Race 8 - Day 9
Crew Diary - Race 8 Day 9: Sanya to Qingdao
13 March
As Race 8, and my own personal Clipper Race adventure draws to a close, it's time to reflect back on what has taken place.
This race was built up to be a brutal head into the wind mission in which we were going to have to endure everything from the hot conditions outside of Sanya to the freezing cold temperatures, potentially snow and ice towards Qingdao. The waves were supposed to be brutal – steep and numerous and most of the race was due to be head into the wind which meant returning to life at a 45 degree angle. But as I type this, the sun is shining – there is a definite nip in the air but overall it's a rather pleasant temperature and most surprisingly we have our light weight spinnaker up. It's practically champagne sailing and we are in the Pacific!
It's not been like this all the way. We did have the tail end of a low pressure come through which did give us a glimpse of what we were expecting. The boat was smashing up and down into the waves and water was crashing over the railings helping to relocate any crew in its way. It was not pleasant and made life below deck hard work. Luckily the worse of it was only short lived – 36hrs or so and then it returned to a somewhat normal level of heel. I happened to be on Mother watch during that spell – a very lucky coincidence! Instead of being on deck I spent the time chopping vegetables, trying to stop them making a jump for freedom into the bilges. It was fried rice that night and I'm pretty sure there was more rice over the oven and floor than there was in the bowls. The frying pan was literally jumping off the oven top! The bad weather also brought out all the leaks that had been in hibernation on the boat, namely over my legs whilst I tried to sleep! I mustered the only energy I had left to curl my mattress over and roll into a little ball to stop myself from getting another gush. Unfortunately my efforts were futile as I still got wet and the gushing was accompanied by a new drip from the port hole window which was landing on my shoulder and face. All in all it was a rather crap night sleep! So I was very pleased when that weather front moved on – slightly less pleased when we got stuck in the wind hole after but it wouldn't be the proper Clipper 2017-18 Race experience if Sanya Serenity Coast didn't get stuck in a wind hole!
Although the weather hasn't quite been the challenge as expected, it has given me a little reminder of all the different weather and wind conditions that occur during sailing before I depart. It's ticked the bucket list of sailing conditions that must be experienced if one is to be considered a proper sailor. Maybe it was Wendo's Croc that got sacrificed to Poseidon as she tried to clean the rudder of seaweed that has blessed us with this more favourable weather conditions. For a time I thought it was my sealskin sock which mysteriously vanished and most probably must have joined Wendo's Croc in a Sanya Serenity Coast sacrifice to the weather gods as the reason for our rather nice weather..but the sock emerged 3 days later stinking of diesel. All I hope is that my sock enjoyed the party before its time on the virtual naughty step inside a plastic bag at the depth of my bag!
Despite the weather, there has been one challenge which I did not or could have predicted and that is the shear size of the fishing fleets in this part of the world. They are vast! Last night we sailed through an area of about 150 miles in length by 50 miles wide all full of fishing boats supported by large processing vessels. At night the lights from the boats on the black sea mimicked the stars in the night sky. It was hard to tell where the horizon ended and the skyline started. It was an incredible and yet very sad sight. How there are any fish left is beyond me! The image on the AIS system which picks up all the boats in the nearby vicinity was full of little green triangles. There seemed no rhyme or reason to their movement and we spent the entire night trying to dodge the boats which came at us from all angles. Having the spinnaker up made it even more challenging but we are in a race and we have played our Joker so have to give it our all!
Now the race is on to Qingdao. We only have 300 ish miles to go and and are currently in 3rd place, but Liverpool 2018 is just behind us with Visit Seattle 20 miles in front. We aren't going to come first but we will try our utmost to come on the podium to maximise our Joker. Come on Sanya Serenity Coast!!!