SYDNEY TO CAPE TOWN

8th April, 2001, day 29
Dealing with broken ribs in the warmth and comfort of one's home has a certain, wonderful appeal right at the moment. It has been the kind of week, the greater part of which I would choose to forget. When I am safely ashore again, the most painful parts will probably be easily forgotten but right now, in 30 knots of wind and with the yacht heeling as it does, it is difficult to believe. It is hard to move around,  hard to sit at this PC and hard to get comfortable enough to sleep. The  'Isle of Man' crew have been great, helpful wherever possible. I have had to ask them to stop making me laugh though - that definitely hurts too much.

After my 'flying lesson', I slept for the best part of five days, I think, my birthday included! I discovered later that an hourly check had been made on me to ensure that I was alive and kicking. From a medical point of view, it was very sensible so to do, of course, but I was, nevertheless, very touched. I had even been given a column in the yacht's log book! It reads,' Jan resting', 'reading', 'sleeping', 'Jan eating', 'Jan gently snoring'........hold on a minute, me, snoring?!

The wind and waves have been such lately that it would have been foolhardy and too painful to spend much time before then trying to get around the boat. Since getting back into the watch system, I have been doing light duties down below, collecting data, receiving weatherfaxes, anything to be useful while I am unable to pull my weight on deck. I have had the luxury of some free time for reading 'Two Years Before the Mast' by Richard Henry Dana, Jr, and my relatively small comfort cannot compare to that experienced by ordinary seamen of the 1800s. What heroes (or pressed men) they were!

Meanwhile for us, Cape Town grows closer on the chart day by day. On the 'Isle of Man' we are experiencing good boat speed but so, elusively, are the other yachts in the fleet and most of the polled results show us in 6th position. With 1750 miles to go, we are striving to climb the ladder.  
          Jan Giffen ......with rib-ache en route to Cape Town at 42 37S 53 41E

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12th April, 2001, day 33
Another week should see the 'Isle of Man' into Cape Town if the wind holds out. We are on the Great Circle route, storming along and the yacht's instruments suggest an ETA of 16th April. As we cannot expect to sail the whole of the rest of the way in a straight line as at present, we reckon that 19th is more likely! After what will have been 40 days at sea, and most of it in the Southern Ocean, most of us would like it to be sooner rather than later!

Someone asked the Skipper how long the heavy weather would last and she reminded us that on the last race (1996-7), it had lasted all the way into Cape Town. Leg 5 for us has been tough yet sometimes easy-going, the weather sometimes pretty ugly out there yet at other times stunningly beautiful - we have had it all. All this has a bearing on how flat and fast the yacht sails and often, it is not flat by any stretch of the imagination. It makes one move in peculiar ways!

By way of illustration, the other day, Juanita  finished lunch and climbed the 35 degrees uphill out of the bench seat, taking great care not to slip and holding on with both arms braced, quite innocently said to me (the sailor with the roken ribs) 'This is like being an invalid, isn't it?' Well, we  both saw the funny side of it, as if she, being able-bodied was having trouble getting about, then how was I finding it? And it has been difficult and painful. I have sometimes woken up in my bunk and thought to myself  'Can someone switch the pain off please?' 

Then I think about Charlie from Team Veritas, who has been in Canberra Hospital for a month recovering from his ordeal and describes himself as being  'bionic' now, given his ten operations in a month after what he calls his 'fateful night in the Bass Straits.'   For a taste of this, he recalls morphine injections being administered before the heavy mob manhandled him down the hatch head-first screaming - after reading it, I was ashamed to think that I have expressed any pain at all. He has managed to see the funny side too. He says, 'I had always wanted to ride in a chopper, but not lying down with an oxygen mask on my face and staring up at the ceiling.'   Read Charlie's journal on the official race website - www.btchallenge.com

At the moment, in 6th position, we are negotiating the Agulhas Current which reputed can run 5 knots adversely if you are in the wrong place. So we are monitoring the boat speed and course over ground data constantly. After that, we are looking forward to crying out 'LAND HO!' South Africa - bring it on!
          Jan Giffen......closing on South Africa at 57 22S 37 53E

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