Race 9 - Day 28
Crew Diary - Race 9 Day 28: Qingdao to Seattle
20 April
On the blog rota, I wrote the first, I think. It was written as we set out from Qingdao, full of anticipation, expectation and, to some extent, genuine anxiety. At that time nothing had really happened. Day 17 I wrote another. By then the Mighty Pacific and the relentless nature of ocean racing had surely tested us and CV25. One of my crew mates read my blog subsequently and described it as raw. I never felt low but certainly felt emotional – deeply so at reflective times – thinking about the massive challenge still to come to get to Seattle and what might unfold. Thinking about family and the beauty of my situation, that raw adrenalin pumping through the veins, as about as close to real as you can get, I think. Amazing really.
I am now writing one of the last blogs of this leg. Day 28. We are less than 150 miles from the race finish line – will be there tomorrow – before the 15 hour motor up Puget Sound to the marina in central Seattle and the real finish! I am “mother” today with Fiona, and just made some bread, playing the Editors from my Spotify playlist through the boats sound system as we work. All is calm and lovely. Starboard crew are on watch on deck – chatting and laughing in the cold clear morning. There is not much wind. Our race is effectively over, it is just about getting over the line now. We have had some bad luck with gear failure which inevitably happens when a boat takes such a pounding. This time despite valiant efforts from skipper Dale and the indomitable Justin Heiner, our man mountain watch leader, the major problem with our mast track cannot be repaired. Consequently we have had to sail with a much underpowered main sail (3rd reefed). Gone has our real chance of a podium position and we are being passed like a sitting duck by other yachts on the run in. It is very frustrating and undeserved because everyone on the boat has put in so much into this race. The outcome is beyond our control now and we have to be philosophical. We are. The crew are not demoralised or downhearted – the opposite – we are in a really good place because we know to our core we could have done little more. We are now so looking forward to the promised and well earned Seattle party with massive justification for sure. Hope kid brother Mike on Liverpool 2018 won't be too far behind us! (Just to give you an insight into the extent of the impact of spending such close company and interdependence with my fantastic port watch crew mates – in critical and at times dangerous conditions - I have agreed to have a port watch tattoo! (if we have time in Seattle) and that comes from someone who has always been dead adverse to tattoos!).
So how am I feeling now as it is nearly done? Can I sum it up? It is a cliché but maybe it hasn't fully sunk in yet. It will be hard to describe the impact of these last 28 days on me even if I fully understood it now. I feel deeply grateful to Dale and my team mates for everything they have done to help me make this voyage. I am grateful to the Clipper Race for making it possible. I thank my wonderful family again for being so supportive and encouraging in this personal endeavour. I am not religious but if I was I would thank the Lord for keeping us safe in this most hostile environment. We have undoubtedly been lucky despite the brutal weather and seas. What I am feeling most right now is a deep satisfaction mixed with a heavy sense of relief. We are through this exaggerated and brutal marathon event and have come out smiling and undefeated. It has been a personal examination – definitively the hardest I have ever undertaken. Right now I feel I have nothing more to prove to myself – and can rest easy in retirement (content to sail my little boat Gold Crest in the Solent) – ha! It has been wonderful. Tears in the eye. More than that. Deep, deep satisfaction indeed which I will be able to draw on for the rest of my life I think. See you all soon I hope. Thank you!
Love from
Dave Shoulder, dad and granddad xxx