Race 6 - Day 5
Crew Diary - Race 6 Day 5
13 January

Our best worst idea yet

Coming onto deck at at 20:00 was a lovely experience as the heat below hadn’t gotten any better. The weather report from deck was imminent rain. Putting on my salopettes and light raincoat I hit the deck. Max was on the helm as the previous watch had a few broaches and he wanted a smooth watch change. The wave state was roll with a little extra roll, and at the right time the boat would tilt enough that the good rudder would leave the water, and we would broach until the back of the boat sat back into the water. The only solution to prevent this was to pre-steer: if you thought you had a big wave and if the boat didn’t roll hard then correct it and just accept the cost of running deep. The other rudder we have was basically useless to us at this point in the wave state. After the change, Lorraine, our fearless Watch Leader, and I took the helm and barely managed it for 45 minutes. The outcome of this session was that we should try a reef to keep it flatter and prevent the rounding up. After the reef was set, it was much cozier and more comfortable. The wind was still fairly variable, but we knew Zhuhai was pulling away which prompted the discussion of whether we could hold a Code 3. After 20 minutes of discussion, I finally said: “We don’t know what we don’t know and we only know what we know”, implying we should hoist it and worst case we would drop it right after. This seemed to tip things in favour of yes and Max shouted to get the Code 3 on deck. We quickly started moving towards a hoist, kite on deck, sheets run, short sleepers awoken. Then we had a team brief in the cockpit and assigned jobs to ensure the hoist would go seamlessly. The hoist went smoothly, the kite was up, and the wool was holding. We started to drop the Yankee and this is where things started to go wrong. The kite started to pop and as we were running deep to keep the boat flat the kite started to do its best to pop inside the Yankee. The kite started to flog, the Yankee was trapped and wouldn’t come down, so I yelled to smoke the halyard. The halyard was smoked, and the sail came down like a ton of bricks on myself and Ella.

The spinnaker had room to breathe and started to fly semi-well. We spent the next five minutes hauling the Yankee 1 out of the water. As that was finally finished, and as if by coincidence, it was this exact moment that the kite decided to wrap itself around the inner forestay and staysail haylard. It became an hourglass of sorts but harder to get out. The sail tie holding the staysail broke under the immense pressure of it. We eased the spinnaker halyard which eventually moved the hourglass up and it popped out. As it popped out the boat heeled over. As the boat heeled, I knew what was about to happen. Max was on the helm and he yelled “dump it” as we broached and broached hard. The rudder was out of the water and we couldn’t do anything until the boat sat back down. As it started to turn again, we heeled again and broached again. The kite started to flog hard, and the sheets were whipping and cracking. At this time we went back to the bow to hoist the anti-wrap net. The only thing worse than a broach is a kite wrap. This hoist took longer as we kept broaching and the sheets kept coming within meters of us, each time we hit the deck to avoid the sheets. It was almost poetic that as the kite was flogging the rain started, and when I say rain I mean rain: it started pouring. Once the anti-wrap net was set, we heard the call from Max: drop the kite. 20 minutes of semi-flying and multiple broaches and it was decided this was not the right decision. The rain went from pouring to literal sheets of rain coming down. I put my hood up and it emptied its entire reservoir into my jacket, soaking me. I dropped my hood and just accepted the free shower in the rain. As we prepared for the drop Max yelled, “nothing else matters, get this kite down.” We broached again but this time it felt like an eternity. “Bam, bam, bam”, the kite was flogging so hard you could see the water being left behind in the place the kite was. I was expecting it to just shred itself, but the Code 3 held its own and didn’t even get a hole (that I know of). The flogging just wouldn't stop and then suddenly the boat sat back down, we turned hard downwind, and we instantly blew the tack to prevent what just happened from happening again. The rain increased again into a solid sheet and all you could see was the rain in front of you, punctuated by shouting from different people.

As the kite started to drop it decided it was time to wrap itself around the anti-wrap net. This was due to running so deep to ensure we kept our only usable rudder in the water. As the kite drop stalled out, a team of us rushed forward to the bow to start pulling it down inch by inch. Yet again the kite had other plans and started to reinflate. Changing tactics yet again we jumped on it, only to find to Tom’s, Ella’s and my surprise that it could lift all three of us at once. We were all tethered and held the kite down while occasionally being lifted into the air. We started to throw any available sail ties we had onto the kite on the bow and we slowly got it down to prevent it reinflating. Finally with sail ties on it we managed to wrangle the kite to the deck and unclip the halyards. By this time, we were in a swimming pool of water that the kite had brought with it. Water was everywhere. We ripped the bow hatch open and feverishly slammed the Code 3 down along with half the ocean. After the kite was back down below which was a true test in itself, we went back to the bow to lower the anti-wrap net and hoist the Yankee 1. Both of these went flawlessly.

Max asked us all to go down below for a quick debrief and left Tom on deck to keep the boat running. After the short debrief all of us round the worlders just started laughing as this was the wettest any of us had been on the boat yet. I mean every inch of my body was wet from sea and rain water, not one part was left dry. As the debrief ended everyone asked why we put the Code 3 up and we answered that at the time it seemed like a best idea we had. In reality, it was the worst idea we have had yet. The best worst idea yet. I am sure at some point in the next half of the race around the world we will have another better worse idea.

By Lachlan Duncan