdered soup, mushrooms and some paprika. For dinner we had cous-cous, a blank canvas for attaching many flavours, the only this is that we had a limited amount of flavours to add that didn't involve more Salami. Peppers, tomatoes, apricots, pine nuts and raisins did the trick and people didn't seem to complain too much. Dessert came up trumps though, chocolate brownies served with the best custard I have ever made, at one point it rivaled the adhesive properties of Sikaflex but this was soon rectified to allow it to actually flow out of the jug and into the bowls!

"Cooking for 20 hungry sailors isn't easy, but the hardest part is doing all the washing up afterwards and all the general cleaning of the boat throughout the day, cleaning the heads at 0700 in the morning certainly wakes you up! Mother watch starts at 2100 and ends at the same time the next day, this means you have plenty of time the evening before to prepare any food, such as soaking beans or chick peas, neither of my favourite foods despite their liberal use for the last three weeks. The freshwater shower at the end of the day makes it worthwhile.

"A strange thing happened today, Luke logged onto the communications computer to send a few emails and we realised the screen had turned upside down! We are not sure if this is a direct effect of crossing the equator or someone sitting on the keyboard at some point after the party, whichever it is, it's making it hard to type this blog and I'm sure to develop a crick in my neck pretty soon, so I shall make this the end for now. We estimate only six days until we reach Rio, I can't wait!"

posted by Hyde Sails at

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Doldrums, what doldrums?

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Tom Gruitt tells the story from on board Cape Breton Island as the crew manages to catch the weather window that sees them in the leading bunch of boats...

"Our skipper Jan Ridd prepared us for the doldrums, saying that huge gains and losses could be made and that sailing just a few miles a day could see anyone gain the lead.

"In my line of work I get to talk to a lot of people from cruisers to professional round the world sailors, they have all said basically the same thing, the doldrums are tough and really test your patience. Imagine our surprise as Jan popped his head through the hatch saying he reckoned he had found a way through without sailing into a light wind area! He explained that we needed to catch the next weather system to get us across, so to the hour we got there, completed a really slick spinnaker drop and hoisted the Windseeker. An hour or so later the wind built and we hoisted the staysail and the Yankee 2.

"The relief on Jan's face was visible. Still sailing upwind the breeze built on the nose to 27 knots apparent meaning two reefs were needed for a while, nothing like what any of the books have mentioned! About five boats have got through and the other half of the fleet are stuck, with Qingdao doing 1.5 miles in 6 hours in the wrong direction! The next big highlight of the trip is the equator, we are about 160 miles away so will hopefully cross on Monday.

"We all feel pretty lucky to have sailed through the doldrums without dropping below 5 knots of boat speed, this will be story for all of us to tell back at the yacht club bar for a long time to come!"

posted by Hyde Sails at

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Roasting in the doldrums

Thursday, 8 October 2009

Tom Gruitt celebrates reaching half way in leg 1 of the Clipper Race aboard Cape Breton Island.

"Just a short one for today as not too much has been happening down here. We are doing pretty well and making good inroads into the doldrums at the moment, but we still have wind! Team Finland have parked up and are less than 60 miles ahead in first place at the moment, the longer we carry on like this the more their lead is in jeopardy. When we get the 0600 schedules we will find out how we have done overnight against them, let's hope we are now right on their tail.

"We are currently running with the medium weight spinnaker as we had up to 24 knots of breeze in the night, although this has dropped off somewhat now. Again I find myself working at 0400 in the morning so this gets posted on the morning internet connection (our email connects four times a day). Last night we were followed by dolphins again, but this time I was trying out a new technique to photograph them, flash! They didn't seem to mind and even more grouped round when they realised they were having their photo taken, they are the vainest creatures in the sea by a long way.

"We are just over half way in distance now which brought a big cheer amongst the crew, but we are well over half way in terms of time. Once we get the other side of the ITCZ we can make great progress towards Rio on the trade winds, which can sometimes get pretty strong but are normally in the right direction. The doldrums are going to be the hardest part of this leg of the race, even just doing a few miles a day can gain you a huge lead on the other side.

"As the sun went down we saw some large storm clouds brewing on the horizon, they didn’t seem to come to much and all we had were a few spits of rain. We are waiting with anticipation for the tropical rainstorms to come so we can all stand on deck and have a shower without using lots of our freshly made water. Making water on board is a daily routine, the generator gets fired up early normally waking me up as it gets going, then the water maker is turned on and let to run through for a bit before the fresh water is directed into the tanks. It makes about 30 litres of fresh water an hour from the 300 litres of salt water that it takes in, a time consuming process when you have a large tank to fill. Other daily duties include cleaning the boat and heads and making sure all the food is out ready for the next day. Deck and rig checks need to be done often to reduce the risk of any major failure, also halyards need to be adjusted a few times a day to make sure that the load is spread over a different place to stop chaffing.

"It's not long until the schedules need to be done so I had better send this before the skipper takes over the nav station for a while, let's hope our overnight effort had paid off."

posted by Hyde Sails at

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Wildlife spotting

Monday, 5 October 2009

On Cape Breton Island, Tom Gruitt had been wildlife spotting, both on and off the boat!

"We have been on a charge downwind for a few days now, it's 0400 and I've just got off the helm after some epic sailing. We are currently getting surfs of near 20 knots with the medium weight spinnaker. There are some great waves out there that just take you faster and faster until you plough into the next one! I was rudely awakened early this morning by a wave breaking into the cockpit and coming through the small hatch near my bunk, it was quite refreshing though. As the last few schedules have come in we have been making more miles per 12 hours than any other boat, this means we are catching up pretty quickly and are constantly pushing hard to gain as many miles as we can. Life down below the boat is getting really hot, sleeping at night is hard in this heat and many people are starting to look a little weary. Simon and I were just chatting on deck saying how strange it is to be hundreds of miles out in the ocean at night just wearing shorts and t-shirt and still being too hot!

"On this trip we have seen a lot of wildlife, some off the boat and some on it! We usually get our nightly display by the dolphins, lighting up the water with the phosphorescence, it's a truly magical experience to watch them play, I'm still not bored of it. I can happily sit on the foredeck watching, hearing them click and squeak as they jump a good six feet out of the wake. Yesterday evening we had a pretty close encounter with two whales, we spotted them crossing out bows and were on a collision course but they seemed to know the rules of the road and as they were on port they slowed down and gave way! We passed about 20 feet in front of them and they blew spray in the air and all over the boat.

"I think the closest encounter with ocean wildlife was with the flying fish. I was on the coffee grinder trimming the spinnaker as we surfed downwind and to my surprise a flying fish flew out of the water straight into my face, it took me slightly by surprise and actually hurt quite a lot! We were doing about 15 knots at the time and it must have been flying at 20, that's quite an impact speed! I am now tempted to put the helmet and goggles on when I return to deck, just in case. They are mad little things, always trying to get on deck and often ending up flying down one of the open hatches into the galley or saloon down below, it's great hearing the reaction as one lands on the table! Other sightings include bats, they sometimes stop and cling to the guardrail for a rest. We have had a couple of birds land on the spreader too hitching a free ride south, they don't seem too worried by the 6ft high eagle on the side of the boat's hull!

"With the only noise out here being the water rushing past the hull and general boat noises, Morgan and I have realised that a lot of things on here sound like animals too. We have a spinnaker halyard that sounds like a cow, mooing is way downwind, accompanied by the port primary winch that sounds like an elephant roaring when the sheet is eased through it. Recently the boom has started sounding like a dawn chorus of toads and crickets each time we roll over a wave (it does honestly!). The latest addition to the Cape Breton farm is a donkey. We can hear it on the foredeck somewhere but are still not sure exactly what is making the noise, as I sit here now I can hear it gently eeyoring away, we shall investigate when it gets light."

posted by Hyde Sails at

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Finally the breeze fills in

Friday, 2 October 2009

Tom enjoys some champagne sailing on Cape Breton Island as they reel in Jamaica Clipper...

"Hurrah! Finally we have wind and have left the Canary Islands. Last night we hoisted our windseeker and slowly but surely started to move away from the Canary Islands, with the wind only getting up to about 4 knots it was hard work. As the wind came forward we decided to get further South, so hoisted our lightweight spinnaker, strapped it in pretty hard and got the apparent wind going. Slowly the wind built and came round until this morning we were making about 11 knots in the right direction. We have just peeled to our medium-weight spinnaker as the apparent wind has built up to about 14 knots, we are now charging down Jamaica Clipper at about 11 knots on a nice hot sunny afternoon, champagne sailing for sure!

"With the wind forecast to build slightly we should be able to make back a few places on the boats in the West who are sailing upwind and still have to sail through a light patch of breeze, we should be able to hold this downwind angle for a few days, possibly even to the Equator.

"Life on board is getting a little tougher as we run out of fresh fruit and vegetables, creating something interesting for lunch and dinner is proving a little more difficult. Fresh bread baked daily makes nice toast for breakfast, or to go with lunch. Cooking for a crew of 20 isn't easy, it takes a lot of planning and quantity control is pretty much guesswork. I have never known anyone to gauge the quantity of rice for a meal correctly!

"I am now pretty used to the lack of sleep and am amazed how little I now need to function properly, once I have washed and done some work or sent a few emails I'm left with about three hours' sleep per off watch. Then it's up again for another four hours on deck, I have one watch from 0300 to 0700, which is my least favourite, waking up enough to sail is hard at that time in the morning. The worst thing is when you wake up and are confronted with a spinnaker that needs re-wooling or you need to do a sail change.

"All in all we are pretty happy here on Cape Breton Island, and we just hope we can pull back a few more places in the next few days..."

posted by Hyde Sails at