THE REST OF THE STORY

13th March 2003

Latest update: At 10:00 local time (13:00 GMT) Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali was 25 miles from the finish line sailing in fickle conditions. His ETA is hard to predict but should be around 12:30 local time.

Original story: And now, the rest of the story… Derek Hatfield’s horrific capsize at Cape Horn was not the scariest thing that happened to him in the hours leading up to his rounding of that infamous cape. When he finally made it back to land he recounted an earlier incident "that had me terrified beyond belief," Hatfield said. Again it’s better to hear Derek’s story first hand by pasting the audio links into your browser, but some people have been having problems with the links so here is my best attempt to relate this other tale.

The last 36 hours before Spirit of Canada got to Cape Horn had been wild and windy. "I was having to hand steer all the time so that I could escape from some of the huge waves that were threatening to break over the boat," Derek said. "It was OK, I could steer away from them, but it was very tiring. I was only nipping down below for a few minutes to drink a protein drink for energy and then rushing back on deck to steer the boat." Hatfield and Spirit of Canada surfed these huge rollers on the edge of control as they tore towards land. It was cold, very wet and exhausting. "The waves were so big that my course was dictated by the direction they were moving," Derek continued. "If I tried to come up a degree or two they would threaten to capsize me, but I knew my course was good so I just kept on hand steering trying to avoid getting swamped. After about 24 hours I was getting very tired and knew that I was not functioning properly, but I had no alternative."

Night fell again and Derek continued to sail the boat fighting off an urge to sleep knowing that the seas were only going to get worse as he got closer to Cape Horn. "I was so cold and tired but I had to stay on deck, there was no other option," Derek said. "The autopilots couldn’t handle it and I did not want to be capsized. It was also really, really dark and I was steering by feel and the compass. Suddenly I saw a light off to starboard. I could not believe my eyes. I was supposed to pass Cape Horn to starboard which would mean that the light would have to be on port. I was frantic and could only think that my course had taken me north. I knew that if the light was to my right, land would be straight ahead!" Spirit of Canada was hurtling through a pitch dark night with the light to starboard clearly visible. Derek tried to alter course to get up to the light, but it was no use. The waves were huge and as soon as he came up on course they threatened to capsize the boat. "I was helpless," Hatfield said. "All I could do was brace myself for the inevitable. In a few minutes we were going to crash into the side of Cape Horn and I was powerless to do anything about it."

Hatfield was tired and terrified. His dream to be Canada’s first Around Alone finisher since John Hughes was about to come to an awful end on the rocky shores of Tierra del Fuego. Derek braced himself in the cockpit trying to see the outline of land, but it was so dark he could not make out anything. "I was so tired and frightened," Derek continued. "Suddenly I was past the light and then I became even more confused. How could I have passed Cape Horn to starboard? You can only pass it to port coming from the west. I thought the wind must have changed and was blowing from the east, not the west and somehow I had already gone by the Horn and was now going back." In his exhausted state Derek watched the light drop into the ocean behind him. Engaging the autopilot he leapt below and pulled out his chart. It had been 36 hours since he had last looked at the chart. His original plan was to study the area more thoroughly when he got closer to Cape Horn, but because of the hand steering he had been on deck all the time. Once Derek pulled up the chart on his computer he saw that he had just joined a long line of mariners who have been fooled by the same rocky group of islands. They are called Deigo Ramirez, a small archipelago 30 miles west of Cape Horn that have scared the fillings out of many sailors who have come up on the group in the night and suddenly seen the lights on the wrong side of the boat. "I was pretty sure that everything was about to come to and end," Derek said. "It just goes to show how much being tired can alter your sense of reason."

Unfortunately for Derek Hatfield his worst possible nightmare happened a few hours later when the boat was pitchpoled shortly after passing the real Cape Horn. He survived that disaster against incredible odds. In Ushuaia Hatfield and his shore team are still making plans for rejoining the race. It’s a tough one, but Hatfield, a former Mountie, is also a tough one, and I would give it even odds that we will see him back in the race.

Audio links (also availabe in the multimedia library)
rtsp://video.aroundalone.com/aroundalone/approachingland.rm
rtsp://video.aroundalone.com/aroundalone/falsecapehorn.rm

--- Brian Hancock great.circle@verizon.net

Source: Around Alone Official Site