And There Goes Another Week…

A big thanks to Mum for holding down the fort (or blog!) while I’ve been out having a particularly crazy week. And another thanks for everyone for all your comments! I think I also owe an apology for being such an inconsistent blogger.

What a busy week… in a very long series of million such weeks. Every day comes with new challenges, dramas, problems to tackle, breakthroughs, success and always a good laugh.
Dragging myself out of bed some mornings is certainly a challenge but to be honest I couldn’t think of anything thing I’d rather be doing, that is apart, from being out there sailing!
But all my efforts are nothing compared to those of the whole team, from everyone working behind the scenes to the totally heroic refit workers who loyally show up every day despite the cold mornings, hard work and my never ending nagging!

To very briefly summarize a week that feels more like a year, we’ve made progress in all directions at the shed.
Dad and I popped down to Sydney for meetings and I spent the weekend away in Brisbane studying Sea Survival with Gerry Fitzgerald.
I found the Survival course really helpful covering just about every possible danger. Drills in the water with a life raft and with flares taught me that like with just about everything, technique rather than brute force is most important.
Time in the class room picking apart the survival and disaster stories, going over check lists and polishing up my knowledge on safety equipment really hammered in a lot of important information to be safely stored in the back of my head.
Coming down with a reaction to the fibreglass resin added a nice itchy flavor to my week, what started out as what I believed was a heat rash soon became a little more serious till I was finally sent off to the doctor when the reaction spread to my face. After being deemed too hard to look at by everyone at the shed and on Mums orders I was sent home, all but banned from working on the boat!

With so much shiny new equipment (from the Brand new Yanmar engine, beautifully polished tiller and Simrad Electronics to the all important dunny!) arriving and being installed every day it feels like the boat is slowly coming back together.
That will have to do for now, there’s plenty more to keep us busy over the next few days and keep your ears open for plenty of exciting news.

Jessica

In the Classroom/Pool

Jess is on her Sea Survival course this weekend, here she is in the pool, sorting the old liferaft that was on her yacht when Don brought it.

Don McIntyre and Mike Perham were up for a few days at the time and they put her through the hoops and went over some scenarios. They were intent on making it as hard as possible for her and got much enjoyment from all the effort she had to put into it and the undignified positions she got into!

Julie for Jessica

Building the Ark

That’s a lot of gumboots! From the port Neil, Bruce, Suzanne, Ed, Ricky, Richard and Pat standing in front of the ‘Ark’.

While I was snug and dry in the class room studying Marine Diesel Maintenance today, the team out at the shed were showing their true colours persistently battling on faced with ankle deep flooding right through the shed!

From what I could make out over the sound of the rain when I rang for an update during lunch, there’s been a slight change of plan, we’re no longer refitting a yacht for a solo RTW voyage but building the ark. We may need to rearrange the storage plan to somehow squeeze the two elephants in… need to put some thought into that one!

On a more serious note, the work list took a bad hit with lots achieved. Plenty of exciting things happening this week with so many helpers.

I really enjoyed brushing up my mechanical skills as part of the Marine Diesel Maintenance course with Offshore Marine Training Center, I had a lot of ‘ohhh! That’s what we were doing wrong’ moments, now I feel confident that I’ve got a good understanding of the whole system. I look forward to spending time on my own engine, a new Yanmar which will be arriving this week.

If the rain keeps up too much longer I’ll have to blow the budget and buy everyone a pair of gumboots! I’m told we’ll also need navigation marks up the drive way.

Meal Plans, Slowly on the Uphill and Jessica aka Pippi Longstocking!

If you read yesterdays feature titled ‘Jessica’s Dream’ in the Weekend Australian Magazine you’ll understand why I spent all of yesterday being teased about not being able to find a razor! To my horror and with the help of a once trusted source (Mum!) comments such ‘Pretties herself up, can’t find a razor’ ‘Alone in the ocean swells, shaven legs or not!’ found their way into national media! But other than being described as Pippi Longstocking, the article was another good read.

After meeting with Professors, Fiona and Gray from the Sunshine Coast University on Friday, I’ve been busy keeping a food dairy and have been put to work rating different kinds freeze dried food. With this information as a starting point, Gray and Fiona will be able to put together a detailed meal plan for the voyage. There’s a million things to consider changing energy needs, likes/ dislikes, nutritional needs, storage, weight etc.

Still plenty of progress at the shed, a little bit of paint here and there and few new fittings makes it feel like we might be on the up hill. I’m constantly amazed at my ability to completely cover myself with resin and a million other sticky, itchy, stinging products.

Tomorrow I’m headed down to Brisbane again this time to study diesel engines, maybe being locked up a class room is a good thing while all those smart comments about the razor die down!

Brief account of a busy week

One day seems to roll into the next in a blur, life seems to revolve around a dusty shed, overflowing email account and constant phone calls but even when things are looking really tough, I’m still thinking wow, this is really happening, slowly but surley were getting there!
I think I’ve become perpetually attached to a phone, grown a sort of electrical ear with an annoying habit of ringing and waking me with an alarm every day before the sun.

So along with making all that dust and noise this week’s refit team; Richard, Pat, Suzanne, Francois, Neil, Dad and Bruce continued making progress in all directions. Equipment and materials are slowly dribbling in from all around Australia, coordinating it all has become a full time job! It’s often hard to imagine so much equipment fitting onto such a small boat, a lot like a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces , a very complex puzzle!

Wednesday was an exception to the shed, lists and phone calls rule, as part of a marine paramedic course, I learnt everything from looking after every kind of injury to dealing with hyperthermia, CPR, administrating pain killers etc. I have to admit CPR is a bit useless for a solo sailor! and after some very messy attempts at stitching a chicken, I’ve decided that needle work isn’t for me. Practicing giving injections to a orange was also help full but the most important thing I learnt was that as a solo sailor I just cant afford to get myself hurt, there’s nothing heroic about rushing into something and giving myself an injury.

Something I’ve been getting a lot of questions about lately is my physical strength and whether I’ll be able to handle youngestround.com particularly down in the southern ocean. Strength would certainly be an issue on a bigger boat which is why I’ll be sailing an S&S 34. At just over 10m in length the S&S 34 is a yacht known of its ease of handling. Modifications such as splitting the headsail area into two small sails, running lines back to the cockpit and installing plenty of nice big winches will all make life easier for me. When most people think ‘Sailor’ the first thing that comes to mind would have to be big burly guy, in reality some of sailings greatest achievers don’t fit the big burly guy description. I’ll also continue working on building up upper body strength over the next mouths as well as generally keeping myself in good shape.

The following link is to the really great article from last weekend’s Courier Mail, well worth a look! http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/extras/qweekend08/fff/features/pdfs/181.pdf

Jessica

No need for words!

Bruce and Rod on the right very happy about a delivery of FGI materials!

Moping

Believe it or not ‘moping’ is an important part of sailing round the world, every week it’s completely essential to spend a couple of hours being completely un productive, just vegging out by yourself, not letting one single important thought cross your mind, also known as recharging your batteries. This week my batteries were well over due for a recharge, pressure levels too high and energy levels too low! I spent Saturday evening watching mindless TV and rereading my favorite books while my amazing little sister Hannah made all the toasted sandwiches I could eat, forced second helpings of desert on me and sent me off to bed early. Result = ready to take on the next week!

If it’s the kind of thing you read check out the latest edition of Dolly and if you’re in Queensland and can get your hands on a copy of the Qweekender, the cover story about me and the voyage is a great one.

Next week’s plan includes final fiber glassing, getting the new paint underway, building a new galley, completing the plumping, getting the wiring underway and I’ll be heading down to Brisbane on Wednesday day to do a marine medical course.

Jessica

Nice to know now!

It took a round of hot drinks first thing this morning to get any work happening, I’ll never say that it doesn’t get cold on the Sunshine Coast again. Before the sun got high enough, the shed acted as a giant fridge, a cold one too at 2 degrees! Talking of cold, keeping me warm while I’m down south has been a big smoko conversation topic lately. While I’ll not be experiencing severe below freezing conditions because I’ll be rounding Cape Horn (my most southerly point) in the height of summer, cold is a pretty huge issue. Statistics point out that teenagers and females are the first to suffer from exposure.

Believe it or not I’m also not completely crazy and enjoy a bit of comfort. So insulation, sleeping bags, clothing, heating, staying dry and protection from the weather are all important things to be organized. Every sailor knows that not letting yourself get too cold is extremely important because if you do get cold there’s no hot shower in warm up in, nothing heroic about toughing it out, maybe being a softy will come in handy yet?!

We had a bit of disappointing news today when we received the results of the x-ray and testing carried out on the rudder by Pearl Street Testing and Inspection Dad announced the bad news that the rudder shaft was badly corroded with a fracture in the weld and just to top it off, it was full of close to 5L of sea water . Definitely not a rudder that’s ready to take on the world! Our first reactions were dam, another job that needs doing. Then it started sinking in, imagine if I’d set off with the rudder in this condition! Apparently left as it was, the corrosion would have gone crazy while I sailed through the tropics, not leaving me in very good shape for the southern ocean. Certainty nice to know now on dry land and it really showed us again why we’re putting all this effort into the refit. “That’s why we’re here” as Bruce said.

While all the hands-on work to the refit is practically 24/7 another thing that is extremely time consuming is researching, tracking down, making decisions on and organizing all the equipment needed, down to every nut and bolt. Today alone for the little time I spent getting my hands dirty I’m not proud to say that I went through quite a number of knife blades meaning that if I kept going at this rate I’d need to dedicate half the boat to storing blades! Can you imagine planning out every single thing that you’ll need for 230 days and fitting it into a 34ft yacht?

I couldn’t imagine having got through today alone without Mums sandwiches, Dads persistence (he’s determined to turn the boat into a battle ship) Rods attitude problem , Suzanne, Hayden and Murray’s hard work, Andrew for straightening out everything I seem to mess up, Bruce’s total dedication and that’s just to name a very few, there’s a million other people putting in some hard work. Some solo voyage, thanks team!!

Everyday there’s a million ups and downs (maybe that’s just part of being a teenager??)It’s certainly a challenge, I’m constantly telling myself that this isn’t meant to be easy but 10 minutes later and from another angle nothing ever looks so bad.

There’s lots more hard work planned so you can be sure that I’ll be excusing myself to blog more often!

Jessica

A big thanks to Pearl Street

By running fancy x-ray technology over the keel bolts and rudder Chris from Pearl Street Testing and Inspection identified a potential problem with one of the bolts that can now be fixed and has given us the peace of mind that the rest of the bolts are ready to take on the world.

Work List Vandalized

On arriving at the shed first thing this morning after a Sunday spent regrouping and planning, I wrote out the days jobs on a huge big bit of card and pinned it up on the wall. I returned only a few minutes later to discover that my carefully planned out work list had been brutally vandalized! In between every item on the list completely absurd jobs such as smoko, tea breaks, coffee brakes, union meeting, team bonding session, sundowners… to name a few had been added. I can name a chief vandal but I suspect input from all the team. Tea breaks, union meetings how absurd!

Jokes aside, even with all that hard work most days, it’s an amazing feeling to finish up knowing that we’ve achieved something, that we’re achieving something. With weeks more of work it’s still great to slowly plod away at the work list.

For everyone in Australia keep an eye out for ABC’s 7:30 report tonight or tomorrow night for a segment on the voyage.

Jessica

My floating tank!

All I can say after the latest session with a notebook and measuring tape is my poor boat! This morning we sat down to plan out exactly how much water, fuel and meths (for cooking) I’ll be able to take, where it will fit and how to secure it. All I could think of was all that weight and its effects on sailing performance. I’d always known that Youngestround.com would set off sitting low in the water but that didn’t make me feel any better looking at the final figures.
I’m learning a lot about the word ‘compromise’ everything’s a compromise, weight and performance versus comfort, power and communication.

Dad, Bruce and Rod are practically an unstoppable force as they plot the best protection from the weather, strength and safety. I restrain from constantly pointing out that this is a yacht rather than a tank because I know how much I’ll appreciate having a boat that will look after me in the Southern Ocean.

On another subject, I’m proud to say that over the last crazy month, I’ve put on a whole 3kg of weight and it’s definitely not on the hips so I’m going to assume that it’s all muscle! Most people are probably wondering weather I come from Mars. A 16 year old girl proud to be putting on weight?! But building myself up is an important part of my preparation.

Steady Progress

Slowly but steadily we’re beginning to tick things off the work list.

Hanging around the shed working hard with the team is great fun and although we’re right on schedule, I have to keep reminding myself to be patient, I’m busting to see Youngestround.com back in the water ready for the start line!

Every day we finish up exhausted but that doesn’t stop my brain from constantly running through a million things, even if I had the time I couldn’t think of anything else! I feel all keyed up, its like I’ve got ‘get to start line, get to start line’ chanting not just through my head but my whole body.

Tomorrow’s job list includes having the keel bolts and rudder x-rayed to check for weaknesses, glassing in cabin knees (supports), more construction on the dodger (solid canopy offering protection from the weather) and finalising the targa (frame on the stern supporting the solar panels) design.

The support we’re continuing to receive is amazing, from equipment suppliers to everyone stopping in to lend a hand with the work!

A Day In My Life

I admit to hitting snooze a few times this morning after a late night plodding away on the computer but was up before 7am only to miss my lift out to the shed. After a few more minutes to wake up I spent the morning tackling all those tricky jobs, emails and phone calls I’d been putting off.

It was off to the shed to join the team after a productive morning. I arrived in time to sit down to lunch at the laminating table to paw over various product catalogues.

The afternoon was spent learning to Laminate sheets of foam that will make up my dodger, discussing the latest options with Neil the electrician and Iain the mechanic, helping Steve remove the quadrant and a visit from Peter the representative from International Paint to discuss the preferred colour scheme; Pink!

Dad received today’s hero award for removing the ‘something’ that we’d all been avoiding. After there was nothing left to remove and all excuses were used we all took a deep breath and Dad proved his complete dedication by removing to dunny! I had to try very hard to keep a straight face as Dad frog marched toward to skip with the toilet held at arms length.

My other important role lately is ‘template’ I’m required to sit, stand and pose so that measurements can be taken and the dodger, engine box and targa frame can be constructed to fit me perfectly.

Knock-off time was 6pm and it was my weekly turn to cook. My time management skills were put to test as I juggled and burnt a million things in the kitchen while discussing how best to present project management schedules over the phone.

I’m off for a bit of sleep before it all starts again tomorrow!
Jessica

Planning and Hard Work

Tuesday evening just before knock off time 6pm! From the bow, Rod and Steve building a temporary mould for the hard dodger, on the stern Bruce and Dad (Roger) planning out the targa frame for the solar panels.

This may look like a relaxing dinner but we’re hard at work planning!! Dad, Rod, Brenda, Margaret, Neil, Bruce, Suzanne and me in Pink.