I was up early the following day, at 7am and out looking for a hole-in-the-wall cash machine and at the same time managed to grab a coffee and a breakfast croissant in a coffee shop, which turned out to be a remarkably sensible thing to do as the plan was to meet at 9am for breakfast and then head to the boat. But that didn't happen.
At 9am there were 3 sorry looking lads with bleary eyes from what turned out to be a big beer session from the night before. Capt. Berk was off processing the passports and Brian, who had a notoriety for dabbling with women of questionable morality was no where to be seen. If there's one thing I hate, it's people who are late. To me it's the ultimate rudeness. It says that their time is more important than yours. Anyway, it got to the point where I was saying we should just go and leave Brian behind. I was mindful that we had a great deal to achieve before we were ship-shape and Bristol fashion enough to be in a position to set sail.
Eventually, and equally bleary eyed, Brian turned up followed by Capt. Berk with the passports, but the delay meant that breakfast was put on hold as we were to head off back to Aberdeen to make preparations. I was happy I'd had that croissant earlier.
Back at the ABC it was agreed that Jim and Adam would go looking for the hardware required (bulbs, batteries, jerry cans, etc.) whilst me, John and Brian would go shopping for the provisions. Capt. Berk would head straight to the boat to make preparations.
Shopping for provisions was relatively easy as there was a supermarket nearby. By mutual consensus we agreed on what essentials to buy and the estimated quantities for what we were told would be a 3 day journey. Brian seemed fixated on buying as much frozen/perishable food stuffs as possible and I kept pointing out that we had no certainty that the refrigerators on board could be made to work. By a stroke of luck the freezers in the supermarket had packed up and everything had defrosted so that was my way of dissuading Brian from buying frozen foods that had already defrosted but it didn't stop him completely and he continued to buy perishables, whereas I concentrated on tinned, canned and dried foods.
We also bought some beer but not significant quantities as none of us thought this was in any way going to be a booze-cruise, but didn't see that a little light refreshment would go amiss. With shopping trollies laden we pushed them down to the quay side. John and Brian when back to the boat with the provisions to unload them, whilst I went walk about and exploring and found little Chinese cafe where I had a late lunch/early dinner.
After that I had a walk around to explore the locale but that didn't reveal anything of any interest. I was aware that there was a probability of there being no power on the boat to charge my camera battery so I went looking for a solar charger, something I'd been meaning to buy for ages, but to no avail, I was simply in the wrong part of Hong Kong and so I went back to the boat.
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| A grey day in Aberdeen harbour |
The provisions had been unpacked into the cupboards and what were assumed to be refrigerators. These turned out to be nothing more than cool boxes to be used with ice - there were no refrigerators on board and why would there be? Cool boxes were sufficient enough for a boat built for day trips.
The weather was starting to deteriorate and dark skies moved in with heavy showers. I'd been hoping for sunny days and calm, flat seas full of sunbathing on deck but that didn't seem likely any more. The wind didn't seem too bad but then we were still within the typhoon shelter, moored amongst other boats.
I looked around for something to do and to make myself useful. There was a box containing the unassembled parts of a hand pump that was going to be needed for transferring fuel from the spare 45 gallon drums we had on board into the fuel tanks in order to complete the crossing. I set about assembling the pump but our tool kit consisted of two screw drivers and a pair of pliers, which struck me as being somewhat inadequate (and that's an understatement) for a 3 day crossing of the South China Sea in a boat with a inboard motor and no sail. As I was assembling the pump, Berk walked over and looked down at me tightening the barrel collar with a pair of pliers (rather than using a non-existent spanner) and said in a very condescending tone, 'I've sacked men for doing less'. Being a pretty crass statement which didn't take into consideration the circumstances at hand, I have to admit this grated on me. I retorted along the lines that in the absence of having the correct tools one has to make do with what is available and finished up by suggesting that he did it himself and left the partially assembled pump in the box. At this point I didn't know that the saying 'He who laughs last, laughs longest' was going to ring very true later in the trip.
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| The tool kit (on the table, not sleeping) |
Mid afternoon the life raft turned up, delivered by a Chinaman in dingy, and we were still waiting for Jim and Adam to return so we had missed our departure target time already. The self inflating life raft said it could hold 6 persons but I doubt if it could hold 6 of us, all being big fellows as we all were. If there was an emergency at least it was going to be snug in the life raft.
There was a guy on a boat moored opposite who shouted across asking where we were going. When we replied we were heading later in the day to Subic Bay in the Philippines he had a look of utter disbelief on his face, which then became one of a bemused smile as he shook his head in amazement. This did nothing to bolster my confidence.
Jim and Adam eventually arrived with the hardware but not all the items they'd been looking for. During the installation of the navigation lights and rigging up a temporary power supply for the laptop that Berk was going to use for navigation, there was a debate over how much fuel the tanks could hold. There was no tape measure to measure the tanks accurately to determine the volume and there was no owner's manual to say what the capacity the tanks was or what the estimated range was when they were full, although Jim had been told what the estimated fuel consumption was per hour of operation. As there was no tape measure, Adam offered up the tip of his nose to his finger tips as being exactly a metre and a piece of rope was cut to this in order to measure the tanks. This struck me as being all very Mickey Mouse, using questionable estimates for something that ultimately our lives might depend on. However, an estimate was made but who know how accurate it was?
By late afternoon we were ready to go to fill up with fuel and water and in heavy rains headed for the harbour fuel depot. When we got there no one knew where the fuelling point was on the boat. This was now getting to be farcical. Someone had said there were two fuel points and one water filling point in the deck but only two could be found. A third was eventually found under the table and in the absence of any form of notation to denote which was which (opening and sniffing didn't give any clues either) it was concluded that the two points either side of the cabin were fuel and the one aft was the water as they more or less corresponded with the location of the relevant tanks below decks.
We started to take on fuel to the port side filling point and after a few minutes, Berk, who was below deck watching the sight glasses on the tanks started yelling and screaming (one thing he's good at) to stop, saying the water tanks were filling up with fuel and was spilling out of the tanks. None of this made any sense. The only thing that was apparent was that the bilge pump started and was pumping fuel into the harbour on a scale that would make the Exxon Valdez look like a minor spill. This caused quite some distress and concern with the staff the fuelling station, who ran around chucking detergent into the water. This only seemed to make the spill more conspicuous and bubbly and my guess is that they, we or both of us were very lucky not to have received a sizeable fine from the harbour board.
Filling of the fuel tanks swapped to the starboard filling point and this seem to go okay. At this point I made the comment that if Berk was right, and there was fuel in the water tanks, we had a problem. Jim seemed to think that it wasn't a problem stating that the water would float on the top of the fuel and so long as we didn't let the tanks get too low it wouldn't get into the fuel system. My response to this was that if the boat was pitching around then the fuel and water would emulsify and we would have no idea how close it was getting to being drawn into the fuel system, and then added that in the event that we were to run into problems it would be the water that keeps us alive, not the fuel. But if the water was contaminated with diesel then we wouldn't be able to drink it. I really think should have walked away at this point and was glad I bought large quantities of bottled water at the supermarket.
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| Team photo before heading off |
Whilst filling the tanks with water and fuel Brian had gone off to buy McDonalds for everyone as no one (except myself) had eaten all day. With all the water and fuel tanks full and our bellies full of cold, wet burgers and soggychips (Brian was caught in a rain shower) and with the light fading we headed off at 5:30pm at a positively pedestrian speed of 5mph (4.3 knots).
I switched on my GPS and made a heading to Subic Bay - see below.
There was over 780 miles to go and by my reckoning at our current speed it was going to take at least 6½ days to complete so someone, somewhere didn't know what they were talking about when they said it would only take 3 days to complete. That is unless we picked up more speed but we were already running at the designated 4500rpm engine speed. Most of us were expected back at work. Families and friends were expecting us back in 3 days so if we weren't back after 3 there were going to be some very anxious and concerned people about and the possibility of International Rescue searching the oceans for 6 lost souls. However, if we were to take the shortest route to the Philippines, as I thought we were, then at least we would be in range to use mobile phones to put minds at rest that all was okay.
As we headed out I asked, as most of us were without sailing experience, what the procedure was in the event of an emergency, such as the boat capsizing or sinking. I guess my asking this was borne out of coming from a very safety conscious construction industry background where there is usually a procedure for everything. I was hoping for a response something rather more serious that the flippant remarks and jokey comments received so I figured that in the chaos that was sure to ensue in an emergency that I knew (in the dark) where the bottle water was, the life jackets and the life raft.
All was well until we passed the typhoon shelter and started into the open seas. It was choppy. Very choppy and rough and the boat pitched and rolled alarmingly making it almost impossible to walk about. I thought we were sure to turn back but no one else seem particularly concerned - or was hiding it.
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| Leaving Aberdeen (HK) |
It was agreed that at night we would work in pairs in 3 hour rotating shifts - one steering and the other lookout. Me and Jim; Brian and Adam; John and Berk. Jim and I were scheduled for the last shift at 3am to 6am, which I didn't mind because if the weather cleared there would be a chance of seeing the sunrise.
I found a spot on the benches on the deck (I didn't fancy being below deck and getting trapped should the boat capsize or turn-turtle) to bed down for the night and tucked into a bag of peanut M&Ms, a treat I'd paid for myself whilst in the supermarket and fell into a deep sleep full of weird dreams, despite all the rolling around.
