Once again, gooooood morning Black Betty fans.

I hope you have all enjoyed your holiday from the Race Viewer, or did you all find it difficult to make it through the day without being able to get your daily fix of Black Betty?! Anyway, after a short delay we are now on our way to Sanya, China, and Leg 5 is officially underway. Get ready to keep hitting 'refresh' again, on the hour....every hour.

The decision to delay the fleet was a tough one, but a sensible one, and the silver lining of the delay was that Black Betty was ready to go to sea on Friday, as were her crew, so with all our preparation completed, the whole team got a bonus day off to explore the glorious Whitsundays, but not before we went for a crew meal on Friday night, which was followed by experiencing some of Airlie Beaches finest evening venues.

For me, on a personal note, this stop has been a tough one. I found out that my Granny passed away while we were at sea on the last leg. I said my goodbyes before I left, it was not unexpected, but it didn't make it any easier to process. In previous editions of the Clipper Race, she visited during the Derry~Londonderry stopovers, coming down to the boat to look around, one of my favorite pictures is standing with her on a Clipper 68 on the River Foyle. I will have a chance to say my goodbyes when I get back, with a small service planned to bury her ashes. Wherever she is, I'm sure she'd be proud. Much love to my family.

I also had some terrible news from a very, very close friend about his wife being in hospital after an accident. They have always been there for me, ALWAYS, and in today's modern, connected, online world, the planet can feel quite small, but a few tough days, being this far away make you realise how far away you really are. I hope its all positive changes over the next few weeks, I'll be thinking of you guys whilst we race to China.

This has been my first full stop over of the Clipper 2019-20 Race. The whole crew have worked tirelessly to get Black Betty ship shape, deep clean was deep, things have been maintained, stuff that need sorting and stowing has been organised and boxed, we really have pushed hard this stop, doing everything we can to help make life easier at sea. The energy the new joining leggers have is brilliant, with everyone keen to get stuck in and get stuff done. I'll introduce them all in the following weeks. Thanks team.

It's also been amazing to catch up with old friends, Sarah and Piers thanks for flying up for one night of catching up over cold beers. Wayne and Heather, as always your hospitality was second to none. Meeting new friends too, Ruth and Al, great to get to spend some time with you guys. I could go on and on, having the support of friends makes such difference and it means the world to me.

I'll sign off now.

For my Granny, for, Kev, for Phoebe and for Bec.......... BLACK BETTY OUT!

Good morning Black Betty fans, you join us well into Day 2 since leaving Airlie Beach, but as yet we are still to start racing. After a very pleasant evening motor-sailing to the start of the Hydrographers Passage through the Great Barrier Reef, we had a flat and steady night navigating our way east through one of the few channels that allow traffic to past east to west and vise versa to make passage, not around, but through the world’s largest coral reef.

We intended to start our race earlier on today (local time) but a couple of factors have made postponement of race start necessary. Firstly, with the Le Mans start, the whole fleet have to line up, across the wind, rather close to each other, with approximately 2 boat lengths between each boat. With very little wind the yachts can suffer from a lack of steerage, without enough flow over the rudder, so for safety,we have to wait for more wind. Fair dinkum, that just how it goes sometimes. For now, the whole fleet continue to motor along the rhumb line, until a time that we have enough wind to get Race 6 going.

In other news, the joining crew are finding their feet, or should that be sea legs? Everyone is settling in to the routines of life at sea. Motor-sailing for the first 24 hours certainly makes the first night at sea a lot less stressful for myself and DanDan. I have discovered one thing about several of the new joiners, the number of the world’s worst shoes - Crocs, has increased on board, much to my...well lets just say, I'm not angry, just disappointed. I don't care how much people say how practical/comfy or anything else, they are the worst footwear EVER. Leg 5 crew member Lizzie was feeling a bit off colour earlier, and as she was feeding the fish off the back of the boat, I worked something out, she thought she was seasick, but I don't think so. Not long before going a little green Lizzie had just donned her Crocs for the first time. Coincidence...I think not! Now she is back to normal footwear, and she no longer feels the need to sit down on the low side. If you ask me, this is scientific evidence that those shoes, not only look ridiculous, but are bad for your health.

Black Betty OUT!

Good morning Black Betty fans. You join us a handful of hours after race start, and its slow going. Earlier today, the whole fleet assembled, lined up across the wind, with about 2 boat lengths between each boat for our start sequence, which was expertly run by fellow Skipper Rob of the Good ship Imagine your Korea. The Le Mans start is certainly an impressive sight with whole fleet all raising head sails at the same time, the sound of 22 sails being raised and many winches spinning filling the air, but as we were roughly 200nm miles off-shore, there was no one around to see it, in-fact we only use the Le Mans start when we are not able to have a start comity boat and a start line, so the only way to see it, is to be in it, and the only way to do that is to sign up for the next race!

Back to what’s been going aboard Black Betty. We had a pretty good start, the crew had the head sails up quickly, and our position of second from windward helped too. Since the race began, the wind has died and we have gone from, at times 7.5 knts of boat speed, barely making any headway now. The Yankee 1 and the staysail are sitting on the deck and the wind seeker is up. The brief for the on deck crew is 'think baby badger, not baby elephant' as you move around the boat. You really can notice the boat speed drop off if everyone is thundering around the boat and up setting the air flow over the sails.

The new team members are settling in very well, with the old hands quite literally 'showing them the ropes', in particular, this morning we had a great helm coaching session with RTW'er Paul (new nickname Kiwi, as we now have our other RTW Paul back on board and things were getting confusing) giving Leg 5 crew Kate some coaching to get into the groove, nice job guys, Kate got settled in on the helm well. One thing that we talked about in de-briefs at the end of the last leg was trying to do much more crew on crew coaching, and at present the whole team are going great guns on this. It's not just down to the new-to-crew to ask questions, but also the old hands to encourage learning. Great job team, keep it up.

Talking of coaching, there was quite a detailed head- based conversation going on earlier too, with the joining leggers pulling some rather impressive faces as some of the worlders gave them top tips on heads usage, such as the 'safety pump' and making sure you pick the correct heads for the tack that you are currently on, and 'pump while you...' well I'll leave you to fill in the rest as the conversation went on it became less and less blog friendly, all very valid, important tips, often with the team learning from mistakes, and passing their wisdom on so that the others don't have to make the same mistakes, go yachting they said, it will be glamorous they said!

For now, we push north, with what little breeze we have as we make our way towards the first port hand mark of this race, and as I sit here sweltering in the heat, I can't help but think of the spanner chimps at an old place of work, and right now the thought of lying on a cold concrete floor, or being out in the frost in a yard in Milton Keynes now is quite appealing. Jeffery, Keefna, BJ, Clivna and Daz, I hope you boys are wrapped up warm and have the workshop heater on.

Black Betty OUT!