Well on wildlife watch today, I saw more leaping dolphins at insane heights, but more impressively a Manta Ray that leaped clear out of the water too (vertically) I never expected to see that! again very cool!
We are currently on our way to join Derry and Edinburgh to assist in getting DLL back to port in time. They are having gearbox issues so can sail but not motor to when there is no wind we will be taking it in turns to tow them! like the AA we are the knights of the sea!!
as promised, instalment two of todays emails although you will have been snoozing in-between me sending them!
well today has been one of firsts for me, interesting eh! Well as you know we are now motoring but if we have wind that will make us faster than the donkey (our affectionate name for our engine!) we will sail. Today we had no wind though and so our donkey needed a rest (after 20 odd ours of work I would too!) so we had to stop. This gave us an opportunity to cool off with a swim!!
so with safety ropes dragging behind the boat and the main sail down (we have that up even when the donkey is on for a bit of extra drive and stability) it was time to get wet (some had to stay on board for safety reasons but the rest of us were free to frolic in the Pacific Ocean! of course this is no swimming pool, and so before we went in the inevitable question was asked of me.... are there sharks here? My answer was a quick ... YES! but it is very unlikely that we will encounter any. Some nervous looks then Kiwi Phil just threw himself in, followed quickly by myself! its not every day you get to swim in a pool over 4000m deep 150nm off the coast of Guatemala! it was amazing, so warm, the top meter was quite green with algae, but as you dived in off the boat you cleared this into crystal clear blue ocean! epic!! It will make the local pool seem a bit dull I think!
My next first was a little more mundane but just as good for relieving a bit of heat. You may not like this too much but it was my one and only chance for a Pacific hair cut!! it is a little shorter than normal but it will be all grown back by NY! the breeze on my head is amazing and not having a sweaty wet head is a treat too! I have to thank LLoydie for the clippers and Jane for switching roles from Nurse to Barber! it took a while as the clippers did not want to cut my fine wet hair (apparently it is made of titanium my hair) but eventually I am Shaun the sheep!! It will grow back but dont be shocked if you see any blog photos with a strange beardless short haired man who looks like someone you may know (yes the beard had to go too, shows how hot it is when my ginger chin gets removed!)
Well as I am sure you know, our race is now over, called on a line off the Guatemalan coast! all a bit gutting to have it happen that way as boats like NY and Singers only got ahead by gambling on it being called at that gate and heading NORTH! this actually got them to cross the gate quicker but would give them a longer way to go if they had had to continue to the next gate! Ah well, we made tactical decisions that did not work and here we are. next time eh!xx
On brighter notes the wildlife continues to impress. A few nights ago I saw a sailfish (like a small marlin) jumping out of the water near the boat. The next morning we were visited by around 40 dolphins who were leaping around the boat and generally showing off. then just as they were leaving us another 30 of a different species showed up and the others came back too not be outdone! so we had about 70 of the things all around the boat, incredible! this has happened on a couple of occasions since too, and we have dolphin escorts for the boat most of the night now, scaring squid and flying fish onto the deck (Lucy managed to save one (fish) and threw it back last night!) The other watch also were marine medics when the boat drove over a long line fishing set as they were freeing the boat
fount a turtle caught that they released too Heroes all of them, but failed to wake the marine biologist or take pictures!!
The other day (i forgot to mention this) we sailed through a swarm of jellyfish too which was amazing and early this morning we saw a shooting star (not that uncommon for us) but this one was massive and lit up the sky like lightning as it burnt up in the atmosphere! must have been a proper meteor! cool eh!
Well we are motoring now and are still off the Guatemalan coast about 5 to 6 more days we think and it is hot hot hot, spending most of my off time trying to sleep with low success rates but hopefully will catch up a bit on mother watch, which I am just starting!
Things here are very much the same although this evening we have a little bit of wind, can we make it count... only time will tell but we never quit so we can but see! the day has been frustrating for those on deck trying to sail what with no wind but we have had some sights...
Turtles again but this time we are calling them turtle buses as on two separate occasions turtles have had sea birds hitching a ride on their backs, poor devils! very cute though, not sure if anyone managed any photos though.
We saw pilot whales from a distance and a group of seals :porpoising out of the water. they do this to avoid predators... sharks! no swimming for the Q crew! apparently some boats have had people taking a dip! not sure if true or not. a lot of rubbish gets spoken on the radios by skippers trying to psyche out other skippers.... Skipper FM, its a funny thing. The wildlife has been very cool this leg. But the best thing was last night a large "Sea Monster" as we called it swam under our stern after circling the boat. the sea was so flat that the phosphorescent plankton did not glow unless something disturbed it, so as the leviathan swam we could see its luminous shape in the water! Very very cool... I bet Jo is almost crying with fear at he thought!!! it was either a big shark (tiger/ G. White) or a Pilot whale. I think (sadly) pilot whale as some were seen around the boat later that night, but I like to think that our Leviathan was something cooler!!
As I continue this email, it is now morning after my motherwatch and I am reasonably rested. My lasagna and bread went down well yesterday so the food supply on board is doing us well, San Fran gave us a good opportunity to get real tinned meats mmmmmm tasty, well done O.B.!
It is good that our emails are getting through, it appears that the race viewer is not doing too well, I will try and keep you posted! currently we are 6th! let me know if you are not getting info and I will try and fill the gaps.
Not much happening here i'm afraid, not much wind, the temperature is rising and we are all making slow progress, however the wildlife is quite good. I have seen two turtles, one a green turtle the other I will have to try and ID later. Dolphins are regular visitors. It is cool at night when the only way you know they are there are the sounds of their blow holes alongside the boat, its cool! Flying fish are back and so are whales! I have seen some grey whales and the other watch saw a humpback breach out of the water, very jealous! But my crowning glory was seeing a sharks fin on day one of the race, a small one but it counts! so thats the wildlife update for now. I will keep you updated as things develop!
Well since we last spoke its been busy!! Culminating in the last hour in us crossing the scoring gate (as far as we are aware) in 3rd!! Another point but more importantly we are in a good position in the race overall, even ahead of those evil aussies!! But before all that i left you mid mother watch... Well I never did get to watch a film, I was just in the shower after washing up dinner and the 'on' watch needed to drop a kite. Now it is generally the rule that mothers help in the drop by gathering in the kite below deck and helping wooling (re wrapping and packing the kite for next use). So i dutifully hurried my shower and got dressed. (clean dry shorts, pants and t shirt. The drop went well but the hoist was not simple but very problematic error! so all of a sudden i found myself on deck and sorting things in a hurry. Well to cut as long story short 3 hoists and drops of kites later (nearly 3 hours) we were back sailing normally and I could resume mother life. However I was wet and sweaty again!! PANTS!! and it was too late for a film, in fact I ended up getting less sleep than If I had been on watch! ah well, on the upside, earlier in the day I had managed to read over 100 pages of my book! beating my total for the race previous to that by over 97 pages!! ha ha!!
Anyway we also today had a bit of a rip in one of our kites so that had to be dropped and repaired so all in all busy times! everything else is sunny hot and fun so I can't complain!!
The newbies are all doing well to and are all really nice, I have NZ Phil, Holly from China and Lucy on my watch with James, OB, Lynn and me! I will tell you more about them all later tho! it's time for my bed! After eating OB's amazing Lasagna!! We eat too well to ever win on this boat, but we are fat and happy!!!!
Its mother watch for me today and its quite flat on the boat so I am trying to read my book and I may try watching a film later (crew laptop, dont know what yet) who knows this new watch system means we should finish serving dinner about 1830 so plenty of time for a shower and movie before bed. Although I am not a lazy mother so I am back on watch at 6 am (up at 0515) so I cant stay up too late!
Life on board could not be any different to the Pacific crossing. Dry, flat and sunny (ears burnt again!) flying the kites (Spinnakers) and chatting on deck have replaced sailing with normal "white" sails and huddling in silence on deck praying for watch to end! its a pleasant change! sleep is also good, our new watch system means that people are actually waking up when they are ready before watch having had enough sleep (on the 6 hours off anyway) its nice! We are currently sailing of the Baha
peninsular having passed the Island of Guadaloupe last night, we still have some wind but are not sure how long it will last! a few more days at least we hope but then it looks like light winds if any for a while ah well, make hay while the sun shines as they say!
I have even started reading the book I borrowed and have nearly done a chapter, a first for me on the race to get further than three pages!!
Not much to tell so far, we have had our spinnaker up now almost since race start and are making reasonable speeds and are in a good position (even if we are showing as mid fleet) the boats are all close but now mainly out of sight, as is land!
The new watch pattern seems ok to start with, had 5 hours sleep!!! And the new sleeping bag is a treat after the wet mouldy gauss but it's not as roomy! All I can say is Bill .... you saved my sanity with sleep cheers mate!!! I owe you many beers! A dry boat is also a treat, lets hope we can keep it that way!!
Today at 10pm (GMT), Qingdao Left San Francisco for Leg 7 to New York. This Leg is divided into two Races. For race 10 The fleet will travel 3,329 miles to Panama, here they will travel through the Panama canal where Race 11 will begin, 2,100 miles to New York. GO, GO, GO QINGDAO!
Today at 09:48 GMT, Qingdao crossed the finish line at the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco in 6th position, after an arduous 29 days at sea. Well done guys!
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