Do you require assistance?

Fujisuka fujisuka fujisuka …this is ocean rowing boat…

So after two capsizes can your day get any worse. I thought not, but I was about to be surprised. It’s funny now but at the time I felt almost calmer at sea having being capsized twice. I knew what it was like now and better still I knew that the boat would deal with it and perform brilliantly so any fear of the unknown had been cast over board with the two missing oars. I felt really positive going to sleep that evening. I havd had a good day at the oars after the capsize and made good ground. The gps was still ticking off the miles when I stopped rowing meaning free miles. Heaven to an ocean rower. Better still the weather although rough looked set to keep helping me for s the next few days.

So I lay back in the cabin that night feeling enormous sense of acheivement. I woke up the next day ready to plough into another day. It’s was a nice day, still big waves but the sun was shining. Meaning some charge for my batteries and the solar panels. Good news in that I was able to play my music on deck. It’s an enormous boost to be able to sing out loud to yourself in the sure knowledge no one can here. It’s like and exaggerated version of singing in the shower when your home alone. When a favourite song comes on its as if the oars become lighter and winds blow stronger in your favour. You become almost emotional at the thought that you are out there rowing an ocean, doing what you set out to do. It’s hard to explain.

That night after a good days rowing I decided to treat myself to a movie. Old school with Will Ferrell. Bizarre watching a movie and laughing to yourself on your own at sea. Not an experience many people will have. So after a long day it was time for bed.

I drifted off to sleep pretty quickly inspite of the fact the waves were big and wild. It becomes normal to you after a while. It’s actually quite soothing and apart from the odd being crash on top of you and jolt across the cabin you do feel safe and conformtable.I was however about to experience the biggest jolt I have ever felt.

As I lay there lost in thoughts about arriving in Mauritius and everything that could bring I was hit with what I can only describe as a car crash impact. I didn’t hear anything coming. Normally you can hear big waves sneaking up on you before they crash over the boat but this time nothing. Just bang and I was airborne and heading for the cabin wall on the other side. I thought I have just been hit by a ship. S*it I am probably going to sink and the ship probably hasn’t even realised. I jumped up and went outside expecting to see a ship moving off as if nothing happened. But there was nothing just a big wild ocean and pitch dark. I jumped up on the cabin and crawled down the solar panels trying to hang on as the waves hit the side of the boat. I needed to make sure there was no damage to the boat and she was still ok. Thankfully she was fine. I went back inside to the cabin a bit shaken but all was ok. Or so I thought. I turned on the caning light to survey the mess left by the impact. There was stuff everywhere. My mattress was soaking as water hand leaked in through the water maker inlet pipe whe. She was flipped by the wave. I thought this is going to be a horrible nights sleep but hopefully I can dry everything out tomorrow. And then I lookeddown and discovered blood all over my legs, arms and hands. I didn’t feel any pain or realise anything was wrong up until then. I looked all over myself. I was naked and wet from being outside. I put my hands on my head as i was sweating, except I wasn’t sweating. It was blood and coming from my head. K Keith remember all that first aid training from seatec in Westport. I pulled put my kit and looked for my only mirror on board. It was smasked I tiny pieces. I couldn’t see how bad the injury was on top on my head but it felt fairly substantial. I tried using a cd as a mirror. Useless. So I dug out my Go PRO camera and filmed the top of my head and the. Used the memory card in my laptop to play it back. It was not pretty viewing . The reality of the injury meant that I knew instantly I would most likely need some help to stitch it.I reckoned it would need about 15 stitches. Had it been on my arm or elsewhere I would have stitched myself up. The waves were still crashing against the boat as I tried to stop the bleeding. As soon as I felt I had it under control I put a ‘pan pan’ call out on the VHF radio (a pan pan call is the short code used for a medical assistance call on marine radio) . There was no reponse. No one was within range. There were no ships appearing within a 48nautical mile radius according to my automatic identification system (ais). I decided to make a satellite call to my support guy in the UK. I told him the news and that the boat was fine and I was not in any immediate danger. I was reluctant to request help from any ship that would pass at night. The thought of a 250metre ship trying to get close to me in big seas was not appealing and given I felt the bleeding was under control I felt it better to wait until the morning. I agreed to call my support man again at 7am oz time and we woudl explore options on how to get help. I did not need a full scale rescue. I was ok, However I did need medical help as there was no way I could leave the injury go like that with three months of rowing in a harsh wet environment.

I got off the phone and lay there naked on the wet matress and clocked watched until 7am. I couldn’t help think this could spell the end of my ambition for this year. I hoped I could get towed back to the abrolhos islands and maybe get patched up and leave again but I knew this was unlikely. I then thought I would end up back on the mainland and that I could take the boat up north and leave again. All these ambitions quickly disapated when my rescue came.

The next morning at exactly 7am I called rob as discussed. He had been trying to contact a few of the local fishermen on the Abrohlos islands but was having difficulty in doing so. In any case given my location it would be dark before they would be able to get to me putting me in the same position as the previous night. I wanted to avoid this if possible. We ended the conversation and he set about looking at other options.after a few hours passed, I heard a voice on the VHF radio. Rowing boat rowing boat rowing boat, this is MG fujisuka, MG Fujisuka, MG Fugisuka. Do you require assistance? My first reaction was, how do they know I need help. It turns out that my support person had contacted the Perth water police and they had known there was a Japanese cargo ship near to my location. So they contacted me about 18nm out from my location. It was a mixture of delight and dread at the same time. I could see the ships details pop up on my AIS (automatic indentificatiom system) screen. It was 200m +in length and 33 m wide. A big big ship. I called my team on the ground And told them help was on the way. At this point I thought great, I should be able to get stitched up or glued back together and get back on my boat and head off again. This turned out to be impossible given the damage that was about to be caused to the boat.

As the boat got closer and closer, it got BIGGER and BIGGER. I can’t really describe how big these ships are and they look even bigger when u are on 23ft rowing boat. The chief officer called me on the VHF as they approached the location of my position which I had given them. He said I can’t see you. Not music to my ears! He asked can you see me. Yes yes I most certainly could even though he was about 3miles away and it was a big swell. He kept getting closer and closer and getting bigger and bigger. All the while I was standing out on deck with waves crashing over the side. I kept thinking, how will get close to me in this sea without doing me some serious damage? At that poi thou just have to stop worrying and put your trust in them and assume they know what they are doing. Easier said than done.

I had my para anchor deployed at the time which was slowing drift down and helping to keep me pointed in the right direction into the waves. It’s like an under water parachute which is on a 100m rope which pulls out from the front of the boat and gets taken by the current. It was pulling me south towards the ship. As she approached me they still couldnt get a visual on me despite the fact that all the crew were looking for me. My boat is so small and of course it’s White meaning it’s very hard to spot whe. There are lots of breaking waves on the ocean. I used a red flare to help them spot me. They managed to find me on there and approached me slowly. All the while I was talking to them on deck with my handheld VHF. I informed the officer that my para anchor was deployed and that if he was passing me he would need to give some leeway for this. If this got caught in his engine I could end up being pulled under water. He dulely gave this leeway and passed me a few time sto establish the best way to get close to me. Eventually he came to a stop and I drifted up to the port side to this massive ship, getting very wet at the time with all the breaking waves crashing over the side. My “rescue” was about to get a little more dramatic than I wanted.

As I came within a few feet of the ship, a wave pushed my into the side of the ship and my boat hit the ship. A that exact point, another wave came and lifted the boat up and over turned her leaving the boat upside down with me underneath the water. I was being pushed up against the side of the ship and I thought, is this how this is goi g to end now? I looked up 50ft and seen the crew all with there hands on there head. They could do nothing. It was down to me. The boat self righted and I climbed back on to the deck. She was being slammed into the side of the ship.I just kept thinking, crap crap, don’t damage the boat. They ship lowered some ropes to allow me to tie my boat onto the port side of the ship. I tried to grab these lines but the waves made it a fairly difficult task.eventually I managed to get hold of one. I began to try and tie her on. Again not an easy task as they waves kept moving me resulting in the rope being pulled put of my hand. I managed to get it tied off and then a big wave came and the ship went up and I went down which pulled the rope handle straight out of the boat leaving a whole in the carbon fibre. I looked at it and realised. It was the end of my row. But there was no time to consider how it might be fixed. I needed to find another place to tie her on. I got it done. And the. She was finally sitting a little better in the water.

But how do I get on board??? rope ladder appears! Oh really, that’s how. So I looked up knowing I had to climb up this 50ft rope ladder on a moving ship at sea. I have no fear of heights at all but it was a daunting task after everything else. But I and to get on with it and I did. I did think half way up that if I fall here I am going to fall straight back down on the deck on my boat. And that would be “GAME OVER”.

I made it to the top and got on board the boat surrounded by inquisitive faces all eager to make sure I was ok but equally curious about this mad guy in the ocean. They walked me inside to the medical room. My sea legs for my boat had very much kicked in meaning I staggered all the way to the room. I think the crew found this quite funny. They gave me a set of overalls and I got out of my wet clothes. I sat the and they shaved a line where the cut was so they could treat me. The opposite of a Mohican! They did a great jof patching me up, but I was impatient as I was concerned about what was happening to the boat.

Would they take the boat and if so would they be able to lift her on board. I knew they were bound for Bunbury in south west Australiaand I knew I would have to go with them to there destination. Eventually I was all banged up and i rushed outside to see what was happening . They were trying to lift her on board using one of the small fixed cranes on board. The crane had no reach on it meaning the boat would be very close to the hull of the ship whe she was being lifted which would result in her being bumped on the way up given the sea conditions. They were also having difficulties getting straps around her from the deck so they were attempting to lift her from relatively week areas and from one side putting enormous strain on the boat. I stressed that this would result in damage and politely requested they approach it a different way. The language barrier proved to be exactly that. They had just come to my aid so I felt I couldnt be too forcefull about how I dealt with them. They were doing there best in very difficult circumstances. I knew it was a tough task and they were not obliged to take it at all. So I had to look on and try and offer some guidance where I could and just hope the boat would be ok.

But she wasn’t. I watched with my hands on my head cringing at every cracking sound. She was being bashed and I could do nothing. The calculator in damaged head just kept thinking “f*ck f*ck f*ck”. Eventually she was lowered onto the deck and I sur eyed the damage. Not pretty. She will need a lot of work to get her back in shape. There is nothing which can’t be fixed but it won’t be cheap. Somebody asked me recently, do you know what boat stands for? “BETTER ORGANISE ANOTHER THOUSAND” well how true that turned out to be!

But I was fine and the ordeal for the boat at least was over also. Unfortunately so was my row for 2011. I cant begin to explain how disappointed I felt then and how gutted I still feel. I would spend the next few days on board the MG Fujisuka travelling to Bunbury. The crew were amazingly welcoming and did everything they could to make me feel at home. I cannot thank them enough for all there help and indeed for coming to my aid in the first place.