Sailing down the Mersey

As we make our way in the final race towards Liverpool and home, my emotions waver between the elation of completing our adventure, staying the course, and yet a twinge of sadness in being unable to continue the journey encompassing even more destinations. After completing over 35,000 nautical miles, living in a unique microcosm of our very own reality show, it will be difficult not to miss the special moments and friendships that have developed throughout the circumnavigation. Whilst the relief and joy of completing such a test cannot be underestimated neither can the support that has been given to all of us from fellow crew, clipper staff, sponsors and of course friends and family. Without your special thoughts and encouragement our task would have been made even more difficult and for some maybe could have become impossible. Thank you to everyone, it really has made a difference.

Once again, may I say thank you to all of the youngsters following, especially to the pupils of Alcott Hall School. I hope you have gained as much as I have from this year’s experience. To friends and family everywhere, even though our immediate task is almost at an end, please keep blowing those warm winds, you never know when we might need them next. The journey doesn’t stop until we reach our final destination! Adieu, Bon Chance, see you all soon, sooner or soonest. Thanks for being there in thought and deed, throughout and beyond.

John

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Leaving Cork

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I am now officially an ocean racer!!  
 
So what was it like, I hear you ask....
 
Leaving Sydney was fun.  Although a small (and very remote) town, the population had really got behind the race and they turned out in droves to see us off.  We paraded down the main street escorted by children from local schools and then had an official send off from local dignataries.  As each boat slipped, its boat song was played and the names of the crew members were read out.  Inexplicably, I became Stephen Hills and the rest of the crew thought this was highly amusing.  Whenever you go on deck in the dark you have to announce who you are i.e. 'Steph on deck'.  Well obviously I now get greeted with 'Evening Steve!'.
 
We had a very exciting race start tacking out of the harbour (3-4 miles) in close proximity to the rest of the fleet and trying to avoid the numerous lobster pots.  When we got outside the harbour the wind died.  Along with the rest of the fleet we struggled for a couple of days, trying to get around Newfoundland and out into the open Atlantic where we hoped there would be more wind. 
 
The 'exciting' thing about the Newfie coast and the sea area called the Grand Banks is the combination of icebergs and thick fog.  June is the prime time for bergs and their smaller cousins called growlers (interesting point for the French speakers, growlers are called bourgignons in french - I shall look at beef in red wine in a new light!).  We operated a constant radar watch and are fairly sure that we came within 1 mile of a berg although we couldn't see it.
 
Fortunately the wind picked up. Unfortunately, it was the combination of wind direction and wave motion that allowed me to reacquaint myself with the inside of a series of brown paper bags. 12 hours later and I was back to normal and learning how to helm the boat in the Atlantic swell.  You look behind you and see waves approaching that are probably 10 feet above deck height.  It starts to roll under the boat and there is a moment when Durbs is on top of the wave and she seems to stop... And then you feel the power of the wave pick her up and you're off with water creaming away from the bow - my best speed was 12.6 knots but I've no idea how big my grin was!
 
The weather improved as we got closer to Ireland although I didn't actually take my thermals off until the last day as we sailed along the Irish Coast! 
 
We arrived in Crosshaven a couple of days ahead of schedule on Saturday night.  Coming onto the pontoon was really emotional - quite a few of the Durban crew from earlier legs were there to greet us, and Ewan and Wendy from H&H were there to meet me which was wonderful as we had shared our apprehension about the crossing before leaving Sydney.
 
I expected the Atlantic to be grey, cold and have big waves.  I have seen it like that but I have also seen it crystal clear, blue and glassy.  I never tire of looking at the sea and am constantly amazed by the power of nature.  It has been a truly amazing experience and there is still the Irish Sea and the big finish in Liverpool to come.
 
We set off for Liverpool on Thursday morning but in the meantime, we're all relaxing in Carrigaline near Cork and enjoying the craic!
 
Hope you're all well and thanks for all the 'well done' texts and emails!

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View from above

I’ve been formally instructed by my esteemed team leader, Lucy, to write the latest blog. Bearing in mind I don’t know what a blog is, this should be interesting.

I am the boat imposter, or Roger the cabin boy according to my mates in Manchester. I didn’t join until Nova Scotia and feel like I’m just about fitting in - and we are only two days away from Ireland. Having had the baptism of fire arriving into Sydney, Nova Scotia when I threw up so much I thought I was going to turn myself inside out, I’ve now found my sea legs. I had to as well, as we have had some fun over the past two days surfing down-wind in big Atlantic waves. It’s like a roller coaster you can’t get off.

I’d like to take this opportunity to represent the crew supporting role which I think is my best position, bearing in mind I’m not much good at the specialist sail racing stuff. However, we do provide an important service from head cleaning, including hair removal from below the drained floor, cooking at 30 degree angles and just generally being available to lug stuff around. It puts me in mind of Spike Milligan’s book, ‘Hitler; my role in his downfall’. Mine will be ‘Clipper; my role in their success’.

When you sit on deck, sometimes for quite long periods with not much to do, your mind does wander. I’m in a watch with three women and, when you can get a word in edge ways, deck games are in order. Steph suggested ‘shoot, shag, marry’ - which took up the hours on the night watch. Mandy was asked to choose between Bungle, Zippy and George. She shot poor old George, I think cos she saw a challenge in the talking department, shagged Zippy, maybe he is the submissive type and married Bungle cos he is warm and furry!!!...what!!

There’s a lot of talk about ‘short and curlies’ when cleaning the heads. I seem to remember a Geoff Capes type pulling a double decker London bus attached to his. When witnessing the vang snapping during a particularly fierce gust of wind I got to think of how I could contribute more to Clipper. Why not suggest Geoff becomes the source of the raw material for Marlow the rope suppliers. Rope damage would be a thing of the past…..generous! Have we got a patents specialist somewhere??

Signing off…nanu nanu.

Paul H

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James having his hair washed by Steph

Today I am informed that we passed the longitude of Salvador, the furthest point west on our outward track, so we have finally completed a full 360 degrees around the world (though the official round the world won’t be completed until we cross our own track, probably somewhere in the Irish Sea). My question was, does that mean I can get off now? As there is no land in sight, nor will be for several days, this is hardly practical. And in any case, now that the wind has dropped and the sea state calmed, life on board Durban 2010 and Beyond has improved greatly. Today it was actually possible to go on deck without foulies and not get wet. And we reached a summery 9 degrees this afternoon! The South Africans on board need some convincing that this is not a normal British summer temperature, hopefully our arrival in Liverpool will involve temperatures in double figures and show them that Britain can be warm.

The improved living conditions, as usual, mean that we are running out of wind, and as the depression is moving east, the boats to the east of us (i.e. those in front) will run out of wind a day or two after us. So they will be able to build on their lead whilst we struggle with dying winds. However, we are becoming experts in bobbing about in light winds, having done several thousands of miles of it since leaving California. Our greatest hope is to reach our destination in one piece, as close to the intended arrival date as possible, and without motoring. We are flying our medium weight spinnaker, which seems to have suffered a moth attack whilst we weren’t looking, as it has developed a number of holes. When it is dropped our enthusiastic leg 7ers will be able to display their spinnaker repair talents and patch them. And as one of the thankfully underemployed sail repair team (when we damage sails we tend to do it in such a big way that there’s no repairing them) I shall supervise… possibly from my bunk!

Claire

To celebrate mid-way across the Atlantic and the round the worlders’ circumnavigation, Lucy opened her beauty salon for business on the foredeck. In the glorious sunshine, six punters (five girlies and James) took the plunge and stuck their head in the bucket, (ably and possibly a little over-enthusiastically) assisted by Steph in order to complete the hair washing process! This was followed by an entertaining round of charades - who can forget Mandy’s re-enactment of Gremlins, John doing the Karma Sutra (alone!) and Steph crawling around the saloon floor pretending to be a lamb in the hope the audience guessed the film Shawshank Redemption (lamb shank, obviously!)?

As we kept ourselves amused the wind died, moved around and then built to allow us to make some good headway on the fleet. Overnight we had several sail changes and successfully patched the four tears on the spinnaker allowing Claire an uninterrupted night’s sleep. Using the spinnaker as a headsail caused considerable chaffing on the starboard halyard; it was rechased by Michelle and Pete on the 3am-6am watch - another first for the leggers.

We are all hoping these speeds will continue with resultant gains on the balance of the fleet with each 6-hour run. We would all love a podium finish. We can certainly get used to travelling at 12knots +!

Enthusiastic leggers, Steph, Lucy & Michelle

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Clipper have now added a new area to the Multimedia section that lists the air dates of the Clipper RTW Yacht Race TV Series. In the UK & Ireland it will be shown on Sky Sports & Setanta, in South Africa it can be seen on M-Net Supersports and in Japan it airs on Gaora Sports.

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James & John

This morning’s plan to take a nice sunrise shot for the Summer Sailstice always had a slim chance of success. After a week of fog during our crossing of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland we now have 8/8 cloud cover and drizzle. It is unlikely that any sunset shots will be possible either. But in true Durban 2010 and Beyond tradition of innovation and fortitude, we have baked a cake which we intend to decorate with a sunny scene and take a photo of that. It also has the added much welcomed benefit of being able to eat it after the photos have been taken.

We are currently well heeled over and making 8 to 9 knots of boat speed in slightly stronger than forecast winds. The latest synoptic chart and GRIB files show that the weather for this race is now going to be dominated by a single low pressure system which is currently tracking below us. It is due to intensify and move quite quickly across the Atlantic, destined to finally batter the North of Scotland with some happy summer weather.

We are going to be hard pressed to keep up with it as it moves North East, but we must try our best to stay near it and make use of its winds, because behind it there will be very little wind until the next low pressure decides to come across, and there is no sign yet of another one leaving the coast of Canada. With 1400 miles to go to the Fastnet Rock, and an ETA to Cork of 29 June, it is still looking promising that we might actually be able to finish this race.

All is good on Durban 2010 and Beyond, the cold and wet conditions are being dealt with remarkably well, and “life at an angle” is becoming the norm. The tricky bit is going to be when we tack onto a port tack later today, and find that all the things currently secured for a starboard tack fly across the boat. Today should also be the day when we sail through the 45 degrees west mark and thus complete seven eighths of our round the world race.

Ricky

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Race start, Sydney, NS

After our stopover in Halifax, where we had time to sample the local seafood fare, we set off on a special race to Sydney, Nova Scotia. This did not count as points towards the RTW yacht race, but was to celebrate the 250 years of democracy in Canada. The first day’s sailing was fairly benign with up to Force 4 and we were all relaxed and enjoying the conditions. However, overnight conditions changed to Force 8 on the nose, temperatures dropped rapidly and large volumes of water headed towards us over the decks. Sadly these conditions floored a few of our new leggers who thought they were over the worst of their seasickness, not to mention the various dignitaries and journalists spread throughout the fleet. At least it gave them some of the RTW experience!

The stopover in Sydney was short and the weather fairly cold, so the golf channel covering the US Open had a couple of hundred more viewers. In addition there were a number of local cultural activities, such as aboriginal Canadian blessings for the fleet, and live music to keep us amused. Many people came to see the boats and we were frequently stopped in the street by interested locals.  And the start of the race did not disappoint; probably our most exciting yet with the wind on the nose, all 10 boats had to tack in very close quarters for 3-4 miles with numerous near misses and positions constantly changing. We then had a day of enjoyable force 3-4 sailing before the wind died.  We are now in force 1-2 force with next to no wind. The wind is constantly changing direction - in the last 4 hours it has been WSW, ESE, SSW, N & E. No sooner have we set the sails than we have to change them again. Added to this, we are also in dense fog and have New York and Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper 1-2 miles away, but we cannot see them.  We are operating a constant radar watch with someone shouting after each manoeuvre where the nearest boats are. The fog is so eerie we fully expect the famous ghost ship ‘The Flying Dutchman’ to sail across our bow.

We still have not cleared Newfoundland, but once passed this we will be on iceberg watch - which should be interesting.  Currently the nearest ‘berg’ logged by satellite is 40 miles away. Iceberg watch will be taken very seriously as many of us visited the Maritime Museum in Halifax from where the rescue and recovery of the Titanic was coordinated and the cemetery where many of the unidentified victims are buried. We are grateful for the satellite information coming in, and the radar on the boat.

We still have a long way until we are clear of land and in the expanse of the Atlantic, but we are all looking forward to the challenges ahead in this race. Although mid summer approaches, it is still far too cold for any mid-summer shenanigans....

Mandy & Steph

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As you'll have seen from the race viewer on the Clipper site, the 12 hour runs have not been great as the whole fleet seems have ground to a halt. Steph updates us on conditions onboard:

Hello from almost Grand Banks.V frustrating as between weather systems & stuck in wind hole with fog.W'seeker up then Y1 then w'seeker-trying everything 2 find wind.Had best run in last scheds but still 9th.Even wildlife thinks we're 2 slow 2 bother coming 2 play.All watches working hard but ETA Cork 21 Nov,will try to make it sooner!

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Clipper have today announced that the TV series that Sunset + Vine/APP have been making as we have all been racing around the world airs this week.

Sky Sports in the UK will be showing the first programme of the series today (Weds 18 June) and tomorrow (Thursday 19 June) in the following slots:

Wednesday 18 June
Sky Sports Xtra – 1800 / 2300

Thursday 19 June
Sky Sports Xtra – 0200
Sky Sports 3 – 0730 / 1200

Each of the ten programmes will be shown on a weekly basis in these regular slots.

For race followers in South Africa, the series can be seen on M-Net Supersport at the following times:

Episode 1

Wednesday 18 June 2008,  17:30 – 18:00 (Premier)
Thursday 19 June 2008, 13:00 – 13:30
Friday 20 June 2008, 23:30 – 00:00
Saturday 21 June 2008, 10:00 – 10:30

Episode 2

Wednesday 25 June 2008, 18:00 – 18:30 (Premier)
Thursday 26 June 2008, 14:00 – 14:30
Friday 27 June 2008, 22:00 – 22:30
Saturday 28 June 2008, 10:00 – 10:30

Episode 3

Wednesday 02 July 2008, 18:00 – 18:30 (Premier)
Thursday 03 July 2008, 14:00 – 14:30
Friday 04 July 2008, 22:00 – 22:30
Saturday 05 July 2008, 10:00 – 10:30

Episode 4

Wednesday 09 July 2008, 18:00 – 18:30 (Premier)
Thursday 10 July 2008, 14:00 – 14:30
Friday 11 July 2008, 22:00 – 22:30
Saturday 12 July 2008, 10:00 – 10:30

Episode 5

Wednesday 16 July 2008, 18:00 – 18:30 (Premier)
Thursday 17 July 2008, 13:30 – 14:00
Friday 18 July 2008, 23:30 – 00:00
Saturday 19 July 2008, 10:00 – 10:30

Episode 6

Wednesday 23 July 2008, 17:30 – 18:00 (Premier)
Thursday 24 July 2008, 14:30 – 15:00
Friday 25 July 2008, 23:00 – 23:30
Saturday 26 July 2008, 10:00 – 10:30

Episode 7

Wednesday 30 July 2008, 18:00 – 18:30 (Premier)
Thursday 31 July 2008, 14:00 – 14:30
Friday 01 August 2008, 22:30 – 23:00
Saturday 02 August 2008, 10:00 – 10:30

Episode 8

Wednesday 06 August 2008, 18:00 – 18:30 (Premier)
Thursday 07 August 2008, 14:00 – 14:30
Friday 08 August 2008, 21:00 – 21:30
Saturday 09 August 2008, 11:00 – 11:30

Episode 9

Wednesday 13 August 2008, 18:00 – 18:30 (Premier)
Thursday 14 August 2008, 14:30 – 15:00
Friday 15 August 2008, 22:30 – 23:00
Saturday 16 August 2008, 10:00 – 10:30

Episode 10

Wednesday 20 August 2008, 18:00 – 18:30 (Premier)
Thursday 21 August 2008, 14:15 – 14:45
Friday 22 August 2008, 10:30 – 11:00
Saturday 23 August 2008, 23:30 – 00:00

In Japan, viewers can view the series on Gaora Sports in the following slots:

Episode 1

28 June 0900-0930
30 June 1800-1830
02 July 1230-1300
05 June 0430-0500

Episode 2

5 July 0900-0930
06 July 1800-1830
08 July 1330-1400
10 July 1000-1030

As more details of transmission dates for other countries are posted on the Clipper website, we'll update you.

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