On the 70th day of a solo delivery from Melbourne to Plymouth for the Golden Globe Race start, Shane Freeman was 600 miles from Cape Horn when his world turned upside down
Mushka was a well-found Tradewind 35 long keeled, cutter-rigged production cruiser built in the UK in 1984.
Designed by John Rock, they are renowned for seaworthiness and mine was one of four entered in the 2018 Golden Globe Race. I had spent the previous 12 months preparing her for this 12,000-mile delivery with a stopover at Port Stanley in the Falklands. It would be a shakedown for me as much as Mushka.
With nearly 6,000 Southern Ocean miles behind me, Cape Horn was about a week or 600 miles ahead. The voyage had been largely without incident, except for damage to my Fleming wind vane steering two weeks before. The bridle securing my drogue, used to slow the boat from surfing at 15 knots-plus down Southern Ocean swells, fouled the vane’s submerged paddle during a gale. This damage was telling on me as much as Mushka. The prevailing westerlies were typically on our stern quarter - a hopeless wind direction for the boat to self-steer which forced me to spend hours hand steering each day. To sleep at night, I would head Mushka dead down wind with a small jib sheeted hard on the centreline. This proved a safe - albeit slower - way to progress eastwards with the wheel unattended.
I was in good health and spirits, except for a swollen left knee, bruised in an incident two weeks before when I was catapulted from my sea berth onto the cabin sole in rough weather.
この記事は Yachting Monthly の August 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Yachting Monthly の August 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
How to rig preventers and boom brakes
Rigging a preventer or using a boom brake is just good seamanship when sailing downwind, but doing so badly is asking for trouble, says Rachael Sprot
Don't let Thames sewage kill off this lovely boat
Samuel Pepys mentions oysters in his diaries 68 times, but that was when they were as common as winkles along the banks of the Thames and when they were a source of cheap protein for the masses.
I finally found the magic of the sea
I won’t be in theatres with a notebook as much as usual this month – time for some wider, wetter horizons – but may be musing, as I often do, on how rare it is for theatre to express a convincing reality about the oceans and the trade or pursuit of seafaring.
TECHNICAL GOLDEN OLDIES
Ken Endean looks back on the boats he has owned over 50 years and explains why the hull lines of older yachts continue to offer first-class handling
HOW IT WORKS MARKING
Many cruising yacht skippers mark very little on board their boats.
TECHNICAL INSTALLING A NEW ENGINE
When a mysterious loss of coolant jeopardised his sailing, Andy Du Port knew the time had tome to replace his yacht’s:veteran Volvo Penta
NEW GEAR
Dennis O’Neill rounds up the latest marine innovations, including developments in women’s sailing jackets
MARIE TABARLY HONOURING HER FATHER
Marie Tabarly took line honours in the Ocean Globe Race, surpassing her father’s record while racing aboard his famous 73ft ketch Pen Duick VI
HEATHER THOMAS SMASHING RECORDS
In leading her all-female crew to victory in the OGR, Heather Thomas has broken records and taken women's sailing into the stratosphere
MAIDEN MAKES HISTORY AGAIN
Being the first all-female crew to win a round-the-world race is seismic in itself, but the diverse nationalities of the crew are just as significant for the future of sailing