Latest from The Vaalie Sailors

To our family and friends

Yaaaaaay! RR (Running Repairs) had a quiet night/day! Of course Rex has spent considerable time with the water maker - but we suspect that may just be a Rex thing :).

We experienced good winds (15-25 knots, 30-45 kph) and only mild swells last night with occasional squalls coming through - so great progress was made. Today has been equally good with great sunshine, good winds and only a mild swell. I'm going to stop there in case I incant some sailing voodoo by talking too many good things. (Gareth has given us advice on strict sailing lore instructions such as not to shave until we reach Rio. We are nervous that Bushy will truly live up to his name by then. We broke the sailing lore of bringing bananas so we have eaten them quickly - maybe this caused the boom to break?)

Interestingly I suspect all newbies brought pajamas (short/T shirt). This created a smile with the real sailors - and now we know why. Within 4 hours of leaving Cape Town we were all in our "oilies" (waterproof gear for you land lubbers). None of the newbies took this gear off for the first two nights! The boat was throwing around so much it was impossible to change clothing. Let this not imply we knew where our clothing was - we had NO idea where anything was - apart from various sails. There were certainly no beds - only sail bags to sleep on. Gerrie defined 2 hour watches (shifts in land English :))on the first evening. When sleep was permitted, any and every surface which allowed you to wedge in was an absolute luxury which we embraced fully.

Last  night (night 4) was our first night of any real adherence to watches/shifts as good friend RR allowed us this respite. However this does not imply much at all. You must still be available on deck for any emergency so "oily" sleeping kit is quite the norm. Fireman Pieter has shown us how to attach boots to clothing for quick access - we don't have his skills.

From a sailing viewpoint we are not able to use our spinnaker as yet (partially because of wind direction and partially because of the broken bracket). So Code Zero is our sail of choice (sounds a bit like a Hawai Five Oh thriller?) and is pulling us along just fine.

All of us were truly saddened to hear of the tragic fatality on Bille. Our prayers and condolences go to the family of the deceased and to the crew of Bille. Our thoughts are with you at this time.

Love to all the family and friends

Regards from Mike on behalf of Team Rocket/Stop Rhino Poaching

Message from Rex Anderson

Hi family & friends,

All is well-we now all have our sea legs and are able to do other chores. For the first 2 days or so most of us worked as required to sail the boat, did all the repairs as things broke and slept to try to recover from the sea sickness.

Every day we have had something break and had to do repair work. Yesterday I sailed the yacht for about 6 hrs in total. Winds around 15 to 20 knots. Made 2 errors, one nearly did a Gybe and the second time a Broach---neither things you want to do in strong winds but we are all learning fast !!

Got water maker working today so will now have a back up water supply. We all showered today and everyone has done some washing-all the wet clothes are hanging from the side of the boat - looks like a washing line! 

Weather today a lot nicer-winds are around 15  knots and the sea is a lot calmer, waves about 2 meters.

Shin is a great cook so we are eating really well. Still not had a braai or any sundowners assume will only do so once we get better weather.

I got to say its tough going, not for  the weak. Have no idea how someone does this type of thing solo--- I would have said it's impossible. We all of have bruises as we fall against something as the yacht rolls. Every night we put our wet weather gear on, lifejackets and harnesses, and attach ourselves to the boat. Nights are cold and the first 3 nights had heavy rains at stages.

That's it for now

Rex Anderson

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More news from Team Rocket

Dear Family and Friends

Latest news from Rocket as at 17h51 SA time 7 Jan.

Good headway made last night - no major hiccups. We lost another reef (first reef this time) but this was repaired around 2am. (Running Repairs?) 

Today progressed well with all the crew managing to have a shower. Not sure when I last enjoyed a shower so much. Note that this is not trivial. It requires you to wedge yourself in between the toilet door and basin to ensure you do not land headfirst in the toilet itself (maybe this is why it's called the heads?). Then apply a splash of water, a layer of soap before splashing down with a drop more water. A fascinating act to apply while maintaining balance. Of course this is old news for real sailors - but

yet another learning for the newbies.

Heavy swells this afternoon with a strong tailwind caused a "wrong movement of the boat" (I was told to make this sound not too bad :)). This has resulted in us tearing the bracket that is used to raise the spinnaker pole. Out comes the hacksaw and 15 different toolboxes and hey presto, we have running repairs (lets just call him RR) back in action!

As at this time the bracket is not fully replaced and we shall be very limited in the potential use of our spinnakers - let's see how this progresses.

The watermaker was finally fixed today (RR again :)) - this gives us permission to shower more regularly. Note that showering (and anything else in the toilet) is not trivial so this is not likely to be a twice a day affair.

The steering on our ultra reliable starboard side failed this morning. Gerrie found the brackets which the fitter decided were not required when he replaced our steering on 3 Jan. So we (RR again)fixed both port and starboard steering using the brackets. Hopefully this is the last we shall be hearing from our steering.

All crew seem to be back to eating and drinking - although we believe we shall still have our full complement of booze when we get to Rio. We shall have to make up for lost time then. Pieter says we shall have a drink under the first tree we come to.

All the crew send love and best wishes to family and friends at home - and thanks for the prayers and good wishes.

Regards from Mike on behalf of Team Rocket.

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News from Team Rocket

Dear All,

Just a quick update from all of us on Rocket.

We left Saturday 4th  under apparently kind conditions with a forewarning that we may have steering problems as the newly replaced steering broke an hour before race start. The departure itself was great with a school of dolphins bidding us farewell.

Shortly after departure we hit heavy winds. The starboard steering broke again around 10:30 that evening and running repairs were effected. 

All the new sailors were overcome with significant sea sickness - not a pretty sight. Gerrie, Gareth and Shin were (are are) the stalwarts. 

Overall it was a truly tough night with minimal sleep and an extreme learning experience. The swells reached close on 10m and the wind was gusting to 35 knots. 

Second day brought another day of sea sick newbies with serious dehydration and unwillingness to eat any food (in spite of the great food from Shin). The starboard steering came loose yet again and running repairs were made. We spent much time on second reef - however this snapped late on the afternoon of 5th. Running repairs took on new meaning with Gareth being halled up the mast in huge winds and rolling seas.

The night of the 5th brought a fresh set of problems. The starboard steering broke a third time. This time we made some "design changes" and have also tried to only use the port steering. We are becoming pretty good at these repairs. 

At 11:30pm Gerrie called "All hands on deck". The main bolt/nut holding the boom in place had come loose (no split pin in the fitting!) and the whole boom collapsed. This took about 4 hours work for the team to fix - with Gareth and Shin showing their absolute star qualities. This was finally fixed in the early hours and we were able to proceed. Of course the sea and wind did not abate while all this happened - quite an extreme midnight experience (significant understatement :)

Monday 6th the swells were throwing us around and combined with a change of course, we managed to tear a hole in the main sail. Can I use the term running repairs again? This took close on 4 hours to repair under very inhospitable conditions.

We have tested our new  water maker - the water appears to be good however we have found it is leaking on the output side. So this has been repaired - we shall find out tomorrow if the repair is effective as the repair will take at least half a day to dry out.

At last all of us have eaten a meal this evening - and appears to be staying down. Next big thing will be a shower - if we can get the water maker working :.

While everyone has contributed there is no doubt this would have been an impossible venture without the true stars - Gerrie, Gareth and Shin.

We are happy to report all is well.

Regards from Mike on behalf of Team Rocket

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Pic taken in the storm

Few pics were taken in the storm - we were not geared up for holding camera and holding onto something to balance. This pic was taken when we had the repair the steering for the nth time mid storm. - 5 Jan — 

Race day photos

The two RNYC entries in the 2014 Cape to Rio, 

Investec Ciao Bella and Rocket / Stop Rhino Poaching, 

leaving Table Bay with Table Mountain in the background.

Newbies “Well this is not too difficult … “.

Gareth instructing the newbies “That tall big thing is called the mast”.
Taken just as they left Cape Town Harbour.

Newbies question to Gareth … “And what do we do with it?”.

  Mike le Plastrier trying out his camera on his head!

Best mates Mike and Rex looking decidedly chirpy!

Checking the sails

Gareth Elias great yachtsman - youngest aboard the Vessel

Getting into action!

Save the Rhino - Stop Rhino poaching!

Seasoned sailors Gareth Elias & Volker Domres

Ready to go team?

And we're off!

See you in Rio!

Team Rocket

Team Rocket aboard their Vessel just before they set sail: (left to right):

Pieter Brink (Vaalie), Volker Domres (German), Rex Anderson (Vaalie), Gareth Elias (Durban),

Gerrie Boshoff (Skipper and Vaalie), Johan Brink (Vaalie), Shin Terasawa (Japanese), 

Johan Brits (Vaalie) & Mike le Plastrier (ex Vaalie).