Posted by Graham Cox
With the mid-morning arrival of Josh and SKOOKUM at Port Louis on 19 October, in 11th position, LEG 2.5 officially came to a close. The fleet will restart for the passage to Durban on Saturday, 25 October.
Provisional results for LEG 2.5 from Vuda Marina Fiji to Mauritius, corrected for variable Pit-Stop times, and representing time on the water racing are posted below. Final results will be announced after the fleet complete LEG 3 in Cape Town.
| Position | Name | Flag | Boat | Time on Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Renaud Stitelmann |  | Capucinette | 54D 4H 16M 5S |
| 2 | Dan Turner |  | Immortal Game | 54D 22H 28M 38S |
| 3 | Keri Harris |  | Origami | 55D 10H 27M 20S |
| 4 | Pilar Pasanau |  | Peter Punk | 56D 5H 4M 29S |
| 5 | Adam Waugh |  | Little Wren | 61D 2H 4M 41S |
| 6 | Jakub Ziemkiewicz |  | Bibi | 61D 18H 46M 52S |
| 7 | Christian Sauer |  | Argo | 61D 21H 13M 21S |
| 9 | Eric Marsh | | Sunbear | 64D 2H 24M 58S |
| 9 | Jasmine Harrison | | Numbatou | 64D 3H 27M 43S |
| 10 | Ertan Beskardes | | Trekka | 64D 5H 5M 10S |
| 11 | Joshua Kali |  | Skookum | 66D 6H 36M 41S |
It has been an eventful week.
The major news is that Eric was swept overboard as they were approaching Mauritius, while clipping SUNBEAR’s spinnaker pole to the lifelines on the foredeck. An unanticipated wave broke aboard and catapulted him into the sea, at the precise moment when he had to use both hands to secure the beak of the pole to the rail. At the time, he was about 70 miles from the finish in Port Louis.
The forecast was showing 20-25kt easterly winds, with frequent rain squalls and 2-3m seas. It took him quite some time to get back aboard, for a variety of reasons, and he says that at one stage, as his energy ebbed, he thought he was going to drown while being dragged alongside SUNBEAR, which was charging ahead under A7, with the Hydrovane steering the boat.
Since setting out from America aboard SUNBEAR, to make the start of the MGR off the National Sailing Academy in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, Eric has sailed approximately 16000 miles without a mishap. He is also a veteran offshore racing sailor, with numerous credits to his name, which shows that these things can happen to anyone.
Looking back on the experience, he says, “I was pretty stressed out about it for a while, but I’m ok now. I’m in an apartment for a few days, just near the Grand Baie Yacht Club, to have a bit of a chill.
“When I went over the bow, I had the long tether clipped on. In some ways, it actually helped me to get back on board, because if it had been tight, it would have been difficult to disconnect it and then reconnect onto the shorter one. The long one helped me to slide along and get back to the stern of the boat.
“You don’t quite make it, you still have to disconnect, but you’re a hell of a lot closer than you would be with a short one. I also think, if you had a short one, the shock on your body would be quite considerable. But in saying all that, having a short tether, you maybe wouldn’t go overboard in the first place, but that’s debatable, sort of.
“I’ve got external safety lines running from bow to stern, outside the shrouds and lifelines, and I’ve got a small climbing-harness tether – about 500 mm long -so I clipped that into the external line, and then slid right to the stern of the boat. Being dragged along next to the boat is a big problem, though. You get dragged under the water, and you sort of got to roll over on your back. That’s the scary part. That’s what really frightened me the most. You burn up all your energy.
“Coming aboard over the leeward stern quarter was good, because it’s a bit lower there. I managed to get my legs up first, between the bottom lifeline and the rail. The problem was the inflatable life jacket went off, and it made it impossible to get through the lines. I couldn’t find the little tube where you press to deflate it, so I ended up letting go of the crutch strap, which was a bit scary, because I thought, ‘If I go back overboard now, I’m bloody history.’ But I had no choice, so I let go of my crutch strap and slid out the jacket. I’m pretty lucky to be as fit as I am for my age (72). It’s probably due to all the surfing I do, etc.”
Once back aboard, he retrieved the spinnaker pole, which was trailing alongside, stall attached to the jib sheet.
Describing what caused the accident, he said, “I was putting the pole on the side (the lifelines). Normally I hang onto something, but when securing the pole, I have to hold the pole in one hand and then push the clip into the beak with the other. But just as I let go my grip on the boat to do this, a wave hit from the other side, and it catapulted me straight off the boat, along with the pole. I’ve done this procedure hundreds of times, because I don’t like leaving the pole on the mast, with the other end rattling around on the deck, or punching the bloody spinnaker or something.
“I’d been running with the A7 up, and the poled-out jib, but the seas were starting to get quite heavy. I thought, ‘I really need to get rid of this pole, (after furling the jib), because if the breeze picks up any more, I don’t want to be dancing around with the thing up there.’ So that was the whole object of going forward. I avoid it if I can, but I just needed to get it done. Normally, if I’m in a spot where I think I need to, I double-clip on – I put the short tether on a solid part of the boat where I know it’s going to hold me – especially if I’m right on the bow or doing something really tricky.”
Thinking about lessons learned, he said, “I will tighten the jack lines a bit more, and I will definitely put the shorter tether on when I can.” But then he admitted, “It’s not just me, we all run around on the decks untethered sometimes. I’ve done it at night too, and sometimes with no life jacket. You come flying up from down below sometimes; you might have an A5 up or an A7 up and you got to get them furled really quickly. You know you’re meant to come out with a life jacket on, and wet weather gear, the whole lot, but you haven’t got time.”
Robin Lee Graham used to sleep with his harness on aboard DOVE – he never took it off at sea, and the first thing he did when he reached the companionway was to clip it onto the inboard end of his tether. The other end of the tether was always was always attached to the boat. After we had discussed this, Eric said, “I’ve got a Wichard climbing harness, and if I can sleep in the bloody thing, I think I’ll probably be looking at doing that.
Despite the experience of having his self-inflating lifejacket hinder climbing back aboard, Eric still thinks it is wise to wear a lifejacket of some sort. “Some people don’t wear lifejackets, they just wear harnesses, which I don’t think is a good idea. We’ve had some big waves sweep the decks at times. The Indian Ocean’s produced some pretty testing conditions at times. I’ve even been putting my lifejacket on during the day, and I think it’s necessary. If you don’t, and you get hit by a wave, you can be thrown off very quickly.”
The only work that Eric needs to do on SUNBEAR during the layover in Mauritius is some small repairs to his A7 & A5 sails. “I’ll take them down to the sailmaker and get a couple of small strengthening patches put on the foot of each sail, whatever you want to call it, where the lazy brace from the opposite sail causes chafe. This tends to wear the stitching away, and we’ve all had similar problems.
“I actually clip my A5 lazy sheet away now, to stop it rubbing on the foot of the A7, but once again, it means that when you launch your A7, you need to go and clip the A5’s lazy sheet to the bow, which is another thing that you’re going right forward for, but it’s the only way you can keep the lazy brace away from the A7, unless you drop the A5.”
He is not looking forward to going back to Port Louis to clear out, which means lying against the Customs dock again. “When we cleared in, SUNBEAR and NUMBATOU were getting lifted high in the air, and Jasmine broke her bowsprit. My shrouds were hitting the concrete wall, and the mast was swinging over the restaurant roof. I was very lucky not to get worse damage.”
Getting into Port Louis is also difficult with limited power. “I used 75% of my battery capacity coming up the channel into Mauritius. And also, it was pretty damn tricky getting into Grand Baie yesterday. It was a beautiful sail going up there. We were on the breeze, but I was flying along with the A7 up. Then the wind freshened, with gusts up to 25, so I dropped the A7 and continued with double-reefed mainsail and jib.
When I got up to the entrance to Grand Baie, there was some big surf rolling in on the point. I was gonna shave the point pretty close, but decided to go out a bit wider. I veered away and passed it just on the edge of the rollers, then tacked all the way into the bay. You’ve gotta miss a few shallow spots in there, too. I quite enjoyed it, but it was a bit like SUNBEAR’s trip coming from Florida!”
Jasmine has also had her share of drama. She crossed the Leg 2.5 finish line at 3:30am local time on 18 October. Susan Harrison, her mum, reported, ‘That’s 18,663 miles sailed since Lagos, Portugal! As usual, coming into land had its own dramas. Crossing the north of Mauritius at Malheureux Passe was really rough – one rogue wave came over the side of the boat and completely filled the cockpit, so Jasmine was suddenly up to her chest in water. She was surfing down a wave at about 15 knots at the time, so despite the extra weight in the boat, it kept on surfing.
‘The water drained quickly though, and all was ok – Jasmine was just cold and wet. It was the same sort of unexpected wave that swept Eric into the water off SUNBEAR’s deck just hours earlier. Thank goodness he was tethered and was able to climb back on board. Jasmine and Eric were only a mile or so apart when that happened.
‘Down the west coast of Mauritius, the wind completely died, so Jasmine used a combination of A5 and her electric outboard to reach the anchorage outside Port Louis. It took many hours of slow progress. Along the way, she was treated to fireworks and drone displays for Diwali.
‘She successfully dropped her anchor and had a couple of hours sleep, then got ready to come into Port Louis at 6am. Except that the anchor was well and truly stuck. Jasmine tried all sorts of manoeuvres to free it, and eventually had some help from another boat. That was really nerve wracking, as the other boat started pulling the wrong way, dipping NUMBATOU’s bow right into the water.
‘Finally free, she entered the channel, only to find the most enormous ship, and attendant tugs, manouvering inside the port. She was sent spinning in circles in their vortex, and came very close to other boats. It was a huge relief to arrive at the Customs dock and sign into the country (with ease compared to Rodrigues – having already sent many, many forms and documents in advance).
‘However, even by the wharf, the big ships coming in create huge wakes, which left both SUNBEAR and NUMBATOU rocking violently. One caused SUNBEAR to lift 0.5m up and drop suddenly. Once cleared into the country, Jasmine was able to have a wander, and met a representative from Rotary Mauritius, who gave her lunch and guided her to a hotel, where she was able to leave her batteries to charge overnight. Jasmine decided to stay in Port Louis until morning, and after collecting her batteries, sail back up the coast first thing to Grand Baie, to start to rest, repair and provision for the next journey to Durban.
‘The challenges never seem to stop, but Jasmine finally made it to the anchorage in Grand Baie about 10 miles up the coast from Port Louis late the following afternoon. Whilst in Port Louis overnight, huge tug boats would come through regularly, and too fast. One caused a 1m-high wake, which smashed NUMBATOU, with Jasmine trying to sleep on board, into the wall of the concrete wharf. This snapped the bowsprit off. Jasmine continued to have broken sleep, then, about 5:30am, she went to collect her outboard batteries from the hotel and set off soon after to sail up to Grand Baie.
‘Unfortunately, the headwind, tide and counter current made this journey last for about 10 hours, with Jasmine putting in hundreds of tacks over the last two miles. She thought she would have to stay out at sea for yet another night, but was offered a tow by a big party catamaran into the bay. It was lovely to be greeted by Mini Globe Race sailors Adam, Jakub and Keri, as well as SY Sipi (who were in Cocos Keeling and Rodrigues too) who helped tie her onto a pontoon, and then served freshlycaught fish as sushi.
‘However, overnight the winds really bashed NUMBATOU against the pontoon, so in the morning she moved to a mooring buoy and started to assess the damage, and tick off some of the very long list of jobs she needs to do before departure.
‘She discovered that the bowsprit, which is supposed to be made of a hardwood like oak, had been made of plywood. However, Jasmine’s amazing sponsor in Thirsk, Yorkshire (Goodechip – suppliers of great quality logs), have made a new one in oak, and it will shortly be on its way to Mauritius. What absolute stars!
‘Meanwhile, Jasmine was greeted by Rotary Club de Grand Baie, who presented her with flowers and a pennant. This evening, Jasmine has had a great time celebrating Diwali with amazing food, lights and fireworks.’
Ertan has also been having a great time in Mauritius. He said, “Life is really good. After Panama, this is first stop with great restaurants, with lots of people around. TREKKA is on a pontoon, so going ashore, and coming back to tidy up the boat at will, is very easy.
I am staying in a nice place where I can make food if need be. But this place, with its French connection, has excellent patisseries and a very good supermarket. I am eating wonderful food every day, and enjoying the company of the other MGR skippers. Many of us also have motorbikes, which makes getting around easy and efficient. I’m looking forward to the start, whenever it may be. I hope it’s delayed a bit, which would help some skippers to recover better, and we can enjoy this wonderful island with its friendly people.
“Mike Peckham once again has been very helpful (from the Rustler 36, WHITE MALKIN, who is accompanying the fleet around the world) being always there for the MGR fleet. And any necessary repairs to TREKKA are done by Mike once again. He himself hit an uncharted reef as he was coming into Grand Baie. It’s a place where care needs to be taken on entrance. After I entered the bay, Kerry (Keri?) and Rob joined me, as we went to find a spot for TREKKA, and helped me to secure the boat. It was an excellent welcome, followed by a cold beer. This is going to be another memorable stop.
“The short hop from Rodriguez was very easy, with sunny days and steady winds the whole way; plus I got plenty of sleep, and consumed lots of fruit. We arrived at the top of the island early morning, then sailed down to Port Louis, where we parked by the Customs house, near a restaurant. The Customs agent took my passport while I ordered breakfast. 30 minutes later, we left the port for Grand Baie, sailing fast, closed-hauled, to Grand Baie.”
Ertan always seems to make easy passages. He is just cruising, not trying to win the MGR, and yet, despite arriving fresh and bright-eyed at every destination, he is not that far behind the leading pack. It takes a huge effort, especially in a one-design class, to squeeze those extra miles off your elapsed time.
Christian, despite being snug in port, got up at 0300 local time, to make his scheduled fortnightly call, something not every skipper is willing to do. When I joked with him about sleeping in, he said, “I was thinking about that, but it’s too important for me.” His diligence was especially impressive as he’d been partying with Jakub from BIBI, Dan from IMMORTAL GAME, and Dan’s wife, Nikki, the evening before. “We’re just having fun here in Mauritius,” he said, “and enjoying ourselves. It’s just a great place to be.”
Asked about his passage from Rodrigues, he said, “It was quite good, I really enjoyed it. I didn’t have any bad weather so far (across the Indian Ocean via Cocos and Rodrigues). Some nasty waves sometimes, but I’m quite happy with how it worked out so far. I really enjoyed stopping in Rodriguez to meet with the friends (MGR skippers), and actually slept in the first real bed since the Marquesas – where I stayed in a bed and breakfast place because of my skin infections.
“I also enjoyed the first warm shower since Fiji. I’ve got a 25L canister of water in the cockpit to take a shower at sea sometimes, at least once a week, depending on the length of the voyage, and I really enjoy that for sure, but it’s a different thing, with my long hair and stuff, to get a warm shower, where you can spend a couple of minutes (only two?) under the running water.
“I really loved the stopover in Rodriguez. As Don said, it was Renaud’s idea to go there, and the place was amazing. The people are very friendly, very laid back, a bit like in Fiji, and helpful with everything. I think what also made it so pleasant for me was that it was the first occasion where I had some time left to explore the island. On the other stopovers, I had to do repairs on the boat.
“Mauritius, I don’t know yet. I’ve got a scooter today, but so far, I’ve been working on the boat. I’ve taken all my sails down. The sailmaker hasn’t picked them up yet, but I want to have them checked before the important passages from Mauritius to Durban and Cape Town. There are only some minor repairs to do. The major things I did on the way.
“I’m staying on the pontoon in Grand Baie, and I’m just doing it step by step, enjoying the life here. It’s so nice to meet up with the MGR family again. We’d like to stay longer, if possible, that’s for sure! I have decided that this will not be the last circumnavigation I am going to do. I’d love to do another one, and spend more time and explore the islands, instead of just being in the marina or at anchor, repairing the boat.”
He still has to install the second furler he picked up at Cocos (Keeling) Atoll (delivered from Australia). He fitted the first one there, but ran out of time to install the second. He has to splice ropes and stuff, and sort out another spot on the bowsprit to attach the foot. He has also fitted some new jammers on deck, in case he needs to use the storm jib on this next passage.
“I feel like we’re well prepared – we have confidence in our boats, we know how to use them, and I’m looking forward to the challenge. We might face some bad weather, and of course, what happened to Eric during the last leg made us think about it. But I feel very safe on ARGO. I know every screw on it, and I know that I built the boat for this kind of voyage.
“As Don announced today, we’re allowed to have a person giving us advice for this passage. No weather routing with a computer, or something like that, but we stay in contact with our managers, and we can get information about the weather. Everybody’s helping us, and that’s really cool. We’ve got a nice contact with Vince in Durban (Rear Commodore of the Point Yacht Club and Director of OSASA). He’s been really helpful in trying to get us through all the paperwork, and giving us links to other boats that are going to South Africa at the same time.”
Adam, talking about his passage from Rodrigues, said, “It took just under 3 days. I left Port Mathurin at 8 in the morning and got into Port Louis about 6am, 3 days later, so it was a nice, straight-forward passage in that respect. We had some really nice sailing, with the wind between 16 and 20 knots a lot of the time. We did have some stronger winds, and some lighter stuff, but generally very nice sailing.
“The biggest difficulty was that there was a lot of traffic – no fishing boats, just cargo ships and tankers. The first day was fine, but from the second day onward, the shipping was so heavy that I had to cope with not much sleep. Then, arriving at the north end of Mauritius at about 0200 meant that there wasn’t much sleep on the way down the coast to Port Louis, either.
“To start off, I had quite a lot of sail up, mainly the A5 and mainsail, and then I was sort of caught in between a little bit. I don’t have my A7 at the moment, because of some damage that is getting repaired by the sailmaker here. I was down to just mainsail and jib when the wind picked up, which was a bit under-canvassed at times. The A7 is a nice in-between sail.
“The only other thing that needs attention are my solar panels. The 50-watt panel, and my spare panel that I use from time to time, have both gone, so I’m getting new panels brought out from the UK by one of Jasmine’s friends. I’ll need to fit those, but otherwise there are no major problems on LITTLE WREN.
“In the meantime, I’ve checked into an Airbnb, so I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping – it’s been great to catch up on a bit of rest. We’ve also been waiting for the other MGR sailors to arrive, to help them berth.
“I haven’t explored the island yet. It’s the same as Rodriques in terms of beauty, though it’s a very different picture, given that Rodriques has around 40,000 people living on it, and Mauritius has about 1.2 – 1.3 million. It’s a much bigger version of Rodrigues, though perhaps it doesn’t have quite have the same sort of raw beauty. Rodrigues is so underdeveloped, and a real step back in time, whereas Mauritius is a full-on tourist destination.
He hasn’t reprovisioned yet. He is hoping for a straightforward passage, but is finding it difficult to decide how long to provision for. “In theory, it should be two weeks, but I think I’ll provision for at least three. If we get into any headwinds, or we have to divert a long way from the rhumb line, it could take longer.”
Author’s note: Quite a few little boats have taken 21 days or longer to sail from Mauritius to Durban, so I would probably provision for four weeks. Two weeks is a fast passage for a little boat – whereas three is common, and four not out of the question. The longest passage I remember was 40 days, when an unlucky skipper faced endless headwinds!
Like all MGR skippers, Adam is thinking about how to handle a severe gale if one occurs between Mauritius and Cape Town. He practiced heaving-to on the way up to Grand Baie from Port Louis, backing LITTLE WREN’s jib and putting the helm down to leeward. It worked OK, though the winds were light. It might be a different story in stronger winds, especially if the mainsail needs to be dropped.
If that happens, Adam has a strong drogue, plus the mandatory 100m storm warp. LITTLE WREN has horizontal chainplates on the transom quarters, to which his bridle is always attached. Once the wind gets too strong to carry the triple-reefed mainsail, he will probably stream the drogue astern.
When John Guzzwell could no longer carry sail safely, he chose to lie ahull on TREKKA, with no sail up and the helm lashed to leeward, apart from the first occasion he met heavy weather, off the Pacific Northwest coast on his inaugural passage, when he ran before the storm, trailing warps. But as they say, ‘Different ships – different long splices.’
The MGR fleet has not experienced a sustained major gale since leaving Lagos, so there is still much to learn. The going has been extremely boisterous at times, but one needs to have faced sustained winds of over 45 knots, and 7-10m seas, before really knowing how your boat will handle those conditions.
Nonetheless, they have done really well so far, they are three-quarters of the way around the world, the boats are more robust, and better-equipped, than many others crossing oceans, while the skippers know their vessels, and have coped with everything that’s come their way.
When I was a boy growing up in Durban, a handful of micro-yachts sailed in from far-flung places every summer. These ‘wee barques’ had crossed at least one ocean, usually several, and their skippers were seasoned mariners. In due course, they sailed away again without fuss, and rounded the Cape of Good Hope without drama, before fanning NW in the SE trade winds to St Helena Island and beyond. It mostly requires sensible seamanship, and a modicum of luck.
In mid-to-late November this summer, there will be a fleet of 11 one-design micro-yachts descending on Durban and making the passage onward to Cape Town, a never-before-seen spectacle that will long be remembered in South African waters. It is history in the making.
Image is of the irrepressible Jakub Ziemkiewicz, aboard BIBI of CORK, making landfall on Mauritius.
