Clipper Leg 3 Race 4: Cape Town, South Africa to Fremantle, Australia

Email home on December 1 (South Indian Ocean, Cape Town, South Africa to Fremantle, Australia)

I am pretty uncomfortable right now. It’s so cold. See my breath when I’m in my sleeping bag cold. Wiggling my fingers and toes hurts cold. We have been in a storm for about a week and made a lot of progress but life on the boat is a lot harder when it’s storming. My waterproof sleeping bag, hot water bottle, and dry suit are saving me right now. It is supposed to start letting up but the forecast keeps changing. I did have one cry myself to sleep episode when it felt like it was a bit too much a few days ago but have rebounded some since then. The ocean is a beautiful steel grey color with patches of teal when a wave has crashed and the water is aerated. There is still an impressive number of birds living out here. We had some 40 knot winds with 20ft waves. The waves continually crash over the boat and throw us around the deck so we have to use our short tethers which have prevented me from being swept over a few times now as I got tossed around like I was in a washing machine. I’d be curious what bruises have accumulated. My arms ache from holding on and still working in these conditions. We had one guy take a hard wave and break through the inch thick glass cover to our lazarette so it now has a wood one screwed down. My gloves have torn and my hands are continuously wet and cold. I haven’t been able to brush out my hair in over a week and have resorted to using 4 hair ties to keep it pinned out of my face under my buff. The weather was rough enough one day that Josh (skipper) altered the menu to MREs because cooking has become a bit difficult and he has had to treat some large burns from boiling water flying through the air… 

Race 4 Title: Sometimes God calms the storm, sometimes He calms the sailor. 

I can’t tell you when it happened. Or how it happened. But sometime during this leg it dawned on me that I was having fun. It started more as a question… “Is this fun? Am I having fun? I think this might be fun?” I have never laughed more in a more uncomfortable situation. This leg was all about big water and big weather. It is considered to be one of the more challenging legs but it felt like the easiest I have encountered so far. It’s the small moments that stand out. My happy dance when my rolling hitches hold up under pressure, when we run a seamless evolution be it a reef or sail change, the giggle fest that happens when I wake up the next watch with various animal noises, the drawings I make with honey on morning toast for my crew mates, the banter about my bad taste in music on the boat speaker, my American accent, my other made up accents, and my lack of worldly knowledge that comes with the privilege of being American. My realization that I can completely change the atmosphere with just a light tone in my voice, the frenzy that occurred when I shared where there was still one last stash of boat chocolate on day 16 of the race, making my team members favorite tea or coffee to wake up to before they ask (“Because I have spent my days in your service… I have been in the service of God.” – Mosiah 2:16), improving my tea scores… My skipper threw out the first one I made him because it “tasted like the inside of a cow’s udder” I put in too much milk. I am now up to a 8/10 score with a 4min 20sec steep time then 7mL of milk. He thinks he might like closer to 9mL so I’ll try that on the next one. Brits and their tea… don’t get me started on their porridge scoring. Milk versus water and salt or no salt and consistency… Then there was the white hot chocolate mixup. They call tea with milk, white tea and coffee with milk, white coffee. I was attempting to be cheeky and requested a white hot chocolate. One of my teammates missed my joke and popped his head up about 10 minutes later to apologize and inform me that he hadn’t been able to locate any white chocolate. He laughed once we cleared up the confusion. When another one of my teammates jokingly flipped me the bird when I asked him if he was up for testing his rolling hitches he had been practicing and when he thanked me afterwards for the opportunity. The little moments where I act completely childish. I claimed I was pretending to be a newborn elephant trying to stand for the first time when I lost my balance on deck with the boat pitching and rolling and made my wobbles to regain my balance more inline with my story flailing one arm claiming it was my trunk. The fit of laughter we had when I was given a large bowl of oranges that had gone bad and needed dumped overboard and I started throwing them to see if I could hit the boom and randomly tossing then to unprepared team mates so they could join in on trying to hit the boom… then the one I got stuck in the reef (folds) of the sail for us to find later… Honestly, the laughing that comes anytime anyone tries to throw anything on deck taking into account wind speed, wind angle, boat movement, exhaustion and lack of hand eye coordination. I refused to bring a mug on the first 3 races because I don’t drink tea or coffee but have developed quite the hot chocolate addiction to warm up when working on deck. I finally caved and bought a mug only to accidentally drop it overboard on day 4… Another time I was in my bunk trying to fall asleep when a teammate was doing housekeeping and spraying the handrails down with disinfectant. He sprayed me right in the face, stood silently then said oops and we started to laugh.

This race was our first win. So far we had placed last, last and second to last… then we won out of nowhere. I started having fun or at least admitting that I was having fun. I fell in love with downwind sailing. This race is still really hard. Living on board is still hard. Sailing is still hard. I have noticed that God repeatedly calls His people into the wilderness. I think everyone’s wildernesses may be different but this is my wilderness to learn and grow from right now. No one said I couldn’t have fun while I was in the wilderness learning and growing.