Traffic jam at Cape Horn

Two race boats from two seperate races rounded cape horn at the same time on Tuesday March 9th.

The boats are Neutrogena, an Open 60 racing in the double handed Barcelona World Race and Sodeb'o, a huge trimaran the is challenging for the Jules Vern trophy for fastest single handed voyage around the world.  

In fact four other boats from the velux 5 oceans race also rounded the horn this week.  I find this remarkable because it points to the number of sailing races that are all happening at the same time.  All the boats from every race set their start date so that they pass cape horn during the peak of the southern hemisphere summer when it is safest, thus creating a relative traffic jam of boats in one of the most remote and hostile places on the planet.

The following is video from Sodeb'o

Velux 5 oceans leg three ends in sprint.

The Velux 5 oceans leg 3 from New Zeland to Brazil finished in a sprint, with the second, third and fourth place boats all within sight of each other.

The big story seems to be how each skipper delt with mechanical issues aboard his boat as all three skippers had there fair share of troubles.  Gutek had a loose keel, which ment he could only sail with the keel pined against the hull at maximum cant.  This prevented the keel from working loose, but limmited his options at times.  Derrick had mechanical issues with his engine and some issues with his navigational equipment.  CSM, Chris Stanmore Major had sail issues.  He had a 2+ m rip in his main that took him two days to repair in the lead up to cape horn.  Then he had a minor rip in his head sail that he was able to fix with out dropping the sail. 

In the approach to Cape Horn, Derrick and Gutek where with in site of one another, and CSM was a couple hundred miles astern.  CSM made up the gap and passed both of the other boats and was leading into the last hour or so of the race.  He then made a navigational error that required him to complete two more gybes to cross the line.  This allowed Gutek to close the gap again and beat him accross the line by 40 seconds! This is the closest finish for any leg of the velux 5 oceans in History!  Derrick trailed the other boats in by an hour.  All three skippers were able to celebrate their safe passage togeather on the dock. 

Here's a link to a video from Velux describing the action.
http://www.velux5oceans.com/#/latest-news/ocean-sprint-3-an-amazing-finish/1642

Saturday Sailing links #2

Here's more sailing related video and  links

1) Steven Colbert talking about a 2005 Charlston to Bermuda race.  He's doing the race again this year.


2) An article from Attainable Adventure Cruising:
http://www.morganscloud.com/2011/02/16/this-and-that-february/

3) A boat review of an Island Packet 34
http://nasailor.com/2010/12/15/boat-review-island-packet-36-estero/#more-3182

4) 23 min Highlight show of 1989-90 Whitbread around the world race


5) Chris Stanmore-Major rocking around cape horn
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150093094975896

6) An Ice boat crash

Memory aid for Port hand bouys

Port hand Bouys are like 7 up cans.

They are always green, odd numbered and have a square top.

This nugget of wisdom came from a Kayak blogger named Bonnie who is Bouy Crazy

How not to Navigate with GPS

The following is a list of stuff not to do when navigating with GPS

1) Do not place waypoints on solid objects.  This can lead to collision with said objects.

2) Do not "Drive the TV".  This is a situation where a skipper sits at the nav station and stares at the pretty boat on the screen and does not consider outside information.  The worst case of this is the powerboat skipper who sits on his flybridge at night with all the interior lights on and is not able to even see outside.  He just stares at the "TV" and does not keep any semblance of a proper lookout.

3) Do not assume the chart information displayed on your screen is correct.  Most chart software suppliers only provide updates to their data every year or two, where paper charts can be updated regularly by hand.  This can be an issue when depths change in an area of high silt deposit or other man made alterations to nav aids.  Also most electronic chart data is digitized from another source.  This is an opportunity for human error.

4) Do not assume GPS will always be available.  Murphy's law is an important consideration at sea.  Your GPS can fail from something as simple as lack of power, physical damage, or corrosion.  The American government can also de-activate selective availability and reduce your GPS from 10m accuracy to several hundred meter accuracy when ever they feel like it.  The safest option is to be prepared to take over from the chart plotter by recording regular fixes in your log or on a chart.  To do this you also need to have paper charts, navigation tools including a hand bearing compass, and the skills to use them.

In short, having a GPS aboard does not mean that you no longer need to know how to navigate by hand and eye.

Canadian Ocean racer rounds Cape Horn Safely

Yesterday Canadian Ocean Racer, Derick Hatfield, rounded cape horn safely.  He's past the most dangerous point on the whole circumnavigation, and is headed for the next stopover port in Brazil.

He has had a challenging race.  The first leg from L'oreant France to Cape Town South Africa started nicely, then he appeared to gybe to early and had less wind then the boats that went further off shore.  The second leg he promised to be more competitive and it looked really good.  He was first out of the port of Cape town,  and was challenging for second place for much of the leg.  Then the Polish skipper, Gutek, chose a better route into Wellington New Zealand and beat him in by a day or so.  In this third leg he has rounded the horn and is within 20 miles of the second place boat.  All the boats except for the Leader, Brad Vanlou are having issues on this leg.  The keel on Guteck's boat in moving several millimeters from side to side due to a broken component on the outside of the hull.  He has had to throttle down to stay safe.  Derick has engine issues that lead to low power available for the boats pilots and navigation equipment, as well as a leak in a forward compartment.  Then there is Chris Steinmouth Major.  He has had a ripped main sail that resulted in a marathon sail repair session.  He posted an excellent video of his work at the link below.  Chris has consistently done good video and written blog posts.  See them at the same site.

http://www.velux5oceans.com/#/latest-news/csms-sewing-marathon/1562

It looks like this will be Derick's last race.  He has made several comments that he feels he has done what he needs to do with ocean racing.  Time to go back to his young family and retire from his second career.    He's not done yet though.  The last leg from Brazil up to France is still to come.  Hopefully he can cross the line with a second place instead of the string of thirds that he has got so far.

A navigational poem

A Navigational Poem

Meeting steamers do not dread;
When you see three lights ahead
Starboard wheel and show your red.

Green to green or red to red,
Perfect safety, go ahead.

If to starboard red appear,
’Tis your duty to keep clear;
Act as judgment says is proper:
Port—or starboard—back or stop her.

But when upon your port is seen
A steamer’s starboard light of green,
There’s not so much for you to do,
For green to port keeps clear of you.

Both in safety and in doubt
Always keep a good look-out;
In danger with no room to turn,
Ease her—Stop her—Go astern.

 Copied from John Vigo's blog at:

http://www.johnvigor.com/Blog.html

And a poem about single handed sailing:

Pablo Neruda:

……and now, nothing more,
I want to be alone with my essential sea…… 
I don’'t want to speak for a long time, 
Silence! I want to learn, 
I want to know if I exist. 


From Royal Vic YC single handed sailor Andrew Evans e book "Thoughts, Tips, Techniques &Tactics For Single handed Sailing"