Race 4 - Day 13
Crew Diary - Race 4 Day 13: Fremantle to Sydney
15 December

Hi all,

I would like to firstly thank my lovely family for being so supportive towards me over the last year, clearly my “midlife crisis” has taken over along with the Clipper extreme economy experience! I would also like to thank all my friends and those following Team Liverpool 2018 for their support.

Having competed the 4 weeks training and the additional week delivering the yacht to the start line I thought I was prepared for whatever would be thrown at me. Well in the most part I guess I was, what I wasn't prepared for was the physical strain on my body. The first 4 days we spent beating in to the wind, which means heading as close to the wind as possible, the down side to this is the boat stays at 45' angle making everything very difficult. For instance my bunk which I share with my bunk buddy Fretts is at high level, to get into it means either climbing up the walkway wall and pulling myself in holding onto the grab-rail or, on the other tack, climbing and treading on the person in the bunk below. At that point the bunk also needs to be at a suitable angle so you don't fall out. Once that part has been completed its time to finish off getting ready for bed. Sounds easy enough but with only 12” clearance between yourself and the deck doesn't leave much space for manoeuvre! Hopefully you don't need to get up again once in your bunk as the effort to get out is crazy.

Now onto the heads (toilets) this has to be the grimmest place of all, try using the facilities at 45' while being bumped around by the waves, I will let you use your imagination on this one! Anyway the list goes on and on.

So we are now two weeks into the race and only 140 miles away from Sydney, I'm proud to say I've nearly completed the first part of my extreme adventure. When I signed up I really didn't know what to expect, I didn't even know if I would have the strength of character to complete the training let alone the race. Well I've proven to myself I do have what it takes and it's been made a lot easier as the crew on Team Liverpool 2018 are truly quite amazing, no one has fallen out, not even a raised voice. Instead everyone watches out for each other and helps should someone have a problem. We might not be first, but I would take the camaraderie on board any day. That said we better start winning soon or there will be trouble!!!!

Anyway thanks for sticking with us it means a lot to us all. Now its time to bring on the parties in Sydney!!!

Rick x