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| Ocean Gem upon arrival to Constitution Dock in Hobart. Skipper David Hows at the helm. Photo: Lars Wilderäng |
Normally, I always write a log when sailing, no matter whether it is uneventful or very many things happen. This time, when did my second Sydney to Hobart, I did not. I was either behind the helm, catching up on sleep, or mending sails - so there was no time. But I will let you have a
look at the short text messages sent by the skipper during the voyage, and let
it be a log in itself. Use your imagination to fill in what’s between the lines: wind, waves, hard work and emotions.
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| Skipper David Hows steering Ocean Gem through some tricky sea state |
26/12, night: We are sailing in 20 knots and 2m seas with #3
spinnaker up. No moon tonight and doing a lot of surfing, so tricky conditions.
Everyone on board is well. Butter chicken for dinner tonight
27/12, am: Wind steadily reduced overnight to 8 knots and
it's been really sloppy sailing in the left over swell from yesterday. The
fleet have split in two this morning with 25% heading inshore and the other
heading offshore to find the new breeze. Wind is forecast to build from 15-30
knots again this afternoon and then stay strong all night. We made big gains in
strong winds yesterday so how to again today. Lots of sail changes overnight so
lots of tired bodies this morning
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| Tired bodies on the rail |
27/12, pm: Slow hot day out here. The breeze is slowly
building but it's been light winds since early this morning. Everyone has
caught up on sleep today and it should be a windy night of wild downwind
sailing tonight
27/12, night: We have had a good day of downwind sailing and
breeze is now 20 knots. We are pushing hard tonight with the spinnaker up and
hitting great speeds. Pulled pork and mash potato for dinner. We have just made
our Radio call to declare boat and crew are well and all are prepared for Bass
Strait crossing tonight. Just entering the 160nm strait now and should see Top
of Tasmania about 10am tomorrow. It will take a day to sail down Tasmanian
Coast and up Derwent River so should be finished late Monday morning. All crew
are well and the weather is so warm that is tee shirts only required in Bass
Strait tonight
28/12, early night: Almost half way across Bass Strait at
midnight and flying along doing 12-15 knots over ground with spinnaker up in
20-25 knots and nice current pushing us South. Hard to steer in the dark with
no moon and random waves knocking us off course regularly. Exhilarating sailing
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| Ready for a night watch. Coming closer to Antarctica so a bit chilly now. |
28/12, am: Good morning, tough and windy night with up to 30
knots in Bass Strait. Fast wet sailing and crew are all well.
28/12, night: Tough morning with wind increasing to 35 knots
for a period of time before slowly decreasing throughout day. Over night we
tore 2 of our 3 Spinnakers within an hour and spent the rest of the night with
jib and 2 reefs in main. While we lost some boat speed without a kite up we
were still hitting 11-13 knots consistently surfing the 2-4 metre waves. Lena
has spent 6 hours today repairing tears totalling more than 20m in length in
one of the spinnakers so hopefully we get a chance to fly it again tomorrow.
Smoke was disgusting here this morning with visibility down to 1 mile and sore
throats for some of the crew. The next 24 hours will be tricky with light and
changeable winds and we hope to finish before midday Monday
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| Crew set for another night watch |
29/12, pm: We had a good night. Reaching with a Genoa in 15
knots that's steadily reduced overnight to 10 knots this morning. Now we are
back to the number 1 spinnaker again. Less than 1 day to the finish but will be
tricky with light winds that are forecast to die out a couple of times. All
crew are well but getting broken sleep with the regular sail changes. We had
our first damage free day yesterday.
29/12, night: We are 14nm from Tasman Light and back in
patchy phone coverage after 3 days. Then it's 40nm across Storm Bay and up the
Derwent River to the finish in Hobart sole time tomorrow morning. With a dying
breeze overnight is going to be a long last leg of the race for us.
30/12, pm – after finish: It was fantastic to finish the
Sydney Hobart Race yesterday and enjoy all the post race action in Hobart.
Despite the challenge of losing the use of 3 of our 4 downwind sails in the
first 36 hours, we had a great race with a fantastic crew and loved every
minute of it. Unfortunately the windless night in the final 12 hours before we
finished cost us a top 3 finish - but that's yacht racing. Thanks to everyone
who followed our race and sent us words of encouragement. It makes a big
difference especially when the going gets tough.
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| After the finish line. Congratulations and hugs all around! Photo: Lars Wilderäng |
Another update from the skipper, after the race, is the
following:
“Hats off to Rod West and the Another Painkiller crew. We
had a bet for a bottle of rum for the first boat to Hobart on IRC. We won by
the skinniest of margins: 2 minutes 8 seconds after 95 hours of racing. Rod
gracefully presented a fine bottle of Captain Morgans spiced rum today. Great
sportsmanship.”
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| The presenting of the rum bottle |
My own comment: This is the very boat that had put beating us in this race as
the main objective for Sydney-Hobart 2019, in their official fact/bio
description for the Royal Sydney Hobart Yacht Race list of yachts. Feels good to
win this one!