Never underestimate the Atlantic

With Katie’s updates from the ocean seemingly suggesting a largely peaceful journey with little more to worry about than slightly over-enthusiastic marine-life and the odd splash into the cabin, it’s easy to forget that the Atlantic always holds the potential to bite at any time. In no time at all, a still piece of water can turn into the stuff nightmares are made of. If you start to relax and take anything for granted, you can be sure that you’ll suffer because of it. Even if you don’t, sometimes there’s nothing you can do.

Now, don’t get concerned — absolutely nothing has happened to Katie! But we’ve had an interesting reminder of just what can happen if you’re unlucky.

The picture above is of Katie’s departure from Dakar, back on 3 January. In the foreground is the SV Concordia, a stunning 188ft yacht with sails over 100ft high. Katie and I had noticed the boat the moment we had arrived on Pier 2 at the Port of Dakar; it wasn’t exactly hard to miss when it was the only thing sharing the pier with us. We were slightly less obvious, pretty much hiding under the pier, but a few days later some of the people came over. It turned out it was a kind of school ship, based in Canada, that sails around the Atlantic with about 50 students onboard. Needless to say, I was jealous!

Before we left, Katie and I had the chance to have a quick look around and meet the Captain; they even helped us confirm that all the electronics on “Liv” were working properly. It was pretty clear that this was a big, well-looked after ship crewed by people who knew what they were doing. And what they were doing next was pretty much the same as Katie, albeit in a little more comfort! Days after Katie left Dakar, the SV Concordia also left on a similar path towards Brazil.

Five days ago, while sailing about 300 miles off the coast of Brazil, the SV Concordia sunk. The most important thing is that everyone on board got off safely and, after around 40 hours of bobbing around in liferafts, are now safely on dry-land.

By all accounts, a microburst, or a sudden burst of wind, knocked down the ship and, within 30 seconds, it wasn’t coming back up. Just half an hour later, the yacht had sunk. Just like that, despite a well-trained and experienced crew (as demonstrated by the fact everyone got off safely), a huge ship had just been completely taken out by an unexpected change in the ocean. What would have happened to Katie and “Liv”?

But this isn’t a reason to be concerned for Katie’s safety. She is well prepared and, above all, sensible. That means that she can avoid most of the risks that will come her way. But you can’t protect against all of them.

If the Atlantic Ocean wants to cause you a problem, there’s not a lot you can do about it, whether in a 19-foot rowboat or a 190-foot yacht!

[Just to allay your fears a little further, the technology that allowed the people from SV Concordia to get rescued safely was their EPIRB, an emergency beacon that, when activated, sends out a signal alerting the authorities that you're in trouble and letting them know where you are. That is exactly the same as Katie has, and it's never more than a few feet away from her. Should the worst happen, she'll simply activate that and, after a day or two of sitting around, should be picked up by a passing ship. But, even then, the worst isn't going to happen. This is Katie we're talking about, after all!!]