Clipper Fleet Pursued by “Creatures”
“Let me paint a picture. Outside it’s blowing a solid 50 knots and gusting 70-75 in the hail squalls. The temperature is sub-zero. The sea state is massive and regularly breaking. We just hit a top speed of… wait for it 32.8 knots! This is where you tread lightly and feel like a gazelle running between a pride of lions. Safety is top priority, we stopped ‘racing’ 24 hours ago." So said Dale Smyth, skipper of Dare to Lead, one of 11 Clipper 70s racing across the North Pacific Ocean from Qingdao, China, to Seattle, on Wednesday.
"Waves greater than 14 metres" were reported — that’s 46 feet! “It was just at dawn; I was behind the helm and I looked around and saw nothing and everything at the same time," said GREAT Britain skipper David Hartshorn. "It was like being on another planet; I had forgotten how stunningly beautiful and overwhelmingly intimidating at the same time the North Pacific can be.
“Waves the size of houses would be too cliché to try and describe the sea state. To me they are more like pursuing creatures, charging down on us as they raise in height, stimulated by some mythical wave charmer, to envelope and then consume the GREAT Britain boat.”
"The wind was supposed to turn and it did back on a broad reach facing the waves from the previous gale," said Garmin’s skipper, Gaëtan Thomas. "The boat jumped in the air and a nasty wave, when we were shaking out a reef, hit us badly.
"All the team were washed down. All the lifejackets inflated, and the cockpit was full of water. Dave West was on the mast to spike the handy billy and he was safely double-clipped but he was projected on the mast. Mei Fullerton in the cockpit received James Lawrie on her, and her shoulder is quite in pain, but both of them are inside the boat now and nothing major medically is wrong."
The fleet has now emerged from the worst of it. Nikki Henderson, the 24-year-old skipper of Visit Seattle, comments: "The sea was just like something off the Perfect Storm — huge towering waves, boiling, seething, breaking, swirling. When we sailed over the top of one, it felt like we had just summited a peak in a mountain range — rolling hills as far as the eye could see. But unlike bleak mountain tops, or the dark black of the films, the sea was the most beautiful mix of colours — dark deep blue, white where it had broken, and bright turquoise as the surf mixed it all up. Just breathtaking. But the best part was definitely the crew. Just seeing these guys and gals managing the weather, enjoying it, experiencing it was incredible."
All this after dead slow stretches during the first half of the 5,600-mile leg. The ‘Race to the Emerald City’ was originally scheduled to arrive at Bell Harbor Marina starting tomorrow, but now the boats are not expected until Friday the 20th through Sunday the 22nd. Qingdao is currently in the lead. Track the fleet at www.clipperroundtheworld.com.
The waves formed in the Gulf of Alaska are now rolling through the Gulf of the Farallones and onto the California coast; breakers up to 20 feet are forecast for today. Be safe out there!