"Gold Coast Australia" powering to 4th Bullet! Go Babs!

Gold Coast Australia at far right, on way to Geraldton, 08:00 HKT, 28 October
The above is a screen shot.  See the real time viewer here.

Remember: "our Babs", who crewed with us on Xena at last year's King's Cup, is on Gold Coast Australia in the Clipper Round the World Race.
They won the first three legs and look in good position to win the fourth, to Geraldton, Western Australia. That's them way out in front in the screen shot above, with about 450NM to go.  Plug the wind in, on the real time viewer, and they look in good position to get the strengthening breeze first.

See the crew profiles here.

Related: Volvo Ocean Race.  In-Port race in Sanya, Hainan Island, 18th Feb '12.  Chinese entry, Team Sanya, with Mike Sanderson at the helm, here.

Babs at last year's KC.
Iris, Stevo, Digger.

Update: found Babs' diary entry on the race site, latest, Day 10 of Leg 4, 18th October.  Dramatic stuff!

I have come a long way, from the person who till a year or so ago was pretty scared of water, to one who is now sailing through storms in the most feared ocean on earth, the Southern Ocean.

18/10/11 RACE 4 - DAY 10 - by Babs Yendell (Gold Coast Australia)
As you probably know if you've been following the latest Gold Coast Australia updates, we are down in the Southern Ocean, at the bottom of the world, in one of the most remote and extreme environments on earth. We are such an insignificant little blip on the huge expanse of ocean we are crossing.

Everything associated with this ocean here is bigger and wilder than any other. Birds, waves and wind are all of enormous proportions. We've experienced some rather extreme conditions down here in the southern ocean these past few days. 


Yesterday was one of those where one minute the sky was blue with sunshine, then five minutes later we had driving sleet, huge winds and crashing waves, these weather patterns kept alternating all afternoon long. 
I'm sitting in the relative warmth of the nav station on my 20 minute on watch warm up session. Despite my six thermal tops mid layer jacket and salopettes, foul weather salopettes and jacket, it’s too cold to stay on deck for more than 30 minutes at a time so we take in turns to come below and warm up. I'm sitting here remembering the scary dunking I got in the ocean yesterday afternoon. So it was yesterday, that I happened to be controlling the main sheet (for those of you who aren't sure what this, it’s the rope that lets the main sail come in and out so it controls the main power of the boat).

We need a crew member ready holding that sheet in case of any gusts. As with everything else here they are large too, 50-70kt gusts which can knock the boat out of control and flat if that main sheet person doesn't react quickly enough and dump the sheet. It always feels awkward sitting manning the sheet as you are generally sitting on the low side nearest the water and there's nothing to really hang on to. I loop my arm through the helming post to stop myself sliding off. Dan was helming and doing a great job in very difficult conditions. Waves were coming at us in all directions, some pushing up behind us as big as houses, driving sleet with limited visibility and gusts of 50 plus knots that take your breath away with their sudden appearance and ferocity. Dan was helming the boat with great skill, but from the huge wave that hit us side on he had no chance. I had only time to swear, and the enormous mass of frothing, freezing, hissing water was on top of us. It knocked us over on our side throwing Dan from the helm and myself from my perch and engulfing us under the wave. The boat went under water on the low side as the wave hit, me with it, but thankfully righted itself very quickly.

Down below, sleepers were tossed from their bunks and those in the saloon were assaulted by all sorts of kitchen utensils and flying condiments that were hurtled through the gap between kitchen and crew seating area. Taz who now has a rather red/purple nose received a whopping knock from a flying bottle of sweet chilli sauce, her immediate cheery response was to say that she wanted a nose job anyway. It’s one of those experiences that I shan't forget easily but that I have come to expect and take in my stride as time aboard goes on. I have come a long way, from the person who till a year or so ago was pretty scared of water, to one who is now sailing through storms in the most feared ocean on earth, the Southern Ocean.