‘The girls showed how tough they were’

I acquired the decision whereas sitting in slightly cafe in Horta within the Azores. Say ‘hell, sure’ first, take into consideration the logistics second. In order that’s how I grew to become First Mate on board the enduring yacht Maiden with our record-breaking all-female crew, racing prefer it’s 1973.

First I needed to full an Atlantic crossing. I then joined the crew in Hamble in July 2023 for the ultimate preparations forward of the beginning. I additionally needed to get my GMDSS GOC (common operator’s certificates) radio licence.

Little did I do know that the HF radio would change into an enormous function of the times on board. It was typically our solely entry to climate info but in addition our social community, with jokes or ‘quotes of the day’ with the opposite boats on the twice every day buddy chats – these grew to become a spotlight for the crew. After every one I might plot the opposite boats’ positions and work out the distances lined to see if we had made positive factors or losses within the final 12 hours.

Climate was at all times a scorching subject. All info got here from the marginally temperamental weatherfax and long-range HF radio forecasts – many stations have been shut down now and huge areas of the South Atlantic haven’t any broadcasts in any respect.

A part of the enjoyment of the race was navigating as per the Seventies. Crack out the sextant and use the solar, moon and stars to cross an ocean. Out of the blue the realisation of why you want an correct course, pace, variation and deviation grew to become obvious.

Each 2-3 hours we might enter the log and create a Lifeless Reckoning (DR) place, then use both Bonnie or Clyde (the 2 sextants) to calculate how shut we had been to that guesstimate.

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Maiden crew techniques and navigation

Early on, a tactical choice Heather and I agreed on was to take the shortest route. We suffered on Legs 1 and 4 from our weatherfax not choosing up any sign. We elected to take the ‘widespread is widespread for a purpose’ method to routing.

The techniques and navigation had been shared between Heather and myself. We organised our time into watches of six hours on, six hours off. Whoever was on watch was accountable for sail modifications, maintaining a tally of the climate and figuring out the place we thought we had been.

The crew had been organised into 4 watches of two, at all times two watches on at a time, and rotating each two hours in order that the oncoming watch went ahead to take over the ‘pit’ for trim and grinder, whereas the ‘pit’ crew moved again and took the helm and mainsheet.

Altering crew each two hours is nice for retaining the on-watches recent, however makes a shared mealtime troublesome. Like this, there was no time when everybody was collectively, so we ate freeze-dried meals.

Each couple of days Junella would seem like Santa with a sack of meals and put the subsequent few days’ sachets into every individual’s private cubby space. Every crew might then select what to eat and when. Largely the off-going watch would warmth the meals when going to wake the subsequent watch, so it was able to eat as quickly as they got here down. We additionally stored UTC boat time on Maiden, as this took one mathematical step out of the navigation – essential once you’re sleep disadvantaged and the boat is bouncing round!

Maiden will not be a straightforward boat to sail; she has a low freeboard and there is just one space that a mean 5ft 6in crew can get up in. The 12 crew lived on prime of one another. We had tiers of pipe cot bunks, which we shared (scorching bunking), with just one rest room and a small galley. We every had solely 12kg of private package.

The race begin was spectacular. There have been spectator boats so far as the attention might see. It was a downwind begin, in pretty mild winds and we popped the spinnaker simply after the road, giving us a pleasant head begin on a number of the different boats. Morale was excessive and the solar was shining as we headed out throughout Christchurch Bay – subsequent cease Cape City in practically 7,000 miles.

The crew began Leg 1 with out having beforehand sailed collectively as a crew. Within the first few days we had numerous sail modifications and we needed to be taught to handle power ranges and never do as many modifications as you may on an inshore race. Tactically, we elected to attend no less than 20-Half-hour earlier than going for an additional sail change, even as much as an hour if making the sailplan greater.

With some champagne crusing downwind with the trades, the crew realized to steer the boat down the waves in a straight line as quick as doable. We crossed the Doldrums alongside Translated 9.

We got here into Cape City upwind in a powerful 45 knots. On radioing VTS to ask about visitors, we had been informed to ‘wait exterior for higher climate’! We responded that we had been racing, to which the beautiful woman replied: ‘Properly for those who’re certain. There’s 50 knots within the marina right here. Good luck!’ We crossed the road to search out out we had been solely Half-hour shy of beating Spirit of Helsinki on corrected time. However second within the first leg nonetheless felt like place to be.

Leg 2 proved to be a studying curve; the waves had been greater, the wind was extra dense, colder and the sky was typically gray. Heavy, thrilling downwind situations had been the norm, with waves 4-6m and plenty of enjoyable browsing, adopted by the 30-knot spinnaker takedown! The waves and gray skies made it troublesome to navigate utilizing the sextant, we simply sailed further miles to verify we didn’t miss the waypoints.

Cape Horners

One of many greatest crusing achievements (apart from profitable) was to sail round Cape Horn. Leg 3 noticed us leaving Auckland in shorts and T-shirts to cross the world’s most distant ocean. Our path would see us dive deeper into the Southern Ocean than any of us had been earlier than. Race management had positioned some ice restrict waypoints at 50°S and 53°S.

The Southern Ocean was remarkably type to us. We had calms at 50°S, renamed the Chilly Doldrums or Coldrums and we wore the swimsuits on deck only for the enjoyable of claiming we sailed in swimsuits that far south.

Closing in on the second waypoint, we had been engaged in an in depth battle with the Spirit of Helsinki when the climate modified to heavy fog, making it tough to make sure of our place. Out of the blue over the VHF we heard them making a warning to a different vessel on a collision course. It turned out we had been additionally inside VHF vary of each Triana and Neptune.

The racing was tight and we inched forward, ‘energy reaching’ our means in the direction of Cape Horn within the lead of our chasing pack. Simply earlier than Cape Horn we broken our bowsprit; it lifted clear out of the deck while ploughing down some massive waves, so we really sailed previous the horn beneath white sails wing on wing! Sadly for the crew we rounded the Horn in darkness, with solely the flash of the lighthouse to information us.

How do you retain a crew recent on a ship for eight months? This proved tough typically however primarily it comes right down to communication. As soon as every week we tried to have a crew assembly on deck the place our ‘chief of morale’ Lana would regale us with a narrative or inspirational quote and the crew might voice any points. Our battle cry of: ‘Who runs the world? Women!’ and a few cake to finish the session left everybody feeling upbeat.

While you go off to sea for as much as six weeks at a time, particularly racing, it may be straightforward to neglect to have enjoyable, and this was actually an important a part of retaining the crew recent. Fleet birthdays had been celebrated over the radio with the women making up songs.

We got here up with ‘quotes of the day’ and jokes to entertain ourselves and the opposite boats by means of our Maiden Radio. We additionally featured ‘Heather’s Climate’ and a Cupid service on Valentine’s Day, studying poems from starry eyed lovers over the radio for all to listen to.

Leg 4 turned out to be our most difficult leg and showcased the true resilience of the crew. A westerly course to start out was dangerous however paid off round Rio. We had breakdowns of the inverters, generator and watermaker, leaving us with rationing on meals and water for a considerable amount of the race.

We collected numerous rainwater, managed to work by means of a number of the gear issues and finally managed to maintain the boat crusing as quick as doable. Actually the women confirmed simply how robust they had been, getting on with the job with out complaining and infrequently providing to drink lower than allotted if it could assist hold us racing.

Giant areas of scorching climate and no wind made it troublesome to navigate. So as to add insult to harm the weatherfax additionally stopped working so we needed to depend on HF forecasts and the kindness of a number of the different navigators to make our routing choices.

The Azores excessive appeared to chase us up the Atlantic the place we once more performed cat and mouse with Outlaw and Spirit of Helsinki. It was extremely demoralising to be inside 15 miles of one other boat after which for them to sail off and be 100 miles forward inside 24 hours.

A pleasant low strain system gave us a ultimate blast up the Channel. We had an incredible reception crusing up the Solent within the solar and even managed to fly the spinnaker one final time over the end line.

A number of days after the race, we had absolutely the honour to satisfy Queen Camilla at St James’s Palace. The phrases on the galley wall simply say all of it: ‘With religion, honour and braveness, something is feasible’.

Would I do it once more? Completely!

Rachel Burgess: diving deeper

‘Why will we go to sea for such lengthy instances and cross oceans? I believe it must be the liberty the ocean brings. There’s numerous time for deep contemplation and there’s nothing extra bonding than late night time chats at nighttime, looking on the stars because the boat slices her means by means of the waves leaving a glittery wake and it’s all quiet aside from the sound of the waves.

‘On off watches, I like to take heed to the musical hum because the water rushes alongside the hull, signalling we’re making quick speeds, typically accompanied by the whoops and cheers of the on watch as we surf down waves.

‘Maiden is sort of a racehorse chomping on the bit able to take off on the crest of the subsequent wave.’

Rachel is an RYA Yachtmaster Ocean with over 70,000 miles expertise of ocean racing, together with two circumnavigations, one through Cape Horn. She has sailed the Sydney-Hobart race (2022), a Clipper circumnavigation (2019-2022) in addition to in numerous offshore occasions in Australia, the Channel Islands and the UK.

Rachel graduated as a veterinary surgeon in 2010 and labored as a horse vet for 10 years earlier than taking over skilled crusing.

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