ORCV Melbourne to Vanuatu (M2V)

Trusty Cat.

Our trusty cat, Kimbo from Samskara, is back in the good books and has supplied a tale of overnight issues.

"After a relatively uneventful day of 10-20 knot winds, shifting from Sou'east to East, 'ALL HANDS ON DECK' was called at around 9.45pm last night. The outhaul had broken away from the boom, which left the mainsail flapping freely from the mast. This is not a good predicament, but certainly better than a torn mainsail. The sail was dropped, the boom lowered and assessment of the damage made. It was decided that the metal plate that had let go was going to be easy enough to rivet back onto the boom."

"Tool boxes, drills, rivets and torches were strewn through the cockpit while the handy-men did their thing. The mainsail is one that furls/rolls into the boom on our boat, so we then had to carefully re-thread it, back into its down position before hoisting it again. The whole process only took about 90 minutes and we continued to sail under headsail at about 5 knots throughout the operation, so hopefully not too much time was not lost."

"The wind continued to swing in all directions, all night long, with us mostly sailing hard into the breeze. We are getting used to walking and sleeping on walls, as we are well and truly heeled over." (Ed. This really should be easy for a cat, you know.) "Combine this with a short and nasty, choppy sea and let's just say bloody awkward and uncomfortable down below. It's a bit like being stuck in a kiddies bouncy castle, except this bouncy castle's edges are hard not soft. Its the same involuntary jolting, the claustrophobic noisy atmosphere and the feeling that you should be having fun, but all you want do do is puke on your mate who is making it bounce so hard - interesting... And we are doing this for fun!??! On deck is the definitely the nicest place to be, that is of course until a big green wave comes over the bow and dumps 100's of litres of water all over you... hee hee ... bet you all wish you were here!"

The person with the wheel gets all the blame...

"Anyway with all that said, are we having fun yet?? Yes of course we are. As they say a poor day out on the water, is far better than a good day in the office - any time! We are fortunate no-one suffers from sea sickness here on Samskara, so everyone is in good spirits. Things could also be much worse. The conditions are not so bad, it is just an awkward angle we are sailing on at the moment, so we hope to be able to bear away from the breeze, by late this afternoon."

"We just did the scheds (Sunday Morning) and it seems we are tending towards the back of the fleet... However, we have a long way to go, yet. We should pass the half-way mark today, which will be exciting. I must say, it is nice to sail with people who have equal expectations. Each of us has the natural competitive spirit and like to do well, but the priority is getting to our tropical paradise, without breaking anyone and just as importantly, without breaking the boat. We all know and agree that with missions such as these, its all about the party at the other end!" Get ready then team... there's diving and chilling waiting for you.

Tucker highlight of the day appears to be a gnocchi Bolognaise ala Mike. Kimbo says "Very good indeed!"

"Oh dear, we just heard the latest Lord Howe Island weather, which told us it is going to swing Nor'east and that is exactly what we don't want, as that's where we want to go!!! Jeez. Not much good news today! Oh well, we'll push on through. Everyone is a little weary after the watch system was thrown out of whack last night, but have slowly migrated into the cockpit for morning coffees and reminiscences of their evening watches. Seems we had a good dumping of rain, I must have been bouncing around my bunk and missed that." Cat's don't like to get wet, you know...

"Let's hope the next update will be more riveting in the exciting sense of the word and not about pop-riveting more pieces of the boat back together!!!" Quite so Kimbo, quite so...

Please remember, that if you want to find out where everyone is in the chase for the container that APC Logistics sent to Vanuatu, then please go HERE.

By John Curnow