Letter No 8 sent on 7 Aug 2001 14:01
It’s midnight. Karolina has just been woken up to take over the watch somewhere on the middle of the North Sea. They had been motoring since 10.00 in the morning against the little breeze there was and against the Golf Stream with crossing swell from the Atlantic. The rolling of the boat was very uncomfortable and two of the crew got sea sick really bad. Four of the crew vomited and a fifth felt bad, too. One of the crew had vomited all day and finally fell to sleep. They all felt sorry for the poor guy when they had to wake him up just after he fell to sleep, but these are the rules onboard. Everybody has to take his or her watch, no matter how sea sick they are. By experience, this is better helping to overcome sea sickness, at least in the long run.

It’s midnight. The full moon was greeting from above. At least no rain this time! But hardly any wind and huge waves were not much better. They had just crossed the Polar Circle so the nights started to get a bit darker now. According to Karolina, they consider they have come a far way south, having now passed the Polar Circle. Everything is relative...

It’s midnight. Karolina came up punctually at 00.00 into the cockpit, still half sleeping. Then she felt it coming. She longed for the bucket and after having fed the Atlantic fish, Karolina at least felt better. Just a shame that the sea sickness pill she just had taken also went overboard... Well, you can’t keep everything these days!

At midnight, they also changed course. Instead of motoring towards Ålesund, they headed East South East to seek some shelter inshore and to wait for better winds. This offshore leg became too uncomfortable. At least they could set sails now and Karolina got some actual sailing during her night watch, although not on the course home.

At this same midnight I was awake ironing some clothes. I had been washing, vacuum cleaning and tidying up the kid’s toys all evening. While ironing, I switched on the TV and put on a video tape I had just recorded the night before: “Ellen MacArthur and Vendée Globe”.

Ellen, a 24 year old British woman, sails the toughest of all races, around the world alone around Antarctica and passing the five big “caps” in the southern ocean - all alone onboard her 18 m racing machine King Fisher. A fantastic girl, by many adored and loved. She came second in the race which ended this February, but was by many celebrated as THE winner. She collided with a semi-sunken container, she passed icebergs closer than considered safe and had to climb the mast during storm conditions several times. All of this ALONE on the high seas, thousands of miles away from any human being.

The film was much about friends and family left ashore contra the beauty of the sea and tough work with frustrations on board. Ellen never felt alone, though, she was part of it all. Nature, her boat King Fisher and Ellen formed a strong triangle. Sometimes desperately asking what she is doing out there! And, at other times, she had a total feeling of luckiness.

During my midnight ironing, Ellen almost looked like Karolina on the TV screen, with the same yellowish “HPX Musto Offshore” foul weather gear as Karolina has with only her eyes visible. She was equally talking about her lack of sleep, the freezing conditions and the beauty of sailing the high latitudes.

But, there are some slight differences. Ellen sails south and Karolina north. Ellen sailed for 3 months, Karolina for 3 weeks. Ellen sailed in some 20 knots of speed, Karolina in 6. Ellen was alone, Karolina is one of eight on board. And Karolina has (yet) not reported any ice bergs.
At 10.30 am, 178 miles and some 24 hours after departure, Mahina Tiare III has now on Tuesday morning arrived at Brønnøysund for bunkering and is waiting for better winds (see map enclosed). Karolina just called from here, saying that she caught some wonderful 1,5 hours of sleep on their way in and was now walking to explore Brønnøysund and see what there is for bunkering. She said that everyone is fine now, while they all concluded at breakfast that they preferred day-sailing as they did further north. Too little wind from the wrong direction, the Golf Stream and the waves were not the most welcoming greeting to their first offshore passage.... "Our intention on Monday, August 6 was to sail offshore, 350 miles non-stop to Alesund. However, when clear of the coastal islands, we found that a combination of the .5 to 1.0 knot north-setting current (a continuation of the Gulf Stream that keeps these waters ice-free all winter) and the relatively shallow waters made headway into 15-20 kts very uncomfortable. When all but two of our crew had succumbed to seasickness, we plotted a new route that took us inshore through the scenic but twisting fjords."
Capt John Neal
Navstation on Mahina as seen while navigating
On another leg of Mahina Tiare III there was one crew member who had planned to sail around the world. However, his dreams collapsed onboard Mahina, since he had to learn that offshore sailing was nothing for him. He thus had to ask to get off Mahina after half the leg, which he eventually did. Poor guy! What shall he dream about now?

I am proud of Karolina and all the rest of her mates on board Mahina that they continue despite sea sickness, cold and lack of sleep.

But as Karolina added on the phone: “You know, Leon, we have not yet experienced any tough conditions, luckily...”.

Tough Conditions?!?!?!?!
"Navigation in Norway's inside waters requires constant vigilance. There is a ton of commercial traffic at all hours; thousands of navigational markers of all types, and many of the channels are narrow with rocks and reefs. Passing one mark wrong spells running into rock! We take navigation seriously and the navigator gets a real work out! With our revolving duty roster, each day a different expedition member is navigator. To ensure that we're prepared and ready to go, the navigator lays out the courses, distances and waypoints the afternoon before their day to navigate. Some days this takes up to four hours, with as many as 40 waypoints and 10 charts! After punching the waypoints into the Garmin 130 GPS, they then read them out for me to enter into the Toshiba laptop which is running Nobeltec and using Softcharts. This helps avoid errors as we instantly witness the route being mapped out on the electronic charts and can quickly determine any inaccuracies. The laptop sits next to the radar at the chart table and allows constant tracking of our course and navigation dangers. Occasionally, like when entering Alesund at 0300, I'll bring it into the cockpit so I can follow our progress while on deck."
Capt John Neal
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