Lionheart 10

FIFTEEN knots of wind, moving along at four knots with the sun glistening off the water. What could be better you ask? Well, how about if I was going in the right direction! For the past four days I've had easterly winds, making progress very slow as I can only point 30 or 150 degrees. To add insult to injury, I finished my last bag of food this week and have been living off damper. A few quick calculations tell me that about two weeks before I arrive home, all the flour will have run out, forcing me to eat the stuff I don't like. Even more reason to get home quick. If only the wind would turn around! I've already made up my mind about what I'd like as soon as I cross the finishing line - two Danish pastries from the local bakery, a bottle of drink and one of those huge hamburgers where you need a skewer to hold it together. On the 26th it was my 18th birthday. I spoke to my friends but other than that it was just a normal day. In fact, I nearly forgot about it. I was outside tying the genoa down and when I came back into the cabin the orange light was on, indicating an awaiting e-mail. It was from mum telling me that it was 12.15am at home and that I was now 18. Talk about a shock - one minute you're a kid tying down a genoa, the next you're allowed to vote!

I'm not usually one for poems, but this one which Romy Schurrmans found for my birthday is one I can appreciate:

There comes a time in life when there is nothing else to do but to go your own way.

A time to follow your dreams, a time to raise the sails of your own beliefs.

Where you are headed there are no trails, no paths just your instinct.

You have followed the omens and have finally arrived.

Well, I've got to follow that omen and raise a bit more of that sail if I'm to munch on any hamburger this side of Christmas! Let's hope the wind turns around as well.

31.08.99

ANOTHER week of terrible progress! In the past 16 days I've only averaged 50 nautical miles a day. I'm supposed to be in the strong westerly air flow but I've had varying easterlies and squally weather making constant movement in the right direction very hard. I've been told that some people think I'm going to starve to death because of my food situation. This is not the case at all. What I didn't reveal last week was that all through the voyage I have been sneaking into the next day's bag and only eating all the goodies.

So it's my own fault! I have plenty left over but it's the nutritious food which I usually chose not to eat and it's these items which I'm now left with. At least I should be strong and healthy by the time I do get back.

David and Ben from Hill Crest Christian College wanted to know how my electrics were going since I lost the solar panel. There is no problem because the wind generator and the other panel are still working. The panel which was ripped off had stopped working anyway. Two days ago, just after a squall had come through, I was looking over the water lost in thought. I'm sure this isn't new but I was thinking about the similarities between events in life and a rain squall. When it's approaching it looks pretty mean, all dark and gloomy and then all of a sudden it hits with a torrential downpour, sending you off course and out of control. You can't see anything around you except mist and rain, but it doesn't last forever and eventually the first rays of sunlight peep through the tail end of the cloud. This light refracting from the tiny droplets of water suspended in mid air puts on a show that is truly spectacular, and it's at that point you are the closest you'll be to heaven on earth. It was this show that had captured my attention. Out to starboard was the most brilliantly colored rainbow I had ever seen. The dark clouds in the background made each and every color stand out as if they were alive with electricity. It was so close that I could see the end fading into the water only 30 metres away. I concluded that the heavy pot of gold must have sunk but I didn't mind because I felt invincible to the passing squall or any nasty weather which this world could throw at me.

The thing is, had I not encountered the squall, then I would have missed this feeling of jubilation which I was now floating in. It made me think that sometimes bad times are just preparing the way for better things to come.

07.09.99

I AM IN an area renowned for strong winds - 70-90 degrees east in the Indian Ocean. Apparently most of the Clipper and Whitbread racing yachts hold their speed record attempts in this area because of the tendency for fronts to develop small lows on them. And it's lived up to its reputation. It has been up to 40 knots and rarely below 25 for the past week with a similar situation predicted in the outlook. It has also been very cold but I can't tell exactly because my temperature gauge has been out of order since the Cape of Good Hope. I also have an annoying leak somewhere above my bunk which means an ice-cold drip landing smack bang in my ear. This is quite a shocking experience, especially when one is snuggled into a sleeping bag, half asleep and dreaming up the ingredients to put in the ultimate hamburger. My sail configuration recently has mainly consisted of just using a headsail. To keep the boat moving at four to five knots doesn't take very much sail area and it's easier on the boat, not to mention my nerves. To keep the boat on a steady six knots, nearly double the sail area is needed, causing double the amount of strain on equipment. I would rather get home a few days later than risk equipment failure. It has been months since I took any multi-vitamins and I've been feeling normal with no obvious effects - until this week. I noticed my gums turning a whitish color and vaguely remembered learning in school about the diseases sailors of old used to contract. Words like rickets, gangrene and scurvy entered my head and even though I forgot which one was which, I thought I'd better start taking the pills again. I got an e-mail from Jack Fletcher at Brighton Secondary who asked how my fresh water was going. Well, I'm glad I collected about 50 litres when I passed through the Doldrums. I sponged up the rain water collected along the toe-rail and squeezed it into a bucket. I now have about five litres of my original stores left and the extra that I collected should see me through until I get home. A few people have told me they envy my position and hope to do a trip like mine one day. Go for it because I know it can be done and that it doesn't take a genius to do it (I'm proof of that). I have a theory and it goes like this; Brian Caldwell Jnr, Robin Lee Graham and Tania Aebi, all from the United States, and David Dicks from Western Australia were young people who attempted to sail solo round the world and all were successful. The odds are heavily leaning one way - those who give it a go have succeeded. What we need to do is not limit other people's abilities by our own. We need to encourage and help in every way possible, particularly our youth, and then we will start to see great things happen. You could look at it like this - I was just a normal kid with a dream who was serious about what I wanted to do but without the support of my family, would never have made it and would have eventually lost enthusiasm with age and become like the rest - unsatisfied grown-ups who don't believe in themselves.There are many people out there dreaming of great things and it's a good chance that your son or daughter is one of them. Don't let them lose one of humanity's most prized assets - the vision.

21.09.99

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