Jimmy Sails World
 
Qingdao finally arrived home after 11 months and 3 weeks away. They finished race 15, Den Helder to Southampton in 8th position. Out of the 10 boats they came 9th overall just falling short of Derry/Londonderry in 8th place by 4 points. They were the only boat to be awarded the Henri Lloyd Seamanship award.

Congratulations to all crew for their extraordinary achievement and Thank you to Ian (Un)Conchie for bringing them all safely (if not slightly battered) home.

 
Today at 11:00 GMT, the final race of the Clipper Round the world Yacht race began. The fleet left Den Helder, Netherlands for a short 260 mile race across the English Channel heading for the Home Port of Southampton.

The Clipper Race fleet will arrive in Southampton this Sunday 22 July to a huge celebration after 51 weeks of ocean racing, visiting 15 ports of call on six continents. This will complete the world’s longest ocean race, seeing around 500 people from all walks of life celebrating their remarkable achievement after nearly twelve months at sea.(Clipper website extract)


Come On the Mighty Q!


 
Today at 13:06 GMT, Qingdao finished race 14 in 5th place. Congratulations Guys.
 
The weather here has improved but now we are in the North Sea we are not getting enough wind! cant bloody win, but at least its not as wet!!

Its just a slog at the moment and my sealskins all seam to have given up the ghost! wet feet mmmmmmm!!!!!

We have been going through our entire sail wardrobe over the past 24 hours
from Yankee 3, 2, 1 then lightweight spinnaker to the medium weight, all in all a lot of work so we are all tired and achy too. Also the flu seems to have joined us. Cath is unwell as is Lynn but others (inc me ) are showing some symptoms! Joy of joys!!!

Ah well about 2 days to go, cant wait, but mainly so I can be warm!!!!
 
Sorry i have not emailed before. It got terribly bumpy, very wet and bloody cold! all that meant no sleep and a very grumpy James! Also that I could not get into the nav station properly to write!

Anyway.... less than 2 weeks!!!!!  I can not wait, If someone had a magic button and I could press it and be home I would! I don't think I would be the only crew member either!
 
Today at 17:00 Qingdao began race 14 to Den Helder, Netherlands. This is a 800 mile race and it will take them over the top of Scotland and across the North sea, battling against strong opposing currents in order to reach their destination. Good luck guys
 
Qingdao finished Race 13 and were welcomed into Derry/Londonderry to a rapturous welcome from all of the Clipper fleet and the crew from Derry/Londonderry singing 'Black Betty' at the top of their lungs! Welcome back to the UK guys...Many pints of Guinness are awaiting!
 
Were in UK waters!!!!!!!!!!!

Trivia for the day!  Lots of the oceanic features around here are named after the Lord of the Rings

Rohan sea mount

Gondor sea mount
fangorn Bank
Lorien knoll

cool eh!  there is also a Bill Bailey's Bank I wonder if it was for the
Part trol;l Bill Bailey. Perhaps he is a part time oceanographer and named the LOTR ones too! Who Knows eh!

 Well our eta is about 24 hours to finish (10/11pm tomorrow your time) unfortunately we can not get into the marina between 10pm and 6am so we may end up hanging around for hours!!! least I should have UK phone signal!
 
Things are well here and we are doing well. Oh yes you may have read that we are the Usain Bolts of the north Atlantic! we sprinted our way into one extra point (showing never quitting can pay off) so we had a hard and fast 11 hours while that was going on. This was made all the harder with our water rationing! Yup our H2O maker has almost lost the will to live and so is not putting out enough! The result has been water for drinking only and limited to how much (this was quickly extended to cooking after one bout of saltwater cooked pasta (we ate it but not good!)) Showers, hot water bottles and washing up are banned or to be done with salt water! MMMMmmm!

Things not too bad now as we are close to land and the maker has caught up a bit so crisis over


Well that all that's fit to print now. Mothering tomorrow so will hit you with another email then
 
We have a current ETA for Derry as the 1st / 2nd but that would mean us maintaining our current pace (unlikely given the weather is not good  (a large high... no wind!) but we shall see. The next boat ahead of us is Derry so if we could beat them it would be amazing but 200nm in 5 or so days is a massive task! but we are not giving up! Oh and we are now on the same longitude as the south coast of England so that's cool!!

The weather has been lovely today, blue sky if chilly and so moods have been lifted. We finished our circumnavigation of Claire's Ipod today and have now started to do the same with Lucy's! we started Lucy's with I am the one and only!!! and that's how it has progressed! I think we are all officially insane now! Call the men in the white coats, they will be busy in Southampton!


Well I need to back on deck now (I sneaked off for a cheeky email to you!) Its been an amazing food day today "The Perfect Storm "of food 3 favourite meals for me  Bacon butty for breakfast (did not miss this one!) that is a very rare creature. Then noodles for lunch and its Thai curry for dinner (they do not appear on the same day usually) so combined make the best food day yet, the three food storms combining for the Perfect Storm! Round three - Thai curry, coming up in 2 hours!!! I cant wait!!

    Author


    Its like Jim Kirk but without the star dates and I'm not the captain!

     Well here is where you can get to find out a little more about how I'm getting on in my quest for adventure.

    I aim to keep you posted on my training (both how I cope with learning to sail and how I am getting into shape for the race), How I am doing with regards to funding and how much money I have raised for good causes.

    I intend on this to be a journal of everything connected to this epic adventure, so at times it may be funny, sometimes full of grumbles and sometimes down right crazy! but I hope at all times it will reflect my experiences and feelings at the time.

    So watch this space!!!

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