The Ken Gourlay Circumnavigation - Pt 2

The deep south

The night of November 10 was my first quiet time. I dropped my sails and waited for the breeze to come. I didn't have to wait long. At 0530 in came the wind, 20 to 30 knots out of the south west and 30 to 40 knots due to follow. With the increase of wind I reduced sail down to just the jib and started to make some really good mileage. The southerlies and now the light winds had meant slow progress and miles hard to get. I had only sailed 200nm in the last two days. On the night of the tenth I passed South East Cape of Tasmania. This was the first of the five great capes. I have five small bottles of bubbly, one for each cape. I opened it and shared it with Neptune, requesting fine weather and a safe passage to the next cape. I was now away from Tasmania and heading for New Zealand. I did a 170nm run that day.

With the rough weather and water in the cockpit, sometimes all over the floor, it was time for the top rudder bearing to leak as well. This all added to more water down below in this aft section. I was bailing twice a day when rough.

My email home:

On November 12, strong winds were forecast and they duly arrived. These were the strongest winds that I had encountered and peaked at 50kts out of the north east. The seas were not too bad as the wind didn't stay long enough and died out around 0530 the next day. Then a south westerly change came through. This had big winds; I dressed up, put up the storm jib and furled away the no. 3 jib. I went back inside for coffee, orange juice and some fruit cake.

After the first week, I had sailed 919nm. This was pleasing as I had only done 456nm after the first four days.

I knocked my head while bailing out the stern. It was not too bad and the bleeding stopped fairly quickly. Spirit got bumped flat by a huge wave. Good job I was on the leeward side as I got to catch all the navigation gear. My spirits were high and I was really settling in now. I slowed down a bit here as there was some easterly weather forecast for the bottom of New Zealand and I wanted that gone.

On November 16, I sent an email home answering a few questions and some info on the boat. I was able to nip up one of the bolts on the centerboard and I have not had any squeaking since. It is well to remember that what I am about to put this boat through is about 30 years of wear and tear in six months. I had been running twin headsails quite a bit and had some chafe where the storm jib sheet crossed the jib sheet so I re ran that. I was down to my last half loaf of bread and it was 11 days old. They must have put some preservative in this one.

ICEBERGS! YUK!
An email from my wife:

Icebergs are awesome things for solo sailors. You can pick them up on your radar if you have it tuned properly for them. How do you tune your radar at sea without any? One of the problems with them is the bergy bits or growlers that accompany them. They are about the size of a car and can really hurt a yacht.

My son, Adam, did a lot of work sourcing as much info as possible. There were three or four reported off the east coast of NZ. I was due to sail straight through them and I didn't want to. To sail above them was out of the question as there were at least two up the east coast towards Dunedin so there was no point trying to go there. Sailing south was into an area of limited shipping and there was no guarantee there would not be some more there. I was left with no option other than sail straight on, very carefully, after passing NZ's South West Cape and make sure Neptune got his fair share of my bubbly for a safe passage.

I was in radio contact with Bluff Fisherman's Radio and Mari, the operator, gave me all the information that she could. I was also in contact with the NZ Search and Rescue Centre. I informed them that I would navigate with extreme caution. They requested a two-hour radio schedule and this I happily agreed to. I missed only one when I was catnapping. The dangerous period would be during the next two days and through one night in which I could get no sleep. I managed to negotiate this area okay until 1000hrs. On the second day, when on one of my look arounds, I spotted two icebergs ahead. It was blowing up around the 40kts and there they were. The one out to port was huge. Talk about spectacular. The colour was just amazing. I reported to the Search and Rescue Centre their position and estimated size. I estimated the one to port to be around half a nautical mile long and a hundred metres high, while the one out to starboard I estimated to be 300m² and 100m high. It was a sighting and a sailing experience of a life time. I madly took photos and sent a couple home. The CSIRO even used them in an iceberg report that they published on the web.

I had a great day's run on November 21, of 185nm in 20.5 hours as I crossed the International Date Line.

For more on the Ken Gourlay adventure, follow the links below:
» Ken Gourlay Pt 1
» Ken Gourlay Pt 3
» Ken Gourlay Pt 4
» Ken Gourlay Pt 5
» Ken Gourlay Pt 6
» Ken Gourlay Pt 7
» Ken Gourlay Pt 8
» Ken Gourlay Pt 9
» Ken Gourlay Pt 10