Funnel Web goes wide

by Sibby Mcfayden on 23 Mar 2003 The 15.2 metre Funnel Web went wide during the storm in the early days of the doubled handed 2003 Melbourne to Osaka race. In the heavy seaway with 6 to 10 metres seas Ivan Mcfadeyn fell hard against a winch and cracked ribs.

His wife, 31 year old Sibby reports on the last few days sailing.

‘Had a really nice sail last night. Spent most of the time on the helm, as Ivan with his broken ribs needed the rest and stayed on his bunk for most of
the night.

The wind was nice and the moon was out to light up the night and ocean. There was a couple of times when I managed to make her sail at 20 knots for
about 200 meters, other than that I got about a 12 knot average. Lots of ground was covered and in the right direction for a change so I was happy.

Earlier on we decided to eat some real food and had a picnic on deck. Cheese and biscuits, with some Scottish Sardines in tomato sauce, a couple of
tomatoes and a beer for Ivan. Nice treat!

Then Ivan hit the bunk for his rest. He was in a lot of pain.

There were no dolphins out this time, but the speed and the moon was very rewarding. The wind started getting really shifty during the night and she
was hard to control. Being the only one on deck I did not want to experiment with the sails too much either. It was definitely a life-vest and harness
night. Falling over board at that speed, no one would have even known I was gone until the morning.

I get really cold towards about 4 to 5 am, must be the dampness setting in and it seems to lodge itself in the bones. Very hard to deal with that on
one hand and then the extreme sun on the other during the day.

My face is starting to show the signs of the sun and the salt. I am hoping to spoil myself when we get into Japan. Long way to go though. I think today / last night was the first real progress after the storm, and I am starting to feel
a little better about it all. There is nothing more disappointing then looking on the map at the end of the day and not seeing any progress.

I sat down this afternoon and worked out some strategies with regards to the weather, the wind, the currents and direction to take. A firm plan is now in place. I just hope it works. In some respect we are going out on a limb with this, but you never know…. It might pay off.

I threw out some food this morning. Food does not last long in this salt air. As we did not eat in the first 4 days, most of the fresh food has gone
to waste. But it doesn’t matter, we have the carton “gourmet’ meals (boy am I looking forward to some real stir-fry and sushi in Japan!!), they are
always a joy.

I better get back up and helm the boat. Ivan is in his bunk in agony with his broken ribs. I have left the autopilot on to come down here and send an
e-mail. Big news today; we saw what we believe to be Matrix for most of the day, but they seem to be taking a different route altogether so they have
now slowly disappeared. Never the less, it was nice to know that the yacht beside us was doing the same thing we were and going to the same place.

Gives us out here a common purpose I suppose… well, I had better get back up there. My face is really sore from the salt, and I would now really
appreciate a shower… (I am only dreaming!)


Team Funnel-Web