Race 12 - Day 9
Crew Diary - Race 12, Day 9: New York to Derry-Londonderry
05 July

Leg 1 - Leg 8, Race 12 Day 9 – Dave West (Westy)

First things first. Mick I bloody well miss you mate and am looking forward to a beer and catch-up at the first possible opportunity.

A great start to this race, as you already know. We have been leading for a good part of the way but recently slipped to third place after exploding a rather precious spinnaker. However our gallant repair team of Nell and Erik, ably supported by Lyndsay, Simone and Sonia, will soon have it mended and WE WILL BE BACK!

Lots of amazing wildlife right at the very start, most notably numerous breaching whales close-up to the boat. I have since seen a couple of “phosphorescent” dolphins and – at long last - a brief sighting of a shark. I must have spent hundreds of hours over the last ten months scanning the horizons in search of sharks from my favoured position at the shrouds, all to no avail, only to step onto the side deck the other day, look down and there was this black monster circling right by the boat. One circle and it was gone but it was good enough for me.

Although our spinnakers do get us moving along nicely, I do have to confess that I find flying them a rather tedious affair – all virtually non-stop trimming, grinding and easing. Nevertheless, we have found time for a couple of sausage sandwich games and the results were Germany 2, Norway 1 (Simone vs Sonia) and Cardiff City 3, Arsenal 0 (Taffy James vs Asif)..

Lots and lots of love to family and friends at home, especially our little peach who is coming along nicely I am told; kicking his mum like a good old-fashioned Millwall centre-half.

Dave x