Crew Blog

Gaining weight

11 June 2008

Sleek, trim and fast; that’s how the skipper likes both the boat and the crew, such wishes have been put to the test during the New York stopover. New York is a city that offers so many unique attractions; a cultural and financial world centre with vibrant and diverse restaurants and nightlife, but above all shopping....

Ah yes shopping, for many of the Clipper crews NYC offers an unparalleled opportunity to shop; electrical goods and clothes being particular favourites. This presents the crews with a problem; how much stuff can we get on board? There was a rumour of someone managing to ‘smuggle’ a kids train set on board on a previous leg, so we had a lot to live up to! Suffice to say, iPods, cameras (including one for our skipper, Duggie!), clothes from Abercrombie and Fitch (amongst others) have found their way on to New York. All told I guess we’ve laden the boat with our New York booty as much as any of the other boats in the fleet.

Of course each stopover gives the crews a chance to sample the local cuisine, as you can imagine New York offers every cuisine under the sun. The extraordinary generosity of Peter Cheston, a childhood friend of Jo, one of the New York leg six crew meant that the New York crew were able to sample one of the finer Manhattan restaurants. The said eatery was a ‘Brazilian Steak House’, the menu was simple but exquisite; a delicious salad bar to start and then 18, yes eighteen, Judith wrote them all down, different varieties and cuts of meat are brought to your table. By the end of the night I don’t think any of us will need to eat until we get to Nova Scotia! It was certainly an experience that we will all long remember, thanks once again to Peter Cheston.

Both boats and, in the case of the New York boat, crew left the North Cove Marina, Manhattan (adjacent to the World Trade Centre) considerably heavier than when we arrived. A planned photo-shoot of all the boats gathered around the Statue of Liberty was abandoned due to the foggy and wet conditions, so the fleet motored for around 8 hours until we could start the race to Halifax, searching for some wind and practicing our ‘le Mans’ start drill.

Eventually at around 1730 local time we started the race, with fairly calm North Atlantic conditions; grey skies, choppy seas, but little wind. Onwards with the race – NYC seems a long time ago, we’re back into the watch system and everyone is focussed on getting a podium positions so fingers crossed…

Maybe running around the deck changing sails can help us lose some of the excess weight before we get to Nova Scotia – I wonder what the shops are like?

Mark P.