And so we set off with a lot of fanfare. There was a military band playing for us and a naval ship to flag us off. After a lot of parading around in the Marina, we finally took off.
Since I was on Port watch, I pretty much stayed on deck once we set sail. The big waves and swell made me feel queasy almost immediately and I avoided eating any dinner, except for an apple. After a break our eatch was back on deck around 0200. It was a beautiful, starry night and I got my first glimpse of the Southern Cross. What a way to bring in my Mym's birthday and celebrate Kojagiri.
0800 and we changed watches. I was loking forward to 6 hours of sleep. The moment I got below deck, I threw up and instantly, well almost, felt better. Changed out of my foulies and felt good to shed the additional weight. Its the constant in and out of all the warm clothes and foulies and the consequent changes in temperature that really bother me. Its so warm inside that justbthe thermal underwear is good enough to wear inside the sleeping bag and stay cozy. On deck, the clearer the sky, the colder it gets, and windy too. So I wear 3 layers of clothes plus the foulies and 2 pairs of socks with the wet weather boots. And then the life jacket, which is probably another 3kgs of weight. All of whcih takes a good 10 minutes to take off or put back on. And Ive discovered that any bending down just triggers my nausea, and I need to get fresh air in a hurry.
So, I threw up, felt better, removed my lenses and crawled into my sleeping bag when I heard an enormous thud. At first I thiught it was James keeling over because of his seasickness. He shouted out that he was ok, when Trevor and Roy made a beeline for the deck, past my bunk. As they ran, they shouted for everyone to get into their life jackets immediately.
After struggling back inot all my gear, I got to the deck stairs and loked up to see that the deck was a mass of ropes, pipes, sheets and wooden boards.
We had been hit by a whale!
There was a hole in the hull, inside fhe lazarette and that was letting in a lot of water. The starboard rudder was broken or damaged and basically, unusable. All of which Roy told us once things were more under control.
To rewind a bit, David had just taken over the helm when he felt this push and a juddering shake from behind. He looked over to see a whale rolling away sideways from our stern (like a drunk Gosportian said Roy later, much later), even as he lost control of the steering. The whale's fin struck the starboard rudder and bent it so its top edge dug into the hull and made a hole in the lazarette, but also tore the bearings and jammed the connection between the two rudders. DW got into action in seconds and disconnected the two rudders, making the port steering operational again.
We were sailing with thr yankee3 and the main on second reef. The guys on watch dumped the yankee while a few others got to emptying the lazarette. We had this huge bundle of rags that we used to stuff the hole and a wooden board to keep it all in place. A little later we put up the storm jib. And then tidied everything up. Bending over to pick up thr sheets got me nauseous again and i threw up into a trash bag i happened to have with me. Roy was watching and joked that he needed me to go up the mast now to fix something!
In all this, Roy had spoken with the Clipper office on our Satphone and the plan was to motor back to Punta and we had already changed course to return.
We had sailed about 140nm between 1400 yesterday and 0800 today, Oct 5th, but under engine we expected it to take us twice that time to get back. We did get back on the 6th however, around 1400. It was a relief for me in a way as we started on half watches and Trevor let me sleep whenever posible to deal with my seasickness. Thank you Trevor.
Since we had sent a lot of photos and videos across to Clipper, they were well prepared for us when we got into Piriapolis. There was a bus waiting to cart us off to the hotel that the Mayor of Punta had so kindly organised for us. And a huge crane was already in position to get CV28 out of the water, into the dry dock, for closer inspection and repairs.
A quick shower and nap later we were escorted to an Asada, an Uruguayan barbeque, hosted by the Mayor. Lots of wine and meat later, I hit the sack around 2200 only to wake up at 1000 the next morning.
Since I was on Port watch, I pretty much stayed on deck once we set sail. The big waves and swell made me feel queasy almost immediately and I avoided eating any dinner, except for an apple. After a break our eatch was back on deck around 0200. It was a beautiful, starry night and I got my first glimpse of the Southern Cross. What a way to bring in my Mym's birthday and celebrate Kojagiri.
0800 and we changed watches. I was loking forward to 6 hours of sleep. The moment I got below deck, I threw up and instantly, well almost, felt better. Changed out of my foulies and felt good to shed the additional weight. Its the constant in and out of all the warm clothes and foulies and the consequent changes in temperature that really bother me. Its so warm inside that justbthe thermal underwear is good enough to wear inside the sleeping bag and stay cozy. On deck, the clearer the sky, the colder it gets, and windy too. So I wear 3 layers of clothes plus the foulies and 2 pairs of socks with the wet weather boots. And then the life jacket, which is probably another 3kgs of weight. All of whcih takes a good 10 minutes to take off or put back on. And Ive discovered that any bending down just triggers my nausea, and I need to get fresh air in a hurry.
So, I threw up, felt better, removed my lenses and crawled into my sleeping bag when I heard an enormous thud. At first I thiught it was James keeling over because of his seasickness. He shouted out that he was ok, when Trevor and Roy made a beeline for the deck, past my bunk. As they ran, they shouted for everyone to get into their life jackets immediately.
After struggling back inot all my gear, I got to the deck stairs and loked up to see that the deck was a mass of ropes, pipes, sheets and wooden boards.
We had been hit by a whale!
There was a hole in the hull, inside fhe lazarette and that was letting in a lot of water. The starboard rudder was broken or damaged and basically, unusable. All of which Roy told us once things were more under control.
To rewind a bit, David had just taken over the helm when he felt this push and a juddering shake from behind. He looked over to see a whale rolling away sideways from our stern (like a drunk Gosportian said Roy later, much later), even as he lost control of the steering. The whale's fin struck the starboard rudder and bent it so its top edge dug into the hull and made a hole in the lazarette, but also tore the bearings and jammed the connection between the two rudders. DW got into action in seconds and disconnected the two rudders, making the port steering operational again.
We were sailing with thr yankee3 and the main on second reef. The guys on watch dumped the yankee while a few others got to emptying the lazarette. We had this huge bundle of rags that we used to stuff the hole and a wooden board to keep it all in place. A little later we put up the storm jib. And then tidied everything up. Bending over to pick up thr sheets got me nauseous again and i threw up into a trash bag i happened to have with me. Roy was watching and joked that he needed me to go up the mast now to fix something!
In all this, Roy had spoken with the Clipper office on our Satphone and the plan was to motor back to Punta and we had already changed course to return.
We had sailed about 140nm between 1400 yesterday and 0800 today, Oct 5th, but under engine we expected it to take us twice that time to get back. We did get back on the 6th however, around 1400. It was a relief for me in a way as we started on half watches and Trevor let me sleep whenever posible to deal with my seasickness. Thank you Trevor.
Since we had sent a lot of photos and videos across to Clipper, they were well prepared for us when we got into Piriapolis. There was a bus waiting to cart us off to the hotel that the Mayor of Punta had so kindly organised for us. And a huge crane was already in position to get CV28 out of the water, into the dry dock, for closer inspection and repairs.
A quick shower and nap later we were escorted to an Asada, an Uruguayan barbeque, hosted by the Mayor. Lots of wine and meat later, I hit the sack around 2200 only to wake up at 1000 the next morning.
