Race 9 - Day 20
Crew Diary - Race 9 Day 20: Qingdao to Seattle
13 April

Would you rather be on land and wishing you were at sea?

That's the question I ask every time I wake up the last couple of days, but the same events that made me ask myself that, are the ones that once I play them back in my mind make me grin and leave that question unanswered.

We started this trip with no wind and a couple of sunny days, boooooring days, just when we got used to that, we had some high winds and what was so far for us big waves, and so the mighty Pacific started to warm up for action.

My first nerve wrecking experience came along, while we were having fun surfing with 30-35 knots of wind on a sunny day with the spinnaker up hitting 15-20 knots of boat speed, and Dale our skipper decided fun was over and was time to change to white sails, so I make my way to the bow to the position I was never particularly keen to take but my age and physical advantages that come with it made me a logical option. So I get there with Nqoba, our additional qualified person, we hank on the sails and when we were about to lift the Yankee and drop the spinnaker, we broached. The tack didn't blow and we had to cut it while the bow felt like a mechanical bull and we were dipped in water like a pair of tea bags.

We went back to the cockpit retrieve the spinnaker, I have to say it took me a while to laugh about it, some other events came by while putting reefs on the main, sail changes and spinnaker wraps but those are already forgotten.

Lately, we had a beautiful and exclusive scenery that comes with a cold front in the Pacific,

I've never seen such an amazing and scary image like that and taking a look at the AIS confirms not many get that privilege as only and sometimes the Clipper Race fleet is on it, but nothing else.

The recipe for this amazing view is 67 knots of wind, rain and what was described as “Phenomenal” sea state, which, to be honest, it was too dark to see properly and couldn't asses by sight but I could well believe by the waves that set our lifejackets off and the people flying across the deck double clipped; such a comic thing to see until you find yourself in the same situation hugging a winch or anything to keep you in your place! Only two or three days went by like that, and hopefully the Pacific will calm down a little just enough to get things back in place and order.

In conclusion, this race has given us so far just what we asked for and more, so we might as well enjoy it because at least for now, in my mind, this is the first and last time I'm crossing this big ocean and probably I will stick with sunny smooth Caribbean sailing where my foulies consist of flip flops and long sleeve UV proof shirts!

Anyway, time to go to bed and probably ask myself again that question tomorrow and hopefully it will stay unanswered and be a “No! I would rather be sailing” when I get to Seattle.

Buenos Nachos!