The Ken Gourlay Circumnavigation - Pt 5

Toward the Equator

Progress slows but gives him the opportunity to make inspections and repairs. Fraying rigging is a concern but Ken is buoyed by news from home and passing the halfway mark of his trip some two weeks within the unassisted and non-stop circumnavigation record.

Sailing, from Tristan da Cunha Islands, north to Saint Helena Island wasn't too bad as I was sailing across the wind, but when I turn square on with the breeze behind to get to Ascension Island, it was extra slow. The South Atlantic high which dominates this area of the ocean moved west which let me straight through and north. Let's hope it again steps aside when I come back south in a month's time.

Regular deck checks and rigging checks are so much a part of my life. Day 75 was no exception. Unfortunately on this day the outcome was not good. I found that, on the port side, one of the stays supporting the mast, called a V1, had three broken strands out of the 19. This may have been caused by the knock down a couple of weeks earlier or just from the amount of miles that I had done. My mast was held up by four connections to the deck and where the wire went into the swage is where the rigid part changes to the flexible wire. It is not uncommon for strands to break at this spot. That doesn't help me as this is a very serious problem.

I decided that I would climb the mast and attach lengths of 10mm Spectra line above the spreaders and down to the base of the rigging screw. I would then twitch this up to provide the tension which would then hopefully take some load off the wire. The 10mm Spectra has a breaking strain of 3.4 tonnes. The wire that was stranding has a safe working load of five tonnes. I made a six-strand Spectra line to do the job.

Climbing the mast was the next job. This was a most unpleasant experience with the boat rocking, I was knocked from pillar to post as I climbed up and down.

Normally you would climb a mast with someone winding you up. Your hands and feet are free to fend you off from bumping the rigging or mast.  A solo sailor has to use a harness connected to a jamming system on a rope and use his own strength to get up there.

One jammer is connected to a seat harness and one had two strops connected to it for your feet to go into. You have to stand up in the foot harnesses, move the waist jammer up and then sit down. You then have to slide the foot jammer up and start the whole process over again. In the six metres that I had to go up there took a total of 36 movements as each movement would only allow a rise of about 300mm for each jammer.  Because your hands are busy hauling yourself up, they cannot stabilise your body and stop it banging and crashing into the rigging and mast.  It's an incredibly hard thing to do. Coming down is the same technique in reverse with no less pain inflicted.

I was happy with the final outcome of this repair and hoped that my problems were over.

ST HELENA
On day 79 Spirit sailed past St Helena Island and only logged 119nm. The next day was even slower at 78nm. Contact was made with radio operator, Tara, and I had to explain that I was unable to stop and enjoy their lovely Island. It suddenly dawned on me that St Helena may have a commercial radio station so I scanned the frequencies and just as I went out of range I found it. What a pity, I had missed four days of news and different music. The next day I was told that I was due to be a grandfather again. What great news. That will make three. A little friend for Cooper and Oliver.

The breeze was light and I took the opportunity to go up the mast again, double up the spectra on the port side and put some on the starboard as a precautionary measure. Again, it was a traumatic experience. If I didn't have to do that again I would be a very happy chap. Daily runs were poor as the apparent wind was light; 119, 78, 117 and 127nm.

Day 83 was a slow day again with only 101nm logged. The most significant thing was that I passed the halfway point today. I had a small bottle of Moet champagne to celebrate and baked a loaf of bread. I still have more than 1200nm to go till I turn and head south at the St Peter and St Paul Rocks. I was two weeks ahead of the Australian solo, unassisted and non-stop circumnavigation record so if my second half is done at the same time then I will finish more than a month under the record. This will be very pleasing if everything holds together.

The next day, I caught a yellowfin tuna. This was a beautiful fish but again too big for just me. With the light winds, I did not have the power to run the fridge so I took a photo to send home for the unbelievers and let it go. I was targeting the mahi mahi or dolphin fish (it is also known as the Dorado). This fish is great to eat, dries well and keeps like that.

I logged in with the shipping office on Ascension Island as I passed and did 144nm that day. Not a bad day's run as the breezes were very light.

On day 86, I finally hooked a mahi mahi. Once I landed him in the cockpit, he spat the hook out and went ballistic. What a performance! I stood with my feet over the cockpit drains so that he couldn't slide out. When I finally thought he had finished his performance, I rushed below to get the camera before he lost his wonderful yellow colour. As I came out of the cabin he slid out through the cockpit drains. Horror! What a frustration. Gone. All I could do was take a photo of the blood that he left as evidence and send it home. The lines went back out and I just had to catch another. On checking around the stern, a few more problems became apparent.

The auto-pilot ram was again flexing the mounting board. I had fitted an L-bracket down onto the hull mounting which helped secure it there, but now it had fractured the plywood it was bolted to. I had some 100mm x 50mm timber, so I bolted this to the back of the plywood to give it supporting strength. This did the trick and lasted all the way home.

A blown Noddy arrived and sat on the targa bar. It then flew off and came back with a few of his mates and settled back down. It's a bit of a worry when birds move onto there, they are very close to the wind generator and its turning blades. A common diving petrel sadly lost its life off the southwest coast of Tasmania early on in the trip.

MAHI MAHI
On day 88, I redeemed myself as a fisherman. Not only did I catch and retain a mahi mahi but I caught two. Without the power to run the fridge and freeze them I was forced to let the second one go but not before I took a photo.  Hang the expense, I sent two photos home, one of each fish, just to prove the story. I enjoyed eating that fish so much that I had three meals of fish in a row. Unfortunately, I had no salads to go with it. I did have a fresh loaf of bread and this was nearly as good. The other half of the fish I cut into strips and threaded a line through so I could hang it under the solar panels to dry. There are several things you can do to the fish to spice it up before hanging. One is to marinate it in soy sauce for a while or role it in a dry seasoning and hang it up to dry. The targa bar is great because if it rains, the fish won't get wet and keeps drying. Depending on how big the strips are, drying time can vary. I usually cut some smaller ones so they dry first and I don't have to wait much more than 24 hours before I can start enjoying it.

Still working on the leaky rudder bearing problem, I made up a collar to go around the rudder post of foam glued to a piece of towel and rolled up. If I went for a swim when it was quiet, I could possibly tie this around the post and maybe it would block off the water flow from the rudder bearing. I needed a really quiet day, swimming under the stern of the boat with it going up and down can be dangerous. I could wait.

Evidence of fishing boats was about, I saw buoys and an electronic beacon floating that marked the location.

Temperatures were consistently in the 30?Cs both inside and out. I was drinking a fair amount of my freshwater but I was still on the first tank and had not used half of what I had left. I planned to level my tanks up when I turned at St Peter and St Paul Rocks. It was important that I knew where I was at with my water situation. There had not been as much of a chance to catch water as I had imagined before I left. All my water was pumped out of the tank by a foot pump and into a 600ml Pepsi bottle so I knew each day how much I was using. I found that I was drinking a litre per day plus and more in these warmer climates. The rest was going in my cooking etc. The biggest user of freshwater was washing my clothes. I would wait till it rains and put the washing out to get wet and then wash. If it was still raining, then I would hang it on the rail so the rain water would hopefully rinse the soap out. This quite often worked well and to dry in the colder latitudes, I would hang the washing in the pilot house and it would dry in a couple of days. Salt was a continual problem as it attracts moisture and would continually dampen my clothes again and again.

ONE MAN'S JOURNEY
Ken Gourlay's book One Man's Journey is now available for $29.95 plus $8 for package and handling.

The book can be purchased by visiting Ken's new website http://www.kengourlay.net/ or by phone on 0417 366 612.

Gourlay, whose circumnavigation has raised $130,000 for the Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust, which has been established to facilitate the creation of a 'world class' medical research institution in Northern Tasmania, has been nominated for Australian of the Year and is a finalist in the Tasmanian section.

His other website is http://www.spiritsoloquest.com/ with all the details of his 2006-07 trip.

To read more on the Ken Gourlay adventure, follow the links below:
» Ken Gourlay Pt 1
» Ken Gourlay Pt 2
» Ken Gourlay Pt 3
» Ken Gourlay Pt 4
» Ken Gourlay Pt 6
» Ken Gourlay Pt 7
» Ken Gourlay Pt 8
» Ken Gourlay Pt 9
» Ken Gourlay Pt 10