Race 8 - Day 10
Crew Diary - Race 8 Day 10: Sanya to Qingdao
14 March
Why hello there,
We are hours away from the finish line which is 11nm from Qingdao. Funnily Qingdao is only open 9-5, and so we shall be chilling out (literally!) until morning breaks and we can get in for what promises to be a big welcome back on dry land.
A last time for you Pink people to hopefully round up what has been an absolutely “awesome” (that's for you Jen!) race on the big pink boat for us. We have mostly laughed, joked and learnt from one another on our race from Sanya to Qingdao... here are a few snippets of events from the past 11 days!
We started back in Sanya with boat prep & the packing of chinese sweets.... lovely puffs, bang bang tangs to name a few... not exactly Haribo Tangfastics. Reliant solely on Clem for insight into the active ingredients, whilst he does impressively manage to mistake the number 4 for 10 (great when he orders 4 lamb kebabs, 4 mushroom kebabs... didn't go hungry that night for sure and knowing Clem after 7 weeks of Mother Watch together, I am not entirely sure it isn't a ploy to consistently order too much food!), he knows the difference between lamb and meat in addition to my personal favourite... knowing the Chinese symbol for vitamins! Who knows that? Needless to say, the sweets were untouched, initially, until some brave soul normally post wave dunking or epic deck fall opened a pack and went in knee deep for a blind tasting... “Ooooo tastes like popcorn, and peanuts, interesting!”
Dragons, drums and last minute large lattes from the Blue Moon Cafe before the grand departure which saw us edged out by Wendo thus starting Leg 5 Race 2 with a doughnut and a regroup as we chased the leading pack out from position 11 up to the big Buddha.
Despite changes to both the watch system and watch personnel, one constant remained... Starbucks service was uninterrupted throughout Leg 5, Race 2 with a welcome addition to the menu (after some heroic dry bag digging by Elvis to source some Uruguayan hot chocolate!) and the boat Mocha was born... ideal for the middle of a 4 hour overnight watch when you need a coffee but know that a coffee may well stop you sleeping in your precious 4 hour off-watch... Ah ha, if I disguise the taste of coffee with chocolate maybe I will get the best of both, who knows whether it worked, but it tasted damn fine and certainly served us well during some pretty rough watches.
This race promised to be one with a whole different feel to it and with changing conditions we would see the whole repertoire of people's wardrobes. I say wardrobes, these luxury yachts certainly do not have wardrobes, wave-robes maybe. There are certainly those moments on the boat when you think it is all going to blow, that sense that somebody has had too much and might lose it, my personal favourite was when our wardrobes became wave-robes after a rough night crashing into 20ft waves... on this occasion Debbie was likely to lose it and Elvis was at risk of losing something, possibly a limb or an eye. Elvis had slept in the saloon, not unusual for him, and I heard him telling Debbie (his bunk buddy) in the morning that they had had water in the cave lockers by their bunk (cave lockers = boat wardrobe) overnight. 5 minutes later, luckily for Elvis he was on the helm (boat steering wheel) so there was a rather significant distance between himself and Debbie, and Debbie is screaming for Elvis's head on a stick and is also looking somewhat sodden. It soon became apparent that, yes, there had been water in the cave lockers next to Elvis & Debbies bunk, water that Elvis had left there and which subsequently became bedtime bathwater present for Debbie. You have to laugh, or you'll cry... For the record, Elvis survived this one... just!
After a blind auction in Sanya of items of unknown ownership or origins from the boat, several of the crew are now sporting 'I LOVE LIVERPOOL' t-shirts on deck, a great addition to the Liverpool 2018 deck attire. Amongst other deck outfits it would not be right not to mention Jacob's 2-piece fleece lined number...more catalogue boy band than functional on deck attire but hey ho, he has worked it well and often this race. Jacob leaves the Liverpool 2018 team in Qingdao and will certainly be sorely missed. Not only has he been invaluable for helping with helming through some of the real tough stuff but he has a great calming presence on deck when it's all 'kicking off'. The boyband from Liverpool 2018 'Wrong Direction' will be losing a key member and hope to keep their fanbase despite this great loss!
As we settled into the race proper, conditions rapidly moved from the champagne sailing spinnaker stuff to 'fruity' as I would describe it to Debbie... fruity turned out to be in excess of 40 knots of wind and a rather juicy headsail change. The bow team on our watch was James, myself and Davey B plus whoever else was available depending on needs elsewhere on deck. Team work makes the dream work and we certainly made best efforts to do that at the pointy end of the pink boat this leg, thanks to Skipper and a sensible sail plan that saved us any unnecessary hard graft up there. We became a triple act whereby James was the cool, calm sensible leader with direction and instructions he liked to whisper in velvety tones directly into the 35 knots of wind in the hope they might make it to his trusty stooges. I was usually next in line and shaped up like a toddler on a leash all beans and energy, reliably with a face full of sail backed up by Davey B who hauled sail over and over whilst all the time keeping one hand and eye free to watch over the two of us further forward. We put in some real stints and some of my favourite moments were getting back to the safety of the cockpit and the fist bumps of a job well done, cheers boys, brew anyone!?
Davey B, also one of our resident I LOVE LIVERPOOL t-shirt wearers, can always be relied upon to offer up a loud and proud 'WAHEY' when somebody is suitably splashed by waves flooding over the deck. On our first day of heavy weather, James gave me some tips on managing heavy sea states, a few waves of bearing away and not simply crash crash “WAHEY”ing my way through the waves and I am starting to think there is some real satisfaction in this whole not splashing people on deck... then the mother of all waves hits and its a quadruple whammy all on deck, myself included, absolutely drenched from head to foot, now that's just funny!
After a long Mother Watch and a very manly moment of “must dash, I think I might've burnt my muffin cake,” I'm rapidly losing the ability to continue on with tails from our adventures on the high seas.
A huge hats off to the RTW crew James, Elvis, Claire, JV, Nano, Gra-ham, Mikey 'star' & Helen who have settled us in as part of the Liverpool 2018 crew. The 'think pink' attitude helping us to learn lots, laugh more and thoroughly enjoy our time on the big pink boat. Thanks to Skipper Lance who is present at all key moments (he is there for breakfast each morning without fail!) answering questions and guiding us through problem solving on the boat when we inevitably get things wrong along the way. My fellow leggers Davey B, Maz, Debbie, Ian, Charles, Clem & Jen... it's been a pleasure sailing with you guys, enjoy any future sailing adventures and always sail it like you stole it!
For those joining (or re-joining) you have two fantastic watch leaders in James & Nano, these guys are the lifeblood of the boat, supported by the other RTWers. They lead by example and have a great understanding of the workings of the boat, sailing in general, and also the limitations of themselves and their crew. I've learnt a great deal from them over the course of this adventure and it is testament to Skipper Lance that he has facilitated this amongst his crew. I have found them both to be really inspirational characters in their respective outlooks on sailing and life and have never had anything more than 100% confidence being on deck with them. I definitely hope to sail, surf or share a Starbucks with them in the future.
Now this really is a final apology to the media team!
Think Pink!
Dare. Dream. Discover.
Ciao for now
M
On a side note. Happy Birthday to Debs, Elvis's sister, who first sent him the link for the Clipper Race and meant he has featured as our media stalwart on Liverpool 2018.