Race 1 - Day 1
Crew Diary - Race 1, Day 1
02 September

And the race begins…..

I don’t think any of our crew can quite believe we are finally on our way to what will become a life changing experience for us all. However, my crew all feel that the love and support that has been given over the last 24 hours has been truly wonderful and we will treasure that forever. Big hugs and thanks to you all. Special mentions to our hat knitters from George and Michelle’s families – we love them! And to Zizzi’s restaurant for feeding the crew complementary while we motored down the Thames.

Thanks to Phillipa for our tiffin which we demolished in seconds and the banana and chocolate cake from a past Clipper Race Crew which too was delicious and well received.

I shed a few tears of emotion on race start today at 10am – it was so exciting to see the whole fleet together and what a start we had! Leading the way from the word go. From Spinnaker peels to bringing our white sails up and down and up again, I feel that we have really had a full on day and even though we lost wind in some areas and dropped back, as I sit here at 3.30am writing this blog, we are still leading. It’s a long way though so we expect a few battles to be faced.

I spent some time training the crew on victualling and hygiene systems however when we hit stronger winds and choppy seas, our living areas look rather messy. We are all trying to move around at 45 degrees and simply things using the heads and putting on your wet gear just takes forever. Sea sickness has struck for a few however I just feel queasy. Still eating my way through and I made our first wholemeal loaf today for breakfast. James and Frankie cooked all day so we have enjoyed scrambled eggs for breakfast, pasta for lunch and Thai chicken curry. We all got a little treat of chocolate cake with bananas and custard. Although some are still off their food.

Life on board soon takes over and I can say that going to bed in wet clothes and not even washing, seems to come easy to me. We have a great bond already and today I have seen many acts of kindness, along with a few tensions regarding deck work, Chris our Skipper has such a great calmness. We are lucky to have him and Rhiannon.

Just coming off shift now so we have a four hour rest and then back up for breakfast – bacon rolls! Feeling shattered, so once I get out of my wet gear I will climb into bed! Fully dressed of course. Bye for now – big kisses to my family and dear friends – Day 1 done, no bruises yet!