Crew Blog

Hi Folks

06 May 2008

Well finally here on board, 2006 seems as long away in time as 2008 did when I first applied to Clipper, two years ago and now we are two weeks into the race. What wonderful friendship we met, in both the town and the yacht club of Santa Cruz. We staged an impromptu hat overboard exercise to show the Lady member who won a trip on Qingdao just what a fine boat we have, when we new Leggers were reminded of our training, before the race started. It’s now twelve days since the start of the race. The run up to the start saw us and Uniquely Singapore fighting nip and tuck to be first across the line. Now, after 2000 miles, we are within hailing distance of Nova Scotia and maneuvering to overtake them, a serious but friendly battle.

In those twelve days we have gone, in my case, from wearing thermals, mid-layer, top-layer, gloves, woolly hat and oilies to sitting in shorts and tee-shirts, drinking bottles of water and lying on top of our sleeping bags in as little as is decent. Both Hen and Emma, who is on the helm at the moment, have adopted the Sarong when off watch, as have a couple of the lads. Food has been amazing, our QM Cal (who celebrated his birthday today) having provided a rich source of foodstuffs for each Mother to experiment with. We have dined on a fine menu from fresh bread and fruit to Italian risotto, Moroccan lamb tagine, Beef ravioli (which Hen insists she made from fresh ingredients) and of course my own hot-spicy fresh fruit salsa. And there is still sweet and sour chicken yet to come. Who said they would never look a noodle in the face again?!

The moustache competition goes on a-pace as the amateurs Christian, Chris, Oscar et al try to compete with we few ‘me’ mature moustachioed crewmembers, who relax in the sure knowledge of our outright win at the judging!

In the last 15 days I have seen: sea-otters, dolphins, phosphorescence, the most beautiful blue flying-fish, squid on deck, sea-swallows, whales and have been told of, what has become the mythical, turtles that always seems to come to the surface when I am below, am I being turtle taunted?

Fair winds to Family, Loved-ones and Friends
Stephen