14 posts tagged “panama”
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)
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
Looks like that black & white blob passing under Centennial Bridge this afternoon wasn't Glasgow after all. As you can see from the attached picture, I've just spotted what looks like two Clippers approaching this bridge after passing through the Miraflores Lock. So the correct order of the camera's is Miraflores, Centennial Bridge and then Gatun and it looks like it takes them about 40 minutes to get from Miraflores to Centennial.
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!
Well you have probably been wondering what we have been doing on the ‘Mighty Durbs’ as we have gradually slipped into the prize position of 10th - apart from lose all wind! Unfortunately our tactical move of moving inshore to get the sea breeze in the day has not paid off as much as we hoped. We have been getting some sea breeze in day between 11am & 5pm but not the 15-20 knts we would have liked & not for as long as we liked.
But life has definitely not been dull! We have perfected the art of changing sails between the kite, the windseeker & the No1 & staysail in order to get the maximum speed out of every breath of wind that comes in our direction. Each watch now performs this slick routine with an audience of birds. Today we had 2 visitors to admire our sail manoeuvres, Princess Beatrice the Booby & Cilla the Cow bird who hung around for the best part of the day. Our packing of the spinnaker has also been perfected & at last count it took less than 10 mins to complete (mainly ‘cos it is so damn hot down below!!)
In addition to this, as the temperature drops the ladies gym has grown to a team of 5 performing a hard-core gym routine on the sun deck- entertaining the guys as they decipher whether the Yarpie, Aussie or the Limmies are working the hardest!
Mixed up with all this activity we have fitted in a wonderful swim, wildlife spotting, watching the spectacular sunsets & sunrises, plenty of reading, card games, lots of chatter & laughter plus thinking about all our amazing followers at home (in particular today’s birthday followers - my Dad, Sarah & the Flynnster! Happy B-Day !) & some reflection on what happens when we get home!
All in all we might be last but we are having a great time soaking up the sun & getting ready for the ‘WA challenge’ - best fancy dress when we meet up to tow one another into Panama!!
Lucy
Another nice swim this morning, before getting down to putting up the sails, and starting the engine for the long haul to Panama. The mothers could be heard bickering in the galley with the Female Yarpie bird (a yet unknown bird among the twitchers world) berating and pecking at any of the male birds of any description within reach, and getting the galley spotless.
Bill
Sunday - Whilst struggling with the lack of wind all sorts of activities are underway. Firstly we have the reverse of fishing; usually fishermen sit for hours on the banks of a river waiting for a fish to bite. Here on night watch there is suddenly a thud as a flying fish launches itself at us, then a flapping as it crashes around. Five head torches scan the decks like a WW2 Stalag 13 movie. Next the fish slice is used to try and high flip them over the guardrail and back to sea. Meanwhile someone holding the spinny sheet is yelling “grind”. Even the lightweight spinny last night was in a condition of almost permanent collapse. We sought the wind here, we sought it there, but it was not a dedicated follower of the GRIB files. We have constantly tried to move to where the wind ‘should be’; however, like Moriarty, by the time we arrive it has always vanished to perpetrate crimes elsewhere.
This morning whilst trying to sail on a millpond we tacked at least 30 times in a four hour watch, we have not tacked this frequently since part B training down the estuary. All it resulted in is a muscle building exercise for us, and a mental exercise in the art of dealing with frustration. Whoever wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance needs to write an updated version for the sailing fraternity - life here is not Zen like. As the watch wore on we were voicing more and more ridiculous ideas as to how we could get ourselves moving - however if we list them you may lose faith in our sanity and we want the next set of ‘leggers’ to be waiting in Jamaica. Whilst this debate was occurring a turtle passed swimming in a lugubrious manner and gave us a cheeky wave - thank goodness it was heading in the opposite direction - otherwise we would have had the indignity of being overtaken by a very chilled out turtle. Finally on coming off watch we checked our ETA - we are currently due into Panama in 2013 - no doubt this is why we are called Durban 2010 and Beyond!!
Bank Holiday Monday - As the boat was stationary this morning for a few hours most of us took the opportunity for a refreshing dip in the Ocean - any hint of sunshine in the UK on Bank Holiday does require us to leap white skinned and semi naked into nearby water. The Pacific was warm and revitalising. After a short dip the wind picked up and we hoisted sail and are currently sailing at around 6 knots.
