India Syms reports in from the Ocean Globe Race
We made it to Cape Town! I can’t quite put into words how I’m feeling but I’ll do my best. Leg one for me was absolutely incredible. Throughout the journey I had an overwhelming sense of gratefulness towards everyone who has helped me get to this point - participating in the Ocean Globe Race 2023 as the Navigator aboard Outlaw – which of course goes without saying includes my amazing sponsors the JS Group and Forelle Estates, my friends and family back home, and also to anyone else that may be following along from the RLymYC - I hope there’s a few!.
Leg one provided a variety of challenges, all of which we overcame as a team which will make us stronger for the next three legs. Extensive analysis of patchy weather faxes combined with the knowledge that Equity and Law, now Outlaw, was designed to sail very well to windward meant that we decided to take a much more Eastern route than all of the other competitors which in hindsight worked out quite well for us. Having sailed 7,163 nautical miles in 45d 18h 58m and 8s, Outlaw finished as the 2nd boat in our class, 5th in IRC, and 6th to cross the line. Not bad going!
After a slightly rocky start with spinnaker issues crossing the line, fortunately the remainder of the leg was not reflected in a similar light until the finish when we managed to blow up our 40 year old symmetrical spinnaker about 50 metres before the line. It was quite a spectacle and made for some fantastic photos. Staying on a similar topic, despite having the longest beat of our lives to windward – about 3 and a half weeks in total! – the boat itself took on minimal damage with just a few sails needing some TLC so my job whilst being here in Cape Town has been nearly all based around navigation for the trip to Auckland.
This leg certainly had it’s fair share of navigational challenges! After sailing from the doldrums we waved goodbye to the sun and as good as didn’t see it again until just a couple of days before arriving into South Africa. The sky remained a solid 7-8/8 thick cloud coverage with only very small breaks every few days which allowed me to get some sights in. I spent a lot of time sat on deck with my sextant at the ready, waiting for patches where the cloud was just thin enough that I could take a sight and even then only had a few seconds to get them as accurate as possible. This meant my dead reckoning calculations became extremely important (even more so than usual!) including several different factors – the usual compass course, variation, deviation, leeway, current and an extra one which I termed the ‘bullshit factor’ for when people would tell me an average compass course for the hour which I didn’t quite believe. That last factor was based off of a range of things from who was on the helm, to the verbal delivery of the compass course, to what compass course we were aiming for in relation to wind direction. As you can imagine, this factor caused quite a stir onboard with many taking the mick, however after sailing South East for 5 days with no opportunities for celestial navigation and having large changing currents and variation, I finally managed to get some sights in and confirm that our actual position was only 13 miles away from my dead reckoning position which for context, anything less than 15 miles when taking a sight even when you know your position is deemed to be good. All onboard seemed to be impressed, and I have to admit that even I was quite impressed with myself, which really is saying something! People stopped taking the mick out of my precision after that.
Part way through the trip we also had a little adventure within our huge adventure and conducted a rescue of a young man stranded in a longboat about 90 miles off of the coast of Dakar. If I’m completely honest with you, when we first spotted a boat driving at us at full speed with lots of shouting, my initial feeling was not a good one. Despite not being able to verbally communicate with the man, as he approached it was quite evident that he was in distress, looking for some petrol for his almost empty fuel tanks and needing some food and water. We have a diesel engine on Outlaw therefore had no petrol we could give him but instead offered some food, water and a tow to Dakar. He seemed very happy as he tucked into a big bowl of freshly made carbonara prepared by crew member Katie. I then spent several hours on standby in the nav station, initially sending out ‘Pan Pan’ radio calls to alert ships in the vicinity of the situation and request assistance. After switching strategy to hailing ships individually over the VHF radio, I managed to divert Motor Tanker ‘Chemtrans Sea’ to follow us along at half a mile on our stern to monitor the situation in case anything escalated. Fortunately the rescue was successful and after 22 hours of sailing to Dakar we handed over the tow to another longboat who took the man into port for us. The Ocean Globe Race organisation recognised the impact this had on our race progress and gave us a 30 hour time credit which was very much appreciated!
I can safely say I’ve never operated on a sleep schedule quite like the one I was on (not even during exam season at school!) and it certainly took it’s toll on my body in the stop over. I followed the same watch pattern as my fellow crew members doing 6 hours on, 6 off during the day and 4 on, 4 off during the nights however I would often stay up late, wake up early or get up mid-off watch to listen to weather transmissions, VHF ships or talk to the other OGR yachts on the HF radio at scheduled times. My first three nights in Cape Town had me lying in my bed until the early hours, feeling a bit of a culture shock to not being slammed into a wave every 10 seconds! Luckily I’ve managed to get a couple of good nights rest in now though so I’m feeling ready and rested for the next start.
In terms of preparing for the next leg – since arriving into Cape Town we have been working away on the boat fixing the small breakages, doing safety checks, buying additional equipment that we felt we lacked on the first leg and most importantly (at least for me) have stocked up on very warm clothing. The Southern Ocean is not something I want to sail into lightly so mentally I’ve prepared myself for every eventuality. I’m very fortunate to have my mum and dad out here with me - they’ve enjoyed a few days of sightseeing and I even managed to join them for a day trip to a vineyard which was very pleasant.
I can’t wait to set sail on this next part of the journey and am excited to report back at the next stopover – stay tuned!