“We are leaking”

Yesterday night I was terrified and today it’s been even worse.

During the night the wind went from 10 to 40-knots and the sea state quickly became very bad. We had to take down the mainsail in a hurry.

All hands were called on deck and the guys were fighting blood and tears to get it down. The boat was almost airborne from time to time, and it was slamming hard and rocking uncontrollably.

I was sitting down below recording the action and watching it live. A surrealistic experience. In the biggest waves, the cameras switched themselves off and I was crossing my fingers that all the guys would turn up on the screen when the picture got back.

Luckily they did, even though I think it was really on the limit many times. The main was ripped in pieces and again we slowed down to keep the boat in one piece.

Maybe it was too late already then. The boat is not in one piece anymore.

Early this morning, we found the bow compartment full of water and soon after that, a four-meter crack and an open hole in the hull.

We were sinking!

The water was pouring in from the hole and the bow section was delaminating. You could feel how soft it had become when you stepped on it we could see it was moving in the waves.

Everyone worked like crazy, pumping, bilging and sponging the water out. As soon as we got most of it out, watch captain Richard Mason and boat captain Jens Dolmer started to reinforce the structure.

We took all the bunks down and cut them up to put them across the bow to strengthen it up.  After a couple of hours work, it seemed like we were going to make it.

As soon as the boat started leaking we started heading towardsTaiwan.

Now I’m sitting in my survival suit and all the safety equipment is ready up on deck. If the sea state gets worse again, the reinforcement will most probably crack and the boat will go down quick.

It doesn’t feel like we are in that much danger anyway. We only have 20-miles left to land and the Taiwanese coastguard will soon come out to guide us in and pick us up if the boat sinks.

The worst feeling for the moment is the huge disappointment from pulling out of the leg and the anxiety of how big the consequences will be from the delamination.

‘You should have been quicker with your camera,’ Aksel Magdahl said to me earlier, ‘it’s not every year that tears are dropping down my cheeks. This is so disappointing’.

We have fought extremely hard on this leg and we were in second place when this happened. Ericsson 4 was close, but the others were miles and miles behind.

But I guess we should mostly worry about keeping the boat above the surface right now. The seas are growing bigger and Jens Dolmer is screaming from the bow again.

Gustav Morin - MCM