Shanghai surprise from Team Ellen

by Team Ellen 11 Apr 2006 15:00 BST

Over three weeks into the Asian Record Circuit, B&Q secure record number 5 as they reach China’s largest city, Shanghai as the trimaran crossed the finish line at 22:30:34 GMT yesterday [Monday, 10.4.06] in a time 1d 5h 25m 33s to finish Leg 4 out of 10 on the Asian Record Circuit.

They crossed the start line off Qingdao, China’s 2008 Olympic sailing venue, on Sunday [9.4.06] at 17:05:01 GMT in heavy fog and 29 hours 25 minutes and 33 seconds later crossed the finish line off Shanghai still in fog, to establish their fifth record of the Asian Record Circuit. Halfway through this 308-mile leg, MacArthur and her crew were wondering if they were going to beat their benchmark time of 32 hours [target revised 24hrs before departure] as light winds and continuous fog hampered their progress. But at 22:30:34 GMT last night [Monday, 10 April], B&Q crossed the finish line and The Cotton Record was secured – so called in recognition of the notorious cotton textile industry that was built up during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) - taking 2 hours and 35 minutes off their benchmark time.

The toughest leg so far as fog, fog and more fog made this leg like a game of Russian roulette. B&Q negotiated the busy waters off the Chinese coast comparable to driving blind on the M25 during rush hour – dodging fishing boats, fishing lines and cargo ships, on constant radar watch. For Ellen and the team there has been zero sleep coupled with the huge stress of sailing in unknown waters – the team are establishing more than just records but taking the 75-foot B&Q trimaran to a country that has never seen this kind of vessel before, and it is just as challenging. A series of complicated pilot arrangements have been made to get B&Q to the dockside in central Shanghai. The trimaran is expected to arrive later this afternoon which will be night for the team [GMT +8hrs].

From Ellen:

This leg has been an unbelievable leg of challenges, both logistically, and sailing wise. We are as I type sailing up the channel into Shanghai, still 50 miles away, but from the number of ships around us you would think that we were in the middle of a harbour. It's unbelievable. Compounded by the fact that we have been sailing in the fog all the way here, we are all tired, and getting to the port in time to catch the pilot then discovering that the Yangtze river was closed was a tough one to take.

Just sailing in the night to get here was incredible, the phosphorescence, the fishing boats, last night sailing through a zone of beaconed fishing nets - four lines of which we sailed over. Almost ghost like in the fog we watched from the front beams. Everyone was on deck, waiting for the lines of floats, and hoping that the next would pass safely under the boat, as the previous one had. Our fingers were firmly crossed, and with ships in the area, less than 3 miles away and on a collision course you wonder just how they do it. The eerie silence haunted by the echoing fog signals sent a chill down your spine, not too comforting mixed with the chill in the damp moist air. I have never seen so many fishing boats as we did when the fog cleared a little this morning, a sight that I fear disappeared in Europe probably 30 or so years ago. There was boat after boat, light after light, strobe beacons on the ends of the fishing nets, everywhere you peered deep in to the fog you where you were sure that you saw a boat, or something, but was it just your imagination!

Below deck we have been on radar watch for what seems like forever, also staring deep into the screen - trying to determine if it's a wave, or a fishing boat, or a line of floats or nets all of these are interspersed with cargo ships. It’s like a computer game, with only one life. It’s quite incredible, you have to use a different set of reactions here compared to Europe - and they are being trained within all of us. Ships somehow don't seem quite as stressful as they did - when you look on the horizon and see close to 200 vessels, your perspective changes...

This morning we had to wait six hours on arrival before we could leave to make our way towards the pilot station. We waited in the anchoring zone for ships, assuming that life would be a bit quieter - but it never is. We had fishing boats, massive ropes with buoys the size of oil drums, anchored ships, and a mixture of fishing boats that appeared to wave us 'hello' or 'go away', it was hard to tell which was which...

Sailing up the river now reminds me of my years on the river Humber, sailing amongst the ships on the brown chocolate-coloured water. We're sailing at 18 knots, but with only 3 meters of water under the dagger-board, which doesn't sound like much to me - but it's enough and it's all that we have right now. We hope to rendezvous with the pilot in the next hour - then after that we shall be heading to the dock in Shanghai on our 55-mile trek up this incredible river. The tide is against us, but that appears to be the least of our worries here! I think we are all relieved to be in the river finally - to see the fog lift - and a blue sky is a massive contrast to all we have had since Qingdao. We are hoping that the next 6 hours are safe ones and that we make it into the marina safely.

One of the key objectives of the Asian Record Circuit is to establish a number of record times between key Asian ports for sailing projects to challenge in the future. MacArthur started the Asian Record Circuit from Japan on 25th March and the eight-week tour will finish in mid-May in Singapore.

New records established so far: