Toc, toc, toc, these Spaniards are Crazy.

Clearly a year away is not enough so I took the Doris to Spain for a week, partly to salve my conscience for leaving her for so long and partly because I needed a holiday after sailing.

On the Costa Blanca is a small seaside town called Denia where they have an annual festival, one of the main attractions of which is the "Bulls to the Sea". It's a bit like bull running, but the idea is to get the bulls to chase you so that they run into the sea. It all takes place in a small bull "ring" on the harbour and the local lads gather in the arena watched by all the locals. A bull is then released into the arena and mayhem ensues. The locals goad the bull into chasing them into the sea, with the hope that the bull will also jump in with a terrific splash. This picture shows a bull in the arena with all the men ready to leap for it if gets too close.

I felt slightly uneasy before things kicked off because I didn't really know if the bulls would be hurt or drowned or whatever. In the end what actually happens is that if a bull goes in the harbour it is quickly corralled by three blokes in an unweildy rowing boat who persuade it up a ramp back into its holding pen. If the bull is then judged not to be too tired it's let out again. The bulls that do end up in the harbour seemed to enjoy the cooling water and seemed to go straight back in. It was hysterical to watch and all the uneasiness was soon lost in the laughter. One bull ran up to the edge and couldn't stop on the sandy concrete and was back-pedalling furirously as it ended up in the water. It was total comedy. Here is one of a Spaniard in mid-air.

Liverpool

We had a fun race up the Mersey with only a storm jib and staysail and a full main. It was a slightly strange combination, but the very short tacking meant the small headsail was much easier to get a across. Again we didn't read the race instructions and although we crossed the line third we got protested by Liverpool who said we hadn't gone round one of the marks. Whatever - it was a great spectacle and the sun was out.

Our arrival in Liverpool was all a bit overwhelming. There were hundreds of people lining the dock and I managed to pick out a few key faces that had made the effort to come and see us all in. Thanks to you all. It made the day all the better.

We got presented our second place pennant for race 14 on the deck of the boat. I'm sure the photos are out there somewhere, but the one thing I will always remember is the great surge of good feeling that just seemed to flow through everyone. We were all on such a high and the thought that my year was all over was not really in my mind at all. Those thoughts had been going through my mind for the previous 24 hours that I think I'd done all I could with them already. There was no point in mulling over it too much and I wasn't going to let concerns about the future cloud the day and all out achievement. This picture of Angie was one of my favourites from the day.

Cork to Liverpool

I want to wind back a few weeks to the the final chapter in my race around the world was the last short sprint to Liverpool. There were lots of mixed emotions about this being the last time we'd be out together on Singapore. Some of us didn't want it to end, but I had definitely had enough. It had been a long time since I'd seen my friends, Sarah and my family I missed them all. I was also looking forward to the reception in Liverpool and I couldn't wait for it to all happen.

We left on the 3rd of July. Our straight line route to Liverpool was about 270 miles, but that would put us off Liverpool too early and Clipper didn't need us there until the early hours of the 5th so we were all imagining a route where we would have to snake back and forth across the Irish Sea to use up the time. None of us were really keen on that prospect and even talking to some of the other crews there was a feeling of just wanting to be in Liverpool.

The best weather we had all week in Ireland was the day we left. We did a parade past the Cobh and it's beautifully painted houses and then made our way out to the mouth of Cork Bay for the race start. We had a pretty average start and then headed east to the first waypoint, located between the two TSSs in the Irish Sea. This would take us out of the way of any shipping. It was about 90 miles to the waypoint and with strong westerlies we hammered along and were then in about 9 hours. Ironically I was on Mothers for the last full day of racing so didn't really see much of it.

The only critical point was that we had to gybe around the mark to head north into St George's Channel. We were leading at the mark with New York and H&H to windward and Durban just behind to leeward. As we got to the mark H&H bore down on us and in the end forced us to slow down and sail deeper just as we were gybing. Some words were exchanged between Mark and Danny, but essentially they should have kept clear as the windward boat and gybed behind us. H&H had to beat New York by a large margin to get first place and possibly the knowledge that this was very unlikely was starting to get to Danny, but it wasn't the best bit of sailing I'd seen.

We gybed nicely round the mark, but had dropped back to fourth in the altercation with H&H.

Over night the wind started to drop off and our fast progress slowed right off and with it our chances of needing to take a tortuous route up the Irish Sea. It was a beautifully clear day and when I finally joined the sailing after completing my Mother Watch we were off Holyhead. You could see Ireland to the West and the Isle of Man to the North. This was my first view of the British Isles and I was actually a little awestruck. It was starting to sink in that I had really raced around the world and the last time I had been here it was a cold and blowy night 10 and a half months earlier.

More importantly, We were back in first place because the three lead boats had gone further west and managed to find a wind hole that enabled us to sneak past. We could see the majority of the other boats and then we got a fly past from an RAF Nimrod. Apparently one of the Glasgow sponsors had organised for some photos to be taken and it was a brilliant sight.

We had to turn east at another imaginary mark off Anglesey. This would keep us outside the TSS at the top end of Wales, and as we approached it New York just seemed to have a bit more breeze and they made the mark about a mile ahead of us. They were then able to harden up on the wind and gain a bit more distance. We were hoping to do the same and make some gains on the boats behind us, but as always we didn't get the same luck and the wind started to die off completely and become flukey. Again we were reduced to windseeker and were bobbing around for about an hour before a good breeze filled in from the east and we were back to #1 one and beating into it.

As the afternoon progressed we chased New York around a small course that had been set for us to use up the time. We had a nice beam or fine reach with the easterly wind building all the time. Fortunately the swell was very slight and although we did go to the #2 we went back to the #1 when it seemed like H&H were gaining on us. Those last two headsail changes were really slick and I think we were all pretty pleased that we managed to end on a high.

We finally crossed the line at about 1am on the 5th in second place. Our second pennant of the campaign, but also the end of an incredible year. It really didn't sink in to my brain that it was all over. There was lots of cheering and waving and some of the other boats let off red hand-held flares which we could see miles away, but I felt quite subdued by the whole thing. I had an hour's sleep before we were back up to do a watch as we motored around outside the entrance to the Mersey before our last dash up the river to the final fanfare. Most importantly for us WA had
finished 9th so that put us in 7th overall. We had made it back to being Uniquely Seventh.

Sydney, Nova Scotia to Cork

We left Sydney on June the 16th under sunshine and blue skies. It was the best weather we had while we were in Sydney and with hundreds of school kids escorting us to the boats it was quite a carnival atmosphere. The kids had "adopted" a boat and had been following us on the internet from their classrooms. When somebody asked some of our class whether they would rather be supporting Nova Scotia we got a definite no and I was quite touched by their loyalty to the big red boat.

We had a very average start across the line, a riding turn on one of the primary winches meant that our last tack into the line was very slow and it cost us quite a few places. However as we headed out of the harbour we wound ourselves back up into race mode. The wind was funnelled into Sydney harbour, which is quite narrow, so we had to tack all the way out to the open sea. As we got closer to the harbour entrance the wind got progressively lighter and lighter, I went off watch at about 2 and when I cam back up at 6 we still had not totally cleared the bay. At that point we were picking our way through hundreds of lobster pots, but we had climbed to first place. It was quite strange how we just seemed to have caught puffs and zephyrs that the other boats were not getting and they were about a mile behind us when we cleared the lobster pots.

However the tables turned pretty quickly and in light winds the rest of the fleet seemed to get a bit more breeze than us and the clawed back our advantage. The wind was northerly and this gave us a decent angle to move along on. We saw Durban with their spinnaker up, shy reaching, but this took them a lot closer too the shore where the wind died and the were soon almost out of sight behind us. We did get a great display of tail slapping from some Humpback whales. It was the best view of Humpbacks we'd seen since Durban and it was an impressive display.

We needed to get to the easterly tip of Newfoundland by the middle of the 19th because according to the GRIB the wind was due to come easterly by then and if we did not make it we would have to beat into it. Once round the corner, the great circle route took us northeast so while we might be close-hauled at least we would be making a direct course to Ireland. It was only about 300 miles from Sydney to this corner and normally we'd easily do that in a couple of days. Unfortunately we were stuck in light winds and fog for three days as we edged towards the corner. It was excruciatingly slow, ghosting along at a knot or two and constantly having to work at eeking out whatever boat speed we could. We had the windseeker up most of the time, interleaved with frantic activity to hoist the LWSP or #1 Yankee depending on where the wind was coming from.

One morning we heard a fog horn in the distance and it was very eerie. Fortunately, with radar, we could identify that the ship it belonged to was 7 miles away and heading down our starboard side. We still had a conversation with them over VHF, just to warn them we were there, but we never saw them. A second ship came along later, and they guys on watch heard the engines before they heard the fog horn. That really freaked them out.

We were heading towards the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. This is a well known fishing area and the fishermen we spoke to on the radio said that it was always foggy. The water is also cold, only 7 degrees Centigrade, because it flows from Greenland on the Labrador current. This current also brings Icebergs with it. We had the latest report from the International Ice Patrol, which provides a count of the number of icebergs to be found in certain areas. There seemed to quite a few close to the coast so Clipper had provided us with a waypoint 60 miles off shore that would take us away from the worst of the iceberg threat. We still maintained a constant vigil until we were well out of the area.

This waypoint was also our turning point to head northeast to follow the Great Circle to Ireland and we finally got there late on the 19th. The latest GRIB at that point also showed that there would be strong northerly winds that would switch to become southerly as a low pressure system went through. This would hopefully provide easterly winds to the boats to the north and we could take advantage of the southerlies. Therefore as the rest of the boats turned northeasterly we decided to do our own thing and continue easterly in our own Uniquely Singapore style. Unfortunately the next GRIB showed that the depression had not moved as far north as we had hoped and while it was going to give the rest of the fleet light winds it was going to give us strong winds more from the east. This was typical of our luck and at one point, because we had made this move, we were in 10th almost 100 miles from the lead.

We found ourselves in gale conditions again and it was like being off Taiwan again. The seas were massive and again we were reduced to 3 reefs and storm jib. We had the same old story of falling off waves with incredible crashes. Everything was wet and we were freezing cold because we were still in the Labrador current and it was raining constantly. So much for mid-summer. As Sir Robin had warned us before we left, the Atlantic is no pussy cat and we should not get complacent even though we were only 2000 miles from home. This was also in the area of the Flemish Cap, where they filmed "A Perfect Storm". The only solace was that while we were hanging on everyone else was in light winds and as the wind subsided and we decided to get back on the Great Circle route, we found that WA had dropped right back and were stopped in a big hole further north, unfortunately the lead boats had managed to avoid the light stuff. However they were having to head back south again to avoid being engulfed by yet more light winds. This allowed us to make some distance back up

We continued on our easterly route because again there were light winds to the north. We just had to hang in there and hope that in the future there would be an advantage being to the south of the fleet, otherwise we were going to lose out badly when we had to go north. For a few days we were flying spinnakers. We were constantly switching through all 3 of them, depending on the wind speed. One night, we lost the strop on the spinnaker sheet and had to drop the MWSP in a hurry. In the ensuing chaos the entire spinnaker sheet got lost over the side - woops. Fortunately we had a spare.

One night we had a really busy night watch where the wind started to go all over the place and we started to make preparations to gybe. We had the #1 on deck at the time and it was preventing us getting the second pole prepared so we had to flake that on the foredeck. As we were doing that the HWSP collapsing and the guy was flying around our heads. It eventually flicked Doris' hat off and she was lucky not to get properly clonked. We probably had about 700 miles to go at this stage and the GRIB was predicting better winds for us than the rest of the fleet. In fact winds on the beam of about 35 knots were predicted and this would enable us to scoot north and hopefully make some places and some miles on the boats in front. At last something for us. In the end we didn't gybe, but dropped the HWSP for the MWSP and carried on.

The following night the wind was building again and we were flying the HWSP in over 30 knots of breeze. Angie and I were regularly getting 14 knots of boat speed and it was fairly hairy sailing. Towards the end of our watch Mark came up and took over the helm. I suggested that we hank a Yankee on just in case the wind came round or we needed to pole out if it got up. Sure enough as we went off watch we passed the #2 up to Ian's watch and they got it hanked on. They then had a pretty hairy drop of the kite. They ran the guy rather than spike the kite and our brand new port halyard got damaged irreperably. That was the second halyard on this race and we had to replace it with a topping lift, which was not ideal because the topping lift is specra and a spinnaker halyard should be braid on braid which stretches and is less likely to break under the sudden snaps that the spinnaker imparts on it. Oh well, needs must.

We were then poled out with the number 2 and we had some incredibly fast sailing. Bear in mind that we had about 500 miles to go at this point. I managed to get 19.6 knots of boat speed on one surf. All this fast sailing was allowing us to make gains on the boats ahead and over the next 24 hours the wind came round on the beam and blew up to 40 knots. The seas were huge and we really caning along with the #2 up and 2 reefs in. We still had not seen the sun since we left Sydney and it was raining and cold. I coudn't believe it was meant to be summer. The only reason we didn't just throw the towel in and head for the Azores was that the wind was coming from that direction.

With about 220 miles to go the wind started to abate and we were back onto the HWSP. We had managed to claw back 70 miles to bring us only 30 miles behind the leaders and we were in 5th place. All that effort had at least brought us some gains. We were still making 10 knots on average and my predictions of arriving in Cork on the 30th were going to be wildly pessimistic. Since the 19th we had managed to do about 1700 miles in only 9 days. That is really knocking on.

Our last 24 hours into Cork provided us with some great spinnaker sailing and even a bit of sunshine. It's incredible how the mood on the boat lifted once the sun came out and then even more so once we realised we had past the Fastnet rock to our north and we were less than 50 miles from the end of our third Atlantic crossing. With about 10 miles to go we saw another Clipper with their spinnaker up, looming out of the mist. This turned out to be Jamaica and we managed to beat them to the line with only 2 miles to spare. I'll post the photos of our spinnaker drop on the line when I get them, but for now you'll have to live with one of Crosshaven harbour, where we were hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Halifax to Sydney

After a very enjoyable 5 day stay in Halifax we were due to race to Sydney in Cape Breton. This is at the Northeast tip of Nova Scotia and 270 miles from Halifax. The purpose of the race was to celebrate the 250th anniversary of democracy in Nova Scotia also known as the D250 celebrations. Nova Scotia was allowed to hold elections in the 18th century, partly as a result of the dire results of unrepresentative government in the American colonies. I also think it may have been to do with fostering some loyalty in the fight against the French colonies in Canada. Anyway, the D250 race took us up the eastern coast of Nova Scotia and then round the corner to Sydney and was not part of the Clipper races, it was just meant to be a "fun" race. As such a couple of my crew mates decided to go to Sydney by car. I stayed with the boat because I wanted to make sure that I did actually sail round the world rather than skip any bits. I want to say that "I sailed round the world" and not "I sailed round the world except 270 miles."

The conditions at the start were very good, it was a bright and breezy day as we headed out of Halifax. Nova Scotia was the only boat to hoist their spinnaker. The conditions were great for it and the cameras were all out for them so it was worth their while, however the rest of the boats just stuck with poled out headsails because we didn't want to destroy a spinnaker in a race that didn't count towards our overall standings. Unfortunately Mark didn't read the race instructions and we missed the only mark we had to go round so after 8 miles we got disqualified. We got a phone call from the Race Director saying that even though some people weren't taking the race seriously we could at least follow the course.

We had southwesterlies as we left Halifax which gave us great sailing for the first few hours, but then the wind veered to the west and then north as we continued our progress up the coast. It also got progressively stronger and the northerly wind was bitterly cold. At one point we were down to 3 reefs and a storm jib as it was blowing over 40knots. We had to hove to to drop the number 3 because it was blowing 42 knots and then the the next watch had to put up the storm job, but Mark refused to hove to for the storm job hoist and it was pretty hairy up there for Tim, Michelle and Koh. For a race that didn't count for anything and one we were disqualified from, we were really having to work hard to survive and as usual having a nightmare getting into port. We got to Cape Breton, about 30 miles from Sydney and our turning point to head in. At this point we were sailing right into the teeth of the gale and the conditions were awful, freezing cold sea, fog, rain, you name it(and it was meant to be June!). Fortunately, it was my turn to do Mother Watch, so I avoided the last bit into Sydney until it was time to drop the mainsail. Our top batten had sprung from its pocket and was preventing us from dropping the main so I had to go up the mast very quickly to retrieve it.

The one major casualty in this race was, ironically enough, Nova Scotia. They don't usually put a third reef in the main because they've hardly every used it and the constant rubbing of the reefing line damages the stitching. However when they got 45+ knots of breeze they no way of putting the third reef and and it blew their main sail. They completely trashed it and had to get an old one sent from the container in Halifax. You can see in the picture from the mast, below, that their boom is bare. I assume they were docked points for this, but because Clipper never give a breakdown of the points awarded it's very difficult to tell whether everyone is actually being treated fairly and penalties are being applied.

Sydney is a very small town, but again very friendly. There used to be a lot of mining in the area, but that has since ceased. Like Halifax, Sydney was where the WWII convoys would leave from on their way to supply Britain. Those leaving from Halifax were detailed HC convoys and those leaving Sydney were called SC. The Halifax convoys were for ships that could maintain at least 7 knots and Sydney convoys were for slower ships. This got them the moniker "Slow Convoy" for SC.

Sydney is proud of its folk music heritage and we were moored next to the cruise ship terminal, outside which is the world's largest fiddle.
It's a slightly unusual sight, but I suppose they needed to have something to be famous for. I took this one from the top of the mast during my usual rig check. You can see that the weather was pretty grim and I can tell you it was absolutely freezing there. Even the locals were sailing that it was unsually cold for June.

Halifax

In short I thought Halifax was brilliant. We arrived at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron at about 3am on Sunday the 9th of June. It was still very foggy and for those on watch it was very chilly as the coast loomed out of the night and lights started to appear. It was all very eerie as we made our way to the yacht squadron to a warm welcome consisting of beer and hot dogs. What else would you want at 4 in the morning?

After a couple of hours' sleep we were doing a few maintenance jobs before we headed round to Halifax harbour proper. The Yacht Squadron is round a headland from the main town and we slipped at 1pm for a formation sail past St. George's island and along the waterfront. We went past the various historic piers and as far as where the Royal Canadian Navy is moored. We had a fantastic welcome from the locals who had turned out. The city itself is small and compact with lots of bars, restaurants and the odd brewery to keep you fed and watered. It also has a great maritime museum with exhibits on the Halifax explosion, the Titanic (this is where the rescue operation was launched from) and the WW2 convoys that left from here.

Another word on the Halifax explosion which was something I'd never heard of but it's scale really shocked me. In December 1917 Halifax was the scene of the larges man made explosion (until the atomic bomb was dropped). A ship carrying liquid explosive for munitions collided with another ship in the harbour and caught fire. It then drifted onto the docks at Richmond, a suburb of Halifax, where it exploded. The shock of the explosion sent it's anchor over 3km and it's propeller was found almost 6km away. The explosion levelled or damanged 12000 buildings in town and killed 2000 people. The resulting tidal wave also washed away a lot of the indigenous Indian settlements that were on the shore. It really was a shocking level of devastation that still leaves a scar on Halifax to this day. http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/AtoZ/HalExpl.html

After arriving we had the usual prize giving and then we went out to enjoy some of the local ales (Keith's brewery makes a great IPA) and then dance the night away as we squeezed into the Lower Deck pub. Since then we've mostly eaten and drunk very well at the great restaurants in town, in particular some of the best Sushi I've ever had. The people here are also incredibly friendly and it's an extremely vibrant town, partly because of the large student population, but also because I just think Nova Scotians are like that.

New York to Nova Scotia

You either love it or you hate it, but I'm definitely in the former category. In 2 days there I didn't try to do too much except walked around town taking in the sights and sounds of the madness that is New York. We were moored in North Cove Marina which is right next to Ground Zero which these days is the most visited sight in New York, the second most visited is Century 21, the department store right next to it. Go figger. I got my usual photo from the masthead. You can see Battery Park and the World Financial Centre behind me.

Canal St., the Guggenheim, the Met and Central Park all got a visit and hanging out with Shauna in Stone St. and the West Village where she lives was great (thanks). The weather was great for the sightseeing on the 3rd of June, but when it was time for us to leave on the 4th the fog had closed in and as we motored past the Statue of Liberty we could practically only see it on radar. Qingdao almost got run down by a very slow moving tanker and that was essentially our exit from NY. These photos of our corporate day on the 3rd is what it should have looked like, but unfortunately it didn't. http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/images/gallery_race_news/New_IMG_8182.jpg

http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/images/gallery_race_news/New_IMG_8167.jpg

This photo of Liverpool in front of the business district shows how foggy it was.



We passed under the Narrows bridge and continued to motor into the early evening because there was no wind (AGAIN!). At about 5 there was still no wind but if we didn't do a Le Mans start then we would have to wait until the morning because you can't do one in the dark. Also the wind was due to fill in overnight. H&H were the duty boat and we were off. About 10 minutes after the start all ten boats were pointing in different directions, being at the mercy of the swell alone. In the light winds we tried our usual combination of every sail we had, LWS, MWS, windseeker and then back to the #1 we started with. Mark made the comment that we possibly should have just stuck with the #1. After 2 hours of running around the deck I was thinking that I might suggest that next time. Anyway, the wind filled in and we were off.

Overnight we were sailing in really poor visibility and although all ten boats were within a few miles we could only see NY and Glasgow less than a mile away. We managed to gain on NY and we were in first at the second port mark. Clipper had set out a course to keep us east of the Nantucket coast and the TSS that runs parallel to the Massachusetts coast and it once we got round the mark we were back on the rhum line to Halifax.

We had a good 20 knots of wind on the beam and we hacking along really nicely, and as we turned north towards Halifax we were closer hauled, but thent he wind started to drop. On the second night we had even managed to sail past New York. Their green masthead light appeared out of the night. It was really high in the fog so they were less than 200 yards behind us and then as quickly as it appeared it was gone. We were pleased to be up there with the best boats in the fleet and even leading from time to time.


Then we sailed into our usual difficulties. The rest of the fleet seemed to get wind, but NY and ourselves sailed into a hole. We got a lot less than the rest of them and they all sailed round us. Typical of our races and then Clipper called the race off as the wind continued to die right off. In the end we ended up 8th and losing out to NY. I went off watch with them 2 miles behind us and came back on to find them a mile ahead. Who knows what happened, but with that result and WA winning the race it effectively relegates us to 8th overall unless we get lucky in the last 2 races. And luck is not our strong suit.