Crew Blog

From Panama to our egg and spoon race

19 May 2008

Firstly thank you to the school who so generously donated chocolate Easter eggs to the crew. Chocolate is scarce on this boat (excluding Ants ‘secret stash’) so is always welcome. Panama was hot and to protect us most of the crew purchased Panama hats which we wore with pride as we sat outside in a square within Panama Old Town for our crew lunch.

For our morning of departure, despite it looking overcast, we slipped on our team shorts and Qingdao crew polo shirts - and the heavens opened. We waited patiently for our pilot and still it rained. Nice chap our pilot as he hopped from his dry boat to a sodden Lady Qing. I was at the helm and he mistook me for the skipper (it’s a mistake anyone can make!) and for a moment it was tempting to use this new found authority to dispatch The Badger to the galley to make tea, but honesty got the better of us…Our cheery pilot did however ask if there was a canopy to protect the helm?  No doubt he had his own interests at heart here, but his face changed when we all nodded dumbly.  I couldn’t say the word ‘no’ as I looked at him in a lightweight jacket & jeans.  The rain had eased but it was obvious it was going to be a long and very wet day. Soon he was kitted out in Clipper foulies and given a hot cup of coffee and our pilot became more enthusiastic about remaining onboard the Lady Qing.  Our journey through the canal was one of those rare moments in life when you realize that you are actually doing it and also that you will probably never do it again.  Apart from the chambers themselves which are similar to any lock in England, but much bigger, huge sections of the canal follow the river course with the rainforest right to the waters edge. Each chamber uses 28 million gallons of freshwater which is washed into the sea. The water is taken from the lake which you sail over and needs to be replenished. Rainy place that Panama Canal.

Once through the canal we motored overnight to the start line of our next race. I won’t use sailing terms to describe our start.  Instead picture a school children’s sports day with an egg & spoon race. The whistle goes and we are the kid in lane 5 who drops their egg on the start line and frantically picks up bits of egg, balances them on the spoon and walks quickly. Let’s just say we made a few mistakes on the start line and leave it at that. But we then spent the first 2 hours trying to get the boat moving. It was only in the afternoon that you had the sense that she was truly balanced and in racing mode.  We have had some challenging weather in the last 24 hours. Lumpy seas have washed 2 sails into the water and washed Nic, Dan & myself off our feet and swimming down the foredeck. Apart from some minor bruising and the indignity of my life vest inflating no harm done.

Yesterday’s race start also heralded just over 8 months for the RTW’s and sadly less than 30 ‘sailing’ days before they reach Liverpool. For me it has also signaled the end of my adventure with less than 30 hours on Qingdao before we reach our finish line at Jamaica. Have I enjoyed it. Yes every single minute!

Julian Presant-Collins (leg 6)