Race 13 - Day 5
Crew Diary - Derry-Londonderry to Liverpool
26 July

CV 21. Unicef – Crew Blog – Samantha Cardew - 26th July 2018

Well, here I am, writing a blog propped up as best I can in the galley whilst the boat lifts and falls on a very steep angle, the laptop and me following suit! This is the very same way I wrote my first blog all that time ago when on leg 3 and how funny that my last is very similar!

After a super stopover in London-Derry, the big blue boat was ready for the final race to Liverpool. For this race the timings of the watches as been altered slightly, thus those who used to get their eight hour off watch and much needed sleep during the night, now do so during the day. As such, being one who now sleeps during the day, I've been channelling my inner Audrey Hepburn by wearing my silk eye mask along with the vital ear plugs that are such a godsend on the boat! It really is the key to getting off to sleep during the day!

Having crossed the Atlantic, one would have thought that most people would have their sea legs by now but alas, many people were caught out by the green monster?! Coupled with detecting a leak and having to do a lot of bailing, it made for an interesting first support watch?! Those people being sick stating that they wished we were sinking as it would mean that they could get off?! Thankfully the leak is sorted and things are settling down.

We have rounded the penultimate southerly mark and are making our way to the next where we will hang a left, get the spinnaker up and sprint to the finish line! In only a few days, we will be arriving at Liverpool and all this will be over?!

This big blue boat has been my little world for several months now, I will have been away for three and a half months, for legs seven and eight and was away six weeks for leg three?! This race has been a part of my world for almost three years?! Where does time go? I is so strange to think that this is coming to an end?

Conversations on the boat are very much on reflection about what has been and how and if one has been changed by this experience. Many people, myself included put themselves so far out of their comfort zone doing this that 'crazy' is the word to describe us used by our friends and family. Crazy – they are probably right but I now have met many other 'crazy' people that I can call friends, that I have shared this experience with and as is quoted in one of my favourite books 'Alice in Wonderland' “Crazy, most of the best people are”!

Now, before I plan my next adventure, I must get back to racing this great big blue boat!

Fair winds and following seas!

With love from the Big Blue Boat

Samantha Cardew