CAPE TOWN TO PERTH WILL SURELY TEST THE GRIT AND DETERMINATION OF
SOME OF THE NOVICE CREW MEMBERS

Leg 4:Cape Town - Perth 5,000nm
A 21-year old RAF Officer Cadet student, Gemma Lamont, who hails from Scotland, has done ‘a bit of dinghy sailing and some yachting’ during her service with the RAF, but nothing remotely significant compared to her latest sailing challenge on Exercise TRANSGLOBE.  Gemma has signed up as crew on board the RAF yacht, HMSTV Discoverer, to sail one of the longest legs during TRANSGLOBE, from Cape Town to Perth, a distance of 5,000nm, scheduled to depart Cape Town on 5th October.

Gemma (or ‘Wee Gemz’ as she is also known) needn’t worry though. She is in excellent and very experienced hands as one of her fellow crew members is retired Air Marshal Sir Graham Anthony ‘Dusty’ Miller KBE who is now a member of the Volunteer Reserves. Another is Sqn Ldr Neil Cottrell, the TRANSGLOBE Project Officer and the mastermind behind this extraordinary adventure training exercise as well as being Discoverer’s 1st Mate on this leg.  Dusty Miller, who lives with his family in Cheltenham, has already sailed over 5,000nm and completed 16 service expeditions during the course of his 41 years service in the RAF.

Meanwhile, over on the Navy boat, HMSTV Adventure, Lt Vivienne Masson (aged 27) will be hoping that her three yacht delivery trips across the Med will stand her in good stead for the long passage ahead. Viv was educated in Cheltenham followed by three years at TS Legion with Cheltenham Sea Cadets and five years at HMS Vivid (Plymouth Royal Naval Reserves). She is based at HMS Heron, Yeovilton.  Adventure’s skipper is a member of the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC) staff and the majority of the crew are Royal Marines from 45 Commando who have recently returned from Operations in Afghanistan.The crew for the Army yacht HMSTV Challenger are all from the Royal Logistic Corps and were lucky enough to be selected from a large number of Corps applications.  JSASTC staff skipper Mike Symes is in command and this is his 2nd Leg of TRANSGLOBE having been the RN yacht’s skipper on Leg 1.  He will be ably supported by Captain Austin Prendiville as the 1st Mate.  Austin is a qualified Yacht Master Offshore and an accomplished sailor working to achieve his YM Ocean qualification on this passage.

Tackling the Roaring Forties...twice!The three sets of crew board their respective yachts at Cape Town’s Royal Cape Yacht Club for a period of training and boat preparation prior to the start day on 5th October, skippers and weather permitting.  Cape Town is 33º 57’ South of the Equator, very nearly at the bottom limit of the Southern Horse Latitudes. The Great Circle route to Perth will take them down as far as 50º South, involving a double crossing of the notorious Roaring Forties where the Southern Ocean Lows dominate the weather patterns.  Combined with the sea swell that circumnavigates the higher Southern latitudes, and uninterrupted by major land masses, they can expect a mix of challenging and exhilarating conditions.

Their route starts with a departure from the shelter of Table Bay, South of Robben Island and round to the start gate which is a line due South of the Cape of Good Hope.  Heading South East approximately 80 miles , they will pass offshore of the most Southerly point of Africa, Cape Agulhas at 39º 49‘ 57’’, which is also recognised as the point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean and two great ocean currents mix with capricious eddies and variable salinity.Perth will be nearly 5,000nm away and the passage will take 30 to 35 days to complete.  The crews will have stocked up with over 5 weeks of provisions that will fill every nook and cranny below decks.Kerguelen Island is half way pointThe halfway point is marked by the rugged outcrop of rock that rises to nearly 6,000ft known as Kerguelen (or Desolation) Island, part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.  Situated at 49º 15‘ South, 069º 35‘ East, the island stands as a waypoint for the most Southerly point of the route as a limit of no further than 50º South has been imposed for this passage.  After Kerguelen, the crews will turn Northwards towards Perthand the welcoming hospitality of the Freemantle Sailing Club in mid November.  

The 13-leg Exercise TRANSGLOBE is a major Tri-Service Adventurous Sail Training Exercise open to all UK service personnel, Regular and Reserve. The guys and girls who have signed up for TRANSGLOBE are experiencing the extremes of ocean crossings from the heat of the Tropics to the extreme cold of the Southern Ocean. TRANSGLOBE is certainly testing both physical and mental stamina whilst building confidence in their own capabilities as well as those of their fellow crew members.

Tracking and position reports as well as more details about Exercise TRANSGLOBE are on the official website at:
http://www.exercisetransglobe.com.

Now that this leg is complete we can reflect on the achievement of all of the crew – 6 were complete novices in Rio; who now all know a tack from a clew and a bowline from a sheet bend, something they would not have dreamed of 3 weeks ago. For those slightly more experienced these past weeks have also been extremely challenging both mentally and physically but also rewarding in being able to pass on a little of our knowledge to others and also learn much ourselves. Those who were expecting or hoping for a 3 week ‘cruise’ had a surprise as we fought canvass and changed sails in a F7 at night with 6 metre waves trying to wash you off the foredeck, spent 50 + hours each on night watch in the South Atlantic on an open deck, helmed a 41 tonne yacht in heavy seas day and night keeping the best course possible and had to contend with 3 hours sleep at best, 4 hours on watch then 4 hours off watch, in a madly heaving and pitching 67 foot yacht. Sometimes cold, wet and tired, but also always exhilarating.

Some will be surprised that everyone managed to produce some excellent food given the difficult conditions with a number of crew learning to bake a cake or make bread from scratch for the first time. Cooking for 14 hungry crew using 4 small gas burners and then doing all the washing up in a small sink when the boat is heeling at 30 degrees and crashing through the Atlantic swell requires team work and perseverance. What certainly impressed was that 14 people managed to keep themselves and the boat clean and live and get on together for 3 weeks unsupported in a living space not much larger than an average family caravan. This was probably the most challenging aspect of the exercise and would have exposed any ‘shirkers’ or loafers’ – quite the opposite came to the fore and all learned much about themselves and about working in a team. Even if some do not take adventurous training sailing any further they will have gained useful skills that will benefit them at work and also more widely. 

All of us are extremely grateful for this unique opportunity to partake in an ocean passage on an ex-BT Global Challenge racing yacht with the personal achievement this represents and recognise the hard work put in by the Transglobe team and others to make it happen.

Finally all our thanks go to the skipper Jon and the mate Jerry who didn’t shout too much and got us to Cape Town in one piece.

                                                                                    Leg 3 Challenger Crew 

Atlantic Crossing:17 Days, 5 hours, 36 minutes, 50 seconds. Distance 3500 nautical miles.

LAND HO! The bellowing call of Mike H as the mountain range, familiar to anyone who has visited Cape Town loomed into view at 1302hrs. Still 50 or so miles from the comfort of land, the sighting proved to tease the crew for the remaining 6 and a half hours as each prepared a list of ‘to do’s’ upon arrival…..cold beer, pizza, a good shower, some clean clothes and of course the obligatory call home to inform well-wishers of our arrival are unexpectedly high on the agenda.

Following such an epic journey, we now have the reward of a week in Cape Town as a well-deserved R and R period with the rest element probably featuring highly.

Was the crossing worth it? I’d say so! Despite numerous bumps and bruises, cold sleepless nights, soakings, and general discomfort for the past 17 days, it’s been an absolutely fantastic experience.

Would we do it again? Now that’s a much trickier question to answer. Ask us again in a couple of weeks when the rose tinted specs are in operation……

                                                                                                            Ross

Lunchtime saw the countdown of 200 Miles to Cape Town and the crew are willing the yacht along. Unfortunately the wind has died and it makes better sense to motor for the time being; that said hopefully we will get a good sail run in for the last couple of miles. Fresh meat ran out last night (not bad going considering the size of the freezer) so Red Watch will have to dig amongst the tins for supper. The yacht is still pretty well provisioned in terms of long lasting foodstuffs, but the fruit, veg and fresh foods have finally given up the ghost. There were shipping reports of 16Kg of Brazilian ‘sweaty’ cheese floating halfway across the Southern Atlantic, but we cannot claim responsibility…An excellent lunch was had by all courtesy of the two Mike’s and has set us up nicely for what should be our last night at sea. The Skipper has granted us fresh water showers in an effort to spruce up before we hit the Royal Cape Yacht Club on the Waterfront in Cape Town – at the moment we can all live with each other’s smells, but I suspect that those not acquainted with the delights of a trans-Atlantic passage will wish to keep clear initially. Much talk amongst the deck hands about hotels and ‘Yoof’ Hostels in Cape Town and itineraries that take in Safari’s and Wine Tours are being talked about.

                                                                                                            FNU SNU