Race 3 - Day 24
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 24: Cape Town to Fremantle
24 November
4,875 miles down and 343 miles to go....
Our 24th day at sea and we feel the end is in sight. Frustratingly we have been slowly working our way through the massive wind hole and its impact on the fleet positions has been dramatic with a complete shake-up of the leader board in the past 12 hours, with the southern boats gaining massively on the rest of the fleet. We are still waiting for the wind to fill in and hopefully that will happen soon and we are all silently praying that we get to feel it first! At the end of the day (or 24 days of ocean racing....), it is all going to come down to who gets the stronger wind first and that is very frustrating after hours of careful trimming, sail changes and constantly working the boat as hard as we could. It can all change with a flick of the 'weather' switch despite all of the efforts of the different crews. But that's life and we can't change it so we'll try to stay focused for the next 24-48 hours and continue to drive hard and keep our fingers crossed that we end up on the podium. It ain't over until the fat lady sings! And time will tell!
Life on board Qingdao continues with the daily routines but with a few new welcome distractions. Yesterday...we had a real treat. A pod of 4 or 5 whales were spotted on the horizon and fortunately for us, they were a curious bunch and gradually moved in our direction. No doubt interested in this big red and yellow creature that was wallowing in their territory. All of a sudden, they popped up directly in front of the boat and everyone scrambled to get photos. A magnificent sight! The whales were clearly unimpressed as they quickly carried on their journey and disappeared back into the deep blue ocean.
The sea conditions yesterday were stunning. I've never seen the water so flat and smooth. The word 'mirror' understated its condition. There wasn't a ripple of any kind. Truly a beautiful sight although one that we'd have been happy to trade for some wind after a few hours. We took advantage of the flat conditions and started some of maintenance on the boat (Skip always has a long list of things to do) and completed our food/supplies inventory that should help us clear customs in Fremantle and speed up the re-provisioning process for Leg 4.
We seem to have been at sea forever but as we approach the finish line of Leg 3, I can't believe my Clipper journey is about to come to an end having signed up for Leg 2 and 3. It was a long time in the making and it's now almost done! I was sharing thoughts with one of my fellow crew members and what words we would use to describe the experience. He responded, "privileged". I agree. Not many folks get the opportunity to do something like we have just done and see an ocean (or two in my case) up close and personal. We were tested both physically and mentally to see what we are really capable of and in unbelievable conditions and were totally exposed to whatever mother nature decided to throw at us. She was reasonably gentle on us relative to the potential southern ocean conditions but it was still hard and challenging. There were extreme highs and lows throughout the journey and its not for the faint-hearted but as we head towards the finish line, my sense of accomplishment is building and a life long dream has been achieved.
I'd also describe it as the 'albatross escort' across the Southern Ocean. We pretty much had the constant company of these majestic birds from day 3 until yesterday. Stunning birds soaring alongside us the whole way. It felt like they were keeping us an eye on us to make sure we were safe and going in the right direction. A 'forever' memory for me.
As I return to being an 'armchair ocean racer', I wish the whole fleet a safe 'rest of the world' journey. I look forward to welcoming the fleet to my home town, New York City and of course,
Qingdao, Qingdao, Qingdao ....jiayou, jiayou, jiayou