Hi guys, blog 2 here.
I'm also writing a lot at sea, so if you go to the crew stories section atwww.clipperroundtheworld.com you can see a lot of blogs from the race and this will continue in the future.
It was a tough one! We got nailed in the doldrums hence the late blog. Follow the boat on the race viewer if you wonder why you haven't heard from me for a while!
Ben
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Finally after 29 days at sea, I'm sitting here in the evening light looking at the boats with Rio's business district as the backdrop. To my left, the Christ statue stands high on the mountain caressed by clouds as they drift across the sky.
We made it to Rio and placed in 7th, which if you asked me 4 weeks ago if I'd be happy with of have said no, but after the epic voyage across the Atlantic, I'm happy.
Setting off from Brest we crossed the Bay of Biscay and had a Force 8 gale blowing us along. With around 40 knots of breeze, we flew our heavy weight spinnaker and were making above 20 knots of boat speed for days. We were flying.
With the big winds and large waved sea came my first experience of fear on the boat. Usually I'm not scared to go up the front to change the sails, however in the dark I was petrified. I knew this would happen at some point in the race with the Pacific looming in a few months time, but not the start of race 2. Thankfully, my fear threshold increased as the days passed and I just ended up facing them square in the face and getting on with it.
The price for the speed was a number of breakages to the boat, and most critically our medium spinnaker when the wind eased in the trades. We were forced to race with the wrong sails which made us just bleed distance to the competition, dropping us down to 7th.
Next up was the doldrums, the dreaded no wind zone just north of the equator. The first couple of days the crew enjoyed a nice break from the hard work of the trip, following this though, the sound of flapping sails and no boat speed was driving us all to madness. We pushed to squeeze every ounce of movement from the boat and went to 1st place for a number of days which lifted spirits; but the doldrums lottery meant the no wind zone moved south with us and we ended up popping out in 8th, six long days later.
We chased the 7th place boat and sure enough caught them and passed them, firming to the crew that we are fast when we have the right tools for the job - wind and a working yacht.
Coasting into Rio was an experience to remember passing Sugar Loaf Mountain, looking up at the statue and looking back on the trip, the sailing was definitely the easy part. Facing fears, living with strangers in 70ft of space and coping with the pressure of close ocean racing was a killer. I was also watch leader again which added to the pressure being in charge of the team when the skipper was in bed or not on deck.
My hearing was an issue in the winds when trying to hear commands on the helm. The skipper would shout up a course to steer but unless I turned my good ear to him and stop watching where we were going, which when doing 26 knots is really not a good idea, I just had to get someone to relay the messages which was a pain and difficult to ask someone to do. Luckily, one of the crew, Dale Acton also has hearing issues after being diagnosed with Cholesteatoma. He helped me out and we worked as a good team. It really points out that 1 in 7 people in the UK have hearing related issues, so we need to raise as much money as possible to fund the valuable research for the future.
Highlights were the amount of firsts I've ticked. Seeing the stars at night with zero light pollution was incredible. Dolphins and Whales by the boat and travelling the furthest south in my life is all part of the adventure.
The race has already shown me that what we regard on land as essential really are not. Big screen TVs, the most up to date fashion, flashy gadgets are just materials. Being in a team of people taking on a challenge in clothes you've worn for a week, arm pits that have not been washed for days and food you would be cautious giving to a dog really puts life in perspective.
Being happy and healthy with friends and family are all you can ask for in life. Coming 1st or coming 7th, well, I think I'm starting to change as a person. I'm happy I'm here with my crew in one piece, we were unlucky with the wind, so lets take it and move to the next race to Cape Town. Cue 40degrees south, waves as big as houses and wind speeds up to 50knots!
Thanks for all the good luck messages and please please donate to the charity.
Www.justgiving.com/ben-pate-RTW
