In the early hours of today, Qingdao Finished Race 11 in 9th place. They will be Docked in Liberty Landing Marina, New Jersey, until Sunday 3rd June, then they will move across the Hudson River to North Cove Marina, New York, until their departure on 8th June.
I think we are all feeling down at the moment as we have worked really hard, the consolation at the moment is that we are 1 mile ahead of Derry (who we want to beat for a few reasons) so we are not last! we hope we can hold on!
But the main thing is getting to NY, around 70 miles (12 hours if we are lucky! then we have about 6 hours of motoring into NY itself). Should still give us plenty of time to get stuff done before you arrive. speaking of arrival, it will be interesting to see if you get this email before I get phone signal! another race!!! Well the news here is the wildlife has picked up even if the wind has not. We saw an Osprey flying around that kept trying to land on our mast. We had to scare it off as it would definitely break our wind instruments! Then yesterday we saw a flying fish leap out of the water (nothing unusual there) except after it leaped a massive Mahi Mahi (Dolphin fish) these are large fish and absolutely stunning Blues, greens and yellows. We shouted Dave (who was eating his dinner) and he came up to have a fish, we then saw about 4 following the boat! Frantic fishing by Dave...hooked one! about half an hour of fighting on his land line Dave and Phil landed the 25 pound beast! the colours so vibrant in the water quickly fade after death, a truly sad visual of life and death, made me a little sad, as you know me and my fish combined with my soft streak. But as Dolphin fish is very good eating today I shall be putting all feeling except hunger aside and tucking in to fresh food on board with the rest of the crew! Well thats about it for now. We are just doing our best to claw what we can back from the rave and head towards Pizza, pretzels, beer and liberty herself as quickly as possible! Sorry for not replying sooner but as you may have read from other sources its been quite busy here since we last spoke. It all started the night of my mother watch (interrupted again) by a spinnaker rip and then has been just sail change after sail change in the rain mostly since then!
Im sure there is lots to update you with but im shattered and need to get some sleep as its our double night watches tonight (6-10 and 2-6) so I need my sleep! We are out of the dreaded triangle now so you can breathe again and as i write are 300nm from New York! Our ETA is Sunday so it does mean more time to get stuff done before you arrive. I just cant wait now its almost like counting sleeps for Christmas! so im gonna head off to slumber land, I will try and write again v soon if I can. sorry its a short one. Leg 7, Race 11, Day 8 - I wore the shorts in the 90's, now I'm sailing it....Bermuda Time!!!22/5/2012 Its motherwatch and so time to kick back and get an email sent!
Well the first news is.... We're in the Triangle!!!!! Oh yes we are sailing through one of the most legendary areas of ocean in the world! So far, all boats present and correct (although the sneaky Scots are in stealth!) We've headed east (north too of course) but Ourselves, Edinburgh and Yorkshire are all east on one route while the rest are heading west. Its a bit of an all or nothing move, If it works and the Atlantic weather fills in from the East we should be in a really strong position fighting between the three boats for possible podiums or we will be the last three boats (which has been our usual position!....) Who knows? all we can do is sail hard and hope for good wing so fingers crossed all! We have had a mixed bag of conditions recently. Mainly light winds and flat seas (or with an annoying "slop" that rocks the boat uncomfortably, making the sails flog and not work well in the light wind. The weather has generally been hot! hot! hot! with 100% humidity so sweaty and unable to dry has been the case. Then we get the odd squall like the one the other day when OB decided to take a shower on deck! We had another on last night but with lots of wind so we were again heeled over but this time chilly! we made a bit of ground for a few hours but needed more for any significant difference! OB once again stripped of his shirt before the rain set in. (i did not ... no need to inflict that on anyone!) Now James has lived shirtless since Mexico (pre Panama and is quite tanned, this was OB's first foray into shirtlessness and he was as pasty as I am under the shirt prompting a temporary new nickname of "Snow B"! Bless him, he makes life on this voyage a real joy, and again I reiterate Is a Hero! Life in general as we have passed through the Bahamas has cooled a little, just enough for people to start getting some decent sleep. With this sleep have come the infamous 'boat dreams'! Most people seem to suffer from them but especially Dave, Anna and myself (all must be a little insane I think!) But It does keep us entertained recounting the crazy world of our dreams (my last one included us overtaking a group of Polynesian canoe people in the boat then being swallowed by a giant super container ship that had been converted into a scientific research ship where everyone dressed in white! They gave us all jobs and sailed us to Southampton for race finish! As I said, insane, but we are sleeping and that is the main thing! And yes, I was a little grumpy at first when I was too tired! Thats how I roll! I need my sleep! The rest of boat life has been quite standard, eat, sail, try to sleep, eat sail, go to loo, eat, sail, sleep (sometimes it feels like we are doing more than one of these things at a time!! I have been barefoot since I lost my warm weather deck shoe. But my feet are loving their freedom, I dont think I have worn more than a flip flop since a few days out of San Fran, my feet are not looking forward to the constraints of footwear in NYC and beyond but the rest of me cant wait! Oh, I did say we had not had much wildlife. well thats not exactly true.. We have not had any marine life but have had several land birds visiting us and hitching rides between islands (they never pay their way!) We have some photos so will have to try and ID them when I get back, and lots of insects! Dragon flies, big bitey looking things too, the fly spray has been out in force!! Not what we were expecting but wildlife all the same! I will write some more tomorrow (second part of being a 'Lazy Mother!!) so for now I am going to say goodnight, Its been a busy day, breakfast serving, chicken and rice for lunch and then lasagna for tea and in-between I managed to watch Wales win a Grand Slam against France.... Awesome!!! To say it is hot here at the moment is an understatement. We are all melting, sleep is almost impossible to find except for the last few hours of night when it is finally cool enough to sleep! Despite having only one working head (loo) on board there are no queues as no one can drink enough water to keep up with the sweating and need the loo too! its bad! To top it all off we have been struggling with wind (not only from the chic peas in the chilli) but with a lack of it to drive the boat. This has made traversing the 'Windward Passage' between Haiti and Cuba a slow process. We did see lad (Haiti) in the distance and last night passed the island of Inagua last night where we could see the port of Matthew Town all lit up. We did wonder if they had a bar open and if anyone would notice if we went for beers. We thought they might so slowly we sailed past! At this rate we may never get to Jersey and may have to go straight to manhattan! Well lets hope it does not come to that!
We did have some excitement yesterday when we were 'buzzed' by a US Coastguard Helecopter. It was flying in the distance then he must have seen us and came to investigate. They did two close circles of us before calling us on the VHF radio. They basically wanted to check we were who we were and did we need anything. They were impressed we were a RTW Racing yacht, they wished us good luck with the race, said they would be in the area for a few hours if we needed anything and flew off, only to call back saying we were dragging something behind the boat that could be slowing the boat down. It was funny for skip to reply saying it was our fishing gear!! they laughed! hardcore racers to the end eh!! The general wildlife here has been dissapointing, one whale from a distance has been it. The sea is the most beautiful blue colour i've ever seen and you can (when the boat is not moving) see the sunbeams penetrating quite deep, a bit enchanting really. You can imagine how storeys of mermaids and sirens were formed by sailors. It does look like hair almost and seems to beckon you in. (though after the other days encounter I am in no hurry to be jumping in the sea again!) From a race point of view we are around mid table (up and down) so who knows how it will all pan out, All we can do is try our best. And we DO! Even when sunshine turns to rain as it just has, chucking it down! cooling refreshment for us to be honest and OB took the opportunity to have a rain shower, all good until he got soap in his eyes! bless him!! still we raced on though, not losing any speed until the rain stopped and took the wind with it leaving us to drift and drip dry for the last hour of our watch! Joy! Well to my bunk I must go now for my 6 hour off watch (1 hour gone already on lunch) we are off for the noon till 1800 hrs then night watch 1800 -2200 and 0200- 0600 tonight and I have mother watch in 3 days I cant wait! Well I doubt I will be sleeping as it is so hot I am literally forming puddles (as is everyone) wherever we are! Thank god for my Ipod and 32GB of awesome tunes to keep me occupied! I just hope it is cool enough by 10pm to sleep then or I will be a grumpy James! It happened about 8am our time (-6 hours for you) I was furthest forward on the foredeck near the bow moving our Yankee 3 sail ready for a change. the sea state and wind had been building and it was a little rough. While there a big wave hit the bow and swept us off our feet. At the same time the bow dropped into the trough of the wave and away from me ( that weightlessness feeling like on a roller coaster) because i was no longer holding on, when i came down to the boat I was the wrong side of the guard wire. ie in the sea! However, because I am a good boy (as is the rest of the crew) I was clipped on and wearing my life jacket. so I was just dangling over the side of the boat, not swept away! O.B. was next to me and with incredible Hulk strength, lifted me to a point where i could get hold of the rail myself and then Mike reached us (both O.B. and Mike had also been hit by the wave!)and their combined effort was enough to haul me back on board!
well drama over and I have a few little bruises and one less shoe! but im fine. the training and equipment all did its job and everything is fine. Today Qingdao left Shelter Bay Marina, Panama at 00:15 GMT. They motored approximately 60nm of shore for a Le Mans Start. Here the 10 yachts line up with their mainsails hoisted and the headsails hanked on all ready to go. The Crew wait just aft of the 'coffee grinder' for the start signal, once the signal is given the crew race forward to hoist the headsails and trim them as quickly as possible.
The race commenced at 23:30 GMT. They have a 2100 mile race to New york. They will cross the Caribbean sea, passing between Haiti and Cuba for the scoring gate, past the Bahamas and through the Bermuda triangle, up the East Coat of America to Liberty Landing Marina, New Jersey. Before they formally arrive in North Cove Marina, New York on the 3rd June. Qingdao Began their 51 mile transit down the Panama Canal at 13:45 GMT. They arrived at the Miraflores Lock at 16:16 GMT and completed the journey at the Gatun Lock, Carribean side at 02:48 GMT on 10/05/12.
Qingdao arrived at Flamenco Marina, Panama City at 13:00 GMT
Just a quick one to say hello, not much happening at this end. We caught up with DLL and Derry. Derry are doing the towing as they have the most fuel, we are following as standby. We are expected in panama on the 7th (our time = you minus 7 i think!) We have been experiencing lots of squalls (localised storms) so have been getting quite wet and very hot below as we have to close all the hatches. Can we all say OVEN!!! The lightning show has been quite awesome though so that kind of makes up for it!
We had another swim this afternoon and you will be pleased to know that it was algae free, just clear blue sea off the Costa Rica coast! Well thats life on the Q! | Author
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