Leg 7 Jamaica to Liverpool

It is now mid-August and about time I put this blog to rest. The race finished on the 5th July and we ended up in 6th position which was not too bad given that we were a relatively happy crew and had no serious injuries the entire voyage. I have now accumulated a lifetime of memories and can with all honesty say it has been one of the best experiences of my life.






Durban crew on Leg 7 at the end of a race in our Flag Shirts.



A happy moment in Cork with Keith, Gill, Dave and John.



James and I upon our arrival in New York.



Glasgow Clipper on the way to New York.



The 7 Round The Worlders with our skipper Ricky.



Arrival back in Liverpool after departing almost 10 months ago. Much relief.



And now to the next phase of my life....

Leg 6 - Race 10 - Panama to Jamaica

We first had to transfer through the Panama Canal from the Flamenco Marina near Panama City on the Pacific side to Colon on the Caribbean side. We slipped moorings at 7am and only arrived at the marina around 8:30pm that evening. This is a photo of the first lock we went through.



Although we consider our 68ft sailboat quite large our neighbors were MUCH bigger and looked down upon us with much amusement.



A view of the ship behind us.



Due to lack of winds we motored from Colon and met the other boats for a La Mons start where we all line up and at a given signal charge forward and hoist our headsails.



Not very "Caribbean-like" weather. Here we are trying to eke out some extra boat speed by sitting on the rail.



Maybe it helped - Liverpool behind us.



But the again - New York ahead of us. Not much improvement in the weather.



Finally the weather improved and the foul weather gear came off and I took up my normal racing position.



A marginally better result than the prior race with us finishing 7th.

Leg 6 - Race 9

Now that I am in the final phase of this race I thought that a reminder of what I look like might be appropriate. I am not sure if I was worried by the trim of the sails or what I was supposed to cook for dinner that night.



This was the start of the race from Santa Cruz. Just a reminder that we did not participate in Race 8 from Hawaii to Santa Cruz as we were still having our new mast and rigging installed.



Race 9 was mostly a downwind race and with lighter winds we had spinnakers up much of the way.



Here I am sitting behind the grinder waiting for Mandy to issue an instruction to trim the spinnaker. Whilst on watch we would normally rotate the tasks as staring up at the trim of the spinnaker for too long would invariably result in a stiff neck.



Unfortunately with over 1,000 miles still to go the winds died and we had to motor/sail to Panama City in order to get through the Canal within our scheduled tranfer times. We finished the race in 10th position (i.e. last) but in my opinion had some of the best downwind sailing since leaving Liverpool. Western Australia finished 9th and we sailed together often stopping for a mid-ocean swim.



The sunsets and sunrises were spectacular during this race - oh for a glass of red wine to celebrate the sunsets.



We saw many species of birds on this race and some even had the temerity to hitch a ride. This was a Brown Booby that took a fancy to our pulpit.

Leg 5 - Race 7 - Qingdao to Hawaii

It is now almost 3 weeks since we arrived in Hawaii and those of you following the race on the Clipper website will know that it was without a mast. About 700 miles from Hawaii, in the early evening the mast lost one of its supporting stays and went into the water. Friends have asked me "where were you when this happened" - well I was cooking dinner. Anyway we had to cut it away and dump it into the ocean and then motor for about a week until we reached Hawaii.

The downside of being dismasted is that 8 Clipper boats left yesterday on the race to Santa Cruz whilst us and Western Australia are waiting for or new masts to be fitted. The upside is that I went home to California for the first time in over 6 months and got time to spend with my family. I even managed a days skiing in Kirkwood - something I had not expected to do when setting off from Liverpool last September.

Back to the race. Although we received a wonderful welcome in Qingdao I was happy to leave the the cold behind. The first 2 photos are us at the start and a view of the harbor where the Olympic sailing events will take place this summer.






The race started in very light winds and we were still within view of the city when the winds died during the night. To prevent us drifting back towards Qingdao we dropped the anchor and then awoke to this sight in the morning. To say I was cold is a gross understatement - I was FREEZING. During the morning the winds picked up and we managed to sail on, knowing that we were heading south towards warmer weather.



The winds then really picked up and we made some of our best 24 hour runs since we left Liverpool. We had rough seas and strong winds all the way until we reached the coast of Japan. During those few days we even managed to accidentally gybe and broke our spinnaker pole and rip a winch out of its support. Although very scary nobody was injured and within a short while were racing again.



A real bonus for me and something I had not expected to see again since leaving the southern ocean was the sightings of albatrosses. I identified 2 of the 3 northern albatrosses and may be forgiven for not spotting the third as it is almost extinct with only about 200 remaining.



This photo shows some of the downwind sailing conditions we faced. Although we sometimes had very strong winds (over 60 knots) the conditions are far more comfortable compared to when we were sailing into the wind on our way to Qingdao.



This is our watch with Claire our Watch Leader, Peter, myself at the helm, Lucy and Tore.

Leg 4 - Race 6 - Singapore to Qingdao

It is now over 5 months since I departed Walnut Creek to take on this adventure and this last race to Qingdao has been by far the most challenging. We left a hot and humid Singapore on January 27 and were informed at the start that this was going to be an upwind race. How true that turned out to be as we were close hauled all the way and actually sailed about 4,200 miles with all the tacking and had we been able to take the direct route it was only about 2,300 miles. The downside of upwind sailing is that we were always at an angle.

The first week was still very hot both on deck and even more so down below. Since the seas were fairly rough we were not able to open the hatches to get any fresh air down below. I dreaded my days of preparing meals in those conditions as not only were we at an angle but it just got so hot in the galley. I not only lost all the weight I had gained in Indonesia a Singapore but lost even more.

This photo is taken of the boats in the Kepple Bay Marina with the new bridge behind that links mainland Singapore to the small island.



As we turned left past Taiwan the conditions changed significantly. We were still sailing into the winds and now had to deal with a series of cold fronts that descended upon us from the north. Theses fronts brought gale force winds, rain and sleet and huge seas. Our boat was very fortunate with minimal injuries with only a few bumps and bruises compared to broken bones on some of the other boats. We had to deal with continual breakages during the storms and snapped 4 yankee sheets, broke a yankee halyard and broke a shackle on one of the staysail halyards. Races are won and lost depending on how quickly one can recover from these misshaps.

This is me at the helm trying to figure which direction to Qingdao.....



This is Ricky at the helm in some very testy conditions.



Here I am being a bundle of joy whilst on watch.



Amazingly after almost 3 weeks of sailing one morning we woke up with Glasgow just behind. They passed us later on and then just before the finish we were on diffent tacks and managed to overtake them again.



Even the flying fish were trying to escape the wild seas......



Well it all ended and the last day the winds abated and my shorts were not really approriate as it was still very cold on deck.



Here we are having just crossed the finish line.



Coming in second is a remarkable achievement as we were in 7th position at one point during the race. The welcome in Qingdao has been amazing and we are being treated like celebrities. It is still very cold but the sun has been shining since we arrived and of course the heating in my room has been turned up to maximum.

Next stop Hawaii and then home in California.

Race 5 - Fremantle to Singapore

Unfortunately I have run out of time so this will have to be a short blog. Race 5 started on new years day and I had plenty of support from the sidelines with Karin, Jessica, Michael and Emma able to see me off for the first time. Karins sisters and their respective families were also there. This photo was take by Jenny at the start of the race when all the boats paraded past the spectators.



Our boat had a great start and were first over the line and just managed to stay ahead in light winds as we sailed around some buoys in the harbor.



After the start it was back to long distance racing and this is me hard at work at the stern of the boat..... As we made our way north we mostly had up either spinnakers or poled out headsails and managed to stay out of the way of a tropical cyclone that fortunately stayed off the northern Australia coast.



Some of the best moments for me during this race were the spectacular sunrises and sunsets. The most challenging was the heat as we made our way north. The difference during this equator crossing and our Atlantic crossing back in October was the humidity. The temperatures below sometimes reached 40C (over 100F) and trying to sleep during the day was almost impossible. Anyway I survived and probably lost some of the weight that I gained during the festive season in Fremantle.



This is a photo of our watch with Jan, Tore, Claire and Janet. Durban finished 5th and we are still one point ahead in the overall standings.



Race 6 starts tomorrow (the 27th) and we are expected to finish in Qingdao sometime in mid-February. This race will start off being very hot again but as we make our way north the temperatures are expected to drop significantly.

Leg 3 Durban to Fremantle

Reaching Fremantle is a huge milestone for me as we have now completed three long ocean crossings each taking around 3 weeks and we are one third through the race in terms of time and distance. Also we have a break here of over 2 weeks and the best part is my family arrive on Christmas eve.

If you have been following the race you will note that we came first and are now leading the overall race by one point. So far we have managed two firsts, a 5th for the halfleg to La Rochelle and a 7th where we had damage to our mainsail and had to drop anchor when the wind died on us. Overall we are doing really well but the big question will be can we keep it up as 6 crew get off now and we get 6 new crew for this next leg. We are fortunate to have a skipper that is an extremely competent sailor and a great tactician as you may have noted from the bold moves made in the Southern Ocean.

This last leg was not what I was expecting as we did not get the big swells where the boat then achieves the high speeds. Overall we had fairly benign weather and after the first week tracked a high pressure system across the Southern Ocean until a few days before Fremantle. The last 3 days prior to arrival were atrocious as we had to beat into the wind and as we crashed through the waves we would have tons of water crashing over us. Both my appetite and sleep disappeared so as soon as we arrived in Fremantle I rushed to a hotel to warm up and dry off. Suffice to say 6 days later I am feeling human again.

This photo was taken from the top of the mast whilst we had 3 hump back whales swimming in parallel with us for about 20 minutes. These magical moments more than compensate for the bad times where I question my sanity on undertaking this adventure.



Karin had arranged an Ocean Bird Guide through Amazon that was delivered to me in Durban. I managed to identify 7 of the 16 types of albatrosses. There is an excellent article in the latest National Geographic on albatrosses. This photo is a Wandering Albatross.



The next two photos are taken whilst on watch. It was cold on this leg so as soon as we finished our watch we disappeared down below to warm. We have plenty of time to reflect on life in general and solve the many problems in the world.......







We had 5 crew on our watch - Nigel on the helm was our watch leader and then from left to right are Dave, Mandy John and myself.



Happy Christmas to you all.
Ian