Race 5 - Day 3
Crew Diary - Race 5 Day 3: Sydney to Hobart
29 December

Well, here we are sailing to Tasmania – well, we were but now we have hit the inevitable 'wind-hole' or should I say 'wind-hell'. So we are just bobbing around again, going virtually nowhere, just waiting and waiting to get to Hobart. It all started so well, with good winds and speeds...

My memories of sailing around Tasmania can be summarised as 'wind-holes', and to save you my opinion/rant on that particular joy of ocean racing I shall use the words of the immortal Forest Gump - “And that's all I'm going to say about that'.

Previous blogs have commented on how lovely our stopover in Sydney was. What a great place. I was very fortunate to have plenty of relatives in Sydney who were so kind and hospitable – especial thanks to Chris and Jude for their generous hospitality, and for all Chris's help with jobs that needed doing on the GREAT Britain boat. My stopover was made extra special by my son, James, who joined me from the UK for 8 days – thank you so much, it made my Christmas and made me feel less isolated from the normal family emphasis of Christmas at home.

I am on Mother Watch today so I at least can find some silver lining to the wind-hole cloud – the boat is level, and not lurching around. Preparing breakfast was therefore easy, no need to continually catch flying toast, jams, drinks etc. Cereal packets stayed on the worktop, milk cartons could stand upright, no flying cutlery. Luxury! Everyone seems to have recovered well from the green monster too so large quantities of cereals and toast were consumed, at least 3 loaves of bread.

I know I will be making lunch, and the bet is that I will probably be preparing our ration pack dinners as well. If the wind-hole situation persists into and through the night there is one more silver lining for me, I will get my full night's sleep which is reward after Mother Watch. I would, however, much prefer to have that full night's sleep in a real bed in Hobart.

My last blog mentioned a couple of onboard romances, and the ripple effect through the Clipper community and supporters was amazing! Time for an update – the relationship between two single crew on board still thrives, as does that between the incessant emailing crew member on team GREAT and a crew member on another boat. However, I have to report another variation on the romance theme – between a single crew member on our boat and a relative of a RTW crew member on another Clipper boat. It seems that romance finds all sorts of ways on this Clipper journey. I ask myself, what will be the next variation on this theme? Any ideas on the next variation or insider information to team GB please!

Love to all my family, friends and supporters – and wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Tessa x