“Murder” on the high seas
The race is beginning to take shape as we leave the Doldrums corridor. GOSH is to our East, Punta to our North and Washington & Qingdao to our West. We’ve picked up some good winds on the nose, so beating down to the equator at 9 knots. The morale is high and Zoe has started a murder mystery boat game at 12.00 hours today. Already, Ollie has been murdered with the mobile vhf in the nav station, by Gavin, and Ian H murdered by a hobnob in the cockpit, by Marcus, not too sure if I’ll last the night, although I think Steven tried to murder me with the slop bucket in the galley! Petra has just been murdered by a couple of tissues under the traveler by Arno.
Back on deck at 22.00 for our 4 hour watch and another crew member murder during the night! Sarah, with Gavin’s mouse mat at the helm, by Melinda. They’re dropping like flies. We’re due to cross the equator any time which is a big thing in sailing terms. Turning from Polywogs to Shellbacks, (probably another Blog to explain) but we now need to present, as a watch, a song, shanty or play to the rest of the crew by 12.00 tomorrow as part of the Shellback ritual. So I’m writing a shanty around “I’ve been a wild rover” type theme which is turning out okay. But in the meantime, in the dark a bloody flying fish decides to drop onto my lap. So I now stink of fish.
By morning we have another death, Andy killed with a fork in the head by Kerry.
Becoming a Shellback
We’re not far from the equator and the the other watch are woken as we pass the equator at 09.33 UTC, a 1st for everybody on the boat and another landmark in sailing folklaw ticked. The previous watch had dropped the Yankee 1 and put up the Yankee 2, but the last buggers had left the Yankee 1 on deck and the sail cover in the cockpit (I smell a rat?)
After the equator celebrations we set about tidying up the decks, 1st, let’s get the Yankee 1 below, it’s a heavy bugger, our biggest foresail and in 20 odd knots of wind and water charging over the bow, you can see why the previous watch left it for us to do. As the sail goes down the hatch and we close it, there’s been a double murder in the sail locker! Ian L, murdered by a head torch and the culprit was Steve. Marcus, horribly murdered with two wet wipes by Melinda. Another hobnob murder this morning, Charlie, dropped his guard for a hobnob, handed to him by his watch mate Tony. .
Each watch needs to perform their dance, play or song to Neptune. Starboard watch have put a song together around “What shall we do with the drunken sailor”, which was rather funny and I put together our song based on “I’ve been a wild rover” must admit I was quite proud of my efforts and then we basically bribed Neptune (Gavin in a wig) with his favourite snacks. So we all passed into the Shellback society.
LBS – I’ve been a Sea Farer, for many’s a year.
I’ve been a sea farer for many’s a year but I’ve spent all my money on Musto shop gear. And now I’m returning with gold in great store, I will not be attending that shop anymore
Singing no nah never (clap clap clap clap) no nah never no more, well I’ll be a sea farer no never no more.
I opened the pamphlet from Clipper world tour, and discussed the tour options on offer for sure. I asked Chris for credit, he answered me neigh if you want to partake mate, then you’ll need to pay
Singing no nah never (clap clap clap clap) no nah never no more, well I’ll be a sea farer no never no more.
I signed up to travel the world by sail and was determined I was not going to fail. I checked out my options to finance the race but the bank manager laughed right back in my face.
Singing no nah never (clap clap clap clap) no nah never no more, well I’ll be a sea farer no never no more.
So I returned to my parents and confessed what I’d done and I asked them to pardon their prodigal son. They hugged and caressed me as oft as before and I promised I’d spend not a penny more.
Singing no nah never (clap clap clap clap) no nah never no more, well I’ll be a sea farer no never no more.
I brought from my pocket 10 sovereigns bright and Chris Harrison’s eyes opened wide with delight.He said we have clippers and bunks of the best and the words that I’d spoken were only in jest.
Singing no nah never (clap clap clap clap) no nah never no more, well I’ll be a sea farer no never no more.
We started to practice without too much strife as we entered the ultimate race of our life. We crossed the Atlantic as Polywog crew, but finished this leg as shell backs, THANKYOU.
Singing no nah never (clap clap clap clap) no nah never no more, well I’ll be a sea farer no never no more.
And now I’m returning with Gold in great store with memories of sailing the big boats off shore. The friendships and stories will last ever more as we sail LBS shore to shore
Singing no nah never (clap clap clap clap) no nah never no more, well I’ll be a sea farer no never no more.
We offer this blessing to the sea God Neptune and that’s why we’ve written this little sea tune. We thank you for listening to our amateur voice, but as your with clipper you’ve got no bloody choice.
Singing no nah never (clap clap clap clap) no nah never no more, well I’ll be a sea farer no never no more.
A great bit of fun. In the meantime I’ve killed Claire, with the teddy on the deck. I now have another victim in sight.
Just before Tea, I very cleverly dropped my weapon of choice, a wooden plug, just in front of Melinda, the plan worked, she picked it up and handed it back, thus killing herself. However, I was Melinda’s target so my killing spree ends, for this game anyway.
Race 2’s Open Sprint Begins
We’ve entered the ocean sprint and tanking along at 11. Knots. Gosh are further east of us, but surprisingly hardened up to run parallel to us, this race has more twists and turns than a curly wurly
About 100 miles into the the sprint and going well, the wind has dropped a tad during our watch and we’ve been catching GOSH, we’ve got a 3/4 moon which is lighting up the sea throwing up a Dark silhouette of the boat onto the sea, every so often a cloud covers the moon and it’s like a light switch, everything goes pitch black.
Starboard watch have had a steady night, but looks like GOSH have been struggling to find wind as we’ve overtaken them and starting to pull away, small margins, but we’ll take that. We’ve still got 20 knots of wind, so let’s make have whilst the sun shines and push for 60 miles on our watch. Lots of squalls about, bringing very high wind speeds and lots of rain, can be a bit frightening at first. We’re making lots of sail changes, which is extremely tiring. We’re also getting some great sunsets with red sky’s and storms in the background. As night falls again, we’re still in a battle with GOSH, who are about 130 miles SE of us and roughly 30 miles south so as the crow flies, we’re in front, but they will have a better wind angle into Punta, but we’ll need to see what the weather does. Sorry to hear that one of the Punta crew has had an accident, I hope he gets to safety as soon as possible.
GOSH have gone into stealth mode, I wonder where they’re going to pop up? We’re still in 1st spot with Washington, followed by Scotland in 3rd & 4th but a long way to go but getting 10 miles closer to the finishing line every hour.
As we continue to stomp out the miles. We’re quickly learning that Ocean Racing is very much sail, eat, sleep repeat without making mistakes. We’ve been on the same tack for two weeks now, and it’s getting tedious, walking at the same angle and trying not to fall out of your bunk with every gust/squall passing through. We’ve also had a chat about our safety standards as it’s really easy to miss clipping on (always over 15 knots of wind and at night) a few people are missing the odd clipping process, I don’t get it, not only putting themselves at risk, but also the rest of the team. Skipper has noted it, so hopefully those who are taking risks will stop it.
Another night of ocean racing at its best. Loads of squalls with heavy downpours of rain. Taken down our headsail and just running with a staysail and full main under gusts of 35knots and whipping along at 13 knots! GOSH has come out of stealth but no big surprises, we’re still in 1st spot but a long way to go and with that 5,3/4 hour penalty it’s going to be a close run thing.
Another day of much the same thing, although we’re back in our follies as the weather has become cold and wet with bigger waves and wash coming over and through the boat.
The race sprint results are in and we’ve managed 2nd spot behind GOSH by only 40mins! Great news for the team and certainly lifts the spirits. Onto the finish line now. The schedule has just come out and we are now officially in front of GOSH.
Soda Sundays and the Home Stretch
Back on Mother watch again with Lisa, we make a great working pair. Up for my watch at 01,30, down to the galley at 05.00 to start breakfast, then the on watch need help with a sail change, so back up on deck, I mean, they didn’t really need me and whilst I don’t mind giving them a hand, Mother watch never stops so it eats into my rest time. Lunch for 12.00, couscous with peppers, tomatoes and Garlic bread, then again assistance with sail changes, then dinner for 18.00 and as it’s our Sunday sundown we’ve produced canapés with Parma ham on garlic bread with olives and a drizzle of olive oil and then for mains, ham egg fried rice with a black turtle bean side and of course a nice cold can of pop.
Our race is still on track, although, our tracker has stopped working properly, which makes the clipper tracking system a bit peculiar, giving the folks back home the wrong impression of what we’re doing and where we’re going. But it looks like GOSH who are approx 60 miles behind us have taken a flyer, heading inland, we think, to pick up some potential current advantage. It could be a great move, only time will tell, but we’re pushing hard with our code 1 up during the day doing 13 knots and our code 3 at night, still maintaining 11 knots. The next schedule should let us know how our strategy is working. Only 6 days to the finish line and the boat has an interesting mood. We’re just beginning to click as a team and a number of the crew will be getting off in Punta and their race will be over and this will be the last Sunday sundown for some of them. It’s been a great week, hard to believe I’ve been away for 5 weeks.