Part two of Tom Braidwood's mini Transat story

by Tom Braidwood on 28 Nov 2007 In part two of his story, Tom Braidwood recounts his journey in the recent Mini Transat 6.50.

Tom continues:

'That first day was like having a massive hangover. I couldn't be bothered doing a thing. I just wanted to sleep it off and hope that when I woke up it would all be a bad dream.

I had good fresh running all the way to the Canneries and had my little spinnaker up and managed to sail 200 miles in 24hours. I wish I could say it was because I was hungry to catch the fleet but it wasn't, it was just good Mini conditions and the pilot needs the credit, but it still had a lot of making up to do before I would talk to it again.

It was a long 7 days before I managed first radio contact with another Mini. I got hold of a Frenchman called Jacque just before the Cape Verde Islands; it was great to finally have someone to talk with. Jacque was sailing a Pogo 1 which is pretty old, he's a doctor with 3 children. He was pretty content to keep away from the stronger winds and was set to enjoy his Transat which he expected to take about 30 days.

I didn't do to great a job on my passing through the Cape Verdes. I had a plan of where I wanted to go to get the best pressure but the breeze shifted a little and I changed my plan and went the safer route which ended up to be a mistake. It was amazing to me how my mood would swing and how the smallest set back would sometimes result in putting me right into the wall. I kept a journal and as it would turn out, I would right in this every time I was down, I guess it was a little like being able to talk with someone to vent when things weren't going my way.

Just on the exit of the Cape Verdes one on the top Proto's hit a submerged object and quickly started to sink and the skipper had to be air lifted off. I can't tell you how jealous I was of this guy. If I could have found something to sink my boat and get air lifted off and end this torture it would have been very tempting. As it turned out my course took me pretty close to the position if the sunken Mini, and I ended up getting a call from one of the cruising boats shadowing the fleet to make sure I knew where it was. At the time I found this pretty funny and had quite a chuckle.

Next challenge was the doldrums, known as the fatumwar in French. I was good and ready for this knowing the challenges it can present. In the doldrums you can experience anything from light winds to huge squalls with plenty of rain. I was stuck in the doldrums for 3 to 4 days. Every day I would look for the signs that I had escaped.

During the doldrums I found another friend to race. Perrick, a Frenchman who farms banana's in Africa, was interesting to chat to, we talked about the race and mini life in general. I defiantly had some real tough times while stuck in the doldrums. I had a few big time temper tantrums. One time I yelled so hard at the top of my voice it hurt my throat, but I quickly realized that no matter how loud you yell there is no relief when no one can hear you.

Well on my exit out of doldrums we met a massive thunder cloud and ended up going hard up wind in about 15knots. Usually this wind will slowly lift you as you head towards the Island of Fernando but not for this little Wombat. We were banging away for about a week. Half way to Fernando, I encountered a problem, my dagger board snapped off. We were going fine laying the waypoint doing fast speeds up wind I was trying to take it a little easy on the boat as I defiantly didn't want to drop the rig in this uncomfortable slamming seaway, being 1000 mile from anywhere. So I already had all my jerry cans filled with water and tied to the rail which equaled about 500kg plus. Everything on board stacked to windward but with no dagger board we were making about 15 to 20 degrees of lea way ( going sideways) and not laying the Island of Fernando which is a mark of the course. So I eased my keel off further to the centre and unfortunately slowed the boat from about 7knts to 5knts. About 3 days later the wind freed up and I was able to add back the keel and start going again.

Later that night I was woken with a huge bang and found that my keel purchase had torn the block in half, so I got to pulling my mainsheet system apart and replacing the blocks in the keel system and then rigging up a make-do purchase system for the mainsail.

The rest of the way to Brazil was Medium running down wind with some occasional big thunder squalls just after dark. I had a bit of a run in with a pair of whales, I came over the top of a wave to find them just cruising along happily so I altered course to go behind them but I gave them a big scare. Not as big as mine however when instead of the usual dive that they do these ones decided to turn towards me. I shat myself picturing a lump of lard trying to mount the little Wombat. I was still about 600 miles from any land so it was not a pretty picture.

The last night into Brazil was all good, with a light air finish as I sailed up the bay toward the finish line at about 1am GMT. Unfortunately there was no way of letting Bindi know of my arrival but I had an awesome welcome for my other English speaking mates, Nick, Woody and David. Nick had called Bindi from the dock and her and Yards were not to far away and met me at the bar.

All in all I am better off for the whole Mini experience. I have learnt plenty about my sailing and even more about how lucky I am to have the support of my fantastic wife Belinda. The support I have received from my friends and the sailing community was amazing, so many people decided to share my dream and help me and me alone. I can only hope that they are satisfied with my efforts to finish what was started about 3 years ago.

I can remember when I left to sail with Syd Fisher in the America's cup in San Diego at the age of 22, I thought I knew everything but after the cup I returned knowing that before I knew nothing. I had a similar experience with the Volvo Ocean race when I joined SEB thinking I knew my stuff and returned after having the opportunity of learning again. Well this time nothing has changed I have challenged myself with another discipline in the sport of sailing, and come out the other side with an appreciation of the time spent learning.

I now start work for one of the Volvo teams as project manager for the build of their VO70 designed by Richel Pugh. I will be based in Australia until February when Belinda, Yardley and I will move up to McConaghy Boats yard in China to complete the build.

So I would like to thank you all for your support over the last few years. Without you I couldn't have got to the start line, and in time the finish line.'

Tom

www.tombraidwood.com