So we’re off again, this time to Qingdao in China and we’re expecting a great welcome from one of Clippers longest partnerships. This race will again have a Le Mans start as there are so many wind holes and fishing vessels outside of Subic Bay, that we’re travelling some 200 nautical miles north to ensure we have a good wind to give us a great start.
We are also sailing with a slightly shorter boom, yes it’s back! Clipper had some engineers from South Africa design the repair. A local engineering firm cut out the damaged part approx 30cm and splice in an internal brace with a large number of counter sunk screws to hold it in place. Let’s hope the shorter boom doesn’t affect the out haul on the main, but at least we know we will be departing with the fleet. After a late finish, getting the boom and the relevant rigging completed, we still have a few outstanding jobs to complete which can be done whilst motoring to the Le Mans start.
As usual, we slip lines at 12.00 and make our way out to the bay to start our parade of sail. We (Lucy & Zoe) put together a “walk like an Egyptian” dance routine for the media boat which may get picked up for their various media platforms. Once completed, we head out into the bay for some more media and drone footage. We all line up into our positions in a diamond shape, looking keen, everybody is told to look busy as the drone flies over. To be fair, we don’t need to do anything as the sails are already trimmed but anything to get on a video. So Tony, Mitchell, Stuart and I start performing our synchronised grinding routine forwards and backwards, alternating even though the grinders aren’t connected to anything! Petra and Lucy are on the foredeck using hand signals I’ve never seen before, but look good. We then start peeling off on the edges, looking like the red arrows. I nearly expected to see smoke coming out of our stern in red white and blue!
Once completed we do our man overboard drills, chucking Bob over the side again. Recovery completed, we sit down for a review with Zoe, yes she’s back, which is great news for the team. Both of our foresails are on the deck from the man overboard drills, these get tidied down before heading north with just our mainsail up and under motor, dodging the various small fishing boats as we go.
As often happens I’m on an early Mother watch with Tracey this time. A fairly easy mother duty this time, under motor, flat sea conditions, makes a bloody change! Breakfast options included toast, porridge and or cereal, take your choice. Lunch, an old favourite of mine, tomato soup with crunchy croutons and finally, a first for me, spaghetti bolognese, but the bolognese sauce had been specially shipped in by Ollie’s dad from the USA and one of his favourite meals. I was told under no circumstances was I allowed to add anything to it. So squeezed out of a packet mix and heat, dead simple so that’s me, tidied up and off to bed.
One of the things I’ve learned about Tracey is that she can be really impulsive, makes decisions that most of us would wonder why, but is a person with a heart of gold and would help anyone. However, I went to bed after breakfast looking to enjoy a few extra hours of rest, Tracey woke me up in a blind panic. We’ve slept in. Looking at my watch it was only 08.30 and I must have only just fallen asleep. Turns out her watch was 2 hours out!
I was woken again, early, for race start. I was thinking I would miss that, being mother, but no, all hands on deck. We started the race well being amongst it all, the off watch went to bed, only to be woken early again for a sail change, dropping the Yankee 1 and putting up the yankee 2 or was it the Yankee 3. Eventually Gavin plumped for the Yankee 3 but I’d noticed we were pointing higher than the rest of the fleet and it looked like we’d dropped to the back! Turns out, we’ve decided to sail higher and let the current do the rest and with the Yankee 3 up we can point generally higher. As is always the case, we got ready for a sail change at the end of our watch. Time to put up the Yankee 1 again. We dragged it up and just got the head out of the bag as the wind picked up. I’d just attached the tack and looked to start hanking on as some large waves came over the bow and started to wash the Yankee away from us. The side netting had broken and the sail was being washed off the deck, which wouldn’t be a good start to the race! We moved off the wind, got some more hands on deck, this time Tony came to the rescue and we managed to pull the sail back on deck and Hank it on. That was lucky, but frustratingly it cost us some time, which doesn’t really help if you’re at the back of the pack.
It can be frustrating when you don’t understand the tactics or the thought process for a part of the race. I don’t mind if we’ve cocked up or got caught out by wind movements or wind holes as it happens to the fleet, but if we had a heads up I think we as a team would make better decisions and develop as a stronger crew. A point in case proves the point later in the race.
As we turn the 1st mark we are in a very strong last place, but the fleet is fairly close together and as we move towards the start of the speed gate some really tricky wind conditions arrive, wind holes and squalls are causing havoc in the fleet. Being last we’ve gone for a bolder sail plan and with having a strong helming team and good coaching from Gavin and Zoe, we’re moving fairly quickly through the fleet and this is where if we know and understand what we’re trying to do from the get go, we get great results. I’m starting to learn that chasing down the next boat, whilst satisfying, isn’t the best thing for the race and whilst it goes against my instincts to race, we’re racing the fleet, not just the next boat.
As we round up into the sprint we’re in a good spot, around fifth, but it’s difficult to know exactly as the fleet is split either side of the rum line. The only boats that have been left behind are Warrant and GOSH. Scotland, who have played their Joker along with Warrant, have had a really strong start and are leading the pack with Qingdao. As we wind our way through the small outlying islands of Japan the fleet is starting to narrow as the route takes the fleet between two islands. We will soon find out the positions.
We wake to find ourselves pacing through the islands in 2nd spot with the sprint finished. Scotland out in front by about 10 miles and UNICEF behind. We are up against it as we’re upwind sailing at 30 degrees apparent and with our out haul not the best, we could be challenged. Sure enough, UNICEF are closing in on us. We’re trying to sail as high as we can and UNICEF are up to the same thing trying to get above us, but it’s a close run thing. Ryan, a great helm is on the wheel and he’s making it as difficult as possible for them and we rustle with them for an hour at close quarters and we’re talking metres apart. It will be interesting as James, the fleet on board reporter who joined us on the last race, is now on UNICEF and we can see him on deck with the camera. Can’t wait to hear what was being said as we raced hard against each other. But we knew it would be inevitable, just a matter of time. Eventually UNICEF gets tired trying to pass us on the high side, they just don’t have the pace and Ryan keeps pushing them up into the wind and so they duck down below us, gaining speed and slowly pass under us. Some friendly banter and waving between both boats cement the strength of feelings that Clipper brings out. We all know someone on each of the boats, people you’ve trained with or just got to know at the stop overs. It all leads to plenty of friendly rivalry, but the race is never over till it’s over. We’re now in third spot as we start the final 4 or 5 day run up to Qingdao.
As UNICEF disappears off into the distance and as predicted the wind eases, we drop our Yankee 3 and put up the Yankee 1 and bear away to get more speed and set the boat for our Code 2 Spinnaker. The Spinnaker goes up without a hitch, we’re getting quite good at raising the codes. It’s just a process and making sure the lines are run correctly, the wind angle is tight and very tricky but we’ve picked up some good speed, but as we move towards the evening, the wind has moved and the kite needs to come back down. Down it comes, without too much fuss, but the Code 2 is a bugger to wool. As tired as we all are, it needs to be wooled, packed away so it’s ready again for when the wind changes as it surely will.
I go off Watch to bed and will be back up at 04.00 for Mother duty, again! This time we have bacon sandwiches for breakfast, always a great treat but can cause some controversy on the boat! One of the challenges when your mother is fairly supplying “2nds” rather like a prefect or dinner monitor at school. Because you have two watches, eating apart, how do you offer up “2nds” fairly? On my watch, Tony, Petra, Ryan and I are always looking for more grub and always asking for “2nds”. But as mother you can’t offer up “2nds” until you know everyone is covered. And as is typical when it comes to bacon sandwiches, it’s one each until the end. Dominique didn’t want one so both Ryan and Petra, jump on it suggesting they could have hers! Unfortunately I couldn’t, it wouldn’t be fair on the rest of the team, would it? Eventually after all had their fair share, the balance was distributed evenly, but I have a suspicion that a few were thinking I was eating all the left over bacon, I mean, isn’t that a perk of the job? Still a job well done and everyone had enough. Lunch was a noodle broth, plenty of seconds and dinner another fav, chili con carni with rice & nachos. On this occasion, I had to raid all the larders to find the ingredients, just no kidney beans this time but all good and plenty of “2nds”. We also had a pudding, with a perch crumble and custard, made by Tracey. Everyone went to bed with a full tummy.
Whilst on mother, you do miss out on all the sailing activity and today looked fairly interesting, we’ve entered the fishing corridor, I mean there are more fishing boats and fishing nets than fish! We could overhear a conversation between one of these fishing vessels and a cargo ship. The cargo ship wouldn’t enter into a conversation leading to the fishing vessel swearing at the cargo ship, a very funny few hours were had by all on board. As we finish mother duty, we are level with Scotland and in front of Qingdao, many of the other boats are in stealth so we will know by tomorrow where we are. The wind is expected to strengthen significantly, so the spinnaker will come down and we’ll go back into white sails. So, it looks like I’m not going to get much sleep again! Bloody mother duty.
Well how wrong was I! As the watch changed, both teams took down the spinnaker, put away the Yankee 3 and put up the Yankee 1 and didn’t wake me and I didn’t hear a thing. I got out of my bunk, just in time to make myself some porridge before helping the guys carry the kite into the sail locker to be packed away. However, back on watch and it’s bloody freezing. The wind has a real chill. I attempted to get away with my sandals and a pair of water proof socks. 20mins into my watch and my feet were going numb with the cold and so I had to come down to put on my boots and a dry pair of socks. But it takes so long. The challenge is the process of dressing and the layering process. A process that starts out a few days before it gets really cold, so socks on 1st, merino base layer over the top of the socks, on goes a mid layer jumper the my mid layer Salopettes. My crew jacket over the top. Then on with my Musto HPX Outer layer Salopettes and then my Musto HPX smock over the top, woollen hat and ready to go! And now I’m going to have to reverse that process to get my socks off before starting the process all over again and this time add my boots on at the end, which includes the additional process of using a plastic bag over each foot and then a heavy duty ankle tight to help slide the foot into a very snug fitted boot. A real palaver, but back on deck for the rest of my watch and that looks like the end of shorts for a few months.
We’re still working our way through the various fishing nets and fishing vessels. They are everywhere! But I get a sense that the race dynamic has changed and it appears that a lot of the fleet have gone east, picking up stronger winds and moving in front of us. The wind has dropped away and it’s not looking good as we move closer to Qingdao. There’s a feeling of inevitability on the boat and yet again we find ourselves dropping out the back of the fleet and there’s nothing we can do. To add insult to injury with only 20 miles to go, the wind drops just as we go past a fishing net with AIS markers. After an hour, the fishing net has overtaken us as we drift helplessly backwards and away from the finishing line. We are trying to find wind and nothing is happening for us. But from nowhere I feel a breeze and we get a bit of forward and gradually build our apparent wind. LBS lifts and we start moving forward at about 4 knots. We can see Washington on AIS and they’re not moving. Can we catch them? The mood on the boat lifts a little as we’ve got a target to chase, but no sooner as we’ve gained a Mike or so, we come across some more fishing nets, change course slightly and loose are apparent wind. Final nail in the coffin as we eventually limped towards the finishing line, coming in 9th, with only Qingdao behind us. Our worst finish in the race to date and sticks in the throat, we’re better than this! What really hurts is that GOSH who were 9th, finished 1st (later, after receiving a 6 hour penalty for communication infringements they dropped to 4th). We now have to wait around outside Qingdao in the South China Sea until the organisers will let us enter. It’s about a 4 hour motor into the harbour and we’re heading in as groups of 3. Obviously we’re in the last group, but on the plus side we thought we might have been held back for another day.
It’s very cold and misty as we get closer to Qingdao city. Out of the haze, we can just make out the Qingdao skyline, full of sky scrapers! We pull into the marina bay, waiting for our turn to enter the harbour and the place is buzzing with small sailing craft, waving and shouting. A number of media ribs full of photographers are milling about, trying to catch that exclusive shot. They’re all very interested in my two bears which I’ve got stuffed in my life jacket. Occasionally shouting, signalling to me to look their way. Eventually we get called in and as we pass the very large Olympic sign on the harbour wall, we get blasted both left and right with some celebratory fog horns. Gavin lines us up as we reverse into our pontoon spot, with our clipper welcoming committee a s normal with Dale welcoming us in. The passport control are quickly onto the boat for initial checks, before we’re led up to a very large stage surrounded by drummers and dragon dancers. By far the best reception to date.