Race 8 - Day 10
Crew Diary - Race 8 Day 10: Sanya to Qingdao
14 March

CV30 somewhere in the Yellow Sea. The watch is on deck in the early of the morning finding things to amuse themselves and pass the wee small hours.

Watchleader: “I spy with my little eye something beginning with FV.”

Crewman: “Fishing vessel.”

Watchleader: “Yes, your go.”

Crewman: “I spy with my little eye something beginning with AFV.”

Watchleader: “Another fishing vessel.”

Crewman: “Yes, your go.”

Watchleader: “I spy with my little eye something beginning with YAFV.”

Crewman: “Yet another fishing vessel.”

Watchleader: “Yes, your go.”

Crewman excitedly: “Oh, look over there, another Clipper Race boat........oh no, my mistake, it's another fishing vessel.”

While the above may not be factual it does reflect life aboard CV30 at present. If China has a population of a billion people most of them seem to be employed in their Yellow Sea Fishing fleet. This means that keeping an accurate lookout is of extreme importance. Luckily our watch is a crack team. True, we have identified the moon rise as an approaching vessel and a fishing marker as variously a kite surfer and two helicopters circling. Our lack of accuracy does not dent our enthusiasm although it does leave Dave with his head in his hands sometimes.

Other things that upset Dave is the misappropriation of vital boat equipment. During one night watch we contrived to lose both light weight spinnaker sheets overboard at the same time. Everyone knew they should be tied on, somebody could have tied them on but nobody did. To paraphrase Lady Bracknell in the Importance of Being Ernest, “To lose one lightweight spinnaker sheet could looks like misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness.”

We are all looking forward to our arrival in Qingdao although unlike Tesco, they do not believe in extended opening hours and we are required to arrive between 9 and 5. If we arrive at 17:05 we will have to do doughnuts (we can do this without really trying) for 16 hours before we enter the marina.

While we have been shown the pictures of the new marina we hope that it in fact has been completed and not like some time share fraud that does not exist in reality. What makes me a little sceptical is the Chinese President is going to the old one – why? Rather like the queen I also suspect he believes everywhere smells of fresh paint.

In other news a crew member who shall remain nameless (but whose name rhymes Don Kilne) opened a tin of tomatoes of indeterminate age. They turned out to be corked which became clear when opened with a can opener. To continue the wine analogy not only were they off but also under some pressure and so rather like a bottle of champagne the contents of the tin were sprayed liberally over the galley and also the hapless Don much to the amusement of colleagues. Pasta, tomato and meatballs became pasta and meatballs and we kept calm, cleaned up and carried on.

For the lifers onboard, Ray can still fix anything, Phil still loves tea, Tessa still keeps us all in rude health and Pip is still in charge.

Yours in the galley covered in rancid fruit from a tin...

Jon