Well were we 8th or 9th? Who knows but there were rumours that we were only 6 feet behind the next boat GPS when the race was finished. All I know is that this leg was quite different for us, we all tried our hardest to concentrate on racing. The big problem was, however, that we started one day behind everyone else! At race start in Cape Town we were sailing along right next to Finland, the wind picked up and we decided to change the sail. In the short period it took to do that the wind had died and Finland had sailed off leaving us in a very frustrating wind hole for 24 hours watching the fireworks from the Coldplay concert at the stadium! The rest is history, it was a game of catch up after that. We were also very cross and frustrated to have the race stopped 4 or 5 days out of Geraldton. Our whole strategy was just coming good and it wasn't us but Yorkshire who were stuck in a wind hole. Some of the fastest and best sailing we had was after the race had stopped. Anyway we made it in the end and I'm sure you can't imagine how important the 8th or 9th business was to us although we would so much have liked to be 5th or 6th. May have to revise my saying of " come second you've lost". How do those Gold Coast guys do it?
Cold
You would not believe how cold it was on this leg, I mean really cold. To give you some idea I was wearing 2 thermal tops, a thin fleece, a pair of long johns. That was the first layer. Then the next layer fleece lined mid layer salopettes and jacket, next foulies that's another pair of waterproof salopettes and a smock jacket. To finish off a neck gaiter, hat, hood, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks and my sailing boots. Unfortunately as you go to bed and get up three times a day you have to take all this off and put it back on each time. It means getting up half an hour early because woe betide if you are late to take over from the previous shift who are freezing and desperate off deck and into bed. It was so cold I slept in two thermal tops and long johns. My feet were so cold I wore the two pairs of socks in bed but this didn't work, my feet were still freezing after 4 or 5 hours in bed. The best thing I found was to take the socks off and put them in my sleeping bag next to my body and do some running on the spot to cause friction to warm my feet up. If my hat hadn't been so wet I would've worn that as well. You will all be delighted to know that Mandy washed my sleeping bag when I got to Geraldton! She also bought me a hot water bottle and the Booths gave me a wonderful warm woolly hat for Christmas which I will be keeping as my bed hat, it's so cozy. I have probably said this before but you have to appreciate how difficult it is to get all those clothes on, it would be bad enough at home but I have to do it lying flat in my bunk! Well actually flat would be easy, we are usually at an angle of 45 degrees. Getting up is the hardest time. I am often already awake and waiting for the wake up call. The noise of the boat slamming into the waves, water crashing down on deck, pitch black,cold, I have to have a serious word with myself to say "come on David get going" . I reach into my cave locker, grab my layers and the whole process starts again. Some shifts (the night time ones are the worst) are just a survival process until bunk time again. Don't even ask about going to the toilet with all those clothes on!
Wild Life
The real highlight for me has been the Albatross. The book I bought from the USA before I went on Southern Ocean Birds and mammals has been superb. Everyone reads it and you may notice fro the crew diaries that we are now able to identify things because of this book. The various types of Albatross and petrel have been amazing. They fly over us and glide alongside us. They never flap their wings they just get lift from the waves and glide around turning gracefully in the air for another fly past. Another highlight of the cold time was that I saw a group of 6-8 penguins swimming along at speed like tiny dolphins popping out of the waves. I had to do a double take as all the penguins I have ever seen have been shuffling along the ice not 3,000 miles from land swimming along.
One day 3 or 4 squid got washed onto the deck, unlike the others who normally throw them overboard, Dave T (Bones) decided to keep them and they were served up at lunch, fried with garlic Mayo....we know how to live! Our other surgeon on board this leg was John and he was seriously into fishing. He had brought with him a reel which he had attached to the back of the boat and we were trailing a squid lure. There was a bit of interest from an albatross and then BANG a 6 lb Mahi Mahi fish! This was duly landed, filleted and served for lunch with mash ( smash) and veg ( tinned). Wonderful. Sadly both Bones and John were only doing this leg so this may not be repeated.
Bread
You will be amazed to know that I have become renowned for my bread making on mother watch. My most recent signature dish has been a cheese and onion cob for lunch, occasionally made ciabatta style with olive oil. With the rest of the dough I make a fruit loaf with dried apricots and raisins which we have after lunch or as toast the next day and finally a plain loaf for breakfast toast. They keep asking what my secret is and I haven't a clue, I have never made bread before, I have no recipe it must be just luck. I knead it with a metal spoon and think of the Kenwood dough hook in our kitchen drawer at home, unused. Truth be known I have had a couple of disasters when I put too much dough in the tin and it erupted over the side like Vesuvius whilst proving and then erupted again all over the oven! My other trauma was when we ran out of yeast a few days out of port, I decided to make soda bread as we have bicarbonate of soda on board. It looked amazing and rose so well in the oven I thought the crew would be amazed. FORTUNATELY I tasted it before I gave it to them, it was absoloutely disgusting and I threw it straight over the side where it sank without trace, not even the Albatross or fish would touch it. Apparently Mandy tells me it was the fact that I put 3 tablespoons of bicarb in! She said did it fizz when I threw it in the water....what a cheek.
So the final week into port was really hard, 4 weeks at sea is quite enough. I knew that Mandy was in Geraldton but we still had 4 days to go and that's really hard. Even after the race had finished we had really good winds and were heeled over making good speed towards port. It just wasn't fast enough for me at that point.
Geraldton
I should really let Mandy describe the place as she and Catriona (Paul Rayner's wife) had been there for four days before we arrived and knew every street and every shop and had done an amazing job of sourcing the cheapest prices for all the things on our shopping list which we emailed to them. Geraldton is on the west coast of Australia about 400 miles above Perth and surrounded by absolutely nothing. It is a small town of 33,000 inhabitants and whilst they made us all very welcome it was apparently like a ghost town before we arrived and after we left. The shops opened at 9 and closed at 5 and were closed all day Sunday, that included the supermarkets which is a problem when you need to shop for 20 people for 4 weeks at sea! One evening I went for a beer with James from Welcome to Yorkshire and we were thrown out of the bar at closing time..........that was 8.30! Also everything was so expensive that it was difficult to stick to budget for the food I think, and really expensive to eat out.
All the teams did a parade along the promenade on Wednesday to the yacht club, and lots of people turned out to cheer us along. Unfortunately Derry and Singapore missed it as they didn't arrive in time, I felt really sorry for them, that's usually us!
Although we amazingly managed not to trash any sails this leg ( unlike everyone else) we did take the main sail off and do some repairs to that and checked over the other sails which took a couple of days so not much sightseeing time but I did get to go to the beach late one afternoon to watch the kite surfers, apparently Geraldton is in the world top 3 destinations for kite surfing! They were amazing, flying along in the constant wind, wouldn't be much good on Coniston. Also we saw some dolphins just yards offshore there which Mandy loved but I'm a bit blasé now. We also went to the HMAS Sydney monument which you may have seen on the Clipper web site as some of the guys went up to lay a wreath on behalf of the Clipper teams. It was a beautiful place, a memorial to 650 men who died when HMAS Sydney was sunk in 1941. A lovely peaceful place to watch the sun set and such beautiful architecture. Mandy wasn't needed on sail repair so she and Catriona chauffeured Scarlet And Doris round the supermarkets and helped with the food shopping for two days.
So that was Geraldton, another wonderful send off, a full pipe band this time (where do they find them?) now we set sail for Tauranga NZ, apparently the weather's going to be a bit rough but at least that should mean no wind holes and I'm looking forward to seeing Mum and Dad there. Oil slick and floating containers permitting.
As always I thank you all so much for your support watching us on the website, please cheer louder it might help. Also for your cards and emails, I try to reply but time and wifi are sometimes lacking. Please continue I love to read them and maybe you could send your favourite bread recipes next time!!!!!! David aka Webbo to the crew.
Photos to follow when Mandy arrives home.
