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I Was Actually There - Season 2 Episode 6 -
Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race Traged
Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race Traged
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00:00The 54th Sydney to Hobart has turned into the most disastrous in the history of the race.
00:17There was no thought of racing. We're just trying to stay alive, frankly.
00:20People have been hurt. We don't know how many helicopters are trying to get all crew off.
00:25I would not have thought 24 hours later I'd be fighting for my life in a raft, that's for sure.
00:29In winds gusting up to 70 knots, for many it's now become a matter of survival.
00:34One of the crew looked to me and said, are we going to die?
00:37And no matter how bad it gets, they don't call off the Sydney to Hobart.
00:42We were just engulfed, knocked down, and we spent the next 15 hours thinking that the next wave would be the one that would take us out and finish us off.
00:59There's quite an intense build-up that comes with starting the Hobart race.
01:14You know, it's almost like you sort of, you know, you rip your shirt off and go out to sea.
01:18It's a very raw, appealing thing.
01:21It's all the emotions, it's the excitement, the nervousness.
01:24You've got your competitors there and you're eyeing them off and they're eyeing me off and shaking hands, but certainly thinking, I'm going to get you, you bugger.
01:31Now you can get on a yacht and then get belched for the next three days and then finally get to Hobart and you go and have a beer at the pub with your mates.
01:37It's a get down, get dirty adventure.
01:39It's just the ultimate. It's kind of the thing you have to do, otherwise you haven't lived.
01:43She turned 19 just three days ago, but there's no time for parties.
01:48So how does a teenager get to skipper a boat in the Sydney to Hobart?
01:51Unluck, I guess.
01:52I was the youngest female skipper to enter the Sydney to Hobart.
01:56We had a crew of eight people and the oldest crew member was 24 and we called him Grandpa.
02:01In 1998, I had competed at that stage in 13 previous Sydney to Hobart yacht races.
02:08Only this year I was competing as the skipper of my own boat, Solo Globe Challenger.
02:11The world of sailing that I grew up in was, it was kind of amateur.
02:17We had started other races and ran out of fuel before we got to the starting line.
02:22We started one race where we forgot to take the pots and pans.
02:25The preparation was pretty different back then.
02:28My husband was doing the Sydney Hobart yacht race and it was a beautiful boat.
02:32I remember going down to wave them goodbye.
02:35Churchill was a boat that was a gentleman's yacht.
02:39Oh, the Winston Churchill was classic.
02:41Well, it was in the very first Sydney Hobart yacht race.
02:44We had an experienced crew.
02:46The boat was solid.
02:47As they say, built like a brick shithouse, this boat.
02:50So we put the team together and practised and went out.
02:53That was basically what it was.
02:55Let's go to Hobart again.
02:56Well, I understood the passion because it had been in my family.
03:01I knew I would never change him and if I did, he wouldn't be the man that I married.
03:06And I think so many girls have made that mistake.
03:09So I married for better or sailing.
03:13We went to the weather briefing.
03:16There was a gale warning in place.
03:18Like, we knew gale was bad.
03:20But we didn't think gale was worth not going.
03:25The Sydney to Hobart race is infamous for bad weather.
03:29If you do enough Hobart races, you will come across really, really bad weather.
03:32With particularly the newer guys, the guys that hadn't been in the race before, my advice
03:37to them was, look, it's going to get cold.
03:39It's going to get wet at times.
03:40It's going to get miserable.
03:41And so saying we can't go because the weather might get rough is not going to happen.
03:48And yeah, so we probably had another pie and smacked each other on the back and headed
03:53off to the start line.
03:59115 yachts this year, hundreds of spectator boats, thousands of people on the foreshore.
04:04There's nothing like the Sydney to Hobart.
04:07There's a 10-minute warning gun and everybody's trying to get a favourable position for the start.
04:11Speed boats and sailing boats careering around, all jockeying to get an advantage at the starting
04:17line.
04:18It's pretty crazy out there, really.
04:20It's a wonder there's not more accidents.
04:22And then that's it.
04:22That's game on your racing.
04:2454th Sydney Hobart race.
04:26What a sight.
04:27Guns gone and they're away.
04:29First day we sail up Sydney Harbour on one of those incredible powderpuff blue sky days
04:34and off we all go.
04:36We're powering south, beating boats that we shouldn't be beating, passing boats we shouldn't
04:40be passing.
04:41Within 24 hours, we are way ahead of where we would normally be.
04:55We are right down on the far south coast, almost on the corner of Bass Strait.
05:01Entering Bass Strait, it was surreal.
05:03There was no breeze.
05:04It blew really hard.
05:06Then it died.
05:07It was like a calm before the storm.
05:09I don't even know how to explain it, but it's something that you feel without looking
05:12at instruments when the pressure drops.
05:14I'm thinking, well, where's this bloody gale?
05:17It isn't happening.
05:18But then, almost as I said it, you know, within minutes, the breeze started coming in.
05:26The wind changed direction and started to work its way around through the compass.
05:30So instead of coming from the ocean direction, it started to clock around and came off the
05:33land.
05:34The air starts to get hotter.
05:36There's even some insects starting to fall that get blown off the land in the hot, the
05:40hot westerly wind.
05:42So then we started seeing a squall line coming towards us from the south.
05:45As it turned out, we were heading into a real, as it turned out, a real bomb.
05:58Probably the scariest thing was the sound, the shrieking sound of the wind in the sails.
06:03It became what I call a banshee.
06:05The wind shrieked.
06:07Look, I've never heard wind shrieked before.
06:09It picks up the tops of the waves and throws them at you, so you're sort of constantly
06:14getting hit by this biting spray.
06:17It's like someone poking forks into your eyes.
06:19It's just all white.
06:20It's all white.
06:22So that's literally like driving along a freeway at 140 kilometres an hour in the rain
06:27and then putting your head out.
06:28That's scary.
06:29And then the waves started getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
06:32They're as big as a building.
06:34They're taller than our mast.
06:36It's beyond the scale of what we are used to seeing.
06:42We had a few times where we didn't get the wave motion right and flew into thin air and
06:47fell 20, 30 feet and was like smashing into concrete.
06:52The boat's pitching and rolling and up and down and waves breaking over you.
06:57And it was very physical, trying to keep the boat on track.
07:01And I view these things as living, living monsters.
07:03They aren't just water.
07:04They were living monsters that are trying to take you out.
07:06You have to fight the monster.
07:12At five past two, a radio schedule started.
07:16Radio schedules are normally staid conservative events.
07:19Boats are called alphabetically and you give your position and that's it.
07:22You shut up.
07:24This radio schedule was unlike any other radio schedule I'd ever participated in.
07:28People were in a lot of trouble.
07:29You could hear everything.
07:30You could hear people screaming for help.
07:32Like it was, that was the, I think that was, that's the most chilling thing I remember
07:38out of the whole race is just listening to desperation in people's voices.
07:44I was hearing the fear in people's voices.
07:47It was like a tangible thing.
07:49It was almost like I'd like almost reach out and touch this fear like a glass or a book or something.
07:54I could almost touch this fear that I could hear coming out of, resonating out of the speak on the radio.
07:59People were scared.
08:00Eden has always been an integral part of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
08:11We are the last safe port before they head into Bass Strait.
08:17So the Sydney to Hobart is something that we always watch.
08:21I always watch the start, but because I was busy, I was busy at work, I probably wasn't aware what was actually happening.
08:31Injured crews and an airlift rescue as the weather turns its worst on the Sydney Hobart fleet.
08:37On the big screen at the Fisherman's Club, there was some news coverage.
08:41And that's when I went, wow, that looks, that looks nasty out there.
08:45And that was the real moment where we went, this is going to be a big, long night.
08:52The mindset at that point is we're just going to tough it out, we're going to ride it out.
09:01But a wave came along that changed our lives forever.
09:06This 60-foot wave took the boat, eight and a half tonnes, 43 feet, took it from a vertical position, completely inverted it upside down.
09:15The mast snapped, it went off like a cannon, the mast just snapped underwater.
09:19Boom, you could hear this noise.
09:21We had three knockdowns, one I can recall getting washed back against the stainless steel rail at the back of the boat.
09:29And that stopped me from going any further.
09:31So the four guys were on deck, the helmsperson was thrown over the side and dragged through the ocean like a fishing lure on a fishing rod.
09:40And he was underwater and just put his arm up like that and he felt the boat was just like gazes.
09:45And I said something to him that's pretty crazy.
09:47I said, for Christ's sake, stop fucking around and get back on board, will you?
09:50It's just a mountain of green water.
09:53No matter how strong you think you are, you can't hang on against this force.
09:56So the boat eventually righted itself, but the next wave's coming.
10:01The next wave's coming.
10:02It doesn't stop.
10:03It only got worse.
10:04It got worse.
10:06On our boat, I'd been up all night.
10:08Richard sent me down to get some rest.
10:10I think I slept for about 45 minutes.
10:12And then I woke up to an explosion.
10:14I was lying in the back of the boat and I heard one of the boys say, I heard one of them say, watch this one.
10:21And from what I can feel is this is a big wave.
10:25This is a monster.
10:27It's actually picked the boat up.
10:31And thrown it into the trough.
10:33Nobody knew what had just happened.
10:36Like, it was honestly like a truck had hit us in the middle of the ocean.
10:40And there was a lot of water coming in.
10:41There was glass everywhere.
10:43You know, there was wires hanging down.
10:44And I think at that moment, that was when it really hit me that we were in a bit of trouble here.
10:48And we did hear the Winston Churchill mayday, which was just chilling.
10:54Mayday, mayday, mayday.
10:56Here is Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill.
10:58There we go.
10:59We are sinking.
11:00Our pumps aren't working.
11:01Words that affect.
11:02I'll never forget it.
11:04Roger.
11:04And just as we got the word back from the ABC chopper, the batteries went dead.
11:14And that's, I think, at that moment I realised that we were alone.
11:18I had a quick look and said, right, we've got to get the life rafts up on deck.
11:22And we've got to prepare to abandon ship.
11:24I grabbed the four-man life raft.
11:26I just thought to myself, we've got to go.
11:29So I threw it.
11:30We threw both life rafts over.
11:32And then we all proceeded to get in the rafts.
11:35And as I pulled myself onto the raft and fell back into it,
11:38the Winston Churchill was already down to the second spreaders.
11:41It was sinking.
11:42And everybody was in the water.
11:47Atrocious weather conditions are now taking a heavy toll on the Sydney to Hobart fleet.
11:52Twelve people are being airlifted from the dismastered yacht offshore stand aside.
11:56Winston Churchill has been holed and is sinking.
11:59The crew is now in a life raft.
12:01Well, the funny thing is I was at a family Christmas function
12:04and I went in to take over the helicopter and the helicopter wasn't there.
12:10And someone asked me, where have you been?
12:12You know, this is all over the news.
12:15We knew from the news that the boat was in trouble, but we didn't really know a lot more.
12:21I'm a paramedic, primarily like a paramedic on the helicopter, but we do rescue work as well.
12:28So I go down the wire.
12:30We were clearly always going to be involved once it was, you know, as bad as what it was.
12:36With the race still underway, a massive sea search continues for those missing.
12:41We're not just searching for the yacht, we're searching for life rafts,
12:43we're searching for anything in the water.
12:45We had neighbours who came to support me.
12:49And when they said, oh, they're in a raft, they're right.
12:51We celebrated and got pizzas, not realising that it wasn't all right.
12:57Four got in one raft and five got in another raft.
13:07A round one, which was the ones the boys jumped in, that was a round one.
13:11The life rafts that we have, I've no hesitation in describing them as kiddies pools.
13:15The only thing different with ours was that it had a blow-up roof over the top of it.
13:18The one we were in was a square one.
13:20You would think that they're more complex than that, but they really aren't.
13:24That raft was terrible.
13:27You're a beach ball in the ocean.
13:30Every time we got hit by a wave, we got flipped over and these were violent hits.
13:35Our heads would crash together inside the raft.
13:37And it was really, really terrifying.
13:40The wind and the water are taking us both in the same direction,
13:42but one's square and one's round, so there's going to be a difference in speed.
13:46And so you're on your own.
13:51It's about that time, one of our guys was down below putting on his wet weather gear
13:56and the boat's doing this right, it's jumping off waves and going bang, bang and falling 20 feet.
14:01He wasn't hanging on at the right time and ended up shooting up onto the ceiling of the boat
14:05and there were bolts protruding through, split his head right open.
14:09The other crew of the other crew, the other three on deck, one's got a smashed lower back.
14:13People knocked unconscious.
14:14Just two guys with crushed rib cages.
14:17There's blood all over the place, which didn't exactly assist our level of comfort.
14:21There's only so much of that a boat can handle.
14:25Our mission was then to keep that 13.33 metres long bit of fibreglass afloat and sustain life on it.
14:31Still the boat was carnage.
14:33The six crew were huddled in the bottom of the boat in the bilge, cuddling each other.
14:37It was cold too, hey?
14:38You do whatever you've got to do to survive.
14:40I need a piss, just piss my pants where I'm standing.
14:42If there's something to eat, you don't know what it is.
14:44You just need substance.
14:45You need what I call gut luggage.
14:47You know you need fuel.
14:48You've just got to do what you've got to do to survive.
14:49Survival is number one.
14:50You have to think about, okay, well, how long is this storm going to last?
14:54Do we have enough food?
14:55Can we start the motor?
14:57So we thought we'd pull out.
14:58So we had a discussion.
14:59We just heard Winston Churchill.
15:00Did we turn around and go for Eden?
15:02And we said our best chance of survival, not winning the race.
15:05Our best chance of survival, guys, is to keep going into these waves, get up and over them,
15:10get up and over them.
15:11But then we actually got requested to go to another vessel in distress.
15:18And so the owner of the boat stuck his hand out and said, turn around, bear away.
15:26We radio in and let the race officials know that we're not going to finish the race that
15:30we're pulling out.
15:31So we made the choice of continuing on.
15:34It was about what we thought was our best chance to survive.
15:36I was always taught that, you know, you always try and go to someone's aid if possible, you
15:42know, when out at sea, because, you know, if we were in the situation they were in, we
15:45would want a boat next to us.
15:47I was a bit frustrated, I think, because I was sailing really well.
15:51And so I was like, you know, if we could, if we can keep going, we're going to cream this.
15:55So we bore away.
15:57We knew as a crew that that was the end of our race, but that was fine.
16:00You know, it's a big, it's a big, it's a big deal because you don't go into it to pull
16:05out.
16:05A couple of boats had come in and the general thing that we do is go down and offer them
16:21any assistance, see what we can do for them.
16:24It was mayhem and there was boats everywhere.
16:28People were breaking ribs, being very bruised and battered.
16:33Because it's peak tourist time, there is no accommodation and they need, need somewhere
16:39to go.
16:40We have to do something, extend the hand of kindness somehow.
16:44So I think we ferried two loads of people home and they're all just sitting on the floor
16:49around the lounge room, tried to sleep as best they could, depending on their trauma level.
16:54I dropped a crew up to mum and dad's.
16:56When I asked them if they needed medical assistance, they said, we honestly don't know.
17:01We're operating on adrenaline.
17:03We're just glad to be in here.
17:04I think the first eight hours were just terrifying just because of the sea and the waves that
17:18were hitting us.
17:18We were monster waves.
17:20We were very fearful of all our life.
17:22Like we don't, none of us want to, we don't want to die.
17:24I mean, seven out of eight of us had young children.
17:26The fear that we're going to perish and never see those children again.
17:31We were definitely scared, but there was no time to really even think about being scared
17:36or because if you did that, then you weren't concentrating on the next wave coming and how
17:40you were going to get through it.
17:41This is a sequence of thought process.
17:43First is, geez, I think I found out how I'm going to die.
17:47Huh, it's drowning, huh?
17:49And I think I've read that it's actually peaceful at the end.
17:52Oh, we'll find out tonight, I think, maybe.
17:54We were very alone and our hopes were slowly fading.
17:57And of course, by this time, the raft was in pretty bad shape now.
18:02It was losing air badly.
18:03At one point, we were almost standing in a floating bag.
18:08And then we went up the face of a wave.
18:14You couldn't feel that you were going up the face of a wave.
18:17But obviously, we did.
18:20And then we got to the top and all of a sudden, it broke.
18:23And I remember just hanging on.
18:26I grabbed my arm like that, locked my arm around the roof frame.
18:32And I held my breath for a long time.
18:37And then finally, I came up and I was on the outside.
18:42And I yelled out, are you all there?
18:44And I got one reply from John Gibson.
18:47And he was the only one that was hooked on.
18:50And I was the only one that could hang on.
18:52The rest were over, were gone.
19:01The truth is, we didn't know anybody was looking for us.
19:05I felt pretty angry.
19:06I can't go like this.
19:08Crikey.
19:09This is no way to go.
19:10But by the end of the second day, we realised that we were getting hypothermia.
19:16We knew that we weren't going to last another night.
19:20I guess there was a certain amount of pessimism, you know, given how wild the sea was,
19:25whether the guys from Winston Churchill could have survived it.
19:29I've always been positive.
19:30You know, I always had it in the back of my mind they'd find us.
19:33At that time, a plane came over.
19:36And because we'd been hallucinating about aeroplanes and boats for the last sort of five hours,
19:42nobody said anything.
19:44We're told that there's a life raft that has been spotted.
19:49They'd been through that whole night.
19:52And I mean, just the trauma surviving in seas like that in a little life raft,
19:58it was amazing, really.
19:59So the helicopter came over and the diver came down.
20:05As soon as he connected me, we sort of got shot out of the water because, you know,
20:09the waves were sort of going up and down.
20:10And as we got shot out, I put my arms around him.
20:14And he pulled his snorkel out.
20:16He said, put your arms down.
20:17If there's any problems, I'm going to have to let you go.
20:19I wouldn't have said that either.
20:20I would have told him to keep his arms down.
20:22A hug is fine.
20:23I have no problem with a hug.
20:25But if they reach up, then they can fall out.
20:27So as soon as we got onto the chopper, the crewman said,
20:33so what boat were you on?
20:34And I said, I was on the Winston Churchill.
20:36Well, he passed that information up to the front of the helicopter
20:38and the two guys in the front high-fived each other.
20:41Yeah.
20:42I remember that moment.
20:44That made me realise then that, you know,
20:46there must have been some people out looking for us.
20:49After 25 hours in the raft, the extensive air search paid dividends
20:53and they were winched to safety.
20:55Their thoughts last night were with their five missing crewmates.
20:58Yeah, I'm really confident they'll make it.
21:00They've, um...
21:00I mean, they're all very experienced seamen
21:02and they're not going to do anything silly
21:04and I'm confident that you'll find them alive and well.
21:08I don't know.
21:09I feel like that we were sort of ignorantly upbeat about things,
21:13thinking that they would just be OK.
21:15It would have been 8 o'clock at night
21:18and then all of a sudden there's this chopper above us
21:22which was out of this world
21:24that was like something out of Star Wars,
21:26this whole noise and light show.
21:30There were only two men on that raft
21:31and three members got washed off.
21:35I felt him go.
21:37Yeah, I just felt him go.
21:39He just said, I can't hang on any longer.
21:43And then the news was on the TV
21:46and you could see his face.
21:49The two dead crew from the Winston Churchill
21:52were named this afternoon as John Dean and Mick Bannister.
21:56Still missing, presumed drowned, is Jim Lawler.
21:58When we got ashore, they did ask me
22:02would I identify two of the bodies that had been found.
22:08When they discovered his body,
22:09I had to go and view it to make sure it was him.
22:14That was quite something
22:16because the facial expression was an incredible smile.
22:21Oh, he looked absolutely beautiful.
22:23Just the eyes wouldn't open.
22:25A little bit wrinkly round the fingers
22:27of being in the water.
22:29I was so grateful that they'd found him, though.
22:33They say drowning is one of the nicest ways
22:37you can leave the planet.
22:41And that confirmed it to me with that smile.
22:44That helped me.
22:46You'll never forget it.
22:57We got radio reports off the coast.
23:00We were close enough to get AM radio
23:02and then we started hearing more about
23:04just how bad the drama was
23:06and a lot of boats are missing.
23:08We heard that, but we also heard
23:10that our main rivals were nowhere near enough ahead of us
23:14to be able to beat us on handicap.
23:17So we had a chance of winning this race.
23:19In seas that tested sailors on even the biggest boats,
23:23the seven crew on the tiny AFR Midnight Rambler
23:26weathered the conditions well,
23:28finishing more than two hours ahead
23:30of their nearest rival on corrected time.
23:33Go the Rambler!
23:34Normally going to the docks is huge.
23:36The docks are full of people clapping
23:37and saying congratulations.
23:40None of that this year,
23:41out of respect and out of sorrow for what was going on.
23:44My father did the Hobart, 19-odd Hobart,
23:47so we've been a Hobart family since I was a young kid.
23:51So to win the race is, personally,
23:52it's just a hugely satisfying experience.
23:55My father got on the phone and rang me,
24:00and he was crying,
24:01which my father comes from an era where men don't cry.
24:05And through his tears he said,
24:08Edward, my two sons, thank God you're safe,
24:11thank God you're safe.
24:12And then he said, we have finally won this race,
24:15which was pretty good.
24:18Ah, sorry.
24:20And for those watching,
24:25they're probably thinking it's just a race,
24:26why you're so emotional.
24:27But it was a big deal for us,
24:29the soldiers' family.
24:34Yeah.
24:35Mixed emotions.
24:39Eventually, an Orion-certity aircraft flew over us.
24:42This thing came sweeping out of the horizon,
24:45dropped the thing in the water,
24:47and inside that was this radio,
24:48this emergency handheld radio.
24:51And he informed us that the warship Newcastle
24:53was 36 miles from our position.
24:56And then the ABC chopper appeared.
24:59ABC chopper, this is a warship Newcastle.
25:01We're catching the yacht now.
25:03And I thought, you know,
25:04I've got the ABC chopper,
25:06an Orion-certity aircraft,
25:07and the warship Newcastle leading towards us.
25:09I'm not safe now, I never will be.
25:12We actually got to another vessel in distress.
25:17They probably weren't real happy to find out
25:18we were a bunch of, like, 20-year-olds.
25:20But, hey, our boat's a boat, right?
25:22So we said, righto, well, we're going to just shadow you in.
25:28And we stayed by this side the whole way to Eden.
25:31And, of course, we both arrived at the same time.
25:34And, yeah.
25:36We arrived into Eden in the early hours of the morning.
25:46And I stepped ashore in Eden
25:47and it was a very emotional time for everyone, you know.
25:50It's not until you get back in
25:52and you put your feet back on the ground
25:54that you know it's over.
25:56You're through it.
25:57There was a lot of broken boats.
25:59A lot of broken boats.
26:02They towed one of the other boats in
26:04that two men had died on,
26:05a boat called Business Post Nyad.
26:08Both bodies were still on board that boat.
26:11That was very sobering to look at that.
26:13We started to find out, of course,
26:15what had actually taken place,
26:16how many people had been rescued,
26:17how many people had died.
26:19You know, at that point,
26:19I realised that I'd survived.
26:22Others didn't.
26:23Dealing with that survival guilt thing
26:25wasn't something I'd ever been through before.
26:27When I stood on that wharf at Eden,
26:29the soul of Tony Mowbray
26:30was there for everyone to see.
26:31You could see my soul
26:32if you wanted to have a look.
26:34Mate, I've got a seven-year-old daughter.
26:36She'll be seven on the 6th of January
26:37and a five-year-old son.
26:39You know, more important than that.
26:41All our crew wanted to do is
26:42we just wanted to be with each other.
26:44We didn't really talk about it.
26:46We probably had a few beers.
26:49Look, we had a few drinks.
26:51But, look, it was subdued.
26:52There was no, you know,
26:53we weren't dancing in the streets.
26:54It was subdued.
26:55And then the next day,
26:56we fuelled up and sailed back to Sydney.
26:58We all needed to move on.
27:00I think it's like,
27:00if you fall off a horse,
27:01you've got to get back on it, right?
27:02Otherwise, you might never.
27:06I walked away from the round-the-world attempt.
27:08I've got a son and a daughter
27:09who are much more important than that.
27:10I have a fantastic wife
27:12and two young boys at that stage.
27:13And I thought,
27:14hey, this is stupid.
27:15Just forget this stupid Sydney Hobart race thing.
27:17And I would never do that again to Nancy.
27:19I would never put her through that.
27:21So I think that you sort of pack it up
27:23and leave it behind.
27:24But, you know,
27:25the human mind being what it is for all of us
27:27can rationalise out anything
27:28if it tries hard enough, I believe.
27:30And by about June,
27:32the salt in my veins got flowing again.
27:34And I started thinking,
27:35oh, gee, we had a good crew
27:36and the boat's in good shape.
27:37We could go again.
27:38It won't happen that bad again,
27:39will it?
27:40Surely not.
27:40And out of the blue,
27:41I just said to Lorraine,
27:42what would you say
27:43if I said I want to go back?
27:45Majority of the crew
27:46will reconvene the next year
27:48and we did the race on the same boat.
27:50And we won our division.
27:51We ended up finishing
27:52what we set out to do,
27:54but had to wait a year.
27:56And one year and 10 months later,
27:58after the 98 Hobart,
27:59I sailed out of Newcastle Harbour
28:01on the same boat
28:01and spent 181 days at sea
28:04on my own,
28:05continuously going around the world.
28:07So how crazy am I?
28:08I'm not going to do it again.
28:10My actions caused
28:11a whole lot of people
28:11to put their life at risk.
28:13It put them through
28:13emotional traumatic situations
28:15where they wouldn't have
28:16had to do that
28:17except for the fact
28:18that I was out chasing my dreams
28:19during Sydney and Hobart
28:20and got caught up in a storm.
28:22I suppose the counter is
28:23if I was to go through life
28:26wrapped in cotton wool
28:27and never able to take a risk
28:29because I might hurt myself
28:30and therefore endanger my family,
28:32I'd be a pretty unhappy man.
28:34There's not many things in life
28:35where you have to chart
28:37your own course.
28:38You have to be the one
28:39to call it.
28:40It's not up to somebody else
28:41to tell you whether you can
28:43or can't go.
28:43It's up to you.
28:45I'm aware of my wife
28:46and my kids
28:47and love them all dearly.
28:49I'm also equally aware
28:50of what gets me going in life
28:52and it's not just the wife
28:54and kids, I hate to say.
28:55There's no consequences at all.
28:56I'd do it tomorrow.
28:57But there are consequences.
28:59Consequences of just simply
29:00the fact that my wife
29:01is sitting at home
29:02wondering whether I will be alright.
29:04I'm very lucky.
29:06I had 21 years
29:08of gourmet marriage.
29:10I consider myself very lucky.
29:12A lot of people
29:13never have that.
29:15I didn't know
29:16that they were
29:17the worst experiences
29:18in my life at that stage
29:19because I hadn't had
29:20much of life, you know.
29:21It's not easy.
29:24I had a crying tea towel
29:25for six months.
29:26You know, of course,
29:27I am sailing by Rod Stewart.
29:29Every time I heard that,
29:30burst into tears.
29:32You know, I had a couple
29:32of years of pretty bad nightmares.
29:34I'd wake up thinking
29:35that, you know,
29:36my wife and kids
29:37were in a raft with me at sea
29:38and I couldn't get them
29:38out of the water.
29:39You know, they were
29:40pretty constant for a while.
29:42I think anyone
29:43in their right mind
29:44has feelings.
29:46You've got to be able
29:47to express it, I guess,
29:49and feel it.
29:51People do it
29:52in different ways.
29:54I mean, everybody
29:54on that race
29:55went through something
29:55that the majority
29:57of humans
29:57are never going to experience.
30:00It's pretty big.
30:01And you look at it
30:02that way.
30:02Good morning.
30:06Good night.
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