Dodgems at 36 knots

A stream of consciousness from Paul Larsen on board Doha in the Oryx Quest

Well that was a typical start to my daily update. I got woken up for standby watch. A very deep sleep this time as I had been up for around 20 hours so I could get some filming done in my off watch period (no guilt from non-participation that way).

After staggering through the hot and humid hull into the refreshing and instantly cooling breeze on deck it's good to sit down in the little 'cuddy' (coachroof) and wake up properly. It's dark, an hour or so from first light and the boat is driving on at 20-22 knots with its Draught Horse mentality. The new on-watch team of Thomas Coville and Sharon Ferris seem pretty calm and under control. Johnny Malbon is up on the foredeck with Andy M. fixing something or other. Looking at everyone's clothing it seems like no-one is worried about any water coming on decks. I'll stick with shorts. It's good to just sit and feel the motion of the boat, check out the sail combination, ask about the weather trends and consider the next possible gear change.

On standby watch you are not required for the general driving and trimming activities. Your purpose is more as a man/woman power resource when a sail change or other such labour intensive manouver is needed so armed with the aforementioned information you can plan your next four hours. Some breakfast perhaps, some cleaning or maintenance, a little extra sleep or in my case, an update and some photo editing.

I sat in the cuddy for an hour or so, sorted out my head torch from the previous night and watched the sunrise. Everything looked cool and the gang. OK then, down to the aft part of the port hull to my little media station, open the laptop, power it up and open Outlook Express all the time thinking what to write about.

All comfy, I strike one key and Sharon yells down the hatch (in the most distinctive Kiwi accent there is) "Paul mate, we're reefing". Riiiiight!!! If this situation happened only once then it would not be an issue but it seems to happen all the time. Nature doesn't believe in working to our feeble time schedules. As I made my way back on deck I wondered what had changed in the 35 seconds it took me to get down the to the media station. Sigh.

So the reef has gone in and it seems to be for the better as the numbers are the same and the motion is easier. It's already getting hotter. (Right here is where I have to leave this little piece as my time is up and it's now my turn on watch. With 11 minutes to go I'll endeavour to cram in breakfast, find my hat and sunglasses, wake up the next standby and get a quick brief off the last watch).

Sometimes it seems like there is not much to do but it is funny how you keep running out of time in which to do it!

Ok, five hours and one watch later and I'm back down in the sweat factory...actually no, the galley is truly the mother of all sweat factories. (A good excuse for a naked chef if ever there was one...and therefore a good reason not to let Fraser B. cook) but it's hot down here nonetheless. All hatches are firmly sealed and the boat is off power reaching under full mainsail and 'Yankee' reacher. Current speed 25 knots, current position, about 250 miles west of the straits between India and Sri Lanka.

During our watch we hit some pretty fast speeds and narrowly missed some big long piles of flotsam. We now have someone on the bow spotting full time as some of the logs in the water would take the daggerboards clean off. We are guessing that this is the remnants from the recent Tsunami but that's just a guess. Better to be safe than to get the million dollar crunch.

So there has been some big hull flying action which makes things go momentarily quiet from where I am sitting. That is until the traveller winch directly overhead makes a noise as pleasant as a catfight at four in the morning (thanks Johnny M for that one) as the load is eased and the hull touches the water again.

Life is continuing at a somewhat different pace than the previous few days. At least at this speed you know that noone is gaining on you at any rapid rate. Clothes are being customised in an effort to stay out of the sun and all is well. I just hope that we don't hit anything. (Having just said that, we just did. I can reach aft with my left hand from where I am now and touch the port rudder stock. It just rang like a bell. Quick check and all
seems well.On y va.)

Currently at 4' 47" N with an ETA at the equator around midnight GMT. There's one little bunny onboard who is going to get the full wrath of Neptune. The ITCZ (Doldrums) looks interesting and possibly complicated. It's definitely not the Atlantic.

Cheers, Paul.