| At sea. Clipper Round the World: Thick fog for New York Clipper in the Yellow Sea |
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| Monday, 10 April 2006 | |
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Strawberry: They say life begins at 40 – ‘They’ obviously don’t sail because I know for a fact that life on board New York Cilpper begins at 45 – degrees that is! For the first days of this 5,600 mile jaunt across the pacific have certainly kept us on our toes – Especially newbees Brian and myself! First of all some highlights from the Qingdao stop over….. 1) The official presentation evening was a pretty swish do – we were all very impressed by the ballerina who balanced on her partners head with one toe! John and Tammy are going to try and mimic this pose on the foredeck at some point! 2) We made quite an impression in the New York café bar – especially Jenn as she danced around in her dungarees and bra! 3) When Clipper asked for a loft space to mend sails in we certainly weren’t expecting the entire 18th floor of the newly built Olympic Building from which you could see right across Qingdao and watch the pollution blanket settle over the city in the evening – no wonder we all have colds! As the stopover was so short there wasn’t really much time for anything else other than maintenance and victualling and of course the odd beer or two! So here I am – 2 years in the planning and I am finally on board what will be my home until we finish the race back in Liverpool. The first 2 days have not so much been a baptism of fire but rather a baptism by water! I thought that being waved off by Ellen McArthur was a good luck omen however the first 48 hours of the race were pretty gruelling. B&Q actually had to turn back because the sea state was so lumpy! Yesterday afternoon saw our Stay sail shred – all hands were called and we spent 3 hours getting rid of the offending sail and the Yankee 1 & 2 repacked and stowed and the Storm Jib and Yankee 3 hanked on and raised in some of the most horrid weather I have ever sailed in. In those conditions every little movement becomes a struggle. The best was to describe it is imagine trying to hold on to a bucking bronco whilst freezing cold salt water is thrown in your face – not only do you have to stay on the beast but you also have to move what feels like bag of dead bodies around the place too! But hey – its all good fun! Today we are in completely different weather conditions again – there is thick fog all around us, very little wind and a much calmer sea state. I can’t decide which is worse – at least we were moving at a decent speed yesterday! The fog has given us the opportunity to test our various fog horns though – Qingdao Clipper are about 3 miles away and have just given us 3 differing horns to mark – the general consensus was that the manual horn was the best! Finally – yesterday saw the New York crew morn the sad loss of the toaster. With the prospect of another 3.5 weeks at sea this is a sad loss indeed! Anyway – more later www.clipper-ventures.com |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 10 April 2006 ) |
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