Going into the Southern Ocean is something that a lot of sailors dream of: we fear it, we love it, we also loathe it. Not many people visit the vast expanse of water that wraps around Antarctica.
Nowhere else in the world will you surf waves that big, never sail with wind that strong, never live in such wet, cold, and icy conditions, and never see albatrosses gliding alongside you so effortlessly. I remember leaving Cape Town in with Turn the Tide on Plastic, destination Melbourne, Australia, and how tough it was to sail in the Agulhas Current with really steep waves, a crossed sea-state, and strong winds β¦ potential boat-breaking conditions!
That year the forecast showed a strong depression in the Indian Ocean and our skipper - Dee Caffari - decided to take a northerly route to avoid the worst of it. We were a young team with little to no experience in the big south and our primary objective was to finish the leg with the boat and crew in one piece. Other teams decided to be bolder and get into the thick of the action - a few came out stronger and well ahead of the rest of the fleet, but others had damage that ended their ambitions of a competitive result.
In sailboat racing you have to balance performance with safety all the time. I remember that December so well as it was the first time I had spent a big holiday at sea. There was a nice moment on Christmas Day where we opened little presents hidden onboard by our shore team mainly yummy chocolate and we watched a few videos from our families back ashore.
What was ahead of us was a massive unknown for me and for most of our team, you could feel the nerves getting closer to the start. My girlfriend of the time now my WIFE! I have never experienced a similar sailing experience in my life. The waves are relentless - long and massive, over 10 meters at times - and the weather depressions are ferocious with knots of wind [ kmph, mph].
