Race 10 - Day 26
Crew Diary - Race 10 Day 26
22 April
Riding waves of vitamin sea to the finish
Happy Earth Day and Happy 6th Birthday to my nephew Ranulph!
It’s been a busy week 3 and 4 on CV21.
We left the wind holes behind, became time travellers as we crossed the International Date Line and began surfing the Pacific waves in the sunshine between squalls. The feeling you experience whilst helming is incredible. The wave picks up the stern, and the boat is lifted up over the crest of the wave. If you are lucky the boat flies across the top of the water for a good 10-20 seconds whilst the boat speed rises to a peak. The thrill you experience at the helm as the power of a Pacific wave takes control of the boat feels as good as a strong dose of vitamin sea. Driving my car from now on will feel incredibly dull.
Tragically the British boat ran out of Tetley and English breakfast tea bags – a tea-saster (creds to Alex!). For the first time I’ve become an Earl Grey and now Lady Grey tea drinker as the Earls have now run out. Not only that, but the hot choc supplies are also all finished! I think this truly demonstrates how cold this leg has been.
As we near the finish line with 300nm to go it’s time for some reflection.
As the Leg 6 OIAO Ambassador I am incredibly grateful to the Our Isles and Oceans charity for giving me this once in a lifetime opportunity and experience. It has truly been incredible and brilliant to be a part of. I’ve met some amazing and inspiring people throughout and wish I didn’t have to depart but I also know I’d melt or become a red raw tomato during Leg 7.
For me this experience has had a deeper meaning. I caught Covid-19 in March 2020 and went onto suffer from Long Covid for 18 months. It changed my life. I had no underlying health conditions. I was a fit and healthy 25-year-old getting on with life doing a Geology PhD at Edinburgh University. Covid left me bed bound for 7 months and I became a ghost of my previous self. I lived with the debilitating fear of not knowing if I’d ever recover back to the enthusiastic and energetic person I once was and get back to the fun-filled life I had.
Luckily I did fully recover and rebuild myself. It took a while, lots of patience and determination. The Our Isles and Oceans charity played a huge part in this after I became an Ambassador and went sailing for a week in Oban in July 2021.
As you can imagine the North Pacific crossing is a huge milestone for me. If you’d told me in 2021, after spending a year so unwell I couldn’t even walk 50m to the end of the road, that I’d sail across the North Pacific on the Clipper Race in three years time, I would have told you to take a hike! It just shows you how incredible and powerful the human body is.
Here’s to the next adventure – I think I can hear the Atlantic calling! But first I’m off to complete becoming a Rock Doctor and find a job!
Beth
Leg 6 OIAO Ambassador