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!

Leg 3: Cape Town to Albany

Leg 3: Cape Town to Albany, Australia

Week 1 - Albany or Rio?

So we are about three days into leg 3 and we've managed to make a big fat circle and ended up right where we started yesterday afternoon.  It was almost as if we were sailing into Cape Town all over again!  Not exactly ideal.  We started off strong, keeping up with the top runners, but then we all hit a wind hole.  When I came up from my nap it appeared as though we had anchored next to all the boats as we were so close to them and barely moving!  I, of course, gave Garmin on our port side the standard "morning" hello and then Da Nang off our starboard side the same once I looked that direction and saw them.  They must have thought, "that crazy American is up again!"  We all slowly made our way in different directions to get out of it.  We headed west where it looked like some other boats were picking up better speed.

Out west is where shit hit the fan.  We came into some heavy winds and from the reports sounds like our boat got the worst of it coming up to gusts of 85 knots of wind.  Per usual, we acted too late and attempted to put a reef in during these winds.  We managed to snap reef 2 and 3, break a baton and lose another.  The main was also severely flogged and we probably put a good few months of usage on her after less than an hour.  However, this was not even the worst of it.  During the process, we also dropped the yankee and the sheet managed to get dragged in the water, of which no one was aware of.  Then to make matters worst, during all of this, we came across a dodgy fishing boat that wasn't on AIS coming straight for us.  Every time we tried to change course, it changed with us.  We had no choice but to turn the engine on to avoid collision with the boat since it seemed to be coming closer to have a look of the chaos that was ensuing rather than steering away and we didn't have much steering power to begin with...now remember that sheet I said was being dragged in the water?  Yep, we sure enough wrapped it around the propeller!  A feat only our boat can manage to do! 

It wasn't until a few hours later when we were trying to rig the storm jib that we noticed the end of the sheet was in the water.  When we went to retrieve it, we realized it was stuck on something.  We were hopeful it was just one of the rudders, but after several failed attempts of releasing it, we had a sneaking suspicion that it was stuck on the propeller.  We ended up using someone's GoPro to drop under the boat and get confirmation that it had indeed wrapped around the propeller.  We happen to have a certified dive instructor on our boat who actually gets paid occasionally to dive under boats to fix things.  So we very seriously considered heaving to and having him go under to unwrap the sheet.  However, the main risks with that are the following: freezing cold water, so his hands would probably go numb before he ran out of energy; we are in the middle of the ocean, so there is 1) drift and 2) the boat is knocking up and down, making it very easy for the diver to get knocked out by the boat; there are barnacles growing on the bottom side of the boat, so if he isn't knocked out, he can get very badly scraped; we have no dive equipment on the boat besides a mask and fins so he most likely would have to go in without a dry suit in order to even fully submerge himself under the boat; and the list goes on.  The only reason we were considering this is because it is very risky to sail without an engine for emergency situations.  If we have a man overboard, we have no engine to go after the casualty; we can no longer avoid a collision course again; we will need to be towed into port; and it creates drag on the boat, slowing us down.  In the end, we decided against it because the risk was too high.  So now we are sailing very cautiously and staying clipped on at all times, more than usual, because we cannot afford anyone going overboard!

Since then, we've managed to fix our reefing lines and add new batons to the broken and missing ones in the main.  We also patched a few holes that were found in the staysail.  So although we are in last place, again, we are at least sailing with decent sails still.  I heard Da Nang blew their staysail to pieces, so that may slow them down and every other boat is also dealing with their own issues.  So we can only hope the long distance to Albany will provide us some time to catch up with the rest of the fleet, with the exception of LMAX, who is of course smashing it per usual!  Cheers to them.

And on a happier sidenote, tons of albatross and whales on this leg!  Not that I got to see the whales, but there were apparently loads of them as we headed out of Cape Town.  Per Amancio, who so nicely rubbed it in that I missed all the action, it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen with that many whales all at once!

Week 2 - New experiences

We are not in last place anymore!  Our expert navigational skills are finally getting us somewhere!  If anyone is following our route, you'll notice we veered up northeast for a bit, which is the wrong direction.  However, this was intentional in order to miss a patch of no wind.  We passed it and made good winds over to the east and have now taken over Unicef!  Next is Clipper Telemed and then PSP and Da Nang!

Yesterday I was on mother watch again and got a lovely hair wash in the middle of it!  We also managed to spill everything we touched in the process.  One of our crew mates accidentally knocked over a bowl of freshly made BLT sandwiches, so we were short a lot of sandwiches and people were not happy!  Which then meant we ended up making lots of pot noodles for everyone afterwards to keep them satisfied.  Then when we were making dinner, one of the smaller pots kept slipping everywhere and sending boiling water flying!  This is why you cannot sit on the low side beneath the hob.  Then as I was pouring the boiling water into the bowl for the cous cous, I slightly dropped the bowl and cous cous went everywhere!  Filling up the starboard galley shelves with cous cous!  At that point we were already on the red light for night vision, so I had a lovely mess to clean up this morning!

We are on a new mother watch system now, which I am not entirely sure I like yet.  Instead of preparing all meals as we have done in the past, the mother only makes lunch and dinner now and everyone has to fend for themselves for breakfast.  Our watch times are a bit off this time so by the time we are up on deck and not in the middle of an evolution and ready to eat, the next watches are changing and there are too many people in the galley to even make anything.  Then I get really grumpy because I have had no coffee or food...steer clear of me!

My new goal on the boat is to learn the navigation, so I have been working with Leo to learn the ways so when we lose him after this leg (wah, wah), someone will know how to navigate the boat.  We do have other people that know how to do this, like Jesse and Amancio, but they are busy with other tasks so Leo has been our main navigator.  I am slowly learning the ways but not sure I'll ever be confident enough to make the navigational decisions on the boat!  I think I will probably be learning for a few more legs with the other two.

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Man it is freezing outside now!  I am starting to wear more and more layers to the point that I am now wearing a men's size large foulie jacket to fit over the top of all my layers.  I have two base layer pants and a mid layer pant under my foulie pants.  Then I have a T-shirt, base layer long sleeve shirt, black rio jacket, a fleece, and the Henri Lloyd mid layer jacket under the foulie jacket!  I am definitely the Michelin man now!

When it is this cold outside we try to keep deck time to a minimum and keep only 3-4 people on deck.  When you come in from the cold it isn't much warmer down below since we have no heaters on the boat.  Any little comfort helps, whether that be a crew mate warming your hands or a nice hot drink when you come down below.  I found the most amazing surprise in my sleeping bag today when I went down for my afternoon nap...a hot water bottle had been snuck into my sleeping bag and it was so cozy and warm already!  I had to go track Amancio down and thank him as I knew he was the culprit!  It is these kind gestures that really make this leg tolerable!  This also means I am back in Amancio's good graces as he was just previously pretending he didn't know who I was when we neglected to cook extra pancakes for him.  I'll be sure to make a HUE batch next time so he doesn't miss out!

Along with the cold weather we are finally starting to see some big, rolling waves to surf down!  This is actually the first time I have enjoyed helming!  It is so awesome surfing down these massive waves.  Today, as I was helming, a 100 foot wave crashed over our boat...although others on deck may think I'm exaggerating...it was awesome!  Jan was 10 secs too late to catch it on camera as I had just asked him to grab the camera moments before it hit.  That shot would have surely won us the media pic award!

I certainly have my on and off days of enjoying this leg of the race since it can get so unbearably cold on deck especially at night but days like this when the sun is out (although still cold), waves are ginormous, and having the most thoughtful crew mates makes all the difference!

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We have decided to break everything on the boat this leg.  In addition to the sailing items we broke in the first few days, we have now managed to break the grey water tank that the heads' sinks empty into and the tie bar that connects the two helms together.  Technically, we didn't break the grey water tank, but the past few days we have had unusual amounts of water in the bilges.  Sometimes very dirty other times very clear.  It wasn't until yesterday when one of the sinks in the heads was backing up and we investigated that we found a hole in the grey water tank.  We have now taped up the sinks in the heads and they can no longer be used.  This means any brushing of teeth now has to be spit into the toilets, into the food bio bin, or overboard.  This also means no more washing hair....oh man my hair is going to be sooo dirty by the time I get to Albany!  I already am concocting another way to wash my hair with a bucket and some fresh boiled water!  Maybe that will be even better than using the sinks in the first place!

As for the tie bar, this bar connects the port and starboard helms together, which connect to both rudders under the boat, so you only have to helm on one side.  This means we now have to have at least two helms going at any time since each helm controls a different rudder.

In addition to all this excitement, there apparently was a sighting of penguins by Derry, so now we have to be on the lookout for penguins!  Although, there is a lot of doubt that it was penguins that were actually spotted by them.  I'll be keeping a lookout either way!

Week 3 - Finally making some progress

I got my first cold on the boat.  The English cure colds much different than I am used to.  When I went to Lucy asking for some cold medicine, she recommended that I take Tylenol and drink a lemon and ginger tea.  I explained that I have no pain or fever and that I am just congested, so why would I take Tylenol?  After much back and forth of me explaining what I was looking for and her explaining what we had, we realized that there was Tylenol Cold & Flu on the boat which is what she was referring to in the first place!  In addition to the medicine, she also had me drink the tea and rub tiger balm on my sinuses to decongest me.  Within minutes, my nose was running, so we figured it worked!  I guess I shouldn't second guess the doctor's orders!  Lucky for me I just happened to find some DayQuil stashed away in my stuff today!  So back to my home remedies of smashing vitamins and taking DayQuil to knock this cold out quick!

As far as the leader board goes, we finally overtook Telemed and are on hot pursuit of PSP!  Next will be Da Nang, although we may run out of days to overtake them.  Guess that staysail didn't stop them too much.  As for Telemed, we won't know until the final days if we end up beating them or not since they took a very far north route and we took the southern route, so we won't know until we meet on the other side if their route proves good or not.  Let's hope it doesn't and we end up taking 9th place in front of Unicef, Telemed, and PSP!

The crew is now starting to count down the days we have to make it to Albany.  This always happens as we approach a new destination.  Although, we try to avoid doing this because when we hit a wind hole in the process it just adds more days and drops the morale on the boat.  However, currently, today is the 20th of November and I am really hoping we make it to Albany by early morning on the 26th at the latest so we can have a proper Thanksgiving feast!  Although, no idea how long customs will take in Australia as they are apparently very strict with what can enter the country.  So we have to have the boat searched for any contraband which for us, mainly includes food that isn't allowed into the country.  Long story short, I'm hoping we smash it these last couple of days and have plenty of time to get through customs in time for Thanksgiving!  I have also been considering asking Ralph, our Visit Seattle sponsor to have a Thanksgiving feast ready to be delivered to our boat on arrival if we are not allowed off the boat in time to have a proper meal...hopefully it doesn't come to that!

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The last couple of days we had great sailing and made great speeds.  We easily made it in before Telemed as their northern route didn't work out so well and they got stuck in a massive wind hole for numerous days and only just got in to port yesterday!  I would not be happy if I was on that boat, poor Linda!  We ended up overtaking PSP and best of all, made it home early morning around 3 AM on the 25th!  It was a dramatic finish having no engine and limited depth to catch a tow, but we finally got the sails down and got towed in.  However, Unicef, who was supposed to be planning a Thanksgiving feast were not back in time so there was no Thanksgiving to be had which is a bit sad.  I did try to see if there were any places in Albany to get a turkey dinner and I just got blank stares.  It was worth a try!

Leg 4 starts on November 1st, where we sail to Sydney for a long stopover to do major maintenance on the boat.  Then the 2nd race of the leg is the famous Sydney to Hobart race!  Then from there to Airline Beach, which will conclude Leg 4.

Random photos from leg 3

Best costume ever...fit over my foulies!

Jesse made us a Finnish cinnamon roll on his mother water!

So yummy!

My hot water bottle surprise!

Leo passed out under the red lights.

Singing on the deck with Jesse

Preparing for Karaoke in Albany

Chilling on deck

Huw and his loud swim trunks in the freezing cold

Photos from the GoPro

Huw has a great face in this one

My jacket is huge!

Selfie roll, Leo...

Me...

Jan...

I'm on the left, my feet don't touch the ground, standard

Me on the helm, barely seeing over and dipping the edge in the water

Just missed the wave, but you can see the aftermath of the water running over the deck!  I am also giving a "WTF" face back to the helm as I empty my sleeves of water.

No hands!

Made it in!

Cape Town Stopover

Cape Town!

We finally made it in to Cape Town!  We were greeted by the other boats and some Stormhoek champagne to cheers our arrival.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day when we came in.  As we arrived in port, the marina looked much like what I would imagine New Orleans to look like even though I've never been.  After the quick celebrations and info gathering, we were whisked away to immagration in a tourist bus so we could be cleared to leave the docks.  Again, we started another round of 'Eer-lie in the morning' on the way over announcing our arrival.  Once we were cleared, we were given the evening off to shower and meet for dinner.

The Waterfront as we came in

Celebrating our arrival into Cape Town

We made our way to a hotel for the night since the house that was booked was not available until the following night.  What a glorious treat having a hotel shower after not showering for 3 weeks!  So amazing!!  We made our way to the local scene on the waterfront to have some beverages and land food with the whole crew.  It was nice to relax for the night and not start the deep clean right away.  There were signs for karaoke, but by the time we left the restaurant it had shut down for the night...probably a good thing.

Our first dinner after our voyage

It was back to the boat for an early 8:30 start.  I went straight to the sail tent with Karri, Jesse, and Tiffany since we had a tight time schedule to keep in order to get our sails ready to send off to the loft by Monday morning.  Once in the sail tent, we camped out in the back and laid out code 2 to get a full assessment of the damage.  The kite was ripped completely from head to clew, the head had been ripped apart in two pieces, layers of the kite were coming apart, and there were tears in various places across the kite.  Martin, the sail god from Hyde Sails, gave us the low down of what we needed to do to get the kite ready to send off.  It seemed like an endless job, but we were ready to pull late nights to get it done in time.  For our task, we had to pin each section down individually and then piece the two panels back together with sail tape going down one side of the kite and then with a new layer of sail fabric and surrounding tape on the opposite side.  Once that is completed, we have to stitch the ends of the new fabric in place on both sides of the kite.  It took us an entire day just to get the tape and new fabric down.  Around 8 pm, the rest of our house crew came by to steal us away for a bite to eat at one of the local restaurants.  We were at a good stopping place, so called it quits for the night and went and enjoyed some local cuisine.

Working on the sails

My favorite tool, the hot knife!  Totally buying one of these when I get home!

Karri on the sewing machine

Karri added a nice note to our mothers...my mom will love this one!

What a freaking feast we had!  I somehow ended up at the table with the biggest eaters...maybe because I am one myself, but we ended up ordering a starter each, which consisted of oysters, salad, and a sampling of crocodile, ostrich, and some other kind of local wild meat carpaccio.  Then we got a shared seafood platter and a meat platter and another main course.  And, of course, we had some champagne to start, followed by the most amazing sauvignon blanc!  After that, we made it back to the house Tino had booked, where he, Patsy, Karri, Jan, Leo, and myself were sharing.  Such an awesome place and nice and spacious for us all to get some space from each other.

Cheers!

So much wine!

Raw meat appetizer 

Oysters!

Fresh veggies!

Seafood platter...

...nom, nom, nom!

Meat platter

We like to cuddle :)

The next day, was back to the sail tent for another earlier start so we could get all our repairs done in time.  While Karri worked on stitching the big rip, I worked with Martin on fixing the major damage on the clew and head.  It was a work of art in the end watching the head come back together!  I am still quite amazed at how Martin salvaged it.  Sunday also happened to be the prize giving ceremony, so we departed from our tasks for a quick break and headed over to the lookout on the other side of the waterfront which was hoisted by Stormhoek.  It was quite a nice little venue and my favorite part were the oyster men walking around with fresh oysters...seriously the best oysters I have ever had!  After the winners were announced, Karri and  I snuck back to the sail tent to finish our work but not before sneaking some hamburgers from the food trucks who were not scheduled to start serving food until later.  We pulled a late night, but we got a lot of work done.  Karri finished all the stitching on code 2 and I learned how to use the sewing beast fixing up the small repairs we had on code 3 from wrapping it around the forestay.  By around 3 am, we were done and finally able to go back and get some rest.  We missed out on the crew party but I think it was well worth it to get our work done and have more free time later in the week.

Sidenote, keep a lookout for the creepy guards that sneak up on you in the sail tent late at night, not saying a word and starring at you working...scared the shit out of Karri and I!

The venue

Jesse being Jesse

So excited for Oysters!

Back to work on the sails for the night

Monday morning, it was back to the sail tent to meet with the sail loft guys and get an estimate of repair costs.  After that, I finished my work on code 3 and had the afternoon off!  I made my way over to the massive mall that lives on the waterfront and bought my first pair of crocs!  A must needed investment for the boat.  By that time, most of the boat cleaning and maintenance was done as well, so Jan and Leo were free as well and we all decided to hit up Table Mountain.  After a quick stop at our place to drop off knick knacks, the five of us, Jesse, Karri, Jan, Leo, and myself took a cab up to the bottom of Table Mountain.  We decided to do the 3 hour hike since we never get to walk much on the boat.  It was an incredibly strenuous hike up to the top after not really having any cardio exercise for 2 months!  But Jan kept us going by enticing us with dried mango and Jesse was on his A game entertaining us the entire way up, referring to each of us as a boat from the Clipper fleet as we passed one another.  At one point, Karri and I couldn't go on because we were buckled over laughing so hard!  However, we finally made it to the top, even after Jesse was sure that he was "going to die today" and realized at the top that, "well I did not die."  If only I could play a recording of his strong Finnish accent to make it even better.  It was a great hike in the end with amazing views on top!  After our exhausting hike, we had a nice meal in and caught  up with loved ones from home.

Crocs!

Tabletop Mountain hike

LMAX in the lead!

Leo photo bombing per usual

View from the top

Karri and I

The next day, Karri and I had a day off and we were determined to find a spa to go to and get pampered!  After fruitless efforts of searching online, I finally just asked the house cleaners if they knew of a place and they told us the shopping areas a couple blocks from our house had one.  So we made our way over and got our appointments booked!  We walked through the shopping center and found an awesome store called Drifters that basically had everything we needed and didn't need but wanted for the boat, so we stocked up on some goodies, had some food, picked up some wine for our evening dinner and then went our separate ways for our spa treatments.  It was a great relaxing day!  That night, we were planning to have some of the crew over to eat but it ended up just being our house again, but Tino went all out and bought the mother load of all kinds of meats; chicken, steak, ostrich, squid, crayfish, and shrimp.  We had a smorgishborgue of food that night with good wine!  Karri and I were ready to enjoy the evening after our night off and joined Patsy at the DJ party all Clipper crew were invited to that night while the boys stayed home.  It was a great, fun, long evening!  Perhaps a bit too late for my next day's activities!

The next morning, Leo knocks on my door at around 7:15 maybe? asking if I was ready to go...it was SHARK DIVING DAY!  I quickly got dressed in about 5 minutes since we were scheduled to be picked up at 7:30, but the driver came early and I just had to throw stuff together quickly.  I actually managed to make it this time!  So Tino, Leo, and I set off on our epic journey!  Luckily, the diving spot is two and half hours away, so I got a good snooze in on the way over.  We had a quick stop to pick up some coffee and treats before making it to our final destination.  Once we arrived, we had some breakfast, a briefing, then waited another hour before finally making it on the boat.  I was very skeptical that we would actually get to see any sharks so I was happily surprised when one came up within minutes of us anchoring off!  I squealed with excitement and said I was ready to go in!  After another briefing, we were part of the first group to get in the cage thanks to my eagerness after seeing the first shark.  We put on wet suits, weight belts, and dive masks and made our way into the frigid water.  It wasn't long before a few sharks starting coming up!  So cool!  We got a few glimpses and then it was the next round of people.  With the second or third round, the lot inside the cage got a great experience with one of the sharks thrashing against the cage going after the bait!  I was full of squeals of excitement and fear that the people in the cage were going to get eaten alive!  But I still went back in for round 2 hoping to get a similar experience!  Although the view from on top of the boat is almost better than the cage at times if the water isn't clear enough.  Round 2 was even better and we had a few sharks nibbling at the bait in front of us...so an awesome experience!  

Sharks!!!

Such a good look

We be hot

After that I was freezing and ready to get back into my dry clothes, not to mention that Leo and Tino were in top form and I needed to quickly find the bathroom before peeing into my wetsuit from laughing so hard, which was strongly advised against from the dive instructors.  The boat heads were luxurious compared to our heads on the boat.  The toilets had electric flushes!  I was very confused how to use it at first because the sign just said to press the button which I did and nothing happened, but then I tried again holding it down and it actually worked like a normal toilet!  How amazing!  I was quite impressed...the little things in life!

After our dive, we met up with Karri and Jan in Camps Bay to enjoy the scenery and some drinks.  We then moved next door for dinner where Jesse and Ana met up with us after their wine tasting tour.  We enjoyed several bottles of wine and massive quantities of food per usual and then made our way back home.  Another amazing day in Cape Town complete!

Camps Bay

Thursday, Leo scheduled a wine tasting tour for our household to go on.  So at 7:30 sharp, these people are very punctual in Cape Town, our guide Marlene had shown up and was ready to whisk us away.  We opted for a half sight seeing/wine tasting tour, so we headed out to the Cape of Good Hope to see the penguins and the light house first.  Marlene was the best tour guide ever!  She fit in just perfectly with our lot!  She was the same tour guide that Ana and Jesse had the day before and nailed Jesse's accent...it was amazing!  On our way out, we passed by several beaches, one of which Marlene pointed out the shark spotter lookout.  There is a person who sits on top of the cliff and looks out for sharks!  They have different colored flags depending on the visibility they have, so if a black flag is flying that means they have poor visibility, etc.  So I found my new calling in life to be a shark spotter in Cape Town!  I would just need to get laser eye surgery first since my vision is currently lacking the required skills...minor detail.

Shark spotting flag, not clear today

We continued on our journey to see the penguins with Marlene continuing to entertain us along the way.  Penguins were cute and then it was back in the van to the lighthouse.  Once we got to the sign, Marlene made us run to the queue forming in front of the sign before the two big tourist buses unloaded who pulled up right before us.  However, the tourists didn't understand what a line was and just photo bombed everyone's picture instead.  So we have some lovely photos with random Dutch people in them.  Then we hiked up to the lighthouse to enjoy the views and take some photos and then it was down to lunch next to the lighthouse.  The food at the restaurant was surprisingly good for being in a tourist area.  The only awful part was that we were surrounded by flies who kept sticking to our drinks.  At least we were given plates to cover our wine glasses with!

Family photo on the way out

Penguin beach

Karri listening in to the school guide with the kids

Begging to be cuddled!

So excited to learn about penguins!

Trying to crop out the Dutch folks

We love each other!

Views from the light house

Australia next!

Keeping the nats out of our drinks

London to Rio to the Netherlands eventually!

Because we can't get enough views of the sea

Did I fail to mention that we saw Baboons!

And they jumped on our car!

After lunch, it was time to start the wine tasting!  We made it to two different wineries, the first more modern and the second more rustic and definitely more preferable.  After wine tasting it was back to our place for some quick R&R and then back to the waterfront for one last dinner with the entire crew from Leg 2 and 3 before everyone parted their separate ways.

Cheers!

We love Marlene!

Tablecloth on Table Mountain

Friday was our last day before the start of Leg 3.  I still had plenty of laundry to do since our washers were preoccupied cleaning all the crew's foulies throughout the week.  We did laundry all morning and packed up for Leg 3.  Then it was back to the waterfront for our Leg 3 official briefing.  We managed to stop in the mall for a few last minute items as well, where I finally found a random Hallmark type store that had Halloween costumes!  By Halloween costumes, I mean they had one option, that being a butterfly for a five year old child.  Thank goodness for my small stature!  I was on a hunt all week in Cape Town for a costume since leg 3 started on Halloween, but came up with all dead ends.  So you can imagine my delight when I finally found this little gem last minute to celebrate one of my favorite holidays!  After our crew briefing, we had one last meal at our place to try and finish all the food and wine we had bought earlier in the week.  We had a nice relaxing evening and made our last minute personal calls before calling it a night.

Halloween!!!!  Saturday, we were due to be back on the boats by 0800 so we could catch the tourist bus back to immigration.  Once we were through immigration and had our official photos taken, I was free to put my costume on!  It just so happened that the green in the costume matched perfectly with our Visit Seattle gear!  I got lots of weird looks, but several people quite enjoyed the outfit!  I mean, I couldn't not get dressed up on Halloween!  I even got a complement on my outfit from Sir Robin Knox himself!  The day went by quickly and before we knew it, the race had started!  We all put our foulies on in preparation for a wet start similar to leg 2.  Luckily, my costume still fit over my foulies...best find ever!  After hitting a few markers around the area, it was off to Albany, or so we thought...

Waterfront Marina with the boats

Leg 3 Crew waiting for immigration bus

My butterfly costume for the day!

Bye, bye Cape Town...I'll be back!