Jamaica - Crew Blog

Best day of Race 5

12 January 2008

It’s a unanimous decision: today has definitely been the best day of the leg so far, by a long way.

We arrived at the Sunda Straits in daylight this morning, and have had all day to enjoy the spectacular scenery around us, and enjoy the increase in wind…

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Busy? What do you think?

08 January 2008

When you look at the little dot on your computer screen that is Jamaica, you could be forgiven for thinking we’d been having a jolly nice time just pootling along…

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Mixed emotions

04 January 2008

It’s day four of leg 4 of the race, and the skipper and crew of Jamaica are getting used to being back at sea. The Fremantle stopover was a real…

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A boat of two halves

10 December 2007

It’s been a mixed day today. For the first time in ages, the boat has been relatively flat. Life is a breeze. Below deck, we can walk around without lunging…

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Mother watch on Jamaica

06 December 2007

Woken up at 0700 by Bernard, my co-mother for the day. It’s eggs for breakfast. They’re kept in a cubby hole by the mast, and the first challenge of the…

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Everything’s going according to plan

01 December 2007

Let’s talk spreadsheets. Irrelevant to a round the world yacht race? Strangely not. For better or for worse, much of life on Jamaica is completely dependent on Microsoft Excel.

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Weather - the biggest uncertainty?

28 November 2007

If death and taxes are the real certainties in life, then surely the weather must count as the biggest uncertainty.

We were forecast a change in wind speed…

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Making Durban in time for dinner

16 November 2007

The lead boats have now finished. Most of the rest of the fleet should get into Durban tonight. We, however, are floundering around in the rain, going backwards at 4…

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Furrowed brows in the nav station

14 November 2007

There are furrowed brows in the nav. station at the moment. We’ve been totally spoilt for days now. Hooning along at great speeds, surfing 4-5 metre waves- all taking us…

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Best laid plans

10 November 2007

We crossed the Greenwich Meridian Line yesterday, to a lot less ceremony than the equator crossing. We waved north to London, and thought of friends back home. It’s quite wintry…

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Well we wanted weather

07 November 2007

The wind decided to build from 4 knots to 40 in about 24 hrs. Our tissue-paper-like windseeker sail was taken down in a hurry some time ago and replaced by…

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Stuck

31 October 2007

You know you’re in trouble when the skipper starts poring through the race rules to see if it would be considered fair play to get the oars out and start…

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A flying start

29 October 2007

It feels good to be racing again. Our time in Salvador was fun, and a welcome taste of civilisation, but by the end of it we were more than ready…

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Ola Salvador

19 October 2007

We are no longer alone in the big wide ocean. For the last couple of days we’ve had New York on the horizon, as a visible reminder that we are…

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Guilty!

14 October 2007

We have finally left the Doldrums behind. The boat speed no longer starts with a decimal point and the lifejackets are back on. (There had been a temporary relaxation of…

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Well and truly in the doldrums

11 October 2007

We are now well and truly in the Doldrums. The official description is the ‘ITCZ’ –the ‘Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone – but that really doesn’t do it justice. There is a…

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Ladies’ night - oh, what a sight

06 October 2007

We are expecting to cope with little or no wind once we reach the Doldrums, but we’ve just had an early taster of the frustrations to come. The last few…

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The bliss of half a bowl of cold water

02 October 2007

Unlike the last entry, there are no more complaints about the wet. The last couple of days have been warm and sunny, with today being especially hot. The dress code…

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Far from the madding crowd

01 October 2007

Jamaica
01 October 2007

Most people head to Tenerife on a charter flight, in a frenzy of lager, board shorts and screaming children. We are currently…

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Birthday Boys - 26 September 2007

26 September 2007

Today is David Pugh’s birthday. At 72 he really is the elder statesman on board. Not that you would realise it from his gleeful cries of excitement on the helm.…

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