8/2/2011

It is in a mixed state of exhaustion, surprise, disorientation & absolute euphoria that the crew of Me2Me post this final blog entry, from the penthouse suit of an apartment block on Copacabana beach front, Rio Janiero, Brazil. We made it.

EnviroDiesel Me2Me crossed (or crawled!) across the finish line just after midnight (GMT) on the 7th of February, after 23 days, 10 hours on the Atlantic ocean. This race is hard, right up until the closing moments. In fact, the final 48 hours of the race were perhaps some of the toughest of the race, fraught with heavy weather, frustratingly low winds & desperate mile counting!

Our last night on board was a strange one. Everyone had mixed feelings about their final Night Watches. In a way we were relieved & happy to know they were our last bights of broken sleep but once out there, it was a rather sad good-bye to the beautiful stars above & that feeling of pure solitude upon an inky black sea. As we got to within 300 miles of the Brazilian coast we entered the oil fields; the night was dotted with the eerie orange glow of Oil Rigs as far as the eye could see; dozens of them. These silent sentries felt alien & invasive, imposing on our friendship with  only the stars above & rolling waves below as companions. A rather ironic feeling for a lonely sailor who thought all he'd been craving  as civilisation. That night's sailing saw 25 knot winds for a good while, before dropping to calmer waters as we passed under the cover of Carbo Frio (Cape Cold).

The next day, our final at sea, was awakend with the cry of "Land ho!". From about 150 miles out we sailed happily within eye-sight of the coast, looming grey hills seen through the haze seemed a difficult sight to believe in. As we got right into the bay, shipping activity buzzing around us & buildings visible on the horizon, we began making contact with race organisers over the radio. Flying along at 6 - 7 knots, we filled them with excited estimates for our time of arrival. Silly us. We'd over looked the "Parking Lot". About 12 miles out, within sight of light houses, harbour walls, city lights & the famous statue of "Cristo Redentor" our wind just vanished and we sat. For fought desparately as the windex just spun donuts, changing sails, redistributing our weight & doing anything we could think of to get Me2Me moving. The sun was low & the prospect of another night on board, within sight of Rio, seemed very real. Eventually as if putting a humurous finish to a cruel joke, the evening breeze crept back to us & we inched over the line at 2.8 knots. The hooter sounded. The crew exploded. We'd finished the race.

To top things all off it was a matter of seconds before we heard the joyous voices of our support crew; family & friends who had flown all the way across to suffer the hours & even days waiting for us to arrive. These people have literally caught us as we collapsed off the boat, feeding us, cleaning us & returning the humanity to our lives. They are wonderful. In the final days, we were sailing to get to them.

So, before we wrap up this blog, a few closing remarks.

1) There are no mermaids in the Atlantic. We looked. There are lots of flying fish but assuming you are relying on a flying fish as your communicator to the mer-people, not happening. Sorry.

2) Beard growth is hazadous. We made landfall & found a mirror &, well, both us & the mirror are still recovering. It may improve your sailing but it does not improve your game. Fact.

BEARD STATUS: Murray - although growth was greater than expected (beyond bum-fluff), disqualification due to "ginger infringement". Quarantine officers still dealing with him. Alex - beard is a strong word. Decent length but we should have placed some rules of gluing yorkshire terriers to your upper lip. Mike - only one of the youngsters who may actually have testosterone in his body. The fluffy, auburn texture is very unfortunate but would make for sick lamb-chops.

Andre - most respectable! But far too short lived. It didn't even last 6 hours on shore. His wife gave a good exchange though; she provided zoo biscuits.

Saths - The silver back. Enough said. Respect.

See Below for the evidence. Feel free to comment on what you think & who has the most respectable facial growth!

 

3)Thanks guys. Thanks to all of you who joined us on our trip, from your desk-tops, couches, bedrooms & maybe even bathrooms (who knows where computers are these days!) .  To know people were interested, to receive their comments & faithful support; it helped more than you know.  Obragado! (thanks!)

Today we found out we finished 7th overall! Pretty decent considering - us! The impact was not what one thought it would be though. It was telling the stories last night around an incredible dinner on a flat, still surface to people who cared & desperately wanted to know. That is what made every inch of 3600 miles worth it. Hope you guys think so too! This is the crew from Me2Me signing off. Thanks guys. We hope to follow the adventures & antics of your lives on your blogs soon ;-)

6 / 2 / 2011

POS: 22d 57'S, 38d 41'W

Wow Rio is ridiculously far away. We've been pottering along for 23 days now & still she lies beyond the horizon! Someone really should put that in the brochure. Team morale is good though! Only Dirty Dorris (chugging along next to me) is still rather temperamental about life, running fine for 40 minutes & then suddenly descending into a sullen gurgle before dying. Life is kept interesting by Bookie Derek's gambling fund. We've been placing bets on ETA; Murray going for an optimistic 17:30 (on Monday of course) while Mike, Andre & others going for the cautious 19:30+ times.

Good winds & big swell gave us a cracking 160 mile odd day yesterday & we're hoping the trend sticks around. Several crew members have read Murray's copy of "Life of Pi" & the general feeling is things could be far worse. Being short one Tiger, one Hyena & having our Life Raft firmly strapped to the Coach roof, out of use, are all factors that keep us smiling. No one has eaten anyone else either. Yet.

Last night Mike & Alex caught the last of the dreaded Time-Change-Shifts. Since we go through 5 different time zones during our trip, if you're on shift as we sail into a new time zone then the clocks get turned back an

hour regardless & you basically end up doing an extra hour of shift! The turn over inconveniently fell during the "Death Watch" shift - from about 9pm to 5 Am when you get to see neither sunset, sunrise or the better side of your pillow. So making the best of it, the guys decided to have a Time Change party; incorporating Jelly babies, coffee, Eet Sum Mor biscuits, super-C's & pretty much anything they could scrounge. It was all crowned off when they woke the rest of the crew to partake in the final offerings of Fruit Cake & Custard!

246 Nautical miles to go (that's 442.8km) & counting!

5 / 2 / 2011

POS: 22d 44'S, 35d 56'W

Me2Me is back up to being one of the fastest moving nations on the planet. Literally. We have left the pace of tectonic drift & are now cruising east at a whopping 7-8 knots in 15 knots of Breeze.Rather spifing.

Thanks for all the enthusiastic comments guys! It really helped us get through the quiet times, particularly since the baking heat just made everyone grumpy :-(

So we're within 3 odd days of Rio de Janiero & just in time too as the thin line of sanity seems to be taking strain out here. We're a little worried about Andre who seems convinced that every small, fluffy, cumulus

cloud is out there to rain on him. Every time he comes up on deck he tentatively pokes his head, scanning for condensation awaiting ambush. His paranoia does have some anecdotal support; of the past four rain squalls

we've been caught in three have been during his watch & for the other well we decided to call him up to drop the sails anyway. His reasoning is that they are after his swanky, multi-coloured, leather sailing shoes & quite

frankly we don't blame them.

Well I am afraid Dirty Dorris is being a little emotional again, despite Skipper D's kindest affections. So power is a little low & this one's going to have to be a shortie. We're probably down to our last 2/3 entries

in the next few days so keep an eye on our humble proceedings.

4 / 2 / 2011

POS: 22d 49.4S, 33d 35.8W

Winds are finally picking up as we get down into under 600 NM from Rio! The day counting & calculations until arrival are getting hectic, with everyone giving different estimates for average speeds & some serious weather chart studies going on. The widely accepted most realistic guess of arrival time is Monday night/Tuesday morning. Hold thumbs for us!

So our fishing record on Me2Me has been somewhat strange. It started off well in the early days, we caught our Snoek on day 2 (which was released) & shortly thereafter our first yellow fin Tuna, which did not meet the same forgiving fate but quite frankly tasted amazing. Then came a smallish.. thing (that'll have to do I'm afraid) who got given a second chance too & on that same day we caught our much exalted Dorado which, despite being quite possible the ugliest fish ever, tasted amazing! Alex & Murray then brought their element of magic to the sport, managing to lose a whole set of reel line & lure over board - each! Not only did they lose any lures but the two most successful lures we had! So we were down to two pink things (which Andre felt would only catch fish near Cape Town) & a blue number who swam with a rather impressive side step. We managed to hook a real impressive Dorado on one though, but in the process of waiting for him to tire on the line, the hook was bent & dinner just vanished!

Neptune then upped the stakes though & we lost one pink lure to some monster silver flash a couple of days ago. Then yesterday a resounding snap & colourful language from Murray announced the breaking of another line, as the swivel & trace shot back into the boat narrowly missing urray's head! We looked back to see an enormous Sail fish thrashing across the waves, swimming so fast he seemed to skip along the surface. It was an incredible sight, though it meant we were down to one lure & that the poor chap had the other embedded in his beak - not ideal!

Today started in a buzz of excitement as a regular 14-15 knot breeze raced us towards Rio. It all ended in fiasco though when, while running Dirty Dorris this morning, Derek suddenly realised there was nothing coming out of the water-maker exhaust pipe. Racing to turn it all off, we found the pressure had somehow spiked & the pump blown! After everyone settled down, a real mood of sombre reality hit as we all considered 4 days of limited water supply. We forgot though that we are in fact sailing this race with McGiver's grand-pa & now, 2 hours & one lid of a mussel tin later, Diesel  Derek the Magician has Dorris Running & fresh, pure water rolling out of the water-maker once again. The man is a genius. The University of Me2Me has honoured him with a DSc. in Mechanical Peanut-&-Paper-Clip repairs. NOTHING is stopping this boat from getting to Rio.

3 / 2 / 2011

POS: 23d 03'S, 31d 19.5'W

With 660 nautical miles to go, the crew are getting excited & active, cleaning up the boat, diving into the last of our comfort snacks & preparing for the increased winds in the closing stretch. We realise it can be a little silly to get too excited. You never know what tomorrow's weather could deal you & if the High does not totally lift when it's supposed to, well it could add another day! But hey, one has to stay positive & it's almost impossible to suppress this kind of excited anticipation.

We had a slightly more action packed evening watch last night when a ship crossed our path. Nav lights on & radio contact meant we both saw each other & everyone crossed with a hello & good-luck. Fun to hear another human voice! I think he sounded Italian, but Andre said Russian & Saths thought Ethiopian?!

One of the hottest topics of conversation on the boat right now is of course "What are you most looking forward to in Rio?" or similarly "What are you going to do as soon as you get there?" Aside from everyone's greatest desires to see family & loved ones, the responses have been... interesting.

Skipper has adamantly stated that after satisfying a 3 week thirst for a cold Heineken, he is going to get his hands on a Steak, Egg & Chips. And eat it.

Mike & Andre seem incapable of mentioning any other word aside from "Beer" after which they get a glazed look over their eyes & departs from the conversation. Mike has threatened to adjust out GPS finish line coordinates to those of the Heineken Beer boat which apparently awaits at the end.

Saths has developed an almost obsessing desire for a Creme Soda float. We're all rather worried because no one knows if you get Creme Soda in Brazil?! But he has been warned & agrees to settle for another if need be.

Alex has conjured up the desire for a large, ice cold pineapple juice. He has even mastered the Portuguese phrase "Suco abacxi por favor" which means Pineapple juice, please!

Murray is a simpler individual & only wishes for fruit salad. Lots of it. Oh, and beer.

The on-board chess ladder has also recently kicked off! Competitors include Mike, Murray, Alex & Skipper. Murray held the title first, having defeated Mike twice & even the Skipper (we're not allowed to talk about it) but he was recently very narrowly pipped by Alex who currently tops the log. We'll keep you updated!

2 / 2 / 2011

POS: 23d 12.5'S 29d 10'W

Ok so maybe Saturday/Sunday was a bit ambitious. This whole 7 - 10 knots of breeze thing is stretching the closing leg out & although conditions on board are good with respect to water, food & morale, the extended anticipation takes its toll on the crew.

We had some excitement yesterday when the boat jolted sharply and a loud snap alerted us to something breaking. I think each of our hearts sank with the thought "oh no, not another halyard/sheet" but rising to the cockpit we were greeted by a wide eyed Andre on the helm.

"Did you see that?!" he said, pointing at the limp fishing line off the back. A monster fish (Andre said) had just relieved us of one of our final lures, snapping the line halfway & jolting the whole boat in the process.

Wind has been frustratingly undecided as we reach the edge of the "high". Lots of sail changes confusing angles are slowing progress. Derek's repairs of the heads seems to have stopped us sinking at least & weather is still incredible with moonless nights, white with stars.

Oh yeah, & making the small things count; Saths managed to get 28 pancakes out of one packet of batter mix yesterday! On a small boat of hungry sailors this is Nobel Prize winning stuff & his popularity has been

accordingly raised. We're a bit worried Andre "van Helm" maybe losing the plot a little; he has taken permanent watch for attack from flying-fish, or as he calls them "gnimmels" (this is the plural of "lemming" backwards) as Andre has observed these fish seem to hurl themselves from the sea onto our boat, often into suicidal collision with the boom, mast, Mike's head or Derek's crotch.

1 / 2 / 2011

POS: 23d 10.5'S, 27d 38.8'W

The first of February, an exciting day on board, spelling the approach to the end of an incredible race. With still a week to go (& some of the toughest weather conditions too possibly) there's still quit a bit in it. These days many of the boats have recently had of lolling around in the windless region seem to have been good for us. Sounds like we may have pulled some back on the field & taken a spot or two up. We don't know though since we've stop receiving position reports so if you know, comment & let us know!!

Had a little scare this morning when Diesel Derek headed off to the Heads to do the morning routine. Suddenly there was shouting and spluttering as one of the intake valves fell off & a jet of water started to stream into the boat! We've managed to fix it for now, McGiver style (packet of peanuts & paper clip and all that...) so hopefully she holds or we'll be sinking - toilet first!

Alex managed to through one of the umbrella poles over board yesterday, putting him in the lead for things lost to Neptune (dinner spoons, fishing lure & umbrella pole). Saths' finger has healed up well & things are going dandily, despite rather little wind.

We're down to about 880miles to Rio!! Hopefully we'll be in Saturday night/Sunday morning, so keep your eyes on the race!