Race 12 - Day 15
Crew Diary - New York to Derry-Londonderry
10 July

Race Day 15 – Vincent

30 miles left from the finish and we haven't moved a single inch during the last couple of hours. If this continues we will run out of stock. Porridge, which finally I got some appreciation for, is already off the menu. And we rapidly go through the chocolate and biscuit quantities although I suspect that Pete might hide some stuff in some unknown secret bilges.

There is a rumour going on that the bunks which Dave, Phil and I share were cursed during the building of the boat. Apparently at that time two workers were fighting for the same girl and in this struggle one died and that must have happened in our sleeping area. As a result our lives are no longer safe: Dave badly hurt his shoulder, Phil injured his leg and I myself the upper part of my little left finger, to be honest, a small part of this. That cannot be a coincidence...

During passage of this wind hole, we have plenty of time to have decent discussions on the meaning of life (solution foreseen in my next blog), quizzes, and listening to music: John Cole's music from the eighties, Ineke's playlist which has not been changed during the last year, and from Lucas which is a music mixture from Chile, Argentina and Croatia including 'emotional trance'. Nobody complained when finally the battery of his phone was dead.

Yesterday Pam asked me to shoot some pictures and videos of her grinding activities to show to Tommy: Grinder in lowest gear, no load and somebody in the background on the second grinder doing the work. To give her family a more realistic view on life on Nasdaq a couple of hidden pictures and videos were taken as well. So Tommy, go after these as well!

And then there is my personal struggle with Richard who claims MY Clipper hat presuming I have lost mine and stolen his. Reality is that my hat re-appeared suddenly again in the galley where I left it a couple of days before. To protect my hat, I have to wear it day and night and have to be vigilant to his highly aggressive attacks.

So this is the situation update from our Nasdaq boat. If the situation does not change, you might see a lot of blogs from me. If it does, we probably have a beer this evening in Derry.

Vincent