Setting off from London seems a long time ago now. Everything was fresh and new, each day a new challenge that sent the minutes spinning off the clock.
Now, nine months into the circumnavigation, just like the final stage of a marathon or long bike ride, the challenge is just to keep on going.
Rightly or wrongly, Leg 7 is seen as a coastal cruise along the West Coast of America, through the Panama Canal and up the other side, stopping at Jamaica along the way. After the dreadful Pacific, we were all looking forwards to some gentle sailing and getting back to the warm climate after a month of being freezing cold and battered to pieces in the North Pacific.
Just like Cape Town, everyone loved San Francisco, it's culture and lifestyle, along with the small city setting in the country just appealed to us all. I picked up a couple of books to read on the journey. My experience now said that as soon as we hit the low North latitudes, sleeping in the afternoon would be difficult, so some good reading material would be required.
One book was about Larry Ellison and his conquest of the Americas Cup, in the very bay we were leaving. The other about a Navy Seal that was sent to Afghanistan and on a mission, lost his team and faced a battle to survive alone; both books would be inspirational on the race although then I didn't know it so.
We started on a very breezy day in San Francisco. We headed out under the Golden Gate Bridge, the one that had welcomed us so warmly, with a reefed main and our smallest set of head sails.
The new leggers, as usual were full of energy and pulling their weight keeping the boat going. The more experienced crew were using their knowledge to teach and trim to ensure the boat was moving at its full potential.
Myself, I immersed myself in the navigation side again. This is an area I have been teaching myself since changing boats in Singapore. We had a great start and were up in the lead pack for days and holding second place, the mood on board was buoyant.
However when the race tactics started to play out, we started falling positions. We ended up pinned on the South side of the race track and with the wind blowing from the North East, we could only tack our way down the Southern edge of the course making very slow progress.
We entered the tropics and the heat set in. Sleeping became almost impossible because with the light winds, you were never really exhausted to just pass out in your bunk. You just lay there, sweating and for me, reading. Sleep deprivation became the big factor for everyone.
Reading the Larry Ellison book, I became super competitive. Reading about a sailing team competing at the highest level and excelling rubbed off on me and reminded me that one of the reasons I'm doing the race is to learn about the sport to pursue it in the future.
We knew we were a fast boat, I trimmed the hell out of it and when racing along side other boats we were always as fast or faster, but we had landed in a place where we simply could not compete with the other boats for line honours.
We continued on until the race was called short due to low winds. We motored to Costa Rica to re-fuel before carrying on to Panama.
After a short stopover in Panama. We had our slot to go through the canal. We slipped lines and said good bye to the Pacific for good. The canal was a real experience, and very few of us realised that only a short section is "canal", the rest is a vast lake which the canal makers flooded in a rainforest. We exited in the early hours and motored to the next start line for the short race to Jamaica.
This race was a three day sprint. As a team, we decided to put everything into it. Specialised helms, ensured the weight distribution was right with everyone sat on the rail at all times and analysed boat performance every 15mins.
Before the race, I was fired up. I analysed the charts and knew that we should head off, tack East, wait for the Jamaica turning point to be due North and go for it. We had a great start, again, but headed with the pack West and saw a couple of boats tack off East but we did not follow.
Sure enough after a tough battle North, we were at the back of the pack again finishing in 11th place. 2nd and 3rd places were filled by the boats that had headed off East.
Jamaica was a welcome break, for the first time since Sydney we had multiple days off and we relaxed, climbed a waterfall, swam in a blue lagoon and soaked up the rays on white sandy beaches. It was bliss apart from our budget is now on the floor so our accommodation was a little less than to be desired. Hey ho.
The final race of Leg 7 saw us leave Jamaica for a short week race up to New York. My tactics were to head around Cuba, head North West, rounding the island by the scoring gate then head due North. Our skipper said in our initial crew briefing he was going to target two fast boats, Henri Lloyd and Derry~Londonderry~Doire. He wanted to stick on their tails and ensure we were up in the top half of the table.
The race started and we had the best start of all time. A great piece of driving from the skipper saw us round the first mark in 2nd place. We headed off on another tacking fest to the Eastern edge of Cuba and held our strong position almost all the way.
Now, weather forecasting is not easy at the best of times. Prediction of winds is commonly wrong. Our skipper predicted that heading West would see us get stronger winds than the rest of the fleet who had hit the scoring gate and were now heading north. We headed off west and ended up in lower winds. The fleet got away and the race was called short again. We scored 9th place, again not a true testament of how fast a boat we are.
Laying in my bunk writing this as we motor to New York, I really don't know how to feel. Before the race start in London, I worked my rear end off studying sailing. I attended extra courses to learn how to sail. I read books, looked on the Internet and practised predicting the weather at home and when working abroad. This has been my approach to any challenge in my life. This is how I was able to work in F1, become a test driver and complete all of my other achievements.
I know I'm good, because I worked and still work to learn and keep learning to make myself a better sailor. Maybe one day I can be one if the guys in Larry Ellison's team? Why not, chase your dreams right.
But remember the other book. The other book is about a Navy Seal who was sent out to Afghanistan to sniper an Al Quieda leader with his team of 3 other seals. When the mission was laid out, all 4 seals had very bad feelings about the mission and thought the lack of cover in the area would make the mission extremely dangerous.
The book accounts their training and how discipline is key to the military. If you are told to do something, you do it. No matter what, you trust your commanding officer and do it. The mission turned out to be suicide with 3 of the team being killed within 24 hours. Another team who flew in to aid them were also killed on approach to the area. Only one person survived and he wrote the book.
And this is the relevance to this leg for me. On the boat I have a watch leader and a skipper. They are my commanding officers. To be an effective team, we must all work to the orders given. If not, chaos will outbreak with everyone just doing what they want with no respect to the hierarchy in place.
So even though it really sucks being at the back of the pack, knowing I'm a good sailor and super competitive, to be the best team player I can be, I just need to offer my suggestions and do my job, crew member, to the best of my ability.
This blog is not written to point out any flaws in our team. Everyone is learning, everyone is having their own experience, what will be will be and it is what it is.
This is my story though, and for me, patience and persistence under the most stressful conditions is what I'm being taught now.
In New York, we will be on the homeward stretch and when we cross 43 Degrees West, I will have sailed around the world.
Just, keep, going. That's all I need to do now, especially as it's absolutely freezing now!
Ben Pate
