We're halfway across the Gulf of Alaska, and it's some time just after midnight Wednesday that I spot a contact on the radar. It's almost directly ahead, just under four miles. Definitely a solid contact, not the scatter you can get when the radar bounces off waves.

I adjust the scale on the radar screen from twelve to six miles to double check his distance from us. Yes, it's still there. Over the next ten minutes it moves away from a collision course. Then suddenly, nothing. It vanishes from the screen.

Did I just watch a ship sink? Alien spacecraft? Having seen evidence of a submarine a day or so ago, I'm more tempted to think it's that - a submarine on the surface, then diving.

As we approach the coast of British Columbia, we're pondering over the enormity of what we've done in the last three weeks. We've taken on the North Pacific, and some of the worst sea conditions on the planet.

We've taken around ten days longer to complete the crossing than we'd expected. But then we could never have contemplated the extreme conditions which forced us to run for cover and sit out the worst of the weather. Unlike a sailing boat, powerboats can't just blast through regardless. Fuel consumption increases dramatically when you're punching heavy seas, and even though Spirit of Cardiff has a larger fuel capacity for its size than any other boat in the world, we still have to be careful. And of course, there comes a point when fighting head seas becomes painful to the point of injury.

In the light of experiece, we've calculated that our original plan to tow a ton of spare fuel from Yokhama straight across the Pacific to Midway, Honolulu and San Diego at 10 knots would have worked out quicker after all. But then we didn't have the funds to develop the special wave-piercing fuel drogue that we'd need.

We would have missed out on some unique encounters, too. We've seen arguably the most spectacular scenery in the North Pacific, and we've met some incredibly friendly people. If that ten days of bad weather delay costs us the Cable and Wireless record, I don't think any of us will feel cheated. The experience of a lifetime comes a pretty good second.

Clive Tully

Copyright Clive Tully ©2002
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