Derry to Den Helder

Massive send off in Derry as mentioned before we then motored down the loch to the open sea where The Webbo supporters were on the start line. We were 1st over the line even with me on the helm! Unfortunately we had the yankee 2 up and many boats had the 1 so it was not long until we were overtaken. We were 2 days sailing up the West Coast of Scotland, one of which I was on mother watch made much easier by the fact Mandy had baked fruit cake and chocolate brownies which I could present at lunch time and dinner! It was quite rough but I had the long lie in on mother watch, after Derry it was good to get some much needed sleep. It was more comfortable as we reached across the top of Scotland and although it was misty we could see the islands. Being the summer it was light for most of the night which made the double night shift easier. We made some tactical decisions which did not really pay off but it was a shit or bust situation podium or 7th we used to say! As you know by now we came in 9th but it was quite exciting 5 boats finished with in an hour and a half of each other we were 10 minutes behind Yorkshire. It was a real drag race with kites up to the finnish. I have to say this was our last chance we felt to get a podium and a number of us were really disappointed.  The Scottish cost line was very beautiful and we saw lots of sea birds including puffins. The feeling the trip is coming to an end is all too real and people are talking about missing each other and life at home jobs etc. Amsterdam the last blow out and yes we have done the culture Van Gough museum , bike tour and canal tour as well as the less salubrious areas!!!!!  One more little trip across the channel about 3 days and back for the celebrations in Southampton. Nearly all over and then what.???  

The Atlantic

Halifax to Derry
So why did I think it would be so easy? Maybe the long stop over in New York, the short trip up to Halifax or the hype of the last ocean crossing before home! Bang, Crash, Wallop! Back into head winds, full foulies  and the freezing cold. To think I always wanted to sail the Atlantic, and I was just dismissing this as a short trip.  It may not have been the three weeks of the Pacific but the reality of sailing an ocean was soon brought back to me. The start in Halifax was great, an upwind sail to a mark then we all popped the spinnakers and because we were at the front in 3rd we had a fantastic view of all the fleet with their kites up. Look at the photo, trust Yorkshire to have it inside out!!!

New York and erihskroY ot emocleW !

Darius on the helm

The weather was very cold and misty and the seas rough, we decided to go north away from the pack as we were 20 miles behind and did not want to just follow the fleet, go out on a limb for a podium place! The generator was still broken and because we were on a port tack the engine inlet valve was on starboard so the engine stopped working. Everything was shut down in order to conserve power. These Clipper boats are tired and our port inlet had been blocked off for some reason, after a few days we managed to rig an inlet pipe from the generator inlet to the engine and the ability to charge the batteries was restored. The fog and cold continued and reality set in when Tropical storm Chris blew up and turned into hurricane Chris yes this was going to be yet another crossing with abnormal weather pattens.

Normal Sailing Attire, wind in my hair!

Dad had his 80th birthday and I managed to give him a ring from the satellite phone, I was very sorry to miss the party however Gouldylocks took part of the clipper weekly video and recorded me wishing dad a happy birthday, against rules but it is who you know, or should I say on a boat who you haven't pissed off!! The trip was really only a few weeks and although it was tough and a real reality check somehow we knew we were on the way home. The last 5 days were a full on storm with the last day being Keiths birthday and didn't he know it . Instead of the happy birthday song every hour which we usually have his was every 20 minutes and involved a big hug or an all pile on, he hates physical contact but quietly underneath he loved it.

In terms of wildlife on day 3 we saw a turtle, really not sure what it was doing in this part of the world, obviously bad navigating!  Also the same night, just as I had got into my bunk there was a loud bang and the boat jolted.  You get used to all the sounds on board and the crashes through the waves but this one was quite different, not bad enough to get me up but I learned on the next shift that we had hit a whale! It surfaced of the port side and appeared to be OK, bet it had a bruise!





As our engine gear box did not work we were met at the finish line by a tug to tow us the 20 miles up the loch to Derry. What a reception we received it was fantastic there were fireworks massive crowds a banner wishing Keith a happy birthday, he was so touched!! Just unbelievable. I personally had a crowd of supporters, Mandy and a surprise visit from Penny which was lovely. The whole Booth family who were as loud as usual and who we could hear from miles away. Mum and Dad and Clare my nice were all there as well it was great. They had followed us the 20 miles down the loch and stopped to wave flags at every point they could, a sea of purple shirts! I was so glad The Booths had seen a Clipper arrival and this was one of the best.
The reason this blog is late is the Derry stop over was just Mega, the town had a massive festival and everyone was so pleased to see the boats. We had a sponsored pub, The Anchor, the first night we nearly drank the whole of the booze he had stocked up for us for the week! We also nearly brought the mezzanine floor down dancing. It was a great Craic!! I'm afraid with the Booths/Penny influence every night ended up being  a party night.  Very, very late nights and lots to drink. We did manage a day trip to the Giants causeway and to Belfast to see the flat James will be living in next year. Cris his flat mate came up to Derry to see the boats and stopped over so it was good to meet him and yes, have another night out. There were 2 open air concerts put on by Derry council which were great.  After the first concert I was quite surprised seeing it was near the end of the week that Mandy was encouraging us to call in at the Anchor after the concert, should have guessed there was a surprise,  Pete and Nicky had flown over for the weekend, fantastic to see them and yes another excuse to have a party....... and so it went on.

Bye Derry!

Bye Sir Robin!

The send off from Derry was probably the best of all the places we visited. It was estimated at 30 thousand people lined the one and a half mile promenade, with ticker tape send off. I was hoarse from shouting "Thank you Derry!" from the boat procession which always got a massive response from the crowd plus the odd flash of the kilts to really egg them on. So off we set on a quick trip around Scotland!

New York to Halifax Nova Scotia

A short race, just what I like! So off we went again, a new skipper Piers on board, high hopes for a podium finish. Piers had altered the watch system to 4 hours in bed, 4 hours stand by and 4 hours sailing the boat . The idea was we have a lot of new leggers on board and a full boat 20 crew so too many for a two shift system. The on watch was to concentrate fully on making the boat go fast. The stand by shift was split into two mothers and engineers, and were available to move sails and help on deck if there was an evolution. If they had nothing to do they were to sit on the high side for ballast . Hot bunking was also introduced so that we always slept on the high side. Both these changes were not entirely popular with all the crew however everyone agreed to try it as it was a short race and we wanted to do well. I have to say the eight hour shift was a killer we had the 12 midnight until 8 in the morning with no rotation. Mothers and engineers swopped daily so one day at 1am you would make bread and the next empty bilges or just sit on deck, by 8 am you were knackered and cold. The temperature dropped dramatically after day one and by Halifax at night I had every bit of clothing on just like on the way to China. Anyway back to the race, we left New York on a fine sunny hot day and motored off on our parade of sail past the Manhattan sky line and out past the Statue of Liberty. After all the media shots we motored out for a 6.30 pm Le Mans start, we were given the windward boat position at the end of the line. Go go go! we all ran forward to hoist the two fore sails and get under way. All went well but Gold coast the next boat to us just seemed to pull away, just don't know how they do it! You have to keep the same sail plan and course for ten minutes then you are allowed to change, we had prepped the spinnaker pole ready for the light weight kite as had many, so after 10 minutes the spinnakers all popped and we were off down wind sailing. It never ceases to amaze me how after only a few hours the boats are all spread out across the sea miles apart. At night you can pick out the mast lights either side in front and hopefully behind you. Mid day two we peeled to the mid weight kit, a few moments of nerves as this was the one we trashed and had been mended, would our repairs hold the ever increasing wind? No worries, up she went and filled in full glory. As we were doing this change, in the distance on the horizon were huge splashes over and over again a number of  20 to 30 ft hump back whales were breaching , a magnificent site to see something so big jump fully out of the water and come crashing down with a mighty splash. Unfortunately as we were changing sails at this point I have no photos, but actually photographing whales is difficult anyway, more often you get picture of sea. Later that day we had a different type of whale come extremely close for a nosey. This one was huge probably two thirds the length of the boat, it came up port side then reappeared starboard. Piers was quite concerned and instructed us to put safety tethers on in case we hit it or it gave the boat a nudge. Its last appearance was in front of the boat when it came up just in front of the bow, so close then flipped its tail as it dived back down into the sea.
Towards the end of the race the wind came round in front and we changed to white sails yankey one and stay, this is when it became more tactical, when should we tack?  Should we go out to find more wind or in hoping for current and off shore breezes? We could see boats on AIS on the screen and we were very close to New York, Geralton and Singapore . We thought we had NY and Geralton at a safe distance but Singapore was coming up close. Every tack put the boats in a different position, we were trying to cover all three boats but Singapore were literally a few hundred yards behind. Piers was great, we altered the sails tightening the leech line to make the shape of the sail better, letting sails out by just an inch . We seemed to be able to point better and gained a little bit on Singapore. George took over the helm and during his half hour slot we gained even more, but Singapore were still right on out tail. I was sitting on the rail knowing it was my turn next. Only a few miles to go, maybe an hour or more to finish, the angle to the finish line was not good we needed to tack at least twice to make the line. Tactically it was all about who would tack first, should we follow or would the other two boats gain ground? They tacked, I was now on the helm, off we went.... everyone into position 'helm to lee' and tack. Great! we seemed to be ahead, then suddenly from nowhere we had fog, the area ahead was thick you could just see a wall of cloud, my heart was in my mouth.  Piers called everyone up on deck, even the people asleep, on the rail all 18 people. The other boats had turned off the AIS we had no way of telling where they were had they tacked. Karen was in the nav station looking at the radar trying to locate them. Quite dangerous to turn AIS off especially in fog but this was a race (we had left ours on for safety). Then the fog began to lift, can anyone see them? shouts came that they had tacked using the fog for cover, the fog cleared and there they were, all three boats bearing down on our starboard side, we had to tack right in front of them, in to position.... tack! Just don't cock it up I kept telling my self, one luff up and we would loose ground. I was so nervous I had been on the helm for an hour and it was the last 10 minutes no one was going to get me off. Concentrate, bear away for speed, we will still make the line was the instruction. Then the call from below where Karen was photographing the nav screen GPS we have finished! The cheers went up everyone screamed and hugged and congratulated each other, three cheers for Piers, you would have thought we had come first but for us in our little four boat race we had.
On board this leg is Della the camera women for North One who make the TV program, she was on Hull and Humber in the last race and won the best video for their boat. Since then she has been employed to do this race and spends each leg on a different boat, we have her until Derry. So with a bit of luck some of what I have described will be on film.
It was great to come into the very pictures port of Halifax in 4th place....... our best ever. Hope you were as thrilled as we were.

Panama To New York

Panama Canal

Panama Old and New

First Lock

The system for the canal is quite peculiar all boats and ships have to pay in advance, no credit cards and no definite transit times, so there is a lot of waiting about for all vessels. We knew we had a few days so it was usual boat jobs the first day, however the President had died so it was a day of morning and there was no alcohol being sold, what bad timing for a clipper race to end . We did manage to find a steak house that allowed wine to be drunk out of plastic cups so no one could tell. More boat jobs the next morning then 9 of us went down to the Canal museum which is by the first lock. Fantastic to see the lock so close with huge container ships going through, and giving us an idea of what we were to expect the next day. We visited the old town of Panama which was a mixture of very old decrepid buildings rather like Cuba and recently renovated smart buildings next door. People living doors open onto the street but seemed to be a lot of police or security with guns. We found a really good restaurant and had a set 11 course meal and nice wine. Next morning was a 4.30 start as we had a start time from the marina at 6 to pick up our pilot at 7 out in the mouth of the bay leading to the canal. Everything is very fluid, it is compulsory to have a pilot on every boat, but he can arrive at any time and if his shift finishes and you are half way through the canal system he just leaves and you have to wait until the next day for a new one to arrive. There are 3 locks on the Pacific side and then a huge lake system with passage buoys throughout with rain forest all around the shores leading to the 4 locks on the Atlantic side. We met up with 2 other clipper boats and rafted together to go through the locks. It was fascinating the mule men threw us lines and pulled our lines up the side of the lock then walked us into position so other boasts could come in behind us or we were behind them.  Once tied off the water was let in and we rose up, all on web cam , to the next lock level and so on. It was a funny feeling as the first lock gates closed behind us and that was the end of the Pacific and that side of the world. We have spent so much of the race over that side of the world and it really felt like we were on our home run, the transit through to the home side of the world and civilisation as we know it. A quick flit up to New York a mere Atlantic crossing then Ireland which has got to be near home. Yet we all wait for our 2 week summer holiday and we still had 9 weeks to go.  The locks on the Atlantic side were special as we had a Japanese war ship in the canal with us. We had lost one of the three clipper boats as the pilot had run out of time so there were just 2 of us and this huge ship behind us . I asked a question about the ship to our pilot and he did not know the answer so I asked him to phone a friend, he got on the radio to the pilot on the bridge of the war ship and a whole conversation unfolded , it appeared they were off to New York for the festival and we were invited on board to swap photographs when we got there.

Our Travelling Companions

Goodbye Pacific

The Canal

The marina at the far end was very small and had one bar / restaurant , can you imagine 10 clipper boats 15 to 20 on each, they could not cope. The second night they ran out of beer and had to close early, this small peaceful marina who usually deal with transit yacht did not know what had hit them. Clipper's problem was one of the boats had a broken gear box and parts were expected to arrive any day, of corse they didn't and someone flew out with one in their suitcase but this all took about 4 days and we were on stand by to leave every 6 hours. Luckily after a further delay a few of us off different boats went to the 3rd most dangerous city in the world....Colon (great name too). We went to a very basic hotel but it had a pool and was gated so we were safe and it was so much better than sleeping on the boat!

Container ship in Canal...inches to spare either side

Last Lock, with a Japanese Warship

Eventually we were given the ok to set sail with the other boat and gear box to follow shortly afterwards . The plan was always to motor for approximately 50 miles to where there was more wind. We set sail at 6.30 pm and motored through out the night and the next day and did the  Le Mans start just before night fall at least we were nearer to our destination. Yes I was sick again! not bad but all that waiting on land I had lost my sea legs. Mainly as I was on mother watch and we were crashing into the waves with Y1 flying.

Me sitting on the Rail.....we tried so hard

It all sounds very glamorous sailing up the side of Jamaica and up through the Caribbean islands and round the tip of Cuba but it is not, it is nice and hot but very sweaty below decks and you see nothing but sea sea and more sea, we did not really see land! The run soon changed to spinnakers and we learned a lot from Flav peeling them from light to medium and back again. The big decision was which way to go round a particular island , the fleet had gone west and we decided to go into stealth and go east . This proved to be a blinder as you all know as we came out of stealth in 1st place . All the other boats were rooting for us and we had loads of mails, including one from the skipper of Gold Coast, congratulating us. We fought really hard sitting on the rail day and night, moving ballast around the boat everything we could to stay in front . However this Yacht racing is as much about luck as effort (except Gold Coast) we drove into various wind holes or light wind areas and as much as we tried (and we did, we changed sail,s put wind seekers up, trimmed trimmed and trimmed again) we watched as boat after boat who were further west over took us. The rest is history we came 5th and were all so disappointed not to be on the podium, third would have done. Yes I know one of my favourite expressions is if you come second you have lost but I think this race has changed me!! Two days from the finish line while I was watch leader , we just pushed too hard Flav was on deck as he always is and it was just getting dark, we had the mid weight kite up and the skies were darkening behind us. I had taken over from Lynn on the helm and the wind blew a huge gust the boat rounded up and I managed to control it but then off it went again this time the boat went right over, the sheet was released and the spinnaker flew free, the boat came up and they started to sheet in. The wind was far too powerful and the spinnaker ripped into two pieces , also ripping the foot and tape off the side , a real mess!!! Yes I was at the helm and felt dreadful it would have happened to anyone as the crew said )along with calling me Shredder) !! Just a bad day, but no one was hurt which was the main thing. All efforts were made to keep our place right up to the finnish line however you could see the disappointment on Flav's face especially as he had had little or no sleep for days. The finish was about 50 miles outside the entrance to the Hudson there was no checkered tape or yellow ribbon just more sea. A little toast of whisky was had to celebrate and then we took down the sails and motored in towards the magnificent sky line of New Jersey and Manhattan. It was great to come in with the rest of the boats and 5 behind us, our best result yet.

Coming up for air - mother watch

Flav

Me and James before the Central Park Run

Five days in the posh Hyatt with magnificent view of the Statue of Liberty and the New York sky line with many late nights eating and drinking before Mandy and Penny arrived and I moved across to the New York side. Mandy had arranged a loft apartment down town which worked out really well and allowed us to do the compulsory shopping we all have to do in New York. On the Thursday before Mandy arrived on the Saturday there was a 6K run organised for Great Britain Day and the Jubilee weekend, 6K I thought easy, but having only walked 68 feet up the boat for the last year I was totally out of condition. Running in a kilt did not help and Central Park has quite a few hills. I managed it with out stopping but my legs suffered for days afterwards !  One more day on dry land then off again for a quick tip up to Halifax. Our new skipper Piers has changed a few things around such as watch systems and hot bunking. Lets see how we do. Next stop Halifax , home run here we come.

Girder from World Trade Centre outside Hotel In New Jersey

Finishing in New York

     

Panama

Panama.

It's been a tough leg

So that was that, we had been 5th or 6th one day then we drove into a wind hole , had 24 hours of sitting around doing 1.5 knots got up the next morning we were in 10th. We could see one boat in the distance and spent the next 2 days chasing it. As mentioned before if the breeze is up the boat goes fast if there is light airs we are dead in the water. After day 12 or so our paths crossed with Derry which was quite funny 2000 miles and they came at us from the starboard side full spinica up and had to give way to us

passing close to Derry

There were a number of gates at which the race could be cancelled at and we knew the race was going to be shortened but unfortunately when we had the mail confirming it we had no time to catch anyone up we were all very disappointed because we had been doing so well but also we wanted to do well for Flav he had tried so hard and it would have shown the world it was not the crew but the skipper that gives us the bad results. So who is it?

Our "Italian" noticeboard by Baz

Have to see on the next leg to New York. Race over and the long motor to Panama in the stifling heat 1200 miles about 10 days. We sailed a bit if the wind picked up and was in the right direction mostly to save fuel. Keith was hoping we were going to have to refuel in Costa Rica . We did actually meet Derry and give them some of our fuel as they were running low. Shifts were split so we either did a 2 hour watch at night or one 4 hour one if we had 2 shifts that night , this gave us more rest but it was so hot it was hard to sleep, some people took to sleeping on deck on the sail bags. The wildlife was great, lots of turtles , we saw at least 3 more with birds standing on their backs.

Bird catching a ride on a turtle

We saw a marlin jump 3 times in front of the boat and something you would not believe , manta rays jumping, at first we thought dolphins must be tossing them in the air but there were none around and it was on 3 separate occasions . There were so many dolphins at one point they must have covered a square mile , around the boat yet still jumping and splashing around almost on the horizon. Day shifts were taken up with boat jobs, we had a fire practice with the fire hose out, we did two mornings when we practiced the Le Mans start , main sail up then all run to our positions and hoist the 2 fore sails as quick as possible . I was on the coffee grinder and in that heat doing it 3 times in a row took some effort, we managed by fine tuning on the second day to get it down to 1 minute 10 seconds. Have to see how we do at the next race start. The rest of the time was relaxing or trying to find shade, the talk on board between the RTW crew is very much of race finnish and going home. There is a real feeling that once we pass through the Panama canal and say goodbye to this side of the world we are entering home waters . A 2 week race to New York then the party leg as we call it . The last leg only has about 24 days sailing in it. 3 days to Halifax the 2 weeks ish across to Derry a quick flick round Scotland to Holland then home.
The last day motoring into Panama was great we saw so many pelicans dolphins again, 2 sharks , but the best bit was we had the line out and caught a reasonable tuna which I gutted and Flav was busy filleting to make sushi when the line went again and we had a 4ft, 12 lb mahi mahi on, it stopped out line and I had a real effort to wind it in made more exciting by the fact dolphins were all splashing around and Baz was shouting shark shark all the time. The fish was filleted and we had enough for lunch and tea much to Pauls disgust as we were going to have egg mayo sandwiches and he had to cook the fish. It tasted so good only an hour or two out of the sea so as fresh as it could be.

Mahi Mahi and Me

Tuna

We arrived at the marina in Panama at 6.30 pm and went to the hotel for a good shower!

Panama Hotel

South Pacific!

What a difference a Flav makes. Well I suppose it helps that we have clear blue sky some days not a cloud in sight. The boat is flat just the steady rock from side to side as we sail in the calm South Pacific. The mood on boat is full of the joys of spring, optimistic and fired up under our new leader. Well how is he different? To be fair we needed a change and so he had a good chance anyway. He started with a safety brief and before the start we had a meeting to show us the route he wanted to take what to expect etc . The race start was fantastic we were only metres away from the other boats and because we were on the right tack others had to give way to us as we barged our way through the fleet to cross the line first or we thought we did unfortunately us and one other boat allegedly crossed the line too early and had to go back round the pin end boys then over the line again. Never the less it was really exciting and to sail back under the Golden Gate Bridge and back out to sea was fantastic. Mandy tells me that the crowd on the shore were going wild!

The Crowd!

Race Start

Race Start

The first night we poled out the yankee 2 until the early morning when we put up the medium weight kite (MW) , yes at last down wind sailing , this is what we were told most of the race would be like. Day 2 and we had a wrap, that is the spinica wraps itself around the fore stay or if unlucky both fore stays. We were so impressed as Flav took control of the situation and we gybed and headed port and starboard until the wrap came undone. Next evolution was to peel the spinica most of us had never done this,basically you have two spinicas up at the same time one in front of the other hen you take down the one you don't want. That way you do not loose speed. Day 4 we have a serious wrap in the night this one is round both stays and a halliard . What a mess it would not come down . Flav was up the mast hanging upside down swinging around like a monkey between stays for about 2 hours , he came down exhausted having unwrapped some of it. Baz and I spent the rest of our shift untangling it from the bottom. At shift change we were sent to bed by Flav even though we wanted to carry on. Apparently he went up the mast again for a further few hours. When we came on shift it was still in a mess back to it on the for deck unwrapping it from the bottom and Flav had another go up the mast in day light. For no apparent reason one last turn and it fell to deck. We have had 3 wraps and the kits have come down with no more than a few pin prick holes and a few minor snags to repair we have been so lucky. However I did ask the question what is the point in having in having a safety belt in the car and not wearing it. We have an anti-wrap net on board but Flav was not used to them or was not fond of using it. A bit of persuasion and we are now using it and up until now we have had no more wraps. The only problem is we were doing well in the table but lost considerable time , the main one took 24 hours to undo. So why else is Flav good , a list, some you may think are peculiar to comment on , he is always on deck , he runs every evolution, ( easy for the watch leaders ) he congratulates us ,he is positive, he makes drinks, swept the ghetto floor, apologises when he thinks something or a decision is his fault. Basically he has everyone behind him and the team want to do well as much for him as for ourselves. If anything he is too much of a training skipper or a mate as that is what he is used to doing, however that is no bad thing as the kites have hardly been out of the bags so far on this trip so we could all do with the lesson. Even Keith is right behind him, need I say more?
So what is life like on this leg? Well as I sit here writing I am dripping in sweat, it is bright blue sky very little wind and we have the light weight kite flying. This requires far more work than the white sail as we need someone to helm someone to stand and time, holding a rope pulling in as a third person grinds on the coffee grinder. The art is for the timer to watch the edge of the spinica and release the sheet until the sail folds at the edge then he says grind and the grinder winches in a bit of sheet until it unfolds this happens continuously and gives the trimmer a bad neck as they are permanently looking up. We rotate every 30 minutes. We are also
jibing quite a lot and this process takes about 20 to 30 mins and involves erecting a new pole (quite heavy) and taking down the other one. So we have been doing this for 2 weeks with the odd day when the wind is so light we have to put up the wind seeker , a light weight head sail like a yankee.
The food has been good , the fresh food lasted a week or so and the new space food is better than the old stuff. As you can all see from the race viewer we are having a variety of success, at the moment not
good in 9th. basically if the breeze gets up we go fast but in light winds we just die in the water. Not sure if our boat is heavier or what but that seems to be the situation. We are all trying really hard even in this
heat, Flav is all over us trim trim trim, re distributing weight around the boat , only filling one water tank , all the right things. If we do not do well it won't be for lack of trying. Wild life has been quite good, we have seen a lot of dolphins , the odd whales from a distance and had a few birds as passengers some land birds migrating stop for a rest and some sea birds in particular the brown booby, quite rare, usually seen on boats or ships having a ride! And making a mess all over the deck! One day we had one on the mast, one on the sail at the front and one on the spinica pole. The best thing though has been the hammer head shark and the 5 turtles, we have seen one or two very close to the boat one nearly overtaking us as we
wallowed with no wind. But the most amazing sight was a turtle swimming along with a bird standing on its back.
Everyone, new leggers and all seem to be having a good time, the heat is getting to us a bit, but as we keep saying it's so much better than the last leg. I am on mother watch today with George so have been in a red hot galley. Bread making now takes place in the night as the oven heats the boat up too much.  Have made biscuits and lemon cake today for a change, don't be too impressed they are mixes just add egg and liquid! So better go and have a shave and beard trim as mother watch is the day for all these things!! I expect the race will be cut short in a few days as there is little wind and we have a certain time to get to the Panama canal for our slot. I hear the weather is cold and wet at home, it seems a long way from here but I sympathise as I do know a lot about cold and wet! Hope you are impressed with a new blog in the middle of a race. Thanks for all your support, this is David Webster reporting from the South Pacific!!!

Sailing off into the sunset - Panama here we come

Qingdao to San Francisco

Well the big day arrived for the trip across the Pacific. As I drew back the curtains the blizzard was in full flow. The red carpet they had laid out for the dignitaries to walk down had turned white. With all my layers on I looked huge and could hardly move. The goodbyes were very difficult and I have to say I really wasn't looking forward to the pacific crossing.
There was the big send off we expected with the dragons, drum bands and fireworks. Also a flotilla of small boats, wonderful and colourful but so very cold.
Once out to sea the fog came down and race start was abandoned as it was too dangerous. It suited us though as we could motor in a straight line for 24 hours getting us nicely on course for Japan . At 10am the next day we did a Le Mans start whereby we all had to line up with main sail and motor, head sails attached but down. At the given start time it was engines off and dash forward to hoist the stay sail and the Yankee 2 and we were off.
In previous races I have kept a diary in which I have made regular entries to help me remember what had happened, help me write my blog and just help remind me of wildlife sightings, other sights and how I was feeling at the time. On the Pacific crossing I only had 6 entries, I had written:
1) Hell, Hell, Hell
2) Tring's Birthday
3) Hell
4) Hell
5) Date line crossing, and finally you guessed it
6) Hell.
Well I think you get the picture.
Basically we beat our way up the side of Japan then turned East across the biggest patch of grey water in the whole world! There was just no let up from the heavy winds, no sunshine just pounding into the waves day after day after day...... I have to confess that I kissed Mandy goodbye in Quingdao and when I kissed her hello in Oakland I was wearing exactly the same clothes (apart from my underpants) the whole way across, that included sleeping in my thermals. I know I always say this but it was so cold and so wet there was never any time for the foulies to dry before the next shift, the next onslaught.

Alan being put in the dinghy

Three days into the race as you will know we had the incident with poor old Alan. He got up out of his bunk, put his foot on the floor between a sail and the bunk and decided to reach for an apple he had stowed in a side locker, the boat lurched sideways, his knee bent the way it shouldn't and that was it the race was over for him. As he put it, it was no glamorous accident! He was in so much pain that after 6 hours it was decided to call for a medivac. The Japanese coast guard were great and within just over two hours he was on board the inflatable, ready to be taken to the big coast guard ship and off to hospital in port. There was much negotiating with the coast guard as they were insisting on taking Stephen our medic along too. Only when Gordon explained that we needed him for the crossing would they agree to take Alan on his own. They were very thorough in needing to know what had happened and I had to play the part of Alan to reenact the whole bunk/apple/knee twist thing for them so that they could take photographs, goodness knows why and the language barrier was a bit of a problem. However it seemed that their biggest concern was that Alan had his credit card with him!

So back to it, the wind, grey skies, grey sea and wet. It shows how bad it was when Paul made me laugh by every single day coming up the companion way and saying "well Webbo, similar view to yesterday", and never were truer words said. No ships, no birds, no wildlife at all just grey sea for weeks.

Grey, cold and wet 1

Tring's (Richard Abraham's) birthday was a highlight as you will gather from my diary and luckily happened to fall on a slightly calmer day. We blew up some pink rubber gloves and made him a cape (photo explains everything) a large cake was rustled up out of nowhere by Baz and Goldilocks and fun was had by all.

The next memorable event was crossing the date line when we went back a day, funnily enough Tuesday was still grey, wet and windy the second time. Fortunately we didn't have to have a repeat of the mother watch and have the same food twice.

Grey, cold and wet 2

A lighter shade of grey, still cold and wet

The upside of the strong winds was that we were travelling really fast, we seemed to move up the fleet and back down again daily, but the crossing was a fast one. I think one of the fastest the Clipper race has had. As we approached the finish line the mood improved quite a bit, we could see the light at the end of the grey tunnel, although the last week still dragged a bit like it always does. 2000, 1800, 1000 miles to go. Towards the end we had some fast downwind sailing with big surf and 27.5 notts recorded on the helm.

On the way in to San Francisco... note the improvement in weather

Us coming under the bridge

Eventually, on my mother watch day, land was sighted and a few hours later we could see the Golden Gate bridge our much longed for finish line. Mandy, Penny, James and his girlfriend, Victoria had managed to get to a position under the bridge to wave the saltire for our arrival. It seemed to take an age to cross the line as the wind had dropped and the tide was against us, at some points we seemed to be going backwards but at last we had made it. We motored the 10 miles past Alcatraz to Oakland and amazingly the flag waving gang had managed to negotiate the 20 mile drive from San Francisco via the Bay Bridge and were in Oakland to wave us in. They had only arrived the evening before and Catriona, Paul's wife arrived just as we did, running down the jetty straight from the airport to welcome us off the boat. They aren't used to us arriving on schedule!
On arrival we all went to a local bar where we were given food and beer. Several of the other crews were there as they had arrived a couple of hours earlier and some were fairly inebriated. One crew member from DLL started a bit of a fight with the Gold Coast skipper which was quickly stopped but then he started on Gordon who rather aggressively head butted him! To be fair to Gordon the chap was an idiot and Gordon had just safely got his boat and crew across the Pacific so was a bit stressed out but it was pretty unprofessional and probably sealed his fate. We'd had our differences but were sad when he resigned, he was a nice chap mostly, he was a safe skipper just not a racing skipper.

Cycling on the Golden Gate Bridge

Lucy, Penny, James and Victoria at the Mexican Restaurant in Monterey

The stopover has been amazing, almost two weeks, unheard of!  I must mention that I have become a great uncle for the first time as baby Thea Fletcher was born whilst we were in Oakland, congratulations to Jono and Emily and thanks for adding to the Edinburgh supporters! (Grandparents) Sarah and Colin, (Great aunt) Jane and Lucy flew out to Oakland to see me and we had a great holiday together. But before they arrived we had three days of sail mending, there was lots to do but with Karen, me and team Webbo (Mandy, Penny, James and Victoria) on the job we got it all done. Poor Victoria must have wondered what she had let herself in for.....some sort of slave camp. However, work done we transferred to San Francisco and so began the shopping which everyone seemed to be very good at! How many pairs of Levi's did the 6 ladies need to try on? And why did I need a pair when I hadn't changed my clothes in 4 weeks? We also managed some sightseeing in San Francisco, most notably the whole group of us cycled along from Fishermans Wharf, across the Golden Gate bridge, down into Sausalito and back on the ferry. It was a really great thing to do and so memorable, everyone loved it.
Shopping completed we moved down the coast to Monterey where we saw pelicans and sea lions and sea otters and went to the aquarium which was amazing. We also did the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach golf course although by then it was pouring with rain. From there we drove to Sonoma and spent a day at the wineries and sightseeing and then it was back for the final 2 days to Oakland, doing boat jobs and having meetings with Flavio. So all in all a very successful end to a horrible race and a new start for us with Flavio who I did level 3 training with. Quite a few new people on this leg and I am looking forward hopefully to a warmer and less grey race. Keep watching, keep supporting and let's see how we do.

The waving off gang

Qingdao Stopover

What a welcome we got in Qingdao, firstly we could see Mandy and Catriona on the breakwater waving the saltire and jumping up and down, I think to keep warm more than anything, then as we entered the harbour there were fireworks just for us and we could see and hear huge numbers of drummers all wearing red on the quayside. We moored up and were paraded up off the boat one at a time and given a bunch of flowers and a small Chinese girl took our hand an led us to the stage whilst all around everyone was taking photographs. Then we stood through a few speeches and were presented with a fur hat, I'm sure you've seen the pictures and a red scarf. The skipper got a golden cloak! All very useful sailing kit! Then more drumming and we were paraded along the quayside past giant posters of ourselves all the while people with big cameras taking photographs. After that we were given food and lots of Tsingtao beer which is made in Qingdao and is China's biggest export allegedly. A wonderful welcome and so lovely to see Mandy again.

The whole boat, apart from the skipper stayed at the Intercontinental hotel which was right on the quayside of the Olympic sailing centre. There was no way in that temperature that anyone wanted to stay on the boat. The rooms were beautiful and I'm sure I've said it before but I cant tell you how good it is to have a shower and sleep in a proper, dry, and flat bed! Heaven. It was great to all be together though as we met in the top floor bar most evenings and seemed to be the only boat that did that.

Amazingly when I got there I'd had a text from nephew Jono to say he was coming to Qingdao to see me at the weekend, how brilliant was that? Apparently everyone but me knew but didn't tell me in case we were late in and I would be stressed. Anyway you'll be glad to know that in true family tradition he was put to work mending sails with us and managed some very tricky sewing of the main sail involving him laying under the sail, under a bench on the floor. If you are planning a trip to see me beware!!!!! We were given the basement of the Olympic sailing museum to do our mending which was brilliant but I don't think they had any heating down there, it was nearly as cold as outside.

Having had a bit of a strange birthday on board I said I would take the guys our for a meal on Saturday night. With the help of our boat interpreter, Vane, we found an authentic restaurant to take everyone to, it was great fun, and whilst not the best food ever it was certainly interesting. Guess who was the one who ate the chicken foot and had the chicken head in his mouth!!!! Anyway it was a great celebration, a full team turn out, and it made it finally a birthday to remember, so good to have Jono there too.

Mandy and I had a day off sail mending and were taken out by a local business man called Carson Xia, I met him at the awards evening and he was keen to show someone around Qingdao and in return be shown around the boat.  He took us for a delicious lunch of dumplings and then took us on a tour of the town, he explained all about Qingdao to us and then took us (at my request) to look around his factory.  They made induction hobs for industrial chinese kitchens, so basically huge bowl shaped induction units to put a wok in!  Some of them were a metre in diameter, it was fascinating to see and the product seemed really good, but the health and safety in the factory....................well!

Carson's Daughter Chen Chen and her Friend Chi Chi

One evening we got a taxi with Shaggy and Panda (Nick and Anne) to the night market where Shaggy and I had great fun bartering for things we really didn't need!  Anne said we were like magpies going after all the shiny things, but I'm sure you will understand that you can't have too many head torches/torches/lighters/nail clippers/headphones/leatherman multi tools......... wish my mate Pete Baldwin had been there, he would've loved it!

Photo Shoot with crabs!

The weather in Qingdao had been really quite good whilst we were there, not the polluted foggy weather you imagine, it was clear and often sunny but absolutely freezing.  Unfortunately on the day we were leaving all that changed.  I opened the curtains to see it was snowing!!  As the morning wore on that turned to rain and fog and the devoted race followers will be aware that race start was delayed because of it.  However we had a rousing send off from the drummers and cheering crowds.  Gordon got to wear his golden cloak again and we were each given a gift of Chinese sweets to take with us.  Interestingly these sweets were in large straw handbags (with a flower on) of various colours, just what we needed for a trip across the pacific!  All our team gave their bags to Mandy and Catriona so goodness knows what they've done with them.

Page 3 photo shoot!

Life at an angle

Snow on the deck

Keith with his handbag!

Me, Lesley and Hector, ready to go

Watch This Space

So we're off again, longest leg, longest time at sea, can't really say I'm looking forward to it but as Gordon says we must keep the faith.  Keep watching the race viewer, keep cheering us on and to those of you coming to San Francisco, I really can't wait to get there... but don't hold your breath.