Volvo Ocean Race Leg three – Team Brunel- Capey the cat

by Team Brunel on 16 Jan 2015 Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15, Leg three update from Team Brunel:

I suspect that everyone now knows that when the weather is light, the sailors of Team Brunel sleep in the forecastle. It will probably also be clear that in a black, carbon-fibre boat, at an angle of 45 degrees, this is not exactly fun. But do you know what the most favourite places to sleep in the most forward part of the boat are?

The two 'gangways' provide space for four reasonable sleeping places. Why? Because the keel is canted, the boat is always slightly tilted – even when there’s not much wind. You couldn’t call it comfortable, but in the gangways you always roll against the side of the hull. Get the picture? On the water tank in the middle, you will roll every which way. With every gust of wind – when the boat will tilt more – you and your sleeping mat will slide to the lower side (lee side), which means that you can only sleep in a sort of cramped 'no I don’t want to roll away' position. There are even sailors on board who skip dinner after their watch so that they can grab a decent sleeping place (I am not allowed to say that this is Rokas.)
Holy shit! How I wanted to get a good night’s sleep yesterday evening! Outside, there was no wind; inside the boat it was pitch black. While I was stirring my noodles with my spoon, I shone my torch into the forecastle. Yes! There’s a good place there! This will be my night! I put a kettle of water on the burner and then sprinted to the forecastle. And there I started to build myself a nest out of stray underpants and bags, like a fully-fledged skylark. Nothing would now stand between me and four hours’ sleep. All I still had to do was pour a kettle of water over the lads’ freeze-dried food.

It was as I was trickling boiling water over this oriental delicacy that I saw out of the corner of my eye the figure of Andrew Cape shuffling into the forecastle. He wasn’t exactly sniffing the air, but you could tell that he smelled a comfortable bed. I wanted to say, 'Where do you think you are off to, mister navigator?' but I got no further than a meek 'Sleep well, Capey'.
Are you familiar with the phenomenon that your cat always sits on your newspaper just when you want to read it? And then with a look of, 'There’s no way that you are ever going to get me off this today'. It was the same look as Capey gave me as he started to build a hollow on his hands and knees. Out of my bed. 'And now it’s time to clear off with all haste Capey the Cat,' I thought to myself. 'I haven’t seen you here in the past two weeks, so back to your navigation corner.' But a bit later, I just stammered, 'D-d-do you think I could just get my ear-plugs? They’re there somewhere.'

That night the hard water tank was more miserable than ever, but the softly purring noise emanating from our navigator still gave me a warm feeling. With the infamous Straits of Malacca just ahead of us - one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with treacherous sandbanks and a strong current – he needed a good night’s sleep more than anyone.