As we waited for the off in New York, poppies were showered over the Statue of Liberty by helicopter to remember those fallen in the battle, some 50 years before.
The reason I'm doing this challenge is because I'm deaf and I couldn't be a pilot. Im not letting my disability stop me achieve what I want to achieve, I'm out here doing it. Seeing the sights to honour the brave people of D-Day, gave me the motivation to finish what I had started.
The sailors on the race had all the usual fears of crossing an ocean. We had crossed the Atlantic twice before, however, the North Atlantic can be a beast when it wants to be.
Only a few weeks ago, the yacht Cheeki Rafiki had gone down loosing all 4 crew. We would pass North of where the Titanic sank through an ice berg zone and sail over the Grand Banks where the film The Perfect Storm was said to happen.
It wasn't all bad though, we were on our way home and it felt good to be going East for the last time. We set off on our Easterly course from Rio many months ago and a few weeks into the journey across the North Atlantic, we would cross the line of longitude and complete the circumnavigation.
Race start had all the same thrills and we made excellent progress moving up into 1st place. The joys of leading though, are that you find the wind holes first and everyone else sees you stop then sails around you. This happened to us and sure enough the back of the grid loomed once more.
We worked hard and continued to focus. As we approached the Grand Banks, the smell of fish was strong on the air and we entered into the ice berg zone.
On the boat, you occasionally have fears that your mind wants to run away with, such as "what would happen now of the keel fell off?". You have to block these thoughts out and press on. When we entered the ice berg zone, I found I was never scared of hitting an ice berg until I was posted on look out on the bow.
After sailing all those many miles around the world my mind was used to blocking out the bad thoughts, it blocked out the fears, until I had to stand there and look for them, it was quite a strange feeling.
The crossing turned out to be a bit of a non-event with the sailing. It was an easy sail with the wind never really exceeding 20knots, which now, being a hardened sailor of course, is nothing.
The rather large event on the trip though was when we crossed the magic line of 43 08 850and sailed every line of longitude around the planet. The first tick box was complete for the circumnavigation. Next up, race finish then to take the yacht home to Gosport.
We arrived in Derry and had a fantastic stop over. The people of the city were all out to see the boats, and much like in Albany, everyone was so friendly, offering you lifts everywhere, asking questions and wishing us luck. It was so nice, but after a week it was time to go again.
The next race was a short hop up and over the top of Scotland to Den Helder in the Netherlands. We hoped we would get one last storm to see us off but it was not going to happen. It was again an easy sail, with the views of the land being incredible all the way over the top, through the Pentland Firth and on the way back down as we glided in between the North Sea Oil and Gas Platforms.
Den Helder was another great stopover, but one comment kept cropping up.."let's finish this".
Before the race start back to London, Sir Robin Knox Johnson, the first man to sail solo non-stop around the world and Clipper Race Founder and Chairman, gathered all the Round the World crew members from the various yachts who had sailed the full distance. From around 150 that started, there were only 53 of us that had made it.
We had a photo with Sir Robin, who then made a speech congratulating us. On record, only around 2500 people have ever sailed around the world, now we were added to the list. It's a very special club to be part of, making all the pain and sacrifices worth while to know that now, I have done it.
We set off for London and this was Mission Performance's last chance to get a pennant. We had a very poor start but clawed our way back up to 3rd. We were flying the big Code 1 spinnaker, but we were pushing too hard and it blew up on us dropping us to 7th. After a rapid change to the Code 2 we caught back up to 4th only to then miss a mark, have to turn around and place again, at the back of the grid.
The result didn't put me off what I had just achieved. We crossed the finish line off Southend Pier on the 12th July 2014 where on the 1st September 2013, we had set off in the other direction to France.
The parade up the Thames was full of emotions. Happy we had made it, but sad it was all over. The last 10 months had been an absolute roller coaster but looking back it has been absolutely amazing.
The times of fear in the southern ocean, the dramatic temperatures of the North Pacific and the Doldrums, the laughs and stories from all the crew I've sailed with. The wildlife from Dolphins and whales to Albatross, the sunrises and sunsets, the stars at night and the views of land after a large crossing or the islands off Malaysia. Every mile of the 47,000 we have done has been special in its own way.
We came into St Katharine Docks and I jumped up and down on the bow with such joy. The place was full of people all waving and cheering. We had done it!
As we moored up, we stayed on board and cheered in every boat as the final positions were announced. My old boat GREAT Britain came 2nd overall and it's a fantastic result for the crew.
Everyone asked me if I regretted moving boats and I'm sure the answer is no. I learnt a lot more about sailing, weather and navigation when I moved and more importantly I learnt a lot about myself.
London was emotional. On land the beers and champagne flowed until the early hours, meeting your friends from the race and saying the last goodbye to them. We have been more than just sailors on different boats, we have been one big family, travelling round the world, all looking out for one another. Now at the end, people said their goodbyes knowing that we might never see each other again. It was very sad.
After two days in the city it was time to take the boats back to where it all started. We motored back to Gosport to moor up at Clipper HQ. It felt so long ago that I came down for my interview. I was so nervous back then. The first time I went sailing on level 1 training, I thought that I would never understand what all the ropes did. And now look at me, a flipping circumnavigator with 47,000Nm under my belt! Thanks to everyone at the Clipper Race for everything.
I started the Round the World challenge with 3 items to tick...
1) To learn how to sail to see if I can continue into the sport in the future.
I learnt so much about sailing and by going on both yachts, I saw how different items with the team and trim affected performance. On both yachts I was regarded as one if the top helms and trimmers. So I've learnt to be a good sailor and would like to see if I could do more racing and training in the future.
2) To be pushed to the absolute limit to see how I reacted.
On GB, I was hit by a monster wave and my crew mate was knocked out. Instead of panicking, I calmly assessed the situation and managed the crisis. I was proud of how I reacted and its nice to know when it does all go wrong I can cope.
A similar thing happened on Mission where Matt collapsed with cold shock. I took charge and the boat and crew were safe and controlled until he came round. Again, I was proud of how I didn't panic, I went into a kind of robot mode until it was all over.
It's funny how we have been in such places where you are staring death in the face. But fear can't help you in an ocean, you can't just get off, you have to fight your way out of there. Following these events, everything on land seems a whole lot easier and a lot less stressful.
3) To raise money for charity.
So far I have raised £2700 for Action on Hearing Loss. This is fantastic and if anyone wants to donate more, you still can atwww.justgiving.com/Ben-pate-RTW.
So, I have done everything I set out to do. My friends and family helped me through it, but my Girfriend Mona was the one who really made it happen. She was a rock when I needed her. Positive and supportive all the way. Thank you to everyone who helped me, everyone who sent messages or just thought of us on the way round. Thank you all so much.
Now Im in Norway letting my body recover before back to work at Jaguar Land Rover. I have a broken toe, scars on my face from being hit by spinnaker sheets, painful knees from the hours of helming at an angle, tendinitis in both wrists from the same, a painful back from living in the cramped environment and missing about 10kg of weight from when I started. But it's all worth it.
And the key message from this blog is fear is out there, you just need to know when to use that fear to your advantage or when to block it out and carry on. You can't let fear of failure or fear of a situation stop you from what you want to achieve.
Know what your dream is, make a plan, then go do it, those are my words of advice to all if you
Ben Pate - Circumnavigator
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