Race 6 - Day 10
Crew Diary - Race 6 Day 10: Hobart to Whitsundays
15 January

A tough Leg this, far tougher than anyone expected. A weekend of hard upwind sailing into choppy seas and adverse currents. Then wild frontal storms as the southerly weather systems arrived. Now we race in sight of Sanya Serenity Coast, Liverpool 2018 and Visit Seattle towards the first "virtual gate" marking the entrance to the Whitsundays islands and the Great Barrier Reef. Still 200+ miles to go to Airlie Beach, and all to play for at the front of the fleet.

If the wind holds firm, we should be in Airlie Beach for sundowners Tuesday. We carry a collection of bumps and bruises to embelish our war stories around the bar counters and family BBQ's, some "CP Moments" on this Leg that will need to be redeemed by the perpetrators in appropriate manner, and we will all long remember the testing conditions experienced up the Australian coast on this Leg.

Now also a time to reflect, for those Leggers whose Clipper Race story will end in Airlie Beach, which is almost half of the current crew on this Leg. We will all soon return to our "normal" lives, where family, loved ones and friends will ask us, "How was it?", and we will struggle to articulate a short answer!

For all, the Clipper Race story has included high and sometimes terrifying adventure, thrilling sailing, physical challenge and human trial. Each story will be a collection of vivid moments in memory across all perspectives of this great experience, perhaps illustrated by an example from yesterday (Sunday) night:

We were hit by two storms in quick succession during Sunday night, the first proved to be just a thunderstorm without a major wind shift, as a precursor to the real frontal system that followed two hours later. As the full force of a big "Southerly Buster" hit, we were four crew on the foredeck, crouched low, exposed to the waves and spray washing over the deck, witness to the wild lightning, pelting rain and howling wind gusts typical of the initial frontal blast. While we waited for a lull in the 45 knot wind so that we could pull down the Staysail, the boat now flying along over-powered, lee rail awash, boom dipping in the water, the scene illuminated in the flashes of lightning, our Watch Leader remarked on the coldness of the convectional rain lashing our faces, relative to the comparative warmth of the sea spray.

In this case, a small natural feature will stand in memory of a wild moment. In others, it will be the trust built in fellow crew, previously strangers, huddled alongside on the foredeck, or the physical challenges of living in a Clipper 70 yacht on the heel, or the awe inspiring power of the Southern Ocean, or the brilliant starlit night skies, or the emotional drama of the Sydney/Hobart race, or those electrifying "southerly busters", or the quieter periods on deck drifting through wind holes. There are so many such memories of so many moments in every Clipper Race story.

That's how it was.