<![CDATA[Send Hannah Sailing

<![CDATA[Send Hannah Sailing - Blog]]>Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:52:39 +0000Weebly<![CDATA[Race 4 - Cape Town to Geraldton, Australia]]>Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:00:25 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2011/12/race-4-cape-town-to-geraldton-australia.htmlThis has been a pretty big race for us all - the first time we experienced the infamous Southern Ocean. We had been warned what to expect (strong winds and waves as big as houses) and this race certainly delivered!

The really noticeable thing about the Southern Ocean is the rate at which the wind changes speed - you can go from a flat calm to 40 knots (gale force) in the space of a minute. We change the sails to account for the different wind strengths - the stronger the wind the less sail we have up. When the wind changes so quickly it is very hard to keep up with the sails. A headsail change at best takes around 20 minutes and is a very physical and tiring task. For exaample most of the sails take at least 3 people to move them along the deck - imagine this with 20ft waves! When we suspect an increase (or decrease in wind) is coming we quite often get the next sail on deck and "hank it on" (clip it to the forestay) ready for the change.

We experienced our first 2 big depressions during this race - one with the wind directly behind us and one with the wind on the beam (our side). The record we saw on our navigation instruments was 59 knots of breeze (5 knots short of a hurricane) which happened when I was on the helm..... Awesome!

Unfortunately as we neared the end of the race we got stuck in a massive high pressure system which had a very bad effect on our position! We all found it quite difficult after the adrenaline fuelled weeks going through storms to deal with little issues such as running out of milk powder and worst of all CHOCOLATE! On the bright side though, the clearer weather meant that we had the most beautiful views of the stars at night. AT one point the water was so calm that the stars were reflected in the sea - not great for sailing but pretty special all the same.

]]><![CDATA[Rig check in Rio]]>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:18:49 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2011/11/rig-check-in-rio.html

]]><![CDATA[In the Southern Ocean!]]>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:13:20 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2011/11/in-the-southern-ocean.html

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]]><![CDATA[Race 3 - Rio to Cape Town - the first storm]]>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:01:54 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2011/11/race-3-rio-to-cape-town-the-first-storm.htmlSince my last blog we have had incredible winds - I have helmed in 38 knots of breeze over monster waves - so I am super happy! Last night on watch we went from a storm jib and reefed main through all the heads sails and to full main so I am pretty tired - but in a very good way! The seascape is just incredible! We even
saw a rainbow made from moonlight the other night - it was in greys rather than colour

Today we have an unexpected break in light winds and we are waiting in hope that our southern strategy pays off with big westerly winds to blow us up to Cape Town. My finger isn't painful any more although I dont think it will heal until Port now . Hopefully the salt water keeps it clean though. ]]><![CDATA[Race 3 - Rio to Cape Town - fun with the kite!]]>Sat, 05 Nov 2011 04:59:46 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2011/11/race-3-rio-to-cape-town-fun-with-the-kite.htmlDuring last night I accidentally got 2 fingers jammed in a block with the
main sheet. This means that I can only just use my left hand. I think I
will lose a fingernail and I have a really deep messy cut. I nearly
fainted at th time but I was back up on deck
in 10 mins - I dont think I can remember anything so painful!

Anyway 6 hours later was my first watch as watch leader (I am currently assistant to the watch leader but he was on mother watch). It was a bit
hairy as we had a force 5/6 a big swell and 3 new members of crew who were
in experienced with the kite. I set up a mentoring system no the trim with
crew members tat did the last race and supervised the helm. I also talked
them through an emergency kite drop. (that was particularly helpful later
on...) All went well so I went to bed happy but nervous as I could feel
the wind picking up. I was still in a lot of pain so couldn't really
contribute to sailing other than direction and some
helming.

4 hours later I get back on deck - we have the medium weight kite up still,I did most of the helming for the 1st 2 hours and
basically called the trim on the kite from the back of the boat. The wind got up some more so skipper came up on deck and we
hardened up on the wind (more upwind) which builds up the apparent wind strength. Unfortunately this the entire end of the spinnaker pole snaped off and the kite blew out of control.
I then had to run the kite drop (during which the kite got a MASSIVE rip) and get the headsails up. Rupert (skipper) was on the helm
and Chris and Jim (the other watch leaders) came on deck to help out but I still ran the manoeuvre which was really cool. Bit of a baptism of fire! I had so much adrenaline I forgot all about the finger and as a result it is now a bit
worse as I couldnt feel the pain to stop using it!

Now we have 35+ knots of wind screaming along - the record is 22 knots of boat speed on the most amazingly huge waves. The
sea is a really deep blue and where the waves crash it looks the same colour as ice - totally what I was hoping for from
this leg - DEFINITELY not easy sailing! ]]><![CDATA[Race start to a different race altogether 31st July 2011]]>Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:41:26 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2011/08/race-start-to-a-different-race-altogether-31st-july-2011.html The race start in the Solent was an incredible experience! Having spent a week building up to the big event, being interviewed by the media and steadily getting more and more apprehensive about what was to come, the send off couldn't have been more impressive. Following a procession chaperoned by the Illustrious, we started off the Royal Yacht Squadron line off Cowes (the start line for Cowes week and the annual Round the Island Race). I was in my favourite position on the boat - bow so any photos of the start - I am the one on the very front!

After the excitement of the Solent and the 100s of spectator boats, as soon as we rounded Bembridge everything became a lot quieter and we started to focus on racing the boat. We were fairly competitive across the channel but next faced our first tactical dilemma: To go down the Alderney races or not? The Alderney races is a narrow channel by the island of Alderney through which there is a very strong tidal current which would give us some more speed. However, going North of Alderney is the less risky strategy as we were to discover. We missed the strong tide by about 15 minutes and found ourselves with no wind, and dropped our anchor to prevent us running back into the English channel on the tide. 6 hours later we were able to lift our anchor (I wish it was as easy as that sounds) and make our way on to the legendary Bay of Biscay.

]]><![CDATA[Race start!]]>Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:59:37 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2011/07/race-start.html

I can’t believe how quickly the last couple of months have gone – in less than 24 hours time I will be racing to Madeira!

We have spent the last couple of weeks preparing the boat for the
race. I am one of the bosuns on the trip so have spent my time familiarising myself with the rigging and learning to splice ropes (making loops by weaving the rope into itself rather than tying knots).

The boats have been moored in Ocean Village – Southampton and the
atmosphere is amazing! The crew are treated a bit like rockstars, which is fantastic but we all feel like we need to have done some sailing to deserve it!

The picture is from our official naming ceremony – our boat sponsor is
Yorkshire, I am very pleased to be sailing on the English entry.

We are starting the race at 16:30 off the Royal Yacht Squadron in
Cowes tomorrow. Tonight I am off to the firework display and spend some time with my family before I go – next update from Madeira!

]]><![CDATA[Red Socks?]]>Fri, 06 May 2011 16:14:50 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2011/05/red-socks.htmlOn the 30th of April Clipper held Crew Allocation where I would find out which boat I would be racing on for the next year and more importantly who my skipper and crew are...

This lovely looking lot!

We do not yet have a sponsor - but in the mean time we are the Red Socks. Rupert (skipper - who I have had the pleasure of sailing with in my level 3 training) chose this theme inspired by Sir Peter Blake, a New Zealand yachtsman who won the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Jules Verne Trophy – setting the fastest time around the world of 74 days 22 hours 17 minutes 22 seconds on catamaran Enza, and led his country to successive victories in the America’s Cup.
Sir Peter and the New Zealand team were famous for their "lucky red socks" (a present from Peter's wife) and this became something of a trademark.

So no pressure then! In all seriousness this is a pretty hefty sailing legacy and a reminder of the things to come in the next year. We will be wearing our red socks for luck... Maybe you could do the same!

]]><![CDATA[Cowes week 2010 - how to break a mast in one easy lesson...]]>Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:21:54 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2010/11/cowes-week-2010-how-to-break-a-mast-in-one-easy-lesson.html

I was lucky enough to sail in Cowes week this year with Kerry Gruson who is a US Paralympics sailor. Kerry has competed in Cowes week for the last few years and was the first disabled person to helm in the event competitively. She was strangled by a Vietnam war vet who had a flashback when she was interviewing for the New York Times in the 1970s. She is technically a paraplegic and therefore has very limited mobility - she learned to sail in Miami after her accident, and is now an incredible helmswoman.

I had never sailed with a disabled person before so there were a few things to adjust to during the week. Kerry, me and 2 others were sailing a small keelboat - a 23ft Sonar. The sailors among you will know it is important that crew sit on the high side of the boat to keep it balanced and moving as quickly as possible – Kerry has a specially designed chair which moves her from one side to the other of the boat using a pulley system. Other than that, it was no different to sailing with able bodied crew – as you might imagine she is pretty good on the helm!

All in all, we had a pretty great week – on day one we broke our mast and had to be towed in by the coastguard, however, things looked up for the rest of the week and we managed two 3rd places and came 5th in our class overall!

More on the mast...

The mast broke as a pin had come out of the outer shroud on the starboard side - hard upwind on a starboard tack meant that within 5 seconds the mast had snapped into 2 pieces. Luckily the sails remained intact (although the main sail was a little stretched...) We quickly pulled the upper half of the mast (and the jib) out of the sea and radioed the harbour master for assistance.

We were really lucky in that the guys at Corinthian (thanks!) found us a new mast that fitted the boat and we were able to fit it ready for racing the next day. You can be sure that we checked and taped the pins in the rigging before we went out every morning after this!

]]><![CDATA[Junior Offshore Group - Cowes to Weymouth in the fog...]]>Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:13:21 +0000http://www.sendhannahsailing.com/1/post/2010/07/junior-offshore-group-cowes-to-weymouth-in-the-fog.htmlAs well as the excellent training through Clipper - I have been getting out on the water as much as possible to train for the race next year. Last weekend I took part in the Junior Offshore Group race from Cowes to Weymouth - I will readily admit that this isn't as offshore as say... China to West Coast USA, but it's all good experience!

The race started well, we had a fantastic run down the Solent to the Needles under spinnaker. I was taking the role of foredeck in this race - so mainly running around the bow holding a spinnaker pole above my head and generally trying not to rip any sails!

Unfortunately about 5 hours in - the fog descended and visibility dropped to under 100m. I could suddenly see how alone the fog could make you feel - we were within a mile of a fleet of over 20 yachts and couldn't see a single one. We quickly found the fog horn and began to get an idea of where there were boats near to us. Watching yachts silently appear in the fog made me realise how the stories about ghost ships come about...

We made it safely into Weymouth and went out for some well earned beer and food (you can't work hard all the time!) We were up at 5am to catch the tide back to Southampton - normally a time I resent being awake - although this is something I accept need to get used to!

Have a look at the photos I took below and you will see why I didn't mind so much!

Thank you to Paul and the crew on Imperator for having me onboard!

Weymouth 5am

Leaving port 5:30am

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