Why are you on a Rally, and not sailing around the World at your own pace? It's a fair question!
It was noon, and the daily radio schedule was in progress. Gerry from Northern Sky was running the net in three languages with his usual calm professionalism. Most of the fleet had had a difficult night - there had been some vicious squalls around, with teeming rain. Propagation was poor, and the continuing bad weather had kicked up some awkward seas. But the positions were coming in smoothly, though Cleone's operator (unusually, Elizabeth) and the others were bouncing around and finding it a challenge to write down the details. The postions are given in alphabetical order, so it was not until the end that we learned that Wizard had lost her mast.
Gerrie, Wizard's Skipper, was calm on the radio, but it was easy for the rest of us to picture the chaos that there must have been. Though not the biggest boat in the fleet, Wizard is a long (56') sleek racing yacht with a very tall, four-spreader carbon-fibre mast, with solid rod rigging. She carries a vast mainsail, and sails very fast. We have yet to hear the details of how the accident happened, but, paticularly in the seas that were running at the time, sorting out the resulting mess by cutting away rigging, cordage and sails before it damaged the hull must have been hard work in the extreme. Happily, no-one had other than minor injuries, and the hull, superstructure and engine were undamged. But Wizard was still some 600 miles from Cairns, with no sensible means of getting there other than using her engine, and not enough fuel to get there.
By the end of the roll-call, the picture was clear and help was on its way. The challenge for Gerry (Duty Radio) and Gerrie (beleaguered Skipper) was sorting out the easiest options - every boat in the fleet immediately made genuine and practicable offers of assistance. Strega with Skipper Andreas on board, was closest to Wizard, and Windflower (Skipper Wolfgang I) was not far behind, and just after nightfall the first of the extra fuel was aboard Wizard. By the end of today, Chantelle (John) and Talulah Ruby (Paul) will have passed across all the other fuel that Wizard should need to take her safely to Cairns, and there are others of us coming along who will be able to help if necessary. And Wizard will not be making her way on her own, there will always be someone of the fleet not far away.
Meanwhile, Cleone remains at the back of the fleet, though we have made up a few miles on some of the others. She's a comfortable boat, even in awkward seas. But in the very variable and difficult conditions, progress has been sporadic. We will not have made even 100 miles in the last 24 hours. For several of them we were driving straight into some big seas in not much wind; progress was painful, and we were doing less than two or three knots for quite a lot of the time in pouring rain. But in the morning, as promised by Bruce, the barometer has climbed (5 points in the last 6 hours), the wind has steadily backed round and is now in the South and we are once again starting to make good progress towards Australia. Elizabeth cooked us a tasty supper under very difficult conditions, and morale remains high.
All well with us, and best wishes to everyone. I hope that I have answered your question!.
James, Elizabeth and Will
Yacht Cleone