Post by ferryfast admin on Mar 8, 2006 0:14:32 GMT -5
Clipper crew's horror on the high seas Mar 7 2006
Liverpool 08 clipper crewman Joe Caddick tells Lew Baxter how a nightmare in the South China Sea turned adventure into terror
By Lew Baxter, Daily Post
Clipper crew's horror on the high seas Mar 7 2006
Liverpool 08 clipper crewman Joe Caddick tells Lew Baxter how a nightmare in the South China Sea turned adventure into terror
By Lew Baxter, Daily Post
SCARE stories warning of sharks, ruthless pirates and raging storms were all laughed off by amateur sailor Joe Caddick, who jumped at the chance to join the crew of The Liverpool 08 clipper in a round the world yacht race that is reckoned by even hardened seafarers to be one of the toughest tests of endurance and character.
Yet what Joe still regards as the most fabulous adventure of his life turned from a "Boy's Own" ripping yarn challenge into a terrifying nightmare deep in the South China Sea.
The sleek clipper was forced to abandon the race - along with the nine others taking part - when its keel began to shake loose.
Joe was on night watch under a canopy of glittering stars when the first signs of trouble loomed for The Liverpool. Even now he shudders at the memory as he recalls that there was a real danger that the keel would be ripped off by the force of water: maybe also taking the hull with it.
Without the 12 ton keel - with a draft of nine feet and similar to an upturned dorsal fin - the boat would instantly capsize, tipping its occupants into turbulent waters at the least, and most probably sink; leaving them at the mercy of the elements and hunting packs of hungry sharks.
"I went below deck with the skipper Tim Magee to check out the fittings and what we found alarmed us enormously," says Joe, 64, whose family runs the engineering firm Liverpool Waterwitch, which sells its marine pollution control vessels across the globe.
"There we were in the bowels of the boat when suddenly the floor beneath us began to buckle and bend from the strain of the loose keel," said Joe.
"Tim turned to me and gasped: 'Wow, did you see that?' I then unleashed a rather expressive swear word," confesses Joe, who says Tim bellowed up to those on deck to lower the sails immediately.
"It was a truly frightening moment because we knew the potential danger we were in especially as we were out in the middle of the sea hundreds of miles from the nearest land," says Joe, who lives in Formby and despite being involved in maritime activities all his life had never set foot aboard a sailing ship before joining The Liverpool 08 clipper.
Others in the fleet had also discovered the keel problem with The Glasgow first reporting damage, although another five were also very concerned. In fact, the Scottish boat was also taking water into her engine and eventually had to be towed by The Singapore even though she too had an errant keel, according to Joe.
When the crisis broke race founder and Clipper Ventures chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston - the first ever round the world solo yachtsman - ordered all the yachts to stop and head for a safe haven in Subic Bay in the north west of the Philippines. Some of them just made it as their engines were also waterlogged.
There, the boats are laid up undergoing intensive repairs so that the race can be re-started, hopefully later this month or early in April. The crews have flown back to their various home countries where they anxiously wait for news.
"It is something no one could have anticipated but is a massive disappointment for all of us. We are gutted at having to stop half way," says Joe, although he confides with a chuckle that his adventure actually began in some confusion.
Just before Christmas Joe's dream trip was running to plan when he flew to Australia to join his fellow sailors for the last six months of the arduous trip that began in Liverpool's Albert Dock last September and was due to finish there on July 1 this year. Now that schedule is up the air, says Joe.
He had arrived a few days early in Melbourne to deliver and commission two of his company's pollution control vessels for the city's parks authority. Then he flew to Fremantle on the other side of Australia to meet his shipmates, including retired diver Dave Keene, from Heswall in Wirral, who has signed up for the whole trip.
"But when I got to the boatyard it was like the Marie Celeste. The place - and The Liverpool - was deserted," explains Joe, who later learned that the crew was enjoying a well-earned rest after experiencing a bad crossing from Durban across the Indian Ocean.
"I couldn't figure out what was going on, but bumped into Tim and he told me. Then he mentioned casually that the hull needed painting.
"So, I spent my first ever Christmas away from home by myself with a roller-brush and a tin of anti-fouling paint," laughed Joe.
"Every one turned up a few days later and we headed off on what was expected to be a largely uneventful, if physically demanding, journey to Qingdao," says Joe, who has visited China many times in the last 15 years where his vessels are common sights in the harbours of Hong Kong and Macau.
The 10 month, 35,000 mile route is the world's longest sailing race and 10 international crews are battling it out in identical Dubois-designed 68ft yachts for the coveted Clipper Cup that was established in 1996.
Each boat has an 18 strong crew -17 of them amateurs - at any one point with a maximum of 40 taking part overall in the various legs: 15 are completing the whole course and others certain sections.
The race has attracted boats from Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff, Singapore, New York, Qingdao, Fremantle, Victoria, Durban and race title defenders Jersey.
After departing Fremantle the next leg of the race took Joe and the Liverpool Culture Company sponsored clipper - which was chasing the doughty Fremantle squad - up to Indonesia and Singapore in blistering tropical heat before beating up the South China Sea towards the Chinese port of Qingdao.
Even that short journey was a little tense as they had to pass through the dangerous Strait of Malacca: an area with a fearsome reputation for modern day pirates, often armed with rockets and grenades, who use powerful motor launches to prey on passing merchant ships.
"We had been told to be careful and to travel slowly in convoy through the middle of the strait and fortunately the only other boats we saw were fishing smacks," said Joe, who merely smiles at the reports sent in by The Glasgow of machinegun wielding pirates.
Once back in the open sea several weeks ago the highly experienced skipper Tim Magee - at 27 the youngest captain in the race - was hugely confident that his crew and Liverpool 08 would catch up and pass The Western Australia to arrive as the leader of the pack in the Chinese port, which is to host the maritime events of the 2008 Olympics being staged in Beijing.
The Liverpool had already proved her paces and before leaving Singapore was in third overall behind Western Australia and The Durban.
But fate dealt them that hazardous, disastrous blow as they hauled their way through the increasingly heavy seas - some days reaching gale force - towards the still far distant Chinese coast.
"The news of the race being stopped spread like wildfire and all the celebrations were cancelled. We were even told that the deputy prime minister of China was supposed to be there to greet us with some members of the Chinese Olympic committee," adds Joe ruefully.
When the race eventually leaves China it heads north towards the Baring Sea, dodging icebergs and whales, and then across the Pacific to Canada, down the west coast of America to the Panama Canal. And then it's the final homeward dash across the Atlantic.
"We are all determined to get back under sail and show everyone what we can do. We want to make Liverpool and Britain proud of us," Joe adds defiantly.
* ORGANISERS of the race yesterday said they expected to be able to restart it by the end of the month.
features@dailypost.co.uk
Liverpool 08 clipper crewman Joe Caddick tells Lew Baxter how a nightmare in the South China Sea turned adventure into terror
By Lew Baxter, Daily Post
Clipper crew's horror on the high seas Mar 7 2006
Liverpool 08 clipper crewman Joe Caddick tells Lew Baxter how a nightmare in the South China Sea turned adventure into terror
By Lew Baxter, Daily Post
SCARE stories warning of sharks, ruthless pirates and raging storms were all laughed off by amateur sailor Joe Caddick, who jumped at the chance to join the crew of The Liverpool 08 clipper in a round the world yacht race that is reckoned by even hardened seafarers to be one of the toughest tests of endurance and character.
Yet what Joe still regards as the most fabulous adventure of his life turned from a "Boy's Own" ripping yarn challenge into a terrifying nightmare deep in the South China Sea.
The sleek clipper was forced to abandon the race - along with the nine others taking part - when its keel began to shake loose.
Joe was on night watch under a canopy of glittering stars when the first signs of trouble loomed for The Liverpool. Even now he shudders at the memory as he recalls that there was a real danger that the keel would be ripped off by the force of water: maybe also taking the hull with it.
Without the 12 ton keel - with a draft of nine feet and similar to an upturned dorsal fin - the boat would instantly capsize, tipping its occupants into turbulent waters at the least, and most probably sink; leaving them at the mercy of the elements and hunting packs of hungry sharks.
"I went below deck with the skipper Tim Magee to check out the fittings and what we found alarmed us enormously," says Joe, 64, whose family runs the engineering firm Liverpool Waterwitch, which sells its marine pollution control vessels across the globe.
"There we were in the bowels of the boat when suddenly the floor beneath us began to buckle and bend from the strain of the loose keel," said Joe.
"Tim turned to me and gasped: 'Wow, did you see that?' I then unleashed a rather expressive swear word," confesses Joe, who says Tim bellowed up to those on deck to lower the sails immediately.
"It was a truly frightening moment because we knew the potential danger we were in especially as we were out in the middle of the sea hundreds of miles from the nearest land," says Joe, who lives in Formby and despite being involved in maritime activities all his life had never set foot aboard a sailing ship before joining The Liverpool 08 clipper.
Others in the fleet had also discovered the keel problem with The Glasgow first reporting damage, although another five were also very concerned. In fact, the Scottish boat was also taking water into her engine and eventually had to be towed by The Singapore even though she too had an errant keel, according to Joe.
When the crisis broke race founder and Clipper Ventures chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston - the first ever round the world solo yachtsman - ordered all the yachts to stop and head for a safe haven in Subic Bay in the north west of the Philippines. Some of them just made it as their engines were also waterlogged.
There, the boats are laid up undergoing intensive repairs so that the race can be re-started, hopefully later this month or early in April. The crews have flown back to their various home countries where they anxiously wait for news.
"It is something no one could have anticipated but is a massive disappointment for all of us. We are gutted at having to stop half way," says Joe, although he confides with a chuckle that his adventure actually began in some confusion.
Just before Christmas Joe's dream trip was running to plan when he flew to Australia to join his fellow sailors for the last six months of the arduous trip that began in Liverpool's Albert Dock last September and was due to finish there on July 1 this year. Now that schedule is up the air, says Joe.
He had arrived a few days early in Melbourne to deliver and commission two of his company's pollution control vessels for the city's parks authority. Then he flew to Fremantle on the other side of Australia to meet his shipmates, including retired diver Dave Keene, from Heswall in Wirral, who has signed up for the whole trip.
"But when I got to the boatyard it was like the Marie Celeste. The place - and The Liverpool - was deserted," explains Joe, who later learned that the crew was enjoying a well-earned rest after experiencing a bad crossing from Durban across the Indian Ocean.
"I couldn't figure out what was going on, but bumped into Tim and he told me. Then he mentioned casually that the hull needed painting.
"So, I spent my first ever Christmas away from home by myself with a roller-brush and a tin of anti-fouling paint," laughed Joe.
"Every one turned up a few days later and we headed off on what was expected to be a largely uneventful, if physically demanding, journey to Qingdao," says Joe, who has visited China many times in the last 15 years where his vessels are common sights in the harbours of Hong Kong and Macau.
The 10 month, 35,000 mile route is the world's longest sailing race and 10 international crews are battling it out in identical Dubois-designed 68ft yachts for the coveted Clipper Cup that was established in 1996.
Each boat has an 18 strong crew -17 of them amateurs - at any one point with a maximum of 40 taking part overall in the various legs: 15 are completing the whole course and others certain sections.
The race has attracted boats from Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff, Singapore, New York, Qingdao, Fremantle, Victoria, Durban and race title defenders Jersey.
After departing Fremantle the next leg of the race took Joe and the Liverpool Culture Company sponsored clipper - which was chasing the doughty Fremantle squad - up to Indonesia and Singapore in blistering tropical heat before beating up the South China Sea towards the Chinese port of Qingdao.
Even that short journey was a little tense as they had to pass through the dangerous Strait of Malacca: an area with a fearsome reputation for modern day pirates, often armed with rockets and grenades, who use powerful motor launches to prey on passing merchant ships.
"We had been told to be careful and to travel slowly in convoy through the middle of the strait and fortunately the only other boats we saw were fishing smacks," said Joe, who merely smiles at the reports sent in by The Glasgow of machinegun wielding pirates.
Once back in the open sea several weeks ago the highly experienced skipper Tim Magee - at 27 the youngest captain in the race - was hugely confident that his crew and Liverpool 08 would catch up and pass The Western Australia to arrive as the leader of the pack in the Chinese port, which is to host the maritime events of the 2008 Olympics being staged in Beijing.
The Liverpool had already proved her paces and before leaving Singapore was in third overall behind Western Australia and The Durban.
But fate dealt them that hazardous, disastrous blow as they hauled their way through the increasingly heavy seas - some days reaching gale force - towards the still far distant Chinese coast.
"The news of the race being stopped spread like wildfire and all the celebrations were cancelled. We were even told that the deputy prime minister of China was supposed to be there to greet us with some members of the Chinese Olympic committee," adds Joe ruefully.
When the race eventually leaves China it heads north towards the Baring Sea, dodging icebergs and whales, and then across the Pacific to Canada, down the west coast of America to the Panama Canal. And then it's the final homeward dash across the Atlantic.
"We are all determined to get back under sail and show everyone what we can do. We want to make Liverpool and Britain proud of us," Joe adds defiantly.
* ORGANISERS of the race yesterday said they expected to be able to restart it by the end of the month.
features@dailypost.co.uk