It’s been a tough night. We had a cracking upwind section at the start of the race however, we can never seem to match the speed of the others downwind. It is very frustrating. Qingdao has pulled away and Garmin is catching very quickly. I wonder what would have happened if we went around the world the wrong way......the positions may be very different!!
Look I'll be honest, I'm actually too worked up about finally coming home to Liverpool that I'm going to have to hand the keyboard over to someone with a slightly more level headed than me.
Some say he's as cool as a slice of cucumber in a chilled glass of water.
Others say he's cooler than cool - ice cold.
All I know is...
He's called Albert the Bear!
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Hi guys it's me, Albert!
So, I've been trying to keep the crew in line for this final race but now that Cap'n Lance has left the Nav Station I can finally show me true emotions...
OMG, OMG, OMG! We are coming home. I am coming back to Liverpool!!! I am so excited I keep having a little tear every now and then. I will have to wear sunglasses the whole time I am in Liverpool and you can tell all our fans and followers that I have an eye infection.
It's really hit me over the past few races just how much of an achievement sailing round the world truly is. I'm so proud of what we as a team have done. We've been through everything together, seen and done it all now. From champagne sailing to enduring hurricanes. Cruising under starry nights to navigating our way through pitch black darkness. Suffering in 50°C heat to freezing our little tails off.
Seriously, it was only a few short weeks ago that we were sailing past giant icebergs in Newfoundland (editor’s note: Really? Slight exaggeration Albert Bear!). In fact, we sailed right over where the Titanic sank! I was actually a little bit worried about this (bad omens sailing over sunk ships you know) so whilst we were in Northern Ireland I actually took a day off to head down to Belfast to see where the Titanic was originally made. I made sure to throw some salt over my shoulder and spin around three times just to get our lucky wind back.
Speaking of Northern Ireland, our final stopover in Derry-Londonderry was indeed LegenDerry! The Irish certainly lived up to their reputation and I have had soooo much whiskey that you could distil my sweat and sell it. Derry-Londonderry certainly turned it on for us and we had an amazing time during the weeklong Foyle Maritime Festival. A special shout out to Starch and Soda who adopted us as a team and kept us suitably feed and boozed. And an even bigger shout out to our amazing former crew members who all turned up and flew in from all corners of the globe to come party with us one last time.
Sharky and his clan flew in from South Africa, Roy the Man Mountain was inspired by Finn McCool and moved boulders to get to Derry on time, the Wozzas danced their way over and Carrie and Wes whispered to the fishes to ensure they had a safe passage. And of course there were two very excited lads who made the stopover extra special... Jonny Prosecco Man of the Sea and his hunk of spunk Aussie mate Red (to be honest he was a wintery ghost of his former tanned self) turned up and gave our very own Dreamboat a very special surprise birthday present!
Speaking of good looking amazing crew. I want to take one final chance to say how lucky a bear I have been to have sailed this race with eight Wonderful Worlders. They have each prevailed through extraordinary conditions to circumnavigate around the globe and have come out on the other side (or is it the same side...) to be profoundly changed and better people. I think about half of them are bloody bonkers enough to want to keep sailing and would sign up again if you let them. The other half appear to have retained some form of sanity and are ready to come home.
In any case, each and every one of the Worlders should be immensely proud.
Ok enough emotional talk. It's time to get back to the business of racing. It ain't over yet folks and even though we can't win the overall race we can do our best to make sure that our entrance back into our glorious home port, my fantastic name sake the now Royal Albert Dock, is one of the greatest and pinkest events in history! I'm putting the call out and need each and every one of our fantastic fans to come out and welcome us home. It doesn't matter whether you've been proudly flying your pink flag all year, or if you've been a secret supporter, or even if you only just heard about our fun little pink tin can... get your furry butts down to the Royal Albert Dock and make sure we can hear you all the way up and down the banks of the Mersey!
As always Think Pink and we'll see you all very, very soon!
Cheers,
Big Al xx