Race 12 - Pre-race
Crew Diary - New York to Derry-Londonderry
09 July

CV31 Panama to New York – Johnny Cole

After transiting the canal we arrived at the Atlantic side at a place called Shelter Bay, near the industrial city of Colon, we spent 3 nights on the Atlantic side before heading of in a northerly course towards New York for Race 2 of Leg 7:

Race two started with a prolonged bout of upwind sailing most of us had forgotten how unpleasant this can be – to paraphrase the famous quote about Sailing “the best thing about sailing is having sailed”! Just when you thought it could not get any more miserable the wind moderates, changes direction, the sea state eases and life becomes much more pleasant; of course it can get more miserable because at least the seawater and rain squalls were warm in contrast to the Pacific and Southern Ocean! Then a purple patch comes along – sailing with the wind on the beam making 12 to 13 knots under bright sunshine and you realise how fantastic and exhilarating sailing can be.

So sailing is frustrating, fantastic, sometimes hazardous but always worth the effort; to paraphrase and compound two famous quotes sometimes we are in the sunlit uplands sometimes we feel we are going through hell but we do keep going.

We were soon in the Caribbean sea passing between Cuba and Haiti and the Dominican republic up towards Florida; this whole race 7 between Seattle and New York is planned to last 44 days, of which the second leg is 16 days, so quite a short sail up to the big apple. We pass within sight of the Bahamas and on up the East coast of America around Cape Hatteras and north westerly to New York.

Our arrival at midnight was spectacular with a priceless journey under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and up the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. Waiting for a berth to become available in the tight marina we had an enjoyable sightseeing tour up and down the waterfront before berthing and enjoying some well earned beer and pizza. Although a little disappointed that we didn't manage a higher place, with fickle winds, fog and swirling currents on the final day we were elated to learn that we had won the Ocean Sprint by a respectable margin, confirming yet again that Nasdaq and its crew are more than capable of fast competitive sailing.

So New York is New York and there are a lot of things to see and do, the whole area where the world trade centre once stood has been redeveloped, since I was last there, and a new “future tower” has been erected and the whole area turned into a massive up market shopping mall: One evening a dozen of us atten a baseball game between the Yankee's and the Mariners from Seattle, nice co-incidence, Yankees win 9-2! another day we have a corporate vist to Nasdaq tower in Times Square where we attend the opening bell ceremony, as we leave the building our boat is up in lights in the middle of times square, I remember it was the summer solstice that day. A bunch of us went up to Central Park and hire bikes and cycled around the park, Mike Furguson and his wife Rachel were on a tandem when our resident Aussie Damien tried to put the wind up them by skidding his bike just behind them only succeeding in hitting the front brake and sending himself over the handlebars onto his backside:

I am staying in the meadow lands area of New Jersey above Hoboken and Union City so I'm half an hour from the boat but there are good facilities around me, nice restaurants and bars, a good sports bar where I manage to catch the England vs Tunisia game, and a few days later myself, Phil and his old man catch the Panama game in Mulligans Irish bar a good couple of games and gets us out the group.

One of the guys off Leg 3 lives and works in New Jersey and he invites us up to his apartment for a BBQ and some beers, Simon lives on the top floor of his building and has a rooftop terrace with a spectacular view across the Hudson onto Manhattan, we had a really good evening with him and his wife Rory.

Soon it is time to get back on the boat and prepare for our North Atlantic Leg across from NYC to London-Derry: Race start is a Le Mans style start again and after a parade of sail up the East River, under the Brooklyn Bridge Nasdaq leads the boats out into the Ocean ready to get going.