Luck increases for Team VERITAS....
by Babs Day 2 Apr 2001 13:01 BST
Team VERITAS, who suffered great disappointment 36 hours into the fifth leg of the BT Global Challenge from Sydney to Wellington when two crew members were airlifted from the boat have been slowly catching on the boats ahead. Despite sailing two men down, as Charlie Smith and Robert Brooke were hospitalized to recover from their injuries, Team VERITAS is now dogging the tail of rival Spirit of Hong Kong, and they aim to catch her before the arrival in Cape Town.
The focus on the yacht is mainly on boatspeed and planning the tactics to reach their goal. Spirits were lifted, however, when the crew spied a Kerguelan cabbage floating in the sea, and cooked it up for dinner. Skipper Will Carnegie described their find:
"A few days ago, I read in the Antarctic Pilot book that a unique variety of cabbage grows on the Kerguelan Islands in the Southern Ocean, and that it is plentiful and edible. I have always had a rule that when at sea you accept the food that is there with thanks, and you do not crave for what you cannot have. We have been without fresh food for over two weeks, however, and I couldn't get these cabbages out of my head!
"This afternoon, I was on iceberg watch when I saw something floating on the surface of the water. Thinking it was an iceberg I was about to call for a bear away to avoid it. I changed my mind and as we got closer, I realized it was a cabbage, not an iceberg.
"One of the crew came running up on deck with the boat hook, and we luffed up and scooped it on board. When we washed the salt water out of it, and added it to our reconstituted dried food, it made a very palatable coq-and-cabbage-au-vin! Malcolm, our resident meteorologist, tells us that
it is very probable that recent winds and currents could have swept it from the Kerguelan Islands, which we will pass in a couple of days. What a find!"
Will continued about the iceberg hazard:
"Ice was always going to be a consideration on this leg, and ice bergs can be expected, on average, every 45 miles. Although the yachts are steel and extremely strong, hitting an ice berg at ten knots would be catastrophic. With this in mind we have been keeping all the watertight doors shut and monitor radar every twenty minutes. Yesterday I asked both watches to refresh on abandoning ship, every one of them has a role whether it's Babs who would grab the emergency rations or Tina whose responsibility it is to bring the Emergency Position Indicating Beacon (EPIRB). Last night
thethreat of ice loomed nearer as Norwhich Union reported sighting a berg just 5 miles from them. The on watch spent the night peering into the darkness as another crew member monitored the radar for a suspicious "blip".
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