Leg 4 - Race 1: Albany to Sydney, Australia

This race started in the usual way, the boats slipping from the docks in a predetermined order, then a parade around the marina, then race start with several markers to hit and off to the actual race...these race starts scare me shitless every time!  The boats are all very close as we round the markers and in my mind, we are within inches of hitting one another!  And it has happened in the past that boats have run into other boats so it isn't in the realm of impossibilities.  We managed to round all the markers without hitting anyone though and even managed to miss a huge oil tanker or something of the sort, which I'm pretty sure they were just aiming for on purpose to give Patsy a scare who was sitting on the bow calling trim.

But we were finally off and settled into mid fleet per usual.  A few days in however, we, yes, we, Visit Seattle, were in first place! Holla!  The whole crew was extremely ecstatic.  The only problem was that we were within miles of all the other boats, but nonetheless, we were enjoying our first place spot!  Up to this point, besides the tack, tack, tack to get out of Albany, we were just sailing on the same tack so we didn't have to worry about losing ground during an evolution and were just focusing on trim.  I guess at one point, we came up to Garmin and sailed right past them!  I was off watch but the on watch said it was as if they didn't see us coming and when they did, they only just started to make a move to adjust their speed but it was too late at that point.  Go us!

Later in the week, we were getting easterly winds, which meant we had to sail directly upwind to go east to where we had to round around Tasmania.  However, the winds were also quite strong and the weather guy happened to forget to mention there would be a storm in the forecast as well.  These things put together, mean we can only sail with minimal sails up, so reef three and our storm jib, aka. yankee four and therefore could basically only go directly north or south, not east where our destination was.  So in order to make it to Tasmania, we have to keep tacking north and south and slowly make our way east.  During these tactical decisions, we were still close with the other boats tacking back and forth but at one point, the other boats all went north and we continued south, separating from the fleet and losing our first place position unfortunately.  We knew it wouldn't last, but were hoping to stay with the front runners for a bit longer.

At this point, we are now in ninth position and the furthest boat south.  We are even more south then we were in leg three.  We were wondering if the race office was going to call us at a certain point to warn us that they didn't give us a virtual beach for this leg, but we still need to not sail to Antartica!  Lucky for us, the wind has FINALLY started backing and we are getting the winds that were forecasted days ago.  Now we can make our way back north to Tasmania and then on to Sydney.  We'll see how the next days go, but hopefully we can make up some ground and catch up with the rest of the fleet in the front again!

On another note, I was mother today with Jesse. I tend to have less time to write on the boat now and only find time during my mother watch when I can stay up a bit later since I get to sleep the night through.  But as it is now December 8th (Happy Birthday Bol!), and for those of you that know me, that means Holiday music 24/7 starting the day after Halloween.  I have yet to listen to any Holiday music, but since I get to pick the music when I am mother, it was a full day of Holiday tunes!  Some hated me and some loved it!  Luckily Jesse enjoyed it, otherwise, I may have been on mother duty by myself the rest of the day.  I warned Jan about it previously, who definitely is not a fan, but the first song he heard when he came down for lunch was apparently one of the ones he liked, so basically that means he really likes holiday music and doesn't realize it yet.  However, as my watch went down to sleep, the dog barking Jingle bells song came on, which Jan happened to catch...I can't help what Spotify puts on their playlists!  You have to take the good with the bad!

For dinner, we made Chorizo stew with rice since we have a few crew mates who do not eat cous cous.  For some reason only certain people know how to work the rice cooker.  I am not one of them, nor is Karri, which Jan so bluntly pointed out one night during dinner. Since then, I've been afraid to serve rice with my meals.  But tonight, Jesse and I decided to go for it.  I think our first mistake is that we thought it would only take 20 minutes, but apparently, it takes at least 30, but closer to 45 minutes to cook.  The other issue is that the measurements are in grams, but we have no damn scale on the boat!  I don't know how people cook using grams, just use cups like normal people! :)  So after a debate with some fellow crew about what measurements to use, we set the cooker to cook and when we checked the rice after it beeped it was not even close to being done.  Safe to say, dinner was slightly delayed tonight and then by the time my watch came back down to eat it was over cooked!  So, yes, I am now on the list of not knowing how to use the darn rice cooker!

Along with the holiday tunes and getting closer to the Holidays, we have started discussing each of our family traditions over the holidays.  Everyone has something special they do with their families and most of us will be missing our families this holiday season but we will try to do some of our holiday traditions with our new Clipper family.  For instance, I plan to have a movie night to watch A Christmas Story with my crew mates and hopefully make almond rocha if my sister is nice enough to share the family secret recipe with me to make it!

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We are now rounding Tasmania and are back in mid-fleet position.  Ichorcoal and Qingdao are hot on our heels.  We, of course, in true Visit Seattle style, have found a wind hole and are trying to escape it to finish the final days of the race up to Sydney and hopefully come in fifth position.

I hear we have a photo shoot scheduled with our Sponsorship Visit Seattle with some Seahawks gear...all my Seattle friends will probably be quite jealous of this! I'll be interested to see what it actually entails, but Patsy says we all have to be groomed before we are allowed to participate, which is probably an excellent idea since most of us have been living on a boat for about three and half months now...standards are very low! 

Hopefully the wind picks up soon and we somehow manage to overtake the front runners and smash into a podium finish! But, that isn't realistic at this point unless they hit a wind hole themselves that we do not. Then we will finally be in Sydney for a much needed long two week break! The break will be filled with lots of maintenance and repair of the boat but we are hoping for a good few solid days off and we do officially all get Christmas off! So here is to some good wind coming our way!

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Sadly, as you all witnessed that wind hole didn't leave us and we were overtaken by Qingdao and eventually Unicef.  We ended the race in 7th position which is still quite good for our team!  We are now in 9th position in the overall standings and close behind Ichorcoal and DaNang...so beware, we are coming for you!

I didn't really take any pictures this past leg, I just have this to show off our first place position during the race...

I think Chris took some good photos on the boat, so I'll have to see if I can steal some from him to upload later.  I think he even got a video of a wave splashing over me! Fun stuff!

Albany Stopover

We made it into Albany around 5 AM after crossing the finishing line, getting a tow, going through immigration and finally getting off the boat.  Our plan was to get in a quick shower, a quick nap and then back on the boat by 8 to start the deep clean.  Tino had arranged an apartment for a few of us to stay in.  Tino's brother, who was in town with his family, nicely drove us to our apartment with all of our bags which barely fit in the car.  At this point, we are still mostly in our foulies as it was cold and raining as we came in.  We get to the apartment and Jan is the first one to the door.  It took him awhile to get the screen door unlocked, so when he finally got to the door, it opened from the inside and a bewildered woman was standing there in her nightgown.  Not sure Jan knew what to say, but was very apologetic.  Even though it looked like we were about to attack in our red suits, the lady was very nice and explained the apartment would be ready at 11 AM, but that we were welcome to come back at 8 since they would be gone by then.  Then as we were about to pack up the car, she came out and asked if we wanted to keep our bags there, which was awesome so we didn't have to keep luging them back and forth.

Arrival into Albany!

Tino's brother drove us back to the marina where we had to que in the marina shower lines.  We didn't have much time to sleep at this point so decided just to go find a place that served breakfast at 6 AM.  We tried the first place, Due South, which was supposed to be open at 6, but doesn't actually open until 7.  The lady that worked there explained that we could go elsewhere up the road that should be open at 6.  Little did we realize it was a couple mile hike up a hill!  Normally this would have been a nice stroll, but we haven't walked further than 70 feet at any given time in a couple of weeks and we were all carrying extra bags on us.  We finally made it there about 45 minutes later and chowed down on some food!  A few of us decided to skip the walk back and catch a cab back to the marina to start the deep clean.

That night it was the crew party and prize giving.  We were all extremely exhausted after getting no sleep and working all day, but there were rumors we were up for the Stormhoek social spirit award so we definitely had to make a presence!  Sure enough, we won the award thanks to Jan and his project working with the children's schools!  It wasn't a podium prize but we were all stoked to get the award and I thought it was well deserved as our boat definitely has the most spirit in all respects compared with the rest of the fleet, at least I think so, but I may be biased!

Go Visit Seattle!!!

After the crew party and catching up with some friends on other boats, our crew met for a last dinner before crew changeover the next day where we would lose some of our valued crew members, especially Lucy and Leo!  Luckily, Leo was staying until we left for the next leg, but Lucy was headed out early on the 27th, so we didn't have much time left with her.

It turns out the town of Albany loves the Clipper race and welcomes us everywhere we go.  So it wasn't surprising that the restaurant we went to had us decorate and sign a plate for them.  We just so happened to have the LMAX one right next to ours, which was very sleek, then I go to start our plate writing, "Vit", CRAP! Spelled "Visit" wrong!  I may have had a few drinks by this point and for some reason was saying, "Vit-ta-min" in my head the way the English say it, so no wonder I got it wrong.  The crew slowly left their separate ways and Jan, Karri, and I were left having our own shenanigans outside while we waited for our cab to pick us up.

Signing our plate

Notice how they had to color over my spelling mistake on the top left...fail!

I still like ours better!

Shenanigans ensuing!

The next day it was back to the boat for more sail repair. We had a full day working then went for drinks afterwards. The ladies made headway for the White Star while the boys found the quickest stop at Due South.  Karri, Patsy, and I had a nice girl's round before heading back to the apartment to make ourselves more presentable.  By the time we made it back out to the White Star where Patsy had notified everyone to meet up, the boys had never made their way home and were quite enjoying themselves by then. We had some grub there then made our way to the live music area for some interesting people watching!  Once the bar closed, we decided to head to the local club to burn off some calories. I think at this point it was Patsy, Leo, and I who ended up there and then we ran into Ana who was there with some other Clipper friends. We danced the night away like only we could. But the night wouldn't be complete without some shady house party at the end, which I was at for about five minutes before deciding it was finally time for bed!

Patsy and I were determined to find a Karaoke bar, so when Saturday came round and we found out that was Karaoke night at one of the local pubs, we were set on doing that for the night.  After another day working on the boat, our house decided to order in the 'best' Thai food in town...not sure I'd go that far in the label, but good enough for dinner.  We invited Leo over and the four of us , Jan, Karri, Leo, and I, chilled out at the house. Leo and I had every intention of going out to meet up with Patsy for Karaoke, but I ended up falling asleep on the couch instead...whoops!  Guess I was due for some much needed sleep!

Sunday, Karri and I were off since we had an open boat day on our boat and were not able to work on the sails as there was a little farmer's market going on in the makeshift sail tent, which was just the boat house we took over.  So it was tidy up day and laundry day for me. Leo called later in the day to see if anyone wanted to explore Albany so I joined him in town and we walked down to Middleton Beach which is where my apartment was. We had a quick drink then walked back up to the apartment where Patsy was planning to make us a proper Sunday Roast! 

Another horrible selfie photo

View from our walk

Patsy eventually made it home after having a few drinks with a friend and we started in on making the meal. It was a lamb roast with roasted potatoes and veggies. Patsy had invited the rest of our boat over so I helped with the meal while she entertained the guests. We had a great evening in with our crew mates and a couple others from other boats who joined in and the lamb was absolutely delicious with some mint jelly on the side...yum, yum, yum!

Enjoying the feast...

...a little too much!

Monday was our last day before Leg 4 was set to begin. There was last minute laundry and packing in the morning and then on the boat by mid day before the regular crew brief before each race. For awhile now, my fellow Round the Worlders ("RTW" - crew doing all legs) have been after me to add the last leg since I was signed up for all legs except for leg 6, the treacherous Pacific leg. I originally didn't sign up for leg 6 since I was planning to take a leave from work and work in between during that leg. But once I quit, I decided that would be the best opportunity to take a break from the race and travel around Southeast Asia with my travel buddy, Jenna! We had been discussing and planning our trip for months now but we had not booked any flights or excursions yet. So my biggest dilemma was disappointing Jenna as I knew she really wanted to come visit and travel around with me and I was also looking forward to that as well. However, on the other side, this was my only opportunity to circumnavigate the globe in one go, a feat very few have done and I knew that if anyone would understand that, Jenna would be the person. I mentioned it to her back in Cape Town that I was thinking about it but I wanted to finish the famed Southern Ocean leg before I made my final decision. However, my crew mates finally won me over and the Southern Ocean wasn't sooo terrible, so I sent in a few emails to the race office to inquire about adding the leg, the next thing I knew, I was in the race office after our crew briefing signing the contract to add leg 6! I'm still second guessing my decision but I am sure it will be so worth it as we sail into Seattle, with our boat Sponsor cheering us in!  On a side note, we are expected to be in Seattle from about April 15th - 28th, for any family or friends who want to come up and check out the boat or say hello!  I'd come closer to post April 20th in case we take a few extra days to make our way there which isn't outside the realm of possibilities for our boat, but hopefully we smash it into first place somehow! 

Crew briefing

Ahhhhhhh! It's official!!!

We had a quiet evening in at our apartment for the last night. Jesse and Leo came over and we celebrated my new title of "RTW" and said our goodbyes to Leo who would be departing us until leg 8 when he rejoins us again.

Enjoying some downtime 

Tuesday, race start, was another hectic morning as always. We did last minute fixes on the boat and got her ready to set sail...next stop Sydney!

Crew ready for Leg 4!

Goodbyes to Leo...wahhhh! Don't leave us!