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SANYA ARC BLOG

2016-12-2 20.00 UTC, OBR a.i. Mariette Koekoek, TEAM SANYA VO70
Finally tonight we will gain the finish. The routing shows less than 60 miles to the finish at the moment. Our last night at sea was quiet, light winds, the clocks actually showed some info and we had stars, as to compensate for the night before, which was the darkest we had had. Today we averaged around 12,5 knots of boat speed and are gybing our way around the rhumline towards Saint Lucia. There were some big showers this morning, of which some of us, including me, made use of as a natural shower to wash up. So relatively clean, my hair washed, some last pieces of clean clothing on, we are ready for the finish, cold beers and rum cola. People are starting gathering their stuff from all around the boat, flight information is coming in and our adventure is almost over as daily life is closing in. Everybody is starting to reflect on the trip, both the crew and the guests. From the race point of view we had some good news today, that our competition near to us has some real light weather patches and our VMG is now much better. This stems hopeful that we might still have a chance for a reasonable result as the fourth place. But it ain't over till the fat lady sings, so I guess we will know tomorrow. We were disappointed that the winds from the north, which were in the grib files, never came and has cost us quite a lot, as we had set up quite a bit to the north from the rhumline to gain those winds. This were a lot of extra miles, we will probably end around 3300 miles in total which we have sailed, against the 2700 in a straight line. It was not a standard passage with the trade winds, as many might have expected. We have seen from 0 to 35 knots windspeed, and 0 to 32 knots boat speed. We have had every sail up, which we carried, except for the real storm stuff, and have seen all wind directions. We have had a streak of bad luck with two times damage to the MO sail, the primary winch starboard broken, the generator driving belt replacement, and the instruments which fall out constantly, and especially during the night. Our motto was; 'Never a dull moment on the Sanya!'. Especially the instruments have forced us to power down during the nights, sometimes even to 60%. But all in all I think we did the best we could, we still are in a reasonable position and will pass the finish as third in line honours. From a social point of view, I think we had an amazingly nice trip. The crew and the owner on board have done a great job and worked very hard. The guests were a real nice group, which also worked hard to create a good atmosphere in which everybody added to the team in his or her way. I have seldom seen such a friendly and social interaction on board. So many have made plans to meet each other again after this trip and some are already planning to book again on the Sanya. So socially a big hands for everybody on this trip. Many have learned much more on ocean sailing and the handiness around the boat has increased. And Sanya has impressed a lot, especially during the first days, when we had wind. She showed of that if you lose attention even for a moment, she will take away the initiative with some bad results possible. She does demand quite a lot of TLC to get her running really fast, she doesn't give it away. She is a feisty and fickle lady, but if you take care of her, she will run with the winds for you and run hard! For myself, I am real happy to have had this chance to sail the ARC with one of my best friends together on board here as a last minute addition. The crew gave me a lot of room for driving Sanya for hours on end, especially in some of our hard nights without anything but a compass. The crew gave me room to help them with more and more tasks as I felt more comfortable and secure in what has to be done on board during trimming and sail changes. I have learned respect for the small margin of error on such a boat and the energy it takes to constantly check, check and double check everything. I always love the sailing, being out on the wide ocean and away from daily life, with nothing but optimizing the boat speed as your ultimate goal. I'd like to thank team Sanya, the owners, the crew and the guests for an amazing trip, and the ARC organisation for this nice race! But most of all, thank you lady Sanya for letting me run you down the waves in the first days with more than 30 knots of boat speed, this was impressive and I love you for it. 

UTC Time: 02. december 2016 08:55, Ysbrand Endt, Skipper Sanya Speed: 10 knots, Course: 243 deg. Position: 15,9.59N , 58,16.70W
After 11 days, we finally reached our last night at sea. Just a mere 160 miles to go. And finally tradewind sailing, 15 knots, TWA 150, flat calm sea. Easy sailing making good gains in the right directs. A working compass for a change and a clear sky with lots of stars to steer at. The first and mosat easy night so far... Looking back at a crossing with quit some problems where losing all outside sailing information was the most unpleasant one. Breaking your most important downwind sail, twice, cost us a lot of speed, sailing in pitch dark nights without instruments, surely was a different piece of cake.Both has cost us severly on performance, missing important weather gates and losing again. Gribfiles often were slightly different, so a detour without any possitive outcome in terms of a good wind and angle, and choosing too late to stay with the rumpline. All reasons this has been a difficult crossing in terms of racing. On the other hand, spirits kept high with a very positive admosphere on board among all crew. Lots of laughs, games and teasing, combined with good conversations made the crossing very special. Put 17 people together on a small boat and you might expext some friction. But nothing here, even now still a lot of politness, caring, social behaviour, etc. A great group of people to sail with! And now everybody still is pushing, dragging sails, staying in the right place and working hard. I would easily do the same again with this group and with our lessons learned, watch out for us, the next time!

UTC Time: 28. november 2016 02:20 Ysbrand Endt, schipper Sanya Position: 26,27.77N , 47,53.42W
Net na de wachtwissel even een korte nachtblog schrijven. Voor de verandering doen onze klokken het redelijk en kunnen we blijven gasgeven. Gemiddeld tussen de 15 en 20 knopen met een MHO, grootzeil en J4, betekent ruim 700m2 zeil. Een mooie nacht met veel sterren en af en toe een wolkje. Zo'n wolkje levert rustig een windverdraaiing op tot wel 50 graden. Geconcentreerd sturen dus, met al na 20 minuten weer een wissel. Zo houden we elkaar scherp. Met een uurtje gaan we gijpen, dus weer een druk wachtje. J4 inrollen, MHO inrollen. Grootzeil gijpen met bakstagen omzetten. Kiel omzetten. MHO weer uitrollen en J4 uitrollen. Aftrimmen. Kost al weer gauw 10 minuten bij elkaar. Voor 1 gijp...... Aan de slag!
 

Atlantische Oceaan 2016-11-26 Janbart van Swoll​
Ik dacht, ik moet iets schrijven, en dan niet het gebruikelijke, maar echt iets over de Sanya. Iedereen heeft wel een soort droom, de een wil door Azik trekken, de ander een berg beklimmen, een keer parachute springen enzovoort. Ik daarentegen dacht dat het leuk zou zijn om ooit eens de oceaan over te steken. Met deze gedachte kreeg ik de mogelijkheid om op de Sanya Lan, uit Hainan, tegenwoordig de Sanya uit Bresjes, die gedachte om te zetten in werkelijkheid. "20 november: Start Gran Canaria - Saint Lucia" Vandaag is het zover, we vertrekken uit Gran Canaria voor de oversteek naar Saint Lucia. We zitten met zijn 17'en op de boot. De crew kent elkaar, de 'passagiers' niet, dus spannend voor iedereen. Het eerste wat opvalt is de 'chaos' aan lijnen (voor mij 'touwen'). Pffff..wat een wirwar en wat een hoop zeilen in zakken overal op het dek. Maar goed, dat komt wel goed dacht ik. Naar mate we verder onderweg zijn, komen er een paar dingen naar boven. Je hebt het voordek, het midden en de kuip (achterkant voor mij). Ik kom er gauw achter dat het voordek iets speciaals is. Ik ga jullie een voorbeeld geven en een beeld proberen te schetsen over het voordek. Op het voordek worden de zeilen (J's of MO of FRO, fok voor mij) gehesen of gestreken, en nee dat is niet zoals je een blouse strijkt. Dit hijsen of strijken gebeurt "NO MATTER WHAT". Met andere woorden te allen tijde en in alle weersomstandigheden. Nu dan een voorbeeld van wat er gebeurd op het voordek. Beeld je in dat je op een aanhanger, die achter een rijdende auto hangt, met regen tegen 30 km/u in het donker over een onverharde boerenlandweg aan het rijden bent en het zeiltje erop probeert te zettenwelkom op de Sanya, welkom op het voordek, want dit maken we al 6 dagen mee

2016-11-26 14.30 UTC Boat time TEAM SANYA VO70 OBR Mariette Koekoek
We are running around 14 knots of boat speed on the A3 with lots of sun and lots of small showers, so it is jackets on, jackets off, jackets on, jackets off. After the night of the 24th, our captain and naviguessor sorted out the clocks and we had a relative good night with some good averages while the wind slowly went down. The next day was all about drying out the boat, the people and organizing all the stuff again as the wind was going down from the last four days between 25 to 30 knots to around 15 knots. Just as all settled again in the second half of the day, while running real nice boat speeds with the masthead, the J4 and the full main, the J4 decided to get down on its own. This was the first real "ALL HANDS ON DECK". So my watch scrambled to get into our foulies and get onto the deck. We managed to pull back the J4 on deck and assess the damage. Fortunately the J4 and the halyard were still ok, but the top of the J4 hit the Masthead sail while coming down and made a big gaping hole right in the middle. So we changed back to the Fractional, ran the J4 up again and had a slightly worse angle towards Saint Lucia. We would like to repair the masthead sail, but how the **** do you repair a 500 square meter sail on a moving VO70? This is a challenge we haven't yet tackled. The night was falling in and yet again this was the moment the clocks decided to stop again while the wind picked up a bit. I was driving in the 'Great Big Dark'. We were running real nice speeds with 22knots but with only the compass to use, no stars, gusty winds and no sight at all, we decided to power down and roll in the fractional. This was the good decision, as it became 't apparent that it could even get darker. You almost couldn't see the point of the boat, while the rain is hitting your face and it was real pitch dark all around. Driving the boat without the instruments became a 2 man job, where 1 was looking up at the windex calling the height, while I was driving on gut feeling of the pressure, the heel and the way the waves hit the boat. This lead to some intense hours of driving to keep Sanya running on a good average boat speed and a straight line. When finally some stars started to show themselves it got quite a bit easier, but we decided to keep her a little powered down just for safety as on a regular bases we were still hitting some showers where the sight deteriorated quickly. With the next watch change we got a big scare as the DSC alarm went off with a Man Overboard at 2.8 miles. We quickly counted our own, everybody on board. The captain jumped down to check further, the crew started checking to get the sails furled in and the motor running, because so nearby, you have to do something. Happily in 5 minutes it was clear that one of our own had his PLB tripped on the foredeck while helping sorting out the sails there. Well, the PLB worked, but we had a bit of a scare there and were just in time to prevent a massive call to the marine community. Never a dull moment on board! The next watch struggled while the wind was getting down further with changing sails, ending in the A3, which we have been running all day now. All seems back up again due to the hard work of some of the crew, we have got clocks again for the moment and we are hoping they will keep for the night. But even though we powered down last night, the position report showed that we actually gained on Trifork, the other VO70, which really lifted the spirits all around. So today is relative quiet and we are running nicely towards Saint Lucia. The wind is a bit slow but this gives some room for a breather and to get fit for the next bit of the journey. The routing shows some interesting options to the north, but this seems quite extreme. The navigator has his work cut out for him. Light winds up ahead so the challenge will be to keep in as much winds as possible. 

UTC Time: 26. november 2016 12:55 Ysbrand Endt, Schipper Sanya Speed: 14,2 knots, Course: 247 deg.
Nadat we gisteren erg opgetogen waren dat alle electronica het weer deed, was gisteravond de domper hard en stevig. Rond het moment van de ondergaande zon, stopte al onze klokken er weer mee. Er stond op dat moment zo'n 22-25 knopen wind, veel buien om ons heen met afwisselend heel slecht of redelijk zicht. En dat terwijl we downwind met onze fro en J4 (staysail) en grootzeil met 1 rif aan het knallen waren met snelheden rond de 15-17 knopen. Helaas hebben we moeten terugschakelen om het nog een beetje veilig te houden. Dat heeft ons vannacht veel mijlen gekost. Vanmorgen weer het gas erop gezet en nu loopt het lekker.MEt de A3 en GS downwind mooi varen met snelheden die rond de 15 knopen liggen. Helaas werden we van de nacht niet vrolijk. Maar een zonnetje, zicht en gas geven doen nu veel goed! Iedereen is weer aan het genieten en werken.Buien met veeeel regen wisselen elkaar in hoog tempo af met een stevige zon. Elke 12 uur loopt onze generator ff een 45 minuten, de wachten lopen soepel,de manoeuvres lopen steeds soepeler. Na 5 dagen kan je zeggen dat het ritme er bij iedereen goed in zit! We hebben ook geen enkele zeezieke, er is een prima sfeer en er wordt veel gelachen en genoten. Mooi zeilen dus! Uiteindelijk is dat waar het om gaat, genieten met HOOFDLETTERS!

Ysbrand Endt Skipper Sanya
After a difficult first night without any outside clocks to steer on, pitch dark, no moon, we managed to get the clocks back working.
Yesterday evening after a full day of searching in the network, opening all junction boxes, measuring every bit we could, it was determined it is something in the network. So we checked, and checked and checked again anything we could think of. And we found some lose ends. Repaird them. Sadly resetting our B&G did not do the trick either. In the end it somehow managed to reset itself and the clocks start working again. Or at least partially. We can steer again on them during the night and we could leave our Code zero up, instead of a much smaller j2. The whole work took loads of energy, that we could not put in the sailing.
Happily since this morning the sun is there, energy levels are rising and we here we go again. Today sailing as fast as we canand this afternoon we will try to find more solutions to our B&G system... Happy sailing!!

Jacob Alkema, team Sanya 
Vanmorgen is dan eindelijk alle nattigheid gestopt, nog weinig zon, maar in elk geval geen regen meer of golven die over het dek spoelen. Prachtig om te zien wat dat met de bemanning doet; de afgaande wacht heeft geen haast om naar bed te gaan en de nieuwe wacht kan weer in korte broek het dek op. 'Dit het weer wat in de folder heeft gestaan' wordt breed geroepen. Dit is nu waarom meerdaagse tochten zo mooi zijn; de invloed van het weer op je totale gesteldheid. Wat een energie iedereen uit een beetje zon krijgt. Dat hebben we thuis natuurlijk ook maar je begrijpt dat dat hier net even sterker doorwerkt. Thuis heb je nog een keuze (je kunt de open haard aansteken), hier helemaal niet. De wind staat nog rond de 16 knopen, dus de vaart is er nog niet geheel uit en we varen rond de helft van onze trip.

2016-11-24 14.30 UTC Boat time TEAM SANYA VO70 OBR Mariette Koekoek. 
The Sanya is running around 18 knots and we are well over one third of the trip. Where shall I start describing the last day and night. Yesterday was beautiful sailing. We were running with the fractional, the J4 and the main hitting trip speed records around 30 knots of boat speed. It was amazing and the boat was showing of her power in nice Atlantic waves and gusty winds. But she was fickle, you really have to pay attention while driving. She will wipe you out if you are slacking on the wheel or main trim. But it was great, running the waves, hearing Sanya zooming and enjoying herself and a happy crew all around though some are starting to feel a little wear and tear as sleeping in a washing machine takes some getting used to. As for the drivers, our captain decided to add an extra challenge. As he puts it, you have to FEEL the boat. Well, this we did. The main processor for all equipment sensors decided to stop working. So a handheld GPS for the speed and an old fashioned compass for the course is all the info we have outside at the moment since yesterday morning. Towards the evening yesterday some dolphins decided to say hello, which was beautiful as they were jumping next to the leeway side with sun going down in the background for good luck. We also decided that in the dark the setup was a bit too much power without anything but a compass. So around sundown we powered the boat down to a J2 and reefed main to go into the night. This seemed the right decision as later in the night we encountered a lot of showers with strange gusts and huge shifts. Adding to this it was pitch dark and raining. So without the instruments this was as people say "a challenge". We had some near hits with a crash gybe, which all ended ok. Everybody stayed cool, all was solved, no damage, but it is clear that without any instruments it gets hard within these circumstances. And we are looking at another such night, where the different drivers are challenged to keep up the speed and keep Sanya running in the game. But there are still laughs all around as one driver, who didn't duck in time, was slapped by a flying fish on the cheek. As you can imagine this leads to jokes the whole day, as today we are enjoying a moment of Caribbean sailing, the sun shines, people are drying out a bit, while the wind is still around 20+ knots and boat speeds around 18 knots. Life on the boat is starting to fall in its rhythm and all the sounds of the boat are getting familiar. The steer wheel is peeping, the water is running against the hull, the winches and the grinders are turning.. and life is beautiful on a VO70. 

UTC Time: 22. november 2016 13:07, Ysbrand Endt, schipper Sanya, Position: 26,28.19N , 22,6.25W. Speed: 17 knots, Course: 283 deg.
Vannacht niet veel geslapen. Doordat de wind tussen de 10 en 15 knopen heen en weer zwalkte, voor zij ging doorzetten naar 20 knopen en langzamerhand steeds meer in de noord ging zitten, waren er divese zeilwissels nodig. Van Fro naar J2. Van J2 naar J1. Van J1 naar Fro en uiteindelijk naar J2. Vervolgens weer naar Fro met een J4 (staysail) er tussen. Allemaal verschillende zeilen met ideale windhoeken varierend van 45 tot 100 graden (TWA) en alles er tussen in. Geen offwatch (zo noemen we het als we even mogen slapen) die tot slaap leidde, want je moest er al weer uit. Vooral van de J1 naar de J2 was het even aanpoten. De J1 is een zeil van 220 M2 die je tot een 15 knopen vaart aan de wind. Als je die moet wisselen in het pikkedonker met een aantal minder ervaren mensen op t voordek die je ook nog een nauwelijks ziet, is het even hard werken. Maar prima gelukt natuurlijk. Inmiddels varen we al weer een paar uur met Fro op (dit is een Code zero bedoeld voor reaching, waarbij je steeds lager gaat varen als de wind toeneemt. Daarbij staat er aan de binnenkant vaak nog een staysail om nog harder te gaan. Nu staat er 22-25 (6 bft) knopen wind met een zee die steeds onrustiger wordt, omdat de golven hoger worden. EN we gaan nu lekker vooruit. Gemiddeld rond de 18-20 knopen in de goede richting. Wel onrustig, maar gaaf varen!

22 november 2016, Position: 26,31.53N , 21,34.68W
Vandaag derde dag op zee met de Sanya. Wat een boot; bootsnelheid hoger dan de windsnelheid, dit heb ik nog nooit meegemaakt, fantastisch. Topsnelheden van 20 knopen worden gemakkelijk gehaald. We gaan vandaag in elk geval een stuk harder dan gisteren, want gisteren hadden we weinig wind. Als gevolg daarvan liggen we iets achter op schema, maar met deze wind halen we misschien weer iets van de verloren tijd in. Sfeer aan boord is super er wordt veel gelachen. Iedereen aan boord werkt hard, mooi om te zien. We gaan vandaag proberen om 500 mijl af te leggen binnen 24 uur. Wildlive is nog niet echt spectaculair, tot nu toe alleen een paar schildpadden en vliegende vissen gezien, maar de reis duurt nog lang en wie weet wat de natuur ons nog brengt. Jacob Alkema, team Sanya

21 November 2016, Position: 27,19.27N , 17,24.56W Speed: 8 knots, Course: 258 deg.
Sanya is about 24 hours on the way now, so we have had our first night out. The winds were very light during the night, we even saw a 0 on the clock. Very unusual for VO70. So we struggled through the night to keep up the boat speed and roughly going in the right direction. The crew was getting to know each other a bit better in the quiet of the night under the stars while moving the weight around following the captain's directions and settling into the watch system. After about 6 hours the wind was coming up again, with patches left and right with differing temperatures. When the wind is cold on your face, there was a few knots extra, when the wind is warm, no pressure alas. After two hours of steering through these patches, the whole crew was up on the deck in about 5 minutes when we thought the wind was finally coming through. Cheers all around and happy faces, while starting to cross under the island El Hierro. We are positioned more northerly than the competition and we hope to pick up the good winds earlier. We are all hoping for a bit of spectacular sailing tonight and eat some more miles than this night. Let's see what Sanya and her crew is made off! OBR a.i., Mariette Koekoek, Sanya

UTC Time: 21. november 2016 21:52, Ysbrand Endt, Schipper Sanya, Speed: 11 knots, Course: 268 deg., Position: 26,44.48N , 18,30.88W
Na een dag met opstartende wind, vanavond enkele uren rond de 14-15 knopen met onze masthead gennaker kunnen varen. Onze targetkoers lag rond de 270 en dat haalden we net. Volledig gestacked, alle zeilen naar loef, mensen naar loef, binnen in alle mogeljke gewichten naar loef en naar achteren (met licht weer gaat alles naar voren), knalden we vanmiddag richting St.Lucia en lieten we ook het laatste eiland Hiero in hoog tempo achter ons. Ik voel goed dat de Sanya zwaar beladen is, met 17 mensen, eten en kleding. Met wat meer wind en alles goed stacken merk je dat dit ook positief kan uitpakken. Targets worden makkelijker gehaald en overschreden. Ik voel ook dat de druk in het hele schip hoger is dan normaal. Alles laat ik dubbel checken, en het ziet er goed uit. Zojuist de wissel gedaan naar de Fro (Fractional zero), omdat we wat boven de rumpline willen uitkomen. Er komt morgen meer wind aan, dan is wat lager varen volgens onze routering software de beste keuze. Ik mag even van wacht, todat de wind mij weer uit mijn kooi haalt omdat er weer een andere zeilkeuze gemaakt moet worden.

Local Time: 20. november 2016 13:52 Position: 27,55.21N , 15,17.61W Speed: 12.6 knots, Course: 150 deg.
Our gratitude to the beautiful island of Gran Canaria--the local people hosted us warmly and sent us off with a band and goodbyes. Also thanks to the super-pro ARC organizers, World Cruising. The Racing Division started at 12:45 UTC and so we are posting this just one hour into the ~2700 mile ARC! As of this moment we are one of three boats, with Rambler and Trifork, that are leading the Racing Division around the bottom of Grand Canaria and into the open Atlantic. The route of Columbus and myriad others following the tradewinds towards The West Indies. There are 17 of us aboard this aerospace-grade beast of a racing machine, the Volvo 70, Sanya. The vessel is based out of Vlissingen in The Netherlands and 16 of our team speak Dutch... As you may have guessed by now, I am the 17th, an American. The team are being patient while Ik probeer Nederlands te leren spreken! As the Volvo Ocean Race admirably mandates mix gender crews by recently inisting on at least one woman on each crew, we have four! All of the team are in great spirits and soon the watch system will begin as we race through our first night.  Almost time for our first lunch of dry camping food!A safe (and fast) passage to all ARC teams, Matt, Team Sanya