20 posts tagged “leg 6”
Having safely navigated our way through the Panama Canal without too much delay, (some boats have to wait months!), the Clipper fleet assembled some 50 miles north of Colon for its Le Mans start. With all ten boats lined abreast, sailing behind an imaginary line, a countdown commences and on starters orders a hive of activity commences as the crews compete to hoist their headsails and helm their most efficient course towards Jamaica.
Durban 2010 and Beyond, true to its latest form unfortunately only managed to cross the line in 10th position, but gradually after some determined sailing picked its way through the fleet and by nightfall was comfortably placed mid table. During the night, after endeavouring a number of heavy squalls , storms ,rain and some “dodgy” evolutions we found ourselves once again to the back of the field. With the Dawn however came a renewed vigour and determination, with some more precise trimming and helming we soon found ourselves where will belong in the upper half of the table. Nevertheless with this being such a short leg the margins for error are obviously reduced and as I write we are all conscientiously doing our best to “get our act together”.
To all of our followers and especially the little people, thank you once again for all your positive and supportive comments. To the pupils of the “Academy” especially I know that you will have been trying your best recently, in your assessments, and I trust you will be rewarded accordingly. To friends and family, keep blowing those special winds, especially at this final stage into Jamaica; “ Once You Go You Know” and after our 48 hours pit stop in the Land of Bob Marley an Reggae I expect its once you’ve been you’ve seen! And then its New York, New York.
Until the next time when we will be homeward bound, I trust that with fair winds and safe harbours we will see you all again soon, possibly from that Podium position that we all deserve and continue to work hard for.
John (Big Guns)
To celebrate Durban's arrival in Port Antonio this week we have a selection of drinks to help you get tropical.
Jamaican Rum Punch
- 1 cup Bacardi 151 rum
- 1/2 cup Myer's dark rum
- 1/4 cup Malibu coconut rum
- 2 1/2 cups pineapple juice
- 2 1/2 cups orange juice
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 3 tbsp grenadine syrup
- ice cubes
Mix all ingredients together in a blender or punch bowl. Pour over ice cubes in any type of glass.
The next three are courtesy of Barbara Walker at Hotel Mockingbird Hill and brought to us by Steph, who has been doing plenty of quality control since arriving at the weekend!
Clipper Fizzle (non-alcoholic and therefore not tested by us!)
- 8cl pineapple juice
- 4cl orange juice
- 1cl lime juice
- 1cl simple syrup
- dash of angostura bitters
- soda water
Put everything except the soda water into a tulip glass with ice. Top up with soda and garnish with a slice of orange.
Clipper Fizz (extensively tested!)
- 4cl Genesis
- 2cl Mocking Bird Orange Liqueur
- 8cl pineapple juice
- 4cl orange juice
- 1cl lime juice
- 1cl simple syrup
- dash of angostura bitters
- soda water
Put everything except the soda in a cocktail shaker with some ice. Shake well and pour into a tulip glass with ice. Top up with soda and garnish with a slice of orange.
Super Clipper Fizz (to be tested when Durban crosses the line first)
- 4cl Genesis
- 2cl Mocking Bird Orange Liqueur
- 8cl pineapple juice
- 4cl orange juice
- 1cl lime juice
- 1cl simple syrup
- dash of angostura bitters
- prosecco
Put everything except the prosecco in a cocktail shaker with some ice. Shake well and pour into a tulip glass with ice. Top up with prosecco and garnish with a slice of orange.
Fingers crossed they get to try out the Super Clipper Fizz!
BTW if you're wondering what Genesis is, it's a local white rum, so Bacardi would do as a substitute for those of us not lucky enough to be in Jamaica!
An update from Steph who has arrived in Jamaica:
We went down to the marina yesterday - what a beautiful setting! It's very small but has it's own beach, pool and cocktail bar which is already being colonised by Clipper crew, friends and family. More crew are arriving all the time. The Durban Supporters Group (Port Antonio branch) will be getting together tonight to celebrate Charlie's birthday.
The latest news on the boats is that they will arrive here on Thursday. This means the stopover will be shorter than planned and will be a hectic two days, especially as there are lots of parties to fit in! Fortunately, all the victualling for the races up to Halifax has been done in Panama so we'll just be taking some fruit and a few other fresh things on board. The official Jamaica Tourist Board party is Thursday evening and then on Friday we're all taking part in a TV show called the Pressure Cooker where an amateur chef has to cook for us and try to earn his/her ticket home. If they don't succeed they have to do a forfeit. In our programme it will be to drink a bowl of goat's head soup. I don't think this is a recipe that we'll be adding to the Dine with Durban cookbook!
The boats will leave, as planned, on 24 May but in the meantime, there's plenty of time for going to the beach, rafting on the Rio Grande and trips to Reich Falls to stand under the waterfall and swim in the pools below.
I'm sure this is all character building for the epic trip ahead ;-)
Steph
In case you missed the three boats passing through the canal earlier today, here's a selection of screenshots taken from the webcams.
Ricky has been in touch to let us know that Durban will be slipping at 6am tomorrow morning (17th) and heading for the canal. Panama is 6 hours behind the UK so that makes it a reasonable 12pm for us. They will be joined by WA and Hull & Humber.
It will probably be a couple of hours before you see them on any of the webcams though. I sat watching for New York, Uniquely Singapore & Glasgow: Scotland with Style this afternoon and they didn't pass under Centennial Bridge until after 4pm UK time .... well at least I think the tiny white & black blob was Glasgow ;) I managed to just about catch them on the high res camera coming out of Miraflores Locks when I got in this evening which was at 6pm. So it's a long process just to get that far. According to the Clipper site, it will take them about 12 hours to pass through the canal, so if you're up early you might catch them coming out through Gatun Locks tomorrow morning.
If you've been keeping your eyes peeled on the canal webcams looking for the boats, it would seem from the amount of updates on Facebook this evening that the fleet will be leaving Flamenco Marina tomorrow to go through. No details on what time yet, but as soon as I have any information I'll post it here. Alternatively if anyone has spoken to any of the crew & has those details, get in touch - crew@durbanclipper.com
It would seem that the Durban crew went out for dinner the other night, if you're wondering how they manage that whilst motoring off the coast of Costa Rica & Panama, well this update from Trudy on board WesternAustralia2011.com:
We’re still a long way from Panama and don’t have enough fuel to motor all the way, therefore there has been a slight change of plan, which proved momentarily confusing for some of us.
The news was that the day would have us heading to Costa Rica for fuel and calling in to Durban for dinner en-route. Eh? Scratching of heads, rubbing of eyes and blank stares elicited further explanation; Durban ‘the boat’ had invited us over for dinner.
We would make the rendezvous point first and as it was scorching hot and the sea was like glass, we had the chance to scrub up for our night out. And so it was that we had a little crew swap for the evening and a jolly nice night out it was too. Food was good, a change of company and conversation was inspiring, having a nosey around their boat compulsory. A few hours later our boats met up again to return crew, only it turned into a bit of a sleepover and westernaustralia2011.com had a few extra bods to put up for the night. Not a problem, it was extremely hot and plenty of room on deck to house everyone. Spare bedding found, hot chocolates drank, we were a happy and sleepy boat. The stars were out, the wind was fresh and the light-show was amazing. Hold on, we don’t usually have a light-show. A few minutes later a fantastic lightning display was underway. Worried it might rain, I consulted with one of our RTW-ers as to the likelihood of rain and was assured, “guaranteed it absolutely would not rain” - it poured! However, it only added to a very memorable and fun evening!
Trudy Willows
Sweltering heat is making life onboard Durban 2010 and Beyond a challenge in more ways then one. The temperature during the day on deck touches at 40 degrees celsuis and at night never drops below 35 degrees celsuis. The crew goes to sleep in their bikini’s and board shorts. The heat makes it impossible to sleep down below when you are off watch during the day with the result that your day is 18 hours or longer. The business of sailing still takes priority and tasks like helming, woolling the spinnaker, cooking and cleaning on mother watch and sail changes leaves the crew dripping wet. As someone said - this is certainly the world’s most expensive sauna.
Patricia
At last count the Durban crew have spent 17 days at sea. And with the prospect of another 3 to 4, their race from Santa Cruz to Panama has turned into something not quite anticipated. Seeking wind here, seeking wind there, seeking wind everywhere! With finish place of 10th position - this wasn’t the sleigh-ride they were expecting, nor the outcome the crew have become accustomed to.
Baking heat, light airs and slapping sails are a test for even the most ardent and experienced sailors. Any yacht racer worth their salt knows anyone can sail in an abundance of wind; sailing in very little takes real skill and motivation. And keeping a 68-foot boat moving through the water in 6 knots of breeze is something else again.
It was only on the rare occasion throughout those 6 days, when we seemed to be caught in our own private wind hole, that I saw Durban grind to a halt. As a group of people thrown together with varying degrees of sailing experience, for many literally learning on the job, it amazed me to see how the Skipper and Crew performed under these difficult conditions and with what grace they accepted their final result.
I have now been onboard Durban for 4 weeks - a motley crew indeed. A retired scout leader, a farmer, a mother and son, a doctor, recruitment consultant, nursery teacher, a fireman; 16 people ranging in age from 17 to 68. Delve below the surface of any one of them and you discover their motivations for becoming a part of this race as individual and extraordinary as each of them.
As a media person along for the ride, I am only too aware of my privileged position to observe this melting pot of experience, personalities and nationalities involved in the Clipper Race; to see first hand Sir Robin’s vision of “Ordinary people doing extraordinary things”. On this point though I beg to differ Sir Robin - these are extraordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Vic.
A quick update on life on board from Lucy:
Off to Costa Rico now for quick refuel & collect bag of fresh fruit & cold beers.Cold being the exciting word!Currently 40C@ day & 33C@night!Then onto Panama for another brief stop might not even get a night there b4 go thr' canal & race to J.All fired up for a good race!
... and we thought it was a little warm in the UK!
