Race 4 - Day 12
Crew Diary - Race 4 Day 12: Fremantle to Sydney
14 December

I'm quite tired today as I write these few words to capture my experience of Leg 4 of the Clipper Race. The last two days have been occupied with some intense “beating” towards our Race destination of Sydney and this has required multiple sail changes as we attempt to bend the wind to our favour. So far we have yet to achieve what we require to speed our arrival at Sydney and the days have been a combination of hard work and poor sleeps due to the boat heel angle and the constant crashing of the waves against the bow. While we are all a bit frustrated with our lack of progress in the last few days of this Race team spirit is high and we're all looking forward to our time with our Sydney hosts.

This Race, the first of the 3 that navigate around western, southern and eastern Australia began 12 days ago in Fremantle. We were hosted to a good community turn out for the parade of sail and many smaller sail boats and power boats joined us in the run-up to the start line and beyond. And then the the serious business of racing began, watch systems were activated and we began the long beat southward to Cape Leeuwin followed by six days of down wind sailing in the Southern Ocean to the turning point at the Flying Scud Rocks on the southern tip of Tasmania. The six days of downwind sailing was generally under clear skies and there were some wonderful moonlight sailing scenes and excellent sunrises and sunsets. The last two days of the south ocean crossing were cold, wet and windy with some excellent peak and sustained boat speeds.

After rounding the southern tip of Tasmania we were caught in a wind hole which resulted in minimal boat speed but as it was such a beautiful sunny afternoon that we all appreciated to break from the previous days' weather and the opportunity to dry our foulies and other wet gear.

And then the beating up the eastern coast of Australia began.

On a more philosophical note I have learned that competitive sailing of this calibre requires many more skills than the technical sailing skills. It requires a huge commitment to the team; excellent and honest communications about the technical and living aboard challenges, empathy for those who are feeling sea sick or having difficulty with the sailing tasks and making sure they understand that all contributions are appreciated and that progress is made day to day. The hardest thing to do is to avoid blaming others for things that go wrong or when expectations, generally about minor things, are not met. I think our crew has the right balance of drive to succeed while ensuring that all crew members are welcome and are an integral part of what we accomplish here at sea.

This will be the first Christmas is 37 years that I will not be with my family but I will be thinking of you all when we start Race 5 the Sydney-Hobart challenge. My love to you all.