Deep sea diving
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Fri 20 Nov 2009 20:44
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Yesterday we were joking that we had a busy day
with a gybe and a pudding in the same day. Today we are at position 20:53.93N
023:24.81W after a very frustrating night last night struggling to get down
wind. I had got a couple of hours sleep from 5 till 7am then was awoken with the
news that we were towing a very long rope and 5 gallon drums etc. We tried
everything to free the gear from the boat to no avail. So nothing for it but to
get the kit off and the snorkel and mask and flippers on and over the side. So
in order to minimise risk we choreographed the whole job and with a safety
line tight on round my chest I jumped in to 4000 metres of ocean. Of course we
stopped and as best we could we hove the boat to. However she was
still making about 0.9 of a knot. I will just take this opportunity to remind
anybody who is thinking of falling off a yacht - you won't catch it at 1 knot
never mind 5. DO NOT FALL OFF!
After identifying the problem I made 3 succesive
and successful dives to clear the fouling, swimming 4000 metres above
the floor or 3097 after diving down. Had you employed the crochet world
champion the line could not have been more intricately wrapped around the
keel. Anyway nothing a few sharp cuts with the knife couldnt sort
out.
Mission possible and successfully completed then
back aboard for a quick shower and sat down to smoked salmon and scrambled eggs
courtesy of our resident chef. By the way the standard of the food coming out of
our galley is staggering but I cant really go on about it as you would think I
was boasting.. Perhaps this explains the slower sailing numbers the last few
nights - nobody wants to get back to cold porridge and salt! Our resident
chiropitist is trying to compete offering daily consultations - no takers so
far.
The rest of the day was spent taking over one
hundred data sets of the down wind sailing performance of the yacht so we can
establish our best sail plan and point of sale, sorry sail, for the rest of the
crossing (after we make the fabled right
turn).
In the meantime we heard the Scotland manager
was getting fired. Instead of spending the money on a new manager look at
how Australia have embraced sport into their curriculum and culture start doing
some of the same and wait 20 years.
Good night
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