Erazer; The Route 66 and the case of the missing chocolate.

[Guest]

“Did you eat all the chocolate?” The skipper cried as he woke from his interrupted slumber from down below. Above deck I had a more pressing issue as the boat was hurtling itself in the middle of a pitch black night towards a vertical wall of unpenetrateable blue steel in the form of a 200,000 tonne steel freighter.

We were entered in the Lombardini Route 66 race that goes from Auckland to Whangarei, uncoincidently 66 nautical miles from start gun to rum time at the finish line. Myself and Chris Hargreaves decided to join the much talked about much hyped two-handed division, apparently entries were pouring in weeks before the start on the 4th of March, unfortunately no one put the plug in as entries all poured out again bar us as we lined up on the start line as the only two handed crew. We later learnt that it had something to do with 20-30 knot on the nose and rain the whole way weather prediction; we decided that was more like a guideline, rather than the rule.

We had Erazer an Elliott 780 design which has recently been referred to as ‘that E boat’ and ‘the 5.9 on steroids’ lined up near the general vicinity of where we anticipated the start line to be in classic anarchic fashion “Where is the start line?” “are those boats with us?’ “hell was that a gun or the mast?’ “I think we may be late?” “Don't worry, its good luck for the bride to be a little late for her own wedding!” surprisingly our pre start tactics of ‘Shock and Awe’ had worked and we were setting off down the Waitamata harbour up to weather of the fleet. We rounded a yellow floating thing off Torpedo bay and looked north, somewhere up there in the gloom was a bay call Whangarei.

A few tacks here and there had us up past the East coast bays and through the gap at Tiri alongside a couple of ‘old gals’ (maybe a Townsend 32 and a Stewart 34?) the rain part of the forecast had eventuated but the breeze was still around the 12-15 knot range which was right on the limit of our big gear (Full main and heavy No.1) fortunately this wind strength stayed in for the duration of the entire race as sail changes in the middle of the night were definitely not on my brochure for the race. With the driving class of Lewis Hamilton we managed to pull away from the close rivals, and as we neared Kawau Island and the light faded, talk turned to pulling into Bon Accord for Rum. “we have proved a point already by being on the start line, do we really need to keep going?” “there is a bottle of rum at the finish line at stake” “we already have a bottle of rum on board” “are we there yet? It’s already been 6 hours whhhhiiinnnnnngggeeeeeee.” After a good grumble about the conditions and hardships we were about to face we decided that it was worth suffering for said bottle of free Appleton’s Rum and we kept going and tacked out just south of Flat Rock and headed for a shiny light that was flashing like a diamond low in the sky somewhere out in the distance for no reason other than for someone to put a light on it, it must be worth a look.

Erazer bumped and crashed her way through the short chop and was revelling in the conditions, we had tacked, changed to outboard sheeting and had started sailing her low and fast so the annoying seaway wouldn’t impede her progress as much. It wasn’t as much as the seaway that was the problem, it had more to do with the fact you couldn’t see it. The night was so dark that it was impossible to distinguish the horizon; I was steering and I couldn’t tell you which way was up or down. The only respite came when spray illuminated by the navigation lights came over the bow, or we drove through an area of water that had phosphorous in it and then the boat glowed red, green and a colour that can be best described as ultra violet.

 

We had begun and hourly watch rotation (once again one hour became more of a guideline as the night wore on) and to be up there in the cockpit alone was unnerving at first. You get comfort from knowing if something goes wrong you can pretend to ignore it hoping the other person will notice it and do something about it. As I grew accustomed to being alone, the ritual of changing watch and sharing the world became more like an intrusion that felt like someone catching you midway on the toilet. After being tucked up in the quarter berth for some sleep, it was back out on the helm; soon after the change I experienced a strange sensation, like I was being watched? I looked down into the darkness of the cabin expecting to see Chris’s eyes peering back like a predator crouched down in his cave, but then I looked over my shoulder down to leeward and saw it; a huge ghost like eye that was staring up at me ; do you believe in Ghost stories? I was stuck somewhere between paralysis and pooing myself when all of a sudden the eye split in half and out of the water leapt a pair of Dolphins. The heart rate returned to planet earth and the Dolphins chased Erazer like big glow sticks charging through the water, spray lit up like miniature firework displays across the headsail and I started playing Pink Floyds Comfortably Numb on my brains Ipod, everything started to feel surreal; if this is the Fatigue drug they talk about then hook it up to my veins!

We carried on through the night past Cape Rodney which seemed to take forever to put that light behind us and up towards the distant glow of Whangarei, but there was another more intense glow that appeared to left of our heading, then the right, and then dead ahead. A quick check of the compass heading confirmed that we hadn’t done a big snake, so what was it? We drove on closer and closer like a moth to a flame, still looking hopefully into the night where the Fairway mark into Whangarei should be. Then the mind games begin, ‘I must have got the co’ordinates wrong?’’ That looks a lot like a block of apartments””if that's a building then we must be pretty close to the beach?” Sun Umbrella’s and deck chairs weren’t my idea of a good time and the old smell of self doubt was getting stronger and thoughts of crash tacking were looking like a good option when the outline of a big tanker at anchor made itself clear. I tapped on the deck to rouse Chris, hoping he would leap forth from the cabin like a champion race horse; Nothing. I banged louder and louder, still no signs of life as still we were hurtling faster towards the tanker getting closer and closer. It was like giving CPR and checking for the pulse, and then finally from within the darkness a sound came from the skipper “Did you eat all the chocolate?”

“We have chocolate on the boat?” “yeah you want some?” “Yeah I would love some but I think we should tack first” “Whys that?” “ Is a 200,000 tonne ship dead ahead a good enough reason?” “Yeah, I can’t find the chocolate anyway.”

We tacked and sailed away from the ship and soon picked up the flashing light on the Fairway mark at the entrance to Whangarei harbour. We had less than 3 miles to go upwind to the finish line, the race was on to finish before day break. After a few lightening tacks we crossed the finish line, 15.52 hours of sailing at 06:52 just as the first signs of light started appearing through the grey clouds.

At Marsden Cove Marina we received a warm welcome and a nice bottle of Rum to go with it; the best kind of welcome you can wish for after a race like that. The cooked breakfast and coffee provided at the event Marquee was fantastic and we will be back next year, hoping for a downwind send next time.

Oh and in case you were wondering, we did find the Chocolate.

[Guest]

A Magnificent Grade A Export Quality post x 20

 

Moneyshot just keep posts like that coming in.

To all viewers, read, digest and post your own. More like that the better.

 

I think I may have just experienced the 8th wonder of the world.

All these years and I never imagined E boat sailors could even read, let alone write

[smithy09 50]

Great write up!!! Right up there with Mr. Kiwi Bardy..

[rbob 0]

Excellent !

We succumed to the attractions of Bon Accord. You are obviously made of sterner stuff.

[Guest]

Well done Max. Bravo. A brilliant write up.