Follow the excitement of Clipper 09-10 through the musings of the crews. They’ll be sending back daily diaries from the boats describing life on board and the huge challenges they face as they race across the vast, forbidding expanses of the world’s oceans.
Get well soon Piers - by Lindsey Cattell (Jamaica Lightning Bolt) - 12 March 2010
What a 24 hours it has been. With news of the injury to Piers on Hull & Humber sending shock waves through the boat, it brought a sense of perspective to a few. The waves coming over recently have been horrendous and extremely powerful, stronger than any waves previously experienced in any part of the world.
Add in the wind which cannot decide how strong to be and it’s definitely been challenging to say the least. Now the wind has eased and we find ourselves struggling to keep boat speed going after we found ourselves facing our own nightmare this morning. When shaking reefs out of the main in the now light conditions, the on watch discovered a tear in the main just below the first reef pennant, meaning that the main needed to be partially dropped to do a repair leaving the main with a second reef in it. Charles and Chris quickly set about repairing the damage. To compound this issue a few minor tears were also discovered in the then up Yankee 3 which also required repair work. For over six hours the crew found themselves battling against time to get the full mainsail back up, but with conditions set to strengthen later repair on the Yankee 3 was also paramount. Now thankfully all repairs are complete and we again find ourselves battling to regain speed and re-catch those ahead of us.
The temperature has also dropped although the light wind conditions mean there is less wind chill factor. The good side though it is enabling all the crew to catch their breaths again, dry out all the soaking wet clothes and for all the aching and bruised joints to recover ready for the next pounding we are no doubt going to experience in the next few days. Should anyone from the crew ever complain about the hot temperatures we should hopefully encounter in later legs, they will be reminded of our current climate conditions. With us still to head further north, we know things will get colder and all the base layer we recently took off will once again be keeping us warm as too will the 'tea bags' hand warmers we all bought in China.
Crew moral on the boat is high. Even though we still have over 4000 miles and possibly three weeks left to race until we reach San Francisco everyone's enjoying themselves. The newbies have now completely settled into the Jamaican way of life and are even starting to give the old hands a bit of competition for places and surprisingly it even involves the bow for some strange reason as well as of course helming. All competition is good competition and it is helping us get the most out of Jamaica Lightning Bolt.
From all the crew on Jamaica Lightning Bolt - GET WELL SOON PIERS
Lindsey
The best day - by Laura Sarson (Uniquely Singapore)
11 March 2010
Today I woke up and felt like singing. Hot sunlight was pouring through the hatch for the first time in a week, the sound of water smashing against the side of the boat told me we hadn’t entered the high yet, the smell of fresh crusty bread summoned me willingly from my bed and it also happened to be my 20th birthday.
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It's a bright, bright sunshiny day! - by Adrian Healy (Cape Breton Island)
11 March 2010
What mad fools sail to northern China in the middle of winter, and then decide to head off across the north Pacific to the US? Other than us, not many in sailing boats! After two days of beating into Force 6-8 winds with the winds reaching up to 40+ knots and then running downwind with a Force 10 gale behind us - with the winds gusting up to 55 knots - you can see why!
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