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.