Into the Tempest

After sailing past Cape Horn on Christmas Day, northerly winds were forecast and came in just as expected - I made 159nm in 23 hours. I needed to make a further 214nm to get past the eastern end of Burwood Bank, a very shallow area to the east of Cape Horn. This bank is as shallow as 40m in some areas and has claimed many a boat in rough weather so it was my intention to stay well clear. I was 40nm short of reaching the eastern end of the bank when the wind swung to the south east and up to gale force. There was no option open to me other than slog it out till I could turn north in deep water. It was very rough going and Spirit showed her strength and took all the bangs and bumps in her stride.  Sailing at this latitude it seems that there is always more than one swell pattern with the associated rough weather.

Tristan da Cunha Island was the next turning mark and more than 2000nm away. It was not possible to relax until I was close to them. The Antarctic Convergence Zone extends north in this area and the water temperature was down to 4.1ºC. I would still be a long way south for some time and in very real storm territory.

On day 57 I was treated to an extremely rare sight of hourglass dolphins. These dolphins are black and white in colour like penguins, only found in polar regions and are quite rare. They travel in groups of between seven and 10, and are rarely seen by humans.

A low pressure system was forecast to give me a storm the next day so a walk around the deck to do some checks was in order. It is much easier to fix a problem before a storm than during it. I was surprised to see gooseneck barnacles growing on Spirit's bow already.

On day 58 I sent my noon email home reporting winds up to 60kts and just as the computer recorded it sent, Spirit was knocked down to starboard. The top of the mast went into the water as well as the wind generator. This broke off a blade of the generator. I also discovered the Hawk Wind indicator at the top of the mast broke. The wind generator was shaking the whole boat and things were everywhere. I had to go outside and see what was happening out there. The auto pilot had overloaded and turned off, so I got that set again and put my best wet weather gear on. Hand steering would be needed to survive. Spirit was sailing under the hurricane jib only and reaching some fast speeds. Too fast.  The seas were huge. There was a swell pattern from the northwest and one from the southwest so when these seas met they peaked into huge mountains. At times there were vertical walls of water, sometimes as high as the mast. I was hand steering and didn't like sailing down these walls of water. Spirit and I were getting hit by waves from all directions.

I got the car tyre drogue out and set it on six meters of 10mm chain and 60m of 20mm silver rope. This did a great job to settle the boat. The wind was still building and at about 1500hrs a wave squared us up; I couldn't get Spirit to turn back around and sail with the swell. Finally, I managed to get Spirit sailing again and to my horror the drogue line had wrapped around the rudder.

We were sailing again and the tension on the rope was threatening to destroy the rudder. The winds were frightening as well as the seas.  I had no option but to cut the drogue free. I had to cut the line on both sides of the rudder. This left a piece still around the rudder. That would have to stay there until I could do something about it at a later date.

I knew the weather pattern was moving from the northwest to the southeast. If I kept sailing east that would only keep Spirit in this weather pattern for a longer period of time. That could be days and my 6m² hurricane jib was producing boat speeds that were too fast. By now the wind was touching 70kts.

The quickest way out of this was to sail to the northwest and let this weather pattern go on it's merry way. I had never sailed in winds like this before. The pressure of the wind just on your body as you stand there was huge. The noise of the wind was huge. This was a totally new experience and was testing me to the limit. I bit the bullet and turned Spirit around and steered northwest into it. Heading into these huge seas was awesome. The hurricane jib was just the right size now and it seemed to be working well. I was clipped on and also hanging on with one arm around the pushpit rail. It wasn't long before a breaking wave washed over me. It broke my grip and I ended down on the bottom side of the cockpit. My hands were torn off the wheel. I grabbed another one metre harness strap and clipped myself on again, so I had support at the wheel. This was better but I was still being washed off the wheel at regular intervals.

At 2030hrs the wind had settled to 30 to 40kts and still gusting into the 50s. The highest gust registered on the wind gauge was 74kts. I tried the auto-pilot and watched her handle it for a while. All seemed ok. I headed inside and had two Milos.

On this trip, I have sailed in 50kts regularly but what a storm that was. The barometer had dropped from 1008 to 975hPa in 30 hours and was back up to 1011hPa in 24 hours. Maybe the Southern Ocean was saying "bye, bye" to me and "see you in two months."

What a different story it was two days later. I reported very little wind and only 118nm progress. I was missing a teaspoon for my drinks. I eventually found it lodged on the starboard side of the boat, in the bathroom on top of a box. It must have flown over there in the knockdown. It just shows how far Spirit laid down. There were a couple of jobs to be done after the storm. I unpacked the spare wind generator and after four trips up onto the targa bar, the new blades were fitted and off she went again.

Frustrating winds continued with Spirit doing 56nm in eight hours then doing only 50nm in the next 12. A light wind was starting to prove harder to handle more than gales. It was now 14 days since Cape Horn and I was back to the latitude of Hobart.

Day 65 was a good day for progress, doing 168nm. The first four hours, I only did 16nm but in the next 20 I did 152nm averaging 7.5kts. Unfortunately, the next day we were back to 113nm. The GPS log recorded 198nm but not all in the right direction as very light winds caused a heading of east-north-east. It was now 427nm to the Tristan da Cunha Islands. With the light winds, battery charging was suffering and the main motor had to be run on some occasions to top up the batteries.

With the weather warming up it was time to tackle a fibreglass repair on the aluminium boom vang. I rolled up a composite mixture of cardboard and E-Glass. I then sleeved the aluminum tube after cutting off the damaged ends. Unfortunately, when putting away some strips of stainless steel, my fingers slid along them cutting deep into my index and middle finger. This cut went right into the knuckle of the first joint. I just clenched my fist and using masking tape I wrapped it up so that I could not open the wound. I left it like that for 24 hours before dressing it and taping it closed again. It added another complication when doing deck work. This did jolt me and remind me how dependant I was on good health.

Light winds still persisted and after 56nm I only recorded 40nm in the right direction. I had the main up and down four times, and the lack of progress was not due to a lack of effort. Temperatures had been rising and now it was very pleasant to be out in the cockpit. I was eating meals and enjoying the new environment. Solo sailing has been described as solitary confinement and now I felt like I was being let out into a small exercise yard. My fingers were repairing well and I joked about them being transferred out of ICU.

On day 69 at 2300hrs Spirit sailed past Tristan da Cunha Island and headed to St Helena Island 1300nm away. It was dark all the way past the island and when I went past the southwestern side, Spirit fell into the wind shadow of the island. There was about four hours that I could not make any progress to speak of at all. This was an immensely frustrating time, the island was only a couple of miles away to the west and the wind was so confused I could get no sleep at all. When I finally broke free of the island, a steady northwest wind filled the sails and Spirit spread her wings and flew north. My next day's runs were 159nm, 171nm and 173nm.

The fishing lines were out and I caught a beautiful one metre long albacore tuna. This was too big for me to consume so I let it go. There was certainly an outcry from home about throwing fish back. I set up a daily radio schedule with Andy the radio operator on Tristan da Cunha Island. Andy told me of an oil rig which had broken free while being towed and drifted up onto their Island seven months previously. It was still there and was being cut up to be towed off. Andy helped me identify some of the birds that I was now seeing, the small sooty tern, the bigger Cape pigeon and the Atlantic petrel.

ONE MAN'S JOURNEY
Ken Gourlay's book One Man's Journey is now available for $29.95 plus $8 for package and handling.

The book can be purchased by visiting Ken's new website http://www.kengourlay.net/ or by phone on 0417 366 612.

Gourlay, whose circumnavigation has raised $130,000 for the Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust, which has been established to facilitate the creation of a 'world class' medical research institution in Northern Tasmania, has been nominated for Australian of the Year and is a finalist in the Tasmanian section.

His other website is http://www.spiritsoloquest.com/ with all the details of his 2006-07 trip.

To read more on the Ken Gourlay adventure, follow the links below:
» Ken Gourlay Pt 1
» Ken Gourlay Pt 2
» Ken Gourlay Pt 3
» Ken Gourlay Pt 5
» Ken Gourlay Pt 6
» Ken Gourlay Pt 7
» Ken Gourlay Pt 8
» Ken Gourlay Pt 9
» Ken Gourlay Pt 10