Stage 3 – Cocos (Keeling) Atoll to Rodrigues Island
Posted by Graham Cox
Yes, you read that right. Leg 2.5. Our esteemed race director, Don McIntyre, aka ‘the mad bastard’, has decided mid-race to restructure the Indian Ocean passage into two legs. I have no idea yet what he plans to call the Leg from Mauritius to Cape Town, but then I am just a dizzy poet, not a mathematician.
As we go to press, Adam and LITTLE WREN are bearing down on Port Mathurin in Rodrigues, holding comfortable onto 5th position, while CAPUCINETTE, IMMORTAL GAME, ORIGAMI and PETER PUNK are already snugged up in port.
Renaud crossed the line off Port Mathurin early evening on 02 October, and then moved in behind the reef for the night before entering the channel the following morning. It was too windy for flying the MGR flags again but at least the sea was finally smooth after a boisterous passage. He completed the passage in just over 14 days, beating John Guzzwell’s time by almost 4 days.
Renaud posted, ‘This is it! Arrived at Rodrigues at night, with squalls and wind gusts of 30 knots. CAPUCINETTE had 3 reefs in the mainsail and a half-furled jib. The Coastguard agreed that I could anchor in front of the jetty (rather than in the outer harbour, as usually required at night). Finally, squalls and wind gusts stopped at entrance of channel to the jetty. Was a really hard passage from Cocos Keeling. This morning Daniel Turner arrived.’
Dan Turner was able to proceed straight to the rough-looking concrete wharf after tacking cautiously between the reefs, on which the sea could be seen breaking, having arrived in daylight. He moored behind his buddy, Renaud. There was a bit of surge in the harbour, but there are large rubber fenders to which they could moor their little, plywood egg-crates.
Keri, who was about 50 miles astern of Dan, arrived with ORIGAMI not long after. Once he has cleared with the officials, he rafted ORIGAMI alongside an American yacht he’d befriended in Cocos Keeling. He did not call as scheduled on 06 October, so there are no details of his passage available, but he maintained a steady pace throughout the preceding two weeks, staying close to Renaud and Dan.
Pilar did not call either, though video footage from Dan showed PETER PUNK moored to the seawall astern of IMMORTAL GAME (with CAPUCINETTE now rafted alongside Dan).
When Adam called, he said, “It’s a beautiful morning on the Indian Ocean. It’s flat calm, with a gentle, rolling swell. I’ve made myself some real coffee, and I was able to sit my coffee pot on my little table without fear of it falling over, so that gives you some idea of the conditions. It lightened up about this time yesterday, and then this morning I’ve got virtually, well nothing really.
“I think I’ve averaged around 2 knots for the last 12 hours. Initially, I had some success with the A3 and A5 wing and wing, but then last night the A5 started to back, as the wind direction started backing as well. Now I’ve just got the A5 on the leeward side, but it is just hanging there.”
Speaking of the rough weather that proceeded the calm, he said, “It was quite intense for a few days, but we had plenty of notice that it was coming. The wind was steady on the port quarter, so there was some consistency in the waves. There was the odd swell on the beam but not many.
The seas got quite big, but the 580s are great little boats. Janusz Maderski (the designer) needs to get a lot of credit, because I’ve done thousands of miles on LITTLE WREN now, and I haven’t yet had one bit of water in my cabin. I have a dodger which definitely helps. There’s been a lot of water in the cockpit – the cockpit drains empty it out pretty quickly – but nothing in the cabin. I was restricted to the cabin quite a lot of the time because of the conditions in the cockpit, but generally speaking, I’d much rather have those conditions than the conditions I’ve got now.
“I made good miles in the rough weather, mainly sailing with jib and three reefs in the mainsail. I made a mistake one night, sailing with the A7 to leeward, and poled-out jib on the windward side, and it was probably just a little bit too much sail. I ended up with a tear in the leech of the A7, but it’ll repair easy enough.
“I cooked every night, and slept pretty well, a couple of hours at a time. I’d then get up, check things, and then go back for another couple of hours. Plus, I’d have a little bit of a snooze during the day if I needed it. I haven’t felt tired at all.
“It’s been a bit lonely, or solitary. I haven’t seen another vessel for at least a week, and very little in the way of wildlife, apart from the odd storm petrel.
Asked about supplies, he said, “I took some rainwater from the tank at Direction Island. That’s not really drinking water, so I’ve been boiling it. I’ve just about run out of drinking water now, but I should be in some time tomorrow. I’ve still got a few tins of buffalo curry left.” (He bought them at Cocos (Keeling), and had earlier mentioned the meat was a bit chewy.) Asked how it rated against tinned sardines, which he has developed an aversion to, he said, “Oh a lot better. I keep opening my stores and seeing the remaining six or eight tins of sardines, and it just sends a judder through me. I’m going to have to find another sailor who will take them off my hands.” He also offered to give me one of his tins of Buffalo curry.
After the rough weather, the interior of LITTLE WREN was getting a bit mangy. Adam said, “Yesterday I took the opportunity to do a complete spring clean in the cabin. We weren’t able to get rid of any of our rubbish in Cocos, so we’ve been carrying it since Australia, and all mine was in the forepeak. I’ve taken it all out and strapped it onto the deck in these light conditions, and tidied up the forepeak. The area still has a lot of black mould, and it stinks.
“I also had an outbreak of flies, which wasn’t very nice. Yesterday I went through the whole cabin with some antibacterial spray, and there was a lot of black mold and general grime and dirt and nasty stuff that had been collecting from Australia – perhaps even from Fiji – because we haven’t been able to tie up anywhere since Fiji, so I’m in a really spring-cleaned cabin now, and feeling very pleased with myself.”
Surprisingly, he is still living in his swimming costume, day and night – it hasn’t got cold enough for him to don clothes yet. Besides the sartorial simplicity, it helps to keep the cabin dry, too. “I still have my fan on most days, and quite often in the evenings. I haven’t had any problems with the cold at all. I’m very, very light on clothes, and have been since Antigua, so there’s no wet-weather gear that brings water into the cabin. The cockpit sole gets wet, so my feet will be occasionally wet, but have a towel to dry myself when I come below.”
Asked about sail combinations on this passage, he said, “I couldn’t use my twin jibs because the angle wasn’t right. We were definitely reaching rather than running downwind. I started with them both rigged, but I took one off halfway across from Cocos Keeling. When I could, I had my jib poled out to windward, and my A7 to leeward. And then sometimes I had the mainsail with two reefs, or one reef and jib – both on the leeward side – when the wind got heavier. And then sometimes just a little touch of main and a reefed jib. There’s a great incentive to try not to round up when the weather’s that bad, because you don’t want to have to go into the cockpit if you can help it. But the South Atlantic wind vane is still doing its sterling job. It copes with heavy weather really well.”
He had about 90 miles left to go to Port Mathurin on Monday morning, so hoped to get in on Tuesday. He’d finally seen another bird that morning, a land-based tropic bird, so knew he was getting close to land. At 0600 Rodrigues time, on Tuesday, 07 October, he had about 17 miles to go.
For those interested in supporting the Ella Dawson Foundation, the charity Adam raises funds for, the competition to guess how much rope there is aboard LITTLE WREN (excluding spares) is still open.
Christian has been having a great duel with Jakub. ARGO led BIBI briefly on 01 October, with a 5-mile gap between them, but Jakub regained the lead the following day, and had a 15-mile lead by 06 October. When asked about this, Christian chuckled. “It’s not over yet. Yeah, we’re battling quite hard. He’s a tough cookie, that’s crazy. I thought it would be easier.”
Later, Jakub sent an me amusing message. ‘I’m having a good time now. Yesterday and today it’s a kind of sailing that you don’t even want to go to any port. Boat sails itself. Yesterday all day, good wing on wing, under A7 and A5. And today, beam reach with full main and A3. However, the wind is backing to the NW, so I soon expect a weather change to SE and wind strengthening. Last few days, as you’ve noticed, I’m running away from Christian. And it’s like trying to escape by bicycle from Mercedes- Benz.
Christian continued, “I’m doing fine. So far, it was okay on the Indian Ocean. I had a couple of tough days where I was thrown around in the cabin, where I was sometimes wearing my helmet. All the nuts of my jammers and stuff are right at the ceiling of the place where I sit, although, on ARGO, there are less nuts on the ceiling than on other boats, because I’ve got the deck pulled out to the cockpit, so most of the stuff is bolted on the outside.
“The sea state was sometimes just crazy. I was always trying to brace myself, and had some awkward sleeping positions. There was a cross swell most of the time, and sometimes, depending on the course, the waves slammed really hard against the side of the boat. ARGO was rounding up a little bit, and the waves were coming straight on the side. I was not worried about the structure, but there were some huge slams, and sometimes waves were coming right over the deck, with spray all over the boat.
“But inside was okay, the boat is dry inside. I’ve got only the tiny Starlink cable going out of the hatch, and I could even remove that in case I needed to. I could feel the benefit of the big drain holes that I built, so when the cockpit was filled up, it was emptying out really fast. Also, I have the big dodger as well, which goes a bit further aft than the hatch, and the lowest part of the hatch is higher than the cockpit sides.
“So, I felt quite safe and comfortable. Of course, it was wet in the cockpit sometimes, and it’s getting colder every day. Now, at the moment, we’ve got less wind, so we don’t feel that so much. But when the wind was blowing hard, it was sometimes pretty chilly at night in the cockpit. And I try, as I said before, to not wear much clothes, because every time you go inside, you bring more and more salt inside the boat and everything gets humid.
“Because of that, I stayed in the cockpit for long periods of time (instead of going in and out). I hand-steered at times, because the sea state was so confused that it was almost impossible for the windvane to steer the boat, especially if I had a bit of mainsail up. When the winds were really strong, I sailed with just the jib at night. I have not used the storm jib so far, but sometimes the jib was too much sail. I’ve got only a hanked -on jib, so can’t roller-reef it. I do have reef points in the jib, but so far, I’ve never use that. The wind was gusting 35 knots, I think.
“It’s hard to cook something in those conditions. Besides, I was quite occupied taking care of the boat, and having everything secured. Everything takes longer, and you have to really think about every move you do. Even when I just want to go to the other side and check the status of my batteries, or go to the switch panel, you have to think about what you’re doing, so that you don’t get thrown around the cabin.
“That was not the best thing for my shoulders. Even just lying in the bunk and lifting my arm up to grab the overhead handle was difficult. It was worse before I got the Cortisone injection. I think it’s stable at the moment – it depends on the conditions, of course. I’m still taking painkillers, and I’m doing exercises, which is something that’s difficult to do in tough conditions.”
Even going to the bathroom has its challenges. “I don’t use a bucket – I just sit on the transom. It can be wet, but as soon as I go outside, I get wet anyway, so that works fine for me.
“Two days ago, we had a tough night, with continuous squalls. I had to change sails every 10 to 15 minutes. It was basically just to roll out the A5 and roll it back in, as the mainsail was already triple-reefed, but it was still stressful and tiring. At some point, I was so tired that I just fell asleep in the bunk. Luckily, the A5 was not up at that time.
“Since then, the wind has been softening. I am trying to stay a bit further north, to maybe have a better breeze, but it’s not really predictable, and because we’re so close to Rodriguez now, we can’t do big moves anymore. The currents are quite confusing too. I don’t know if I will have a head current or maybe weak following currents.
“The plan was to arrive Tuesday evening, but with the wind weakening that won’t be possible. I’m afraid that it might be another nighttime arrival. I have not looked to see if there’s something outside the harbour that I can check the accuracy of the electronic charts against, which is what I did in Cocos Keeling when I was coming in at night. There was a yellow flashing buoy at the entrance to Cocos, so, after checking my position against it, I was confident that the accuracy was okay.
“What time we arrive will depend on if the wind picks up. At the moment, ARGO is carrying full mainsail, A3 and A5, and the wind is well off the stern and fairly light, but the sea is smoother. I had some ugly cross swells yesterday. I was sitting on the foredeck, repairing the foot of one of my A5s again. I didn’t want to undo the furler from the bowsprit, so I was sitting on the bow. The conditions were nice, but the sea state made the exercise a bit tough. (Who needs a bucket bath when you’ve got a bowsprit.) Now, there’s a really big swell coming from the southeast. However, as there’s little wind, there’s not a big wind-wave on top, so it’s quite calm. Also, we have an almost full moon and a clear sky.”
He hasn’t had much wear and tear on the boat other than to the foot of his A5. “I did exchange some sheets, and I will exchange the main halyard in Rodrigues, because I’ve had to shorten it a couple of times since leaving Portugal. I have also switched the position of the steering lines for the wind vane.
“I’m really happy with the upgrade to the furler that I did. I had two new furlers sent to Cocos, but only one is installed at the moment because I got them pretty late. Electronics are good so far. I didn’t use the tiller-pilot at all on this passage, only the windvane. The last few days have been sunny, so I was able to charge my batteries almost to 90%. The active radar reflector is doing a really great job (Echomax). I switch on the AIS occasionally, but I think the navigation lights and Echomax work pretty good. For the last eight days I haven’t seen any ships.”
Eric was in good spirits when he called, as he usually is. “There’s not much breeze out here this morning, but it’s quite nice. Pretty flat water, and the sun’s shining, so that’s a bonus. A bit of cloud about. I just launched my new A3, a big yellow and white kite.
“After I spoke to you two weeks ago, we had some pretty rough seas and quite challenging conditions for a good 48 hours. The sea state was making it hard to control the boat at times, so I put the 100m storm warp out over the stern. I’d made up a bridle before I left Cocos, and hooked it on the winch, so had it all set up. By adjusting the bridle on the winches, I could pull the windward quarter up towards the waves. If you shorten it 300mm – even less, 200mm – you’ll nearly bring the waves around to the quarter. That really made a difference. I didn’t put the sea anchor on, because I didn’t want to slow the boat down too much. I’ve also got a small Sea-brake, which I think I’d probably deploy first if the sea state got any worse.
Initially, I had a triple-reefed mainsail up, and a bit of headsail, but when things started getting really bad, the boom began to hit the water. One problem with these boats is that they’ve got a long boom. The boat is manageable with a triple-reefed mainsail, and you can get more boat speed, but the side-on waves tip the boat over, and the boom ends up in the water. That’s a bit of a worry, because you’ve got a preventer on, and the sheet cranked in, so there’s not a lot of give in the boom – I was worried about breaking it. I ended up running under just the reefed jib in the end. You still get your five knots, maybe a bit better, depending on the wind strength.
“I reckon I had a consistent 30-35 knots over the deck on the second night, with 3.5m seas, plus that side swell. It was gusting 35-40 knots at times, I reckon. There was spray coming off the tops of the waves, which is a sign that the wind is hitting 40 knots. I got a few slaps on the side, and it threw SUNBEAR over, but the boat popped back up. It is a worry when you start getting these big side-on waves – they’ve got the potential to really roll you over, haven’t they? The warp helped to stabilise the boat. It brought us to a better angle in the waves, and we didn’t roll as much.”
SUNBEAR is showing no signs of wear and tear, apart from some of the sails. “The A5’s getting pretty tired. I’m going to have to get repairs done for it to get around the rest of the journey. The mainsail has a couple patches on it, where it rubs on the shrouds, but very minor. All SUNBEAR’s sails are Michael Moyer’s (the original owner who sailed SUNBEAR in the 2023 Class Globe 580 Transat). I only bought a new A3, which was my spare sail. I put it up this morning. My A7 was a new sail, too. I bought that new at the start, because it was a new inclusion.
Eric and Jasmine, who are quite close to each other, are hoping to make landfall on Thursday morning, although the wind had fallen light and SUNBEAR was only making 3-4 knots. “Jasmine is about 10 or 11 miles back at the moment, but she’s sailing very well. I texted her the other day. I’m really impressed with her – not a lot of experience, and yet she’s sailing really quick. She’s one of those people that just wings it, picks things up as she goes, a bit like my stepson, Steve.”
Rough weather can quite a challenge in small boats, especially one as small and light as a 580 (1.5 tons, possibly, when fully loaded), but Eric does not find it too difficult. He does his ablutions in a bucket wedged into the cockpit, though admits he gets pretty wet when its windy. He stays on deck for much of the day, anyway. “I use my body weight to try and keep SUNBEAR down on one side, and that definitely helps the boat go faster, but you get very wet. At night, especially when it is really bad, I try to stay down below.”
He lives on freeze-dried food at sea, so only has to heat water for meals or hot drinks. He finds the gimballed Jetboil stove very efficient. The trick is not to burn yourself when pouring scalding water. He did get a bad scald on the first leg but is more cautious now. “I wedge myself between the chart table and the port locker where the sink is, sitting on a 20L bucket.” (The bucket is also useful to wedge himself in when lying on the floor in rough weather, as he earlier posted.)
He does not wear his wet-weather gear when cooking, as some advocate, but has started wearing his older set to stay warm at night. He knows that it is going to get a lot colder as the fleet heads around the southern tip of Africa. “It’ll be like going down to the bottom of Tasmania. I’m expecting the worst and hoping for the best.”
He has not seen much shipping on this leg. “I saw a couple of big ships early, maybe coal ships or tankers, big, long things with nothing on the deck. But apart from that, I haven’t seen a bird or a bloody ship or anything out here! It’s very isolated. I’m looking forward to seeing somebody.” (Not to mention the fresh food markets in Port Mathurin that he’s been hearing stories about.)
Although he spends a lot of the day on deck, he does not do any hand-steering. “I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not, probably not,” he joked. Asked how he passes the time while sitting on deck all day, he said, “I just look at the waves, look at the ocean and meditate. Sometimes I sing songs. I play acoustic guitar a bit when I’m home, so I like doing a bit of singing, yeah, that keeps me sane. I basically just do that, and move with the waves. It definitely helps push the boat along a bit quicker, and it passes time. I’m very much at peace with myself. I miss people, I miss everybody heaps when I’m out here, but I’m still quite at peace, just doing what I’m doing.
“At times it can be tough. Every day’s different – some days you can get quite bloody down because it’s just another day on the water, and there’s not much out here except water. One thing I’ve learned with it all is you certainly can’t rush the ocean’s mood, or predict when you’re going to get to a destination. The ocean’s got its own way of working things out.” He’s learned to be philosophical. If you stick with it long enough, long-distance sailing breeds stoicism.
He finds looking at synoptic charts, downloaded from GRIB files, more useful than relying on weather forecasts from apps like WINDY, etc, but it still has its limitations. “They show you the isobars, low pressure systems and highs, where they’re coming from, which is really handy. I find that a more accurate picture of what’s going on in the bigger scale. But it’s still hard, when you’re out in an ocean that’s so big. Right now, WINDY is showing 15 knots where I am, and, it’s bloody, you know, actually blowing 3 knots.”
To add to Eric’s challenge on this morning, the light wind was dead astern. “I’ve just got the A3 set at the moment, and I’ve let the tack line out about 1500mm – the kite is flying really high in the air. That’s working well – it’s just floating free, dancing around on its own out in front of the boat.
“The other night, when there was a bit of wind, I poled out the A7 on the port side, with the double-reefed main to starboard, and that worked. It tracked well, even though we were running dead square. The mainsail was sort of on the spreaders – that’s the downside of it. We averaged five knots right through the night. The wind strength was probably around 30 knots.”
On 02 September, Jasmine’s mum and manager, Susan Harrison, reported, ‘Life on the Indian Ocean over the last few days has been very wet for Jasmine (on NUMBATOU), with strong winds and big waves crashing over the boat. She reduced sail power, but was still being thrown around the cabin and occasionally rounding up. From this morning, the winds have reduced, and she was able to put out her blue spinnaker with the jib, and is enjoying a more-balanced and slightly steadier ride! She’s made great mileage and has caught up level with Eric on SUNBEAR.’
Behind Jasmine, Ertan has been maintaining a steady pace aboard TREKKA. On 05 October, he logged the most miles of those boats still at sea, with a 24-hour run of around 128 miles. That day, he posted a video of the boat creaming along over an easy sea, with the jib poled out to windward, and the A5 set to leeward, sheeted through the end of the main boom, plus a scrap of mainsail. He was all smiles.
The following report came from Josh, aboard SKOOKUM. He might be at the back of the fleet, but it is worth remembering that he usually averages well over 100 miles a day, if the wind is more than 12 knots or so. This is still fast – it is just that the leaders are racing with fierce determination and setting a blistering pace. Josh is cruising, and his performance is similar to that achieved by John Guzzwell all those years ago.
‘Happy to finally be out of the persistent cross swell of the northern half of the passage. Now it’s mostly following seas with occasional waves from either side of the boat, making for some sloshing around but still much more comfortable.
‘It’s been nice and sunny every day, with the occasional squall in the mornings. A front passed over yesterday which brought a fresh breeze and some rain, but it was short lived.
‘Been playing Deus ex Machina to countless flying fish, tossing them back when heard flapping around in the cockpit each night. Looking forward to a break in Rodrigues, although with a Sunday arrival and shortened stay, it looks like I’ll really only get to spend two days on land there.’
In another week, the last of the MGR fleet will have made landfall in Rodrigues, while the early birds will have flown on to Mauritius, which is shaping up to be a much-anticipated break for them all to rest and regroup.
On the periphery of the event, Mark Sinclair has now left Cocos (Keeling) Atoll aboard COCONUT, with his companion, Jill, and is expected to rendezvous with the fleet in Mauritius. Gary Swindail has returned to Sydney, and will be trailering QUESTION II back home soon, while John ‘Blinky’ Blenkinsop and his father, Mike ‘Popeye’ Blenkinsop, cleared out of Vuda Marina on 06 October, heading home to Australia, aboard DELJA 100 and DELJA 99, respectively. Dan Turk is settling into life back home in Canada, with LITTLE BEA still at Vuda Marina and up for sale. While out of the event, these sailors will always remain part of the 2025 Mini Globe Race family.
