Oyster News 49 - Oyster Yachts

Peter Ansell at the helm
“For the first two weeks we
travelled with an albatross,
nicknamed Elle because of
his good-looking legs
which reminded Peter of
the model Elle McPherson”
10 www.oystermarine.com
For the first two weeks we travelled with an albatross, nicknamed Elle because of his
good-looking legs which reminded Peter of the model Elle McPherson. These beautiful
birds can soar the ocean waves for months on end, covering up to 8000 kilometres a
week. There were also a couple of black-backed gulls who kept us company, both called
Jonathan, as we couldn't tell the difference. Apart from these few birds there was no
other sea life, just the large grey waves rolling out to the distant horizons.
During the passage we had been trying to catch fish. There is a lot of ciguatera in the
Pacific islands, which causes numbing in the human nervous system, and we wanted to
stock the freezer from the ocean. We had developed a new fishing system for this year,
involving 400 pound breaking strain line and a good length of bungie to take the strain as
the fish takes off with the lure; too many fish had got away last year with lure, line and
hook and we were determined that this should not continue. There is a small problem
with this system in that the line does not pay out and so there is no noisy rattle to alert us
to a fish on the hook. After a lot of discussion, Chris came up with a brilliant solution and
invented the fog horn fish alarm. Through a series of intricate ‘Heath Robinson’
manoeuvres, a fish on the hook pulls down a lever, thus depressing the trigger on the gas
cylinder, which then lets off a stentorian blast through the fog horn trumpet. This was the
signal for all to rush on deck, reef sails and slow Carelbi down; getting a large fighting
fish six feet up from sea level in the turbulent conditions we were experiencing was not
easy. We were not spectacularly successful, however. The cold waters of the southern
ocean do not seem as well stocked as warmer ones, a couple of fish managed to leap off
the hook before we could gaff them successfully and one just slid off the aft deck
propelled by the violently rolling motion of the boat.
About a week after leaving New Zealand we ran into a major storm lasting
2-3 days, with winds of 45-50 knots, gusting 60 howling through the rigging. Huge
waves, spume blowing off their tops, would lift Carelbi up and slide her down their
backs, pushing her around and slapping her sides with juddering crashes, breaking
over the coach roof and pouring into the cockpit, finally subsiding into sounds of little
rivulets and trickles. Carelbi would stagger, slow, roll and tentatively get under way
again before the whole cycle would repeat itself, endlessly. We hove to the first night to allow
us to get some sleep. The following day one of the rams on the autopilot failed so we handsteered
until we could get to calmer waters, unpack the aft locker and repair the damage.