Life and near-death for oilman in round - Downstream Magazine

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FPS members Life and near-death DRIVING RAIN. HAMMERING WINDS. Peasouper fog. Lightning. Wild temperatures. Everyday occurrences for any fuel distributor, you may think. But until you’ve survived the extremes of conditions like these aboard a 68-foot clipper on a 40,000 mile ocean race, you’ve been through nothing! Just ask Scott Thomson, General Manager of Chrystal Petroleum’s’ Lothians and Borders depot. Scott spent nine weeks as part of the 18 crew on one of 10 yachts in the Clipper 2009-10. In this, the world’s longest round-the-world sea race, he sailed the final leg from Jamaica via New York, Canada, Ireland and Amsterdam back to the finish line at Hull. Memories to last a lifetime? Of course. Talk to Scott about the Clipper event for even a few minutes and the crises and triumphs tumble out in a very matter-offact way: “We hit a whale in the middle of the Atlantic in the middle of the night. It was an enormous thump but with 30 tonnes of boat, no serious damage was done,” he says. “In the Bahamas, we were struck by lightning while trying to save the spinnaker. It’s a mountain of a sail, the biggest on the boat. A squall hit really suddenly in the night. It was an allhands-on-deck call. Amazing stuff, one minute pitch black, then we were blinded by lightning strikes on the sea all around us and then a direct strike and showers of sparks from the top of the mast. I have never been in rain like it, like the biggest power shower you could imagine, but constant. We did get the sail down, but it was the biggest adrenaline-raising moment of the voyage.” 1 “Producing food for a crew of 18 in the galley was a real challenge. We were about to serve up when the boat got thrown off the top of a wave. The food took off and went everywhere – over the crew, up the walls. Everything was coated. Dinner was late that night.” “The winds were so strong and seas so big on the Canada to Ireland leg that we arrived in less than nine days, four days One minute pitch black, then we were blinded by lightning strikes on the sea all around us and then a direct strike earlier than expected. My daughters were scheduled to meet me in Ireland, and we had to sit and wait for them.” “One of the crew broke her leg in the Atlantic and there is no way off in those circumstances. She spent the rest of the trip to Ireland dosed with painkillers and strapped to her bunk.” “We were in a storm Force 10 and it was wild. A lot of the crew were down with sea sickness so there were only four people, me included, to deal with issues. The head sail got ripped off in that storm.” “Fog was a problem several times. Heading for Amsterdam, we hit heavy Downstream Winter 2010 12 www.downstreammagazine.co.uk 2
on the ocean waves 4 fog in a lot of shipping. We were sailing with GPS and radar, but it meant extreme extra vigilance because an oil tanker will give way to sail only if it sees you…” This is just a taste of the catalogue of memories that Scott has brought back to the less turbulent surroundings of the Chrystal office. An experienced coastal sailor even before the Clipper Race, Scott readily acknowledges the value of the Clipper organisation’s intensive training to ready people for the ocean event, and in instilling a real thirst for adventure in those who made it through the courses. “A lot of people fell by the wayside in training,” Scott remembers. Prior to the race, Scott also maintained weekend sailing in his 23’ coastal hopper and did some intensive gym work to gain the fitness level needed for the unrelenting pressure of the race. “Four hours on watch and four off – continuously. It stretches the physical and mental sides of it,” he says. The dangers of the race were extreme – two of the yachts were dismasted in the Pacific, another holed and sunk off Indonesia, there was a 120° capsize, and countless other tales of death-defying mayhem. Scott’s boat eventually lost its spinnaker in fierce Atlantic weather. But they survived and eventually the finish line was crossed. “We sailed back into Hull on the Saturday and on the Monday morning I was back behind my desk. It was a bit of a shock to the system,” he says. Living cheek by lifejacket with imminent disaster for weeks on end forges strong bonds and a unique trust among crew members and all aboard Scott’s boat are keeping in contact with reunions. With 1 Scott at the helm. 2 Scott (third left) and co-crew in a foggy leg to Amsterdam. 3 The clipper heads for Manhattan Island. 4 Ever the oilman, Scott uses shore time to check a tanker in Canada. He found there were no drivers on the fiddle (right)!! the race now in the past, Scott harbours another ambition: sailing the huge seas of the Southern Ocean leg of the Clipper race. This is likely to be a retirement project, since it runs in the Southern summer – our winter. “The Jamaica to Hull leg was ideal for me, because it coincided with a time of year when our trade is quieter and Andrew (Chrystal, the MD) was good enough to allow me the time off I needed,” he says. “I really would like to thank most sincerely all of my colleagues at Chrystal Petroleum without whose support this adventure of a lifetime would not have been possible.” Does Scott’s wife, Lindsay, the head physio to the Scottish team at the Commonwealth Games, enjoy a spot of adventure sailing with her husband? “My wife only sails with me when gin and tonic is available and the sun’s shining,” he quips. “Everyone else in Chrystal thinks what I do is completely bonkers too.” If, on the other hand, you feel Scott’s actions are those of a normal, sane individual, recruiting of crew is under way for Clipper 2011-12. MORE INFORMATION Go to www.clipperroundtheworld.com for more details. Downstream Winter 2010 13 www.downstreammagazine.co.uk 3
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Life and near-death for oilman in round - Downstream Magazine

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