The crews for all 3 boats arrived at Fort Blockhouse for briefing and kit issue on 1 Oct 09.  Leg 4 promised to be the trip of a lifetime between 2 of the world’s major destinations, Cape Town and Perth.  Just the 5000 NM of Southern Ocean in between then.

A run shore in Gosport that evening gave the crew an opportunity to get to know each other.  45 Cdo had made a Unit bid for the RN boat on this leg and thus formed the majority of 8.  The remainder being made up of 4 dark blue with John and Nick our JSASTC Skipper and Mate.

In the words of the pilot, a champagne day greeted our arrival in Cape Town and Table Mountain was displaying all its glory.  After a short transfer to the Royal Cape Yacht Club we were united with the Skipper and Adventure.  The RCYC is a splendid facility and the members and staff made us most welcome during the following days of preps and waiting for a suitable weather window to depart.  Yacht familiarisation aside, the major evolution was victualling for 35 days at sea.  With Viv, our Pusser, assisting the Skipper with the shopping, the remainder of the crew set about stowing the food mountain that had been established on the jetty.  The Skipper had set out his green credentials early and some 5 gash bags of unnecessary packaging and labels were able to be ditched ashore and the evolution was successfully completed some hours later with the only comment being the worrying amount of pineapple rings and mayonnaise that had been embarked.

Cape Town has excellent shopping, restaurants and unfortunately bars, this provided opportunity for some R & R and greater familiarisation with the other crews.  It had become general knowledge that Challenger (Army) and Discoverer (RAF) had far more experience onboard than Adventure, the idle chat in the club bar being how far the Navy would finish behind the others.

The 8 Oct had been announced as the start day and the belief onboard at the breakfast table was that racing pedigree alone was not going to dictate the outcome of this leg.  Typically Andy chipped in with a timely ‘What’s the difference between Army and toast?’ – ‘You can make soldiers out of toast.’  Enough said.  Spirits were certainly high, with steely talk of forfeits for the first one to be sick and 20 press ups for every dousing by a ‘Salty goffa.’  Needless to say it was not long before the Royal Marine formation vomiting team had closed up and the press ups had gone out of the window.

Tacking practice and MOB drills complete, we were off.  Our planned track was going to take us hard South for a couple of hundred miles to clear the continental shelf and avoid the adverse Agulhas current, we would then sail a great circle track to 40^oS, 095^oE before heading NE for Freemantle.  The rules allowed for motoring in order to maintain SOA and it was frustrating to spend long periods of the first 36 hours on the engine.  It was then a little bazaar to spend most of the remainder of the first week sailing to windward in varying conditions.  Plenty of water and impromptu lifejacket inflations, in what was going to be a recurring theme for all boats, but not quite the down hill sleigh ride expected.

The 3 watch system had settled down and in Adventure the more traditional Red, White and Blue had adopted titles more akin to the characters in each.  The ‘Gentlemen’s Watch,’ for the more mature and discerning males who’s Southern Ocean experience was an ideal vehicle to debate the great issues of the day.  ‘Mum & Dad’s Watch’, a neat family styled unit. Mum in charge, Dad giving most of the direction, lots of emotion and occasionally a little dysfunctional.  Finally ‘The ASBO Watch,’ Mike the self styled social worker leading the younger generation where enthusiasm could peak at either end of the spectrum from watch to watch.  Mother Watch came round every third day and meal preparation quickly became the most competitive element of our time onboard.  Probably driven by the Skipper’s daily uttering of ‘Better than the ***** we had yesterday!’  2 of the guys had been chefs before joining up and this certainly influenced the creativity.  During one of the seemingly unending gales, it was a treat to watch Chris spinning sugar to go on the top of our instant desserts.  Cat was keeping a brave face on things in these unfamiliar surroundings and had seemingly undertaken a vow of silence as a coping strategy.  The unofficial line was that Viv was doing enough talking for everyone and that Cat was merely providing some compensating effort.  So when pressed to make a speech on the production of his rice pudding of volcanic proportions, it was with great gravitas that he stated with absolutely no emotion that ‘He thought it had taken a lot of milk.’  The Skipper had cleared Morrison’s out of bread mix before we left UK and the burden of getting this into our very restricted baggage allowance was far out weighed by the positive effect on morale.  Again, a competitive element was creeping in during the morning watch with the odd plat appearing and individuals being a little cagey on their methods.

Finally, after just over a week at sea, a favourable westerly breeze was pushing the boat along and Adventure was consistently recording daily runs in excess of 150NM.  The first of the 2 storms we were to experience occurred on the 22 Oct.  The sail plan had been steadily reduced over a period of 24 hours as the wind built and the barometer fell.  With 3 reefs in the main and the storm jib already set, the watch were preparing to lower the main and hoist the trysail.  At this point a Sat C message was received from Challenger who was approx 100 NM to the SW of Adventure’s position, reporting that they had been hit by a large squall and had suffered significant damage to their main as a result.  With conditions continuing to deteriorate, this was the catalyst to get the main down in short order.  The wind continued to blow harder and with the boom secured the conditions had become sufficiently poor to lower the headsail.  For a couple of hours as the wind peaked, Adventure maintained some 6 Knots under bare poles alone.  Ironically, it was at this point that the electronic barometer alarmed, warning that a gale was imminent.  Cheers trigger!  The wind abated enough to be able to hoist the storm jib and a little later the trysail.  The seas remained huge and helming was not for the faint hearted.  Keeping the large following sea on the quarter was challenging enough in the daylight with the remainder of the watch spotting the waves.  Come nightfall it was cold and exhausting.  The spray was so severe that it was difficult to see the compass, let alone track the following sea and the most effective way to steer was to use ‘The force.’  While the author would never deny enjoying a cup of tea, the ribbing received for continued consumption in these conditions was a little unjustified, although the percentage of sea water being ingested was definitely increasing!  Also on the increase was morale.  Challenger had slowed considerably to effect sail repairs and Adventure had overhauled them and was now in the lead.

Under a combination of minimal sail plan and storm sails, Adventure recorded her highest 24 hour runs during the following few days, peaking at 217 NM.

29 Oct 10.  Wind F9/10, sea state high, weather bright.  Adventure and crew coping well with the sporty conditions.  So well in fact, that on deck Steve, Cat and Chris had all just enjoyed a nice wet of tea.  At approximately 1100 Chris spurts out a couple of expletives and our lives transformed into a seemingly unending torrent of water.  There was little warning and it is difficult to recount the exact chain of events.  However, the initial rush of water was as a result of an exceptionally large wave breaking immediately astern and ‘Pooping’ the cockpit.  The force of water was so great over the following 15 seconds or so, that the author had stopped hanging on and was being restrained solely by his harness.  Lifejacket had inflated again and it seemed a little unusual to be joined by the HF whip aerial on the deck of the cockpit.  The force of water was beginning to recede when a second rush occurred and seriously disorientated, the watch on deck were fully submerged for a second time.  The boat had now been knocked down and only reassuring factors were having faith in the equipment and knowledge of the dynamics of laying flat in the water.  After what seemed like a lifetime, Adventure came upright and the watch were all present amid a scene of absolute carnage.  Chris, on the helm, had been knocked off the wheel and was pinned against the push pit.  Cat and Steve found themselves in the bottom of the cockpit under underneath the sole board.  Apart from the Aerial, which had sheered from its mounting, the most obvious damage had occurred to the trysail.  The topping lift fitting at the end of the boom had failed and the combination of the full weight of the boom coming on to the clew and the sail being full of water had pulled all but the top few luff sliders out of the track.  There was plenty of activity going on below and it was comforting to see a head pop out of the companion way to confirm that all on deck were safe.  The immediate priority of the watch was to regain a safe, steady course and to secure the swinging boom.  The Jon Buoy and EPRIB had deployed and it was alarming to see just how quickly they started to disappear astern.  With no main, huge seas and an uncertain engine condition (power was initially lost), it would have taken all the skill of the Skipper to get back up wind to retrieve a MOB.  Never a better lesson in the importance of remaining clipped on.

Power was restored in reasonably short order.  It was found that the two 5 gallon emergency jerry cans of water had travelled from the bottom of the hanging locker and had knocked off the main breaker on the instrument panel before coming to rest in the Nav Station.  Having restored the Sat C comms, it was reassuring to have received a SAR message within about ten minutes of the EPRIB activating.  Comms to the Australian Coastguard, Challenger, Discoverer and JSASTC were quickly established and the SAR message cancelled once it was clear that the situation was under control. 

The couple of trysail sliders that had remained attached had jammed in the track and the sail was not going to come down without getting someone up the mast.  That is a fairly sobering evolution in those conditions.

In the following hours the crew recalled their personal experiences of the day’s events.  The most amusing account coming from our wanabe club swinger, Lee.  He was squealing like a girl as the substantial contents of the chest freezer were raining down upon him from the opposite side of the saloon.

After such dramatic events, normality was returning.  The RM Corps birthday prompted a gathering around the Nav Station, it was still a little tasty on deck, and Andy provided a few words.  We had travelled as far South as our Great Circle track had intended and with some northing in the course we were heading out of the Roaring Forties.

The passage plan then took us NE, directly to Freemantle, for the last 700NM and it was again frustrating to have the wind directly on the nose.  Furthermore, the forecast was for light variable winds.  It was going to be a slow run in.  This presented the next challenge for the yachts, the twice daily radio schedules being dominated by logistics.  Food was certainly not an issue in Adventure and if it were to become, we surly could survive on mayonnaise and pineapple rings for another month!  Motoring for a considerable distance was going to be a real possibility and the fuel situation demanded careful attention.  Having used the engine very conservatively, there was plenty of fuel remaining.  After spending some time prodding the oversized calculator with his oversized fingers, Skipper John declared that if we could sail another 200NM between now and the finish then there was enough fuel if required.  Discoverer’s situation was a little worse but of no immediate concern.  Not the same in Challenger, their fuel situation was of sufficient concern that they opted to sail North in search of some better breeze.  They had also started to look very closely at their remaining rations.  While it is certainly not good form to comment on misfortune, the irony that Challenger was being crewed by the Royal Logistic Corps was not wasted.

After a couple of days some breeze did fill in and the fuel concerns onboard were quickly a thing of the past.  It had warmed up considerably and Chris arrived on watch for his penultimate night watch commenting on how nice the mid layer of our 3 layer foul weather kit was.  He was saving this for when he thought he would really need it and had only been driven to put in on through lack of any other clean kit!  Less than 24 hours to go and Adventure was experiencing glorious reaching conditions.  The opposition was some 60NM astern, life was pretty good.  Even Cat had been moved to break his vow of silence and managed a few words.  South of Rottennest Island at 0548 on 9 Nov 09 Adventure claimed line honours.  32 days at sea and we had seen 1 fishing boat and been over flown by a single aircraft. 

Freemantle Yacht Club was very impressive.  It was quite strange to be back in the hum drub of society again and that first amber nectar provided by Clive on the jetty was certainly worth waiting for.  With 5 days remaining to take in Perth, Freemantle and the surrounding beaches of West Australia, it was not long before that never again feeling had subsided.  For most, leg 4 of Ex Transglobe was a once in a lifetime opportunity, even if a large percentage of the crew on Adventure had little idea of what they were letting themselves in for.  To cross the line first shows what can be achieved when dogged determination and motivation are joined in the most adverse circumstances.  Thanks must go the Transglobe project team and JSASTC for making such a large scale exercise happen in a demanding financial climate.