I'd first like to start out for apologizing for this ridiculously long post. This was an extremely long leg and I had lots of time to write and so I did. Feel free to skip the words and just check out the photos, which I also took lots of.... :)
We headed out for the first race of leg 5 on Monday the 18th, where we then proceeded to motor out to the start line for a day. On the way, we did a refresher sail for the new leggers joining the boat in leg 5. We had quite a bit of changeover after leg 4, losing James, AKA fruit tree, Mike of the Night, Chris, and Miss Posh. Hopefully, all will be rejoining us in Seattle so it will not be the last we see of them. I have slowly been trying to convince all the leggers to meet us back in Seattle, although I don't think I have to try hard since a lot want to be a part of the celebration when we finally make it to Seattle!
Getting the main ready to hoist in style
So back to the race...once we motored out past the Great Barrier Reef to avoid any unnecessary hazards at the beginning of the race, we started the next day around 3 pm. We had a Le Mans start since there were no other official Clipper boats able to join us and call the start. This means one of the boats, GB in our case, leads the start and all the boats line up in a row on either side of the leader boat. In addition, all the boats start with hoisting the same sails and must continue the same course for 10 minutes without any sail changes. The main is already up but at the official start, all boats have to hoist both head sails, the stay and Yankee at the same time so it is a race to who can hoist them the fastest. After hoisting the sails and waiting the allotted 10 minutes, everyone had their kites flying. We were one of the last ones to get ours up, but after a brief wrap from a shady kite wooling, we finally had ours up and flying. A few hours in, it was clear we didn't have a good race start and we were at the back of the fleet in 12th place. Unfortunately, in this race, it is all about getting ahead in the beginning of the race. In this race we cross the equator again, which means we pass through the doldrums where there is generally no wind. The first boat to the wind hole is generally the first one out and so on, FIFO for my accounting fellas (that one is for you, David)! Anyhow, we are in last place so that basically means we are screwed for the rest of the race...joy! Our only hope now is that we pick up some breeze from the squalls or a shore breeze as we pass by various islands that don't affect the boats in front.
Lined up for the Le Mans start
Waiting for the race to start
Along with no wind, the doldrums also come with lots of lots of heat! We are only a few days in now and this leg is already much worse than leg 1 in terms of heat. There is no sleep because it is too hot below deck and there is no shade on deck during the day, hence why I have time to write my blog again. We are quickly using up the sunscreen and I'm not sure if we will have enough to finish the race the way we are smothering ourselves in it. There is however, two added bonuses to this leg compared with leg 1...we are now equipped with a kiddie swimming pool and otter pops!!! Complete essentials for the hot weather. And the kiddie pool even came with a pool ring so now I can just casually float in the water once we get becalmed and go for a swim! If the wind never dies down, I'll just test out the ring in the kiddie pool, no problem. This leg, I was also given the best bunk in the boat for a hot leg, the upper middle bunk! There is a hatch opposite my bunk, so when it isn't raining and there isn't large amounts of water crashing over the deck, I get to open it and let the breeze come in! However, the breeze is already nonexistent and I can't get any sleep even on the best bunk on the boat! Even though I hate the freezing cold legs, I think I still enjoy them to the hot legs where you really cannot get any relief anywhere!
Heat and boredom lead to silly things...
Love this photo of Amancio!
In the first couple of days we have yet again managed to break a lot of things as well. As we motored out the first day, our outhaul line snapped. This is the rope that is connected to the main sail clew and is responsible for the tension in the foot of the most powerful sail we have. We were luckily able to fix it before the race start, but that would have not been so good otherwise! We have also managed to find a hole in our fuel tank which has yet to be discovered but there is lots of fuel leaking into the engine bilge. That has to be closely monitored so we don't run out of fuel, which is needed to power the engine in case of an emergency and to motor back into port when we arrive but more importantly also keeps the generator working on the boat and without the gene we lose electrical power on the boat including the fans!!! After the fuel leak was discovered, the gene itself broke, which Tino and Huw had to fix. The fix unfortunately meant we had to heeve to (bring the boat to a stop by tacking the boat but not the sails) and keep the boat flat on and off which adds to distance lost in the race when we could be sailing faster. And last but not least, we found a leak somewhere in the water maker, so anytime we run the water maker, which also requires power from the gene or engine mind you, we get tons of excess water in the bilges which we then have to bilge out! I have come to learn that nothing ever works on a boat and things just constantly break ALL THE TIME! Therefore, my sound advice is to never own your own boat unless you are prepared to do maintenance and repair 24/7.
Taking some time to enjoy the view after reattaching the tack line
Laundry and fishing...standard
Patsy drying her sheets and trying to make the boat go faster at the same time
It has been a couple of days now and we've managed to come up to 11th place. However, all the boats in front got out of the doldrums with no major wind holes and have sailed hundreds of miles in front of us so not likely we are going to catch up with them at this rate. Although we've been stuck here, we are still making the most of our time and enjoying the nice warm weather (only on deck and in the shade where found). We managed a quick swim in the ocean after not moving for several hours so figured it would be now or never. I got to test out my pool ring and it did the trick keeping me afloat!
I'm ready to swim!
I was too afraid to jump in by myself the first time so Karri joined me!
Stevo showing off his skills
This picture cracks me up! Those are shorts he is wearing, not a black box that I have inserted over the picture!
Playtime!
Modeling the latest pool ring on the market
Round 2: Fight!
My floaty works so well! ...
Except when Tino tries to latch on!
The struggle is real...trying to get back in the boat with the scramble net.
After that same day while I was on the first night watch, we came across a brutal squall which inspired me to write a story. Some of you may have already read it in our Visit Seattle blogs, but I have left a copy of it at the bottom of this blog for anyone interested. As you can see I have a vivid imagination on the boat and think of all possible scenarios that can happen while sitting quietly (perhaps not so quietly all the time) on watch. I should also probably mention that this leg we have to watch out for pirates! So I have that in the back of my mind at all times and it maybe doesn't help that I just read a book about a boat that was hijacked by pirates... :)
We have also recently been asked by Clipper and our sponsor to do some interviews and "vlogs", which I found out are video blogs. I was asked to give a tour of the boat...the first take was hilarious, I went on and on about various items on the boat of no importance, spilled water over the stove as I was demonstrating the gimble, and Ana who was filming tripped over the sail in the galley. The second take wasn't as bad and we decided to go with it. Keep in mind that it is a million degrees below deck so I am so nicely sweating profusely in the video...so attractive! At one point in the first take, I accidentally cursed about how much I was sweating! I think these are meant to be shared somewhere on the Visit Seattle website. We'll see if they take any clips from the first one or not. I think it would be quite amusing if they did!
As noted, it is still insanely hot and I have finally developed my first sweat rash! Oh joy! However, mine is on the back of my neck where my life jacket rests instead of the more common "rashy assy"...I'm so fortunate.
Rain is full on so time to shower!
Sometimes I forget I live on a boat. I am currently hanging out in my bunk and listening to the swirling waves rushing past the boat. I don't even register these sounds anymore as they have just become second nature to me. Living on a boat is almost like living on land. Similar to any other Sunday morning, I made some pancakes for everyone and we all enjoyed teas and coffees on our "rooftop porch" as it is a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. I then had a nice open air shower with a magnificent ocean view albeit out of a bucket but I am fresh and clean none the less. Now I am relaxing listening to the continuous laughter of the other watch from the hatch next to my bunk and getting gently sprinkled by waves now and then as they spray over the boat. Just like any other Sunday...
Chilling by the helm...
best spot on the boat
Tino probably just made fun of my amazing hat again
This leg is turning out to be a repeat of leg 1, the good and bad parts. We finally passed the equator again for the second time in the race. Our first crossing was in leg 1. As I am now a member of the shellback club I was able to be Neptune's helper this time and help in the ceremony. We had five polywogs on board this time, Alex, Helena, Glen, Steve, and Lukey! Since I have the amazing kiddie pool now, we incorporated that in and had the victims "sit" for trial in it. We came up with another concoction of whatever we could find in the galley including quinoa, coffee grinds, bilge water, weird limey drink, left over rice, canned corn beef, moldy garlic, and so on. Neptune came out in full dress again and this time he had five little helpers in neon colors each equipped with a bucket of sloth to punish the victims. One by one crimes were read and victims were doused as punishment for their crimes. Once all polywogs were initiated into the shellback club, I gave out the customary Visit Seattle shellback tattoo that we all received in leg 1. The last thing we did was leave a message in a bottle which we each signed and wrote in before Pekka made tribute and tossed it in the sea. Both watches ended up staying up for the entire four hours enjoying the great day we had!
We crossed the equator right on our 1800 sched
The mixture begins...
King Neptune in action
Alex took it like a trooper
Then Stevo
And we of course saved the best for last...
This is when Lukey started chasing me down....ahhhh
I get two now!
King Neptune is up to four
And then we started to get creative...
I couldn't stop laughing the entire time!
So good!
Sean's tiger feet got tatted
King Neptune wanted a drive
Empty bottle brought on for the ceremony
The bad parts have also repeated from leg 1... We yet again broke our bowsprit! WTF! I personally believe it is from a haphazard repair job and we shouldn't get points deducted but it is what it is. Not to mention we are now left with no bowsprit and losing positions again because of the crap repair job. It all went down yesterday when we were flying code 2. Jesse noticed the tack line looked loose so he asked us to go check. I made my way up to the bow and, "oh Shit!"' The bowsprit was barely attached on the left side, swinging wildly back and forth with each wave that hit! I shouted back that the bowsprit had snapped and to get Huw up immediately. Jesse came up to look and then we prepped to get the kite down right away. Only problem was that the tripping line had snapped also and we wouldn't be able to spike the tack since the end of the line was no longer in reach with it flying in the wind. We managed to get it down by letting out the tack line some and then doing a normal letterbox drop. After that Huw, Tino, Luke, and Patsy worked several hours on tying the broken part down to the side of the bow so we didn't lose it completely.
Bowsprit swinging to the right,
...and then the left...
So like leg 1, we managed to break the bowsprit half way through the race and with around 11 days left to go. But without being able to fly the kites, those 11 days could stretch into 15 and so on. Inevitably we will probably come in last place as Mission will surely overtake us once we get to more good downwind sailing and our hopes of overtaking PSP are lost as there is no way we can do it without a kite...I'll just continue to listen to the happy voices outside instead of dwelling on the fact that this leg of race is never going to end!
Working to get the bowsprit secured down
Ouwey!
Lukey going to work on removing the the bob stay
More bad news...since all the boats are making excellent time, we are scheduled to get into DaNang well ahead of schedule. However this creates some logistical issues for visas and the port being able to accommodate us early. As such, the officials have tacked on 6 more days worth of miles to the race to prevent us from getting in early! As you can imagine, everyone is outraged. For the boats at the top of the fleet, they have to keep racing hard for another 1,200 miles which is a lot to ask on these hot legs and part of the added miles will include beating into the wind which is great for those with seasickness. As for us at the back, and especially us without a bowsprit, it just means we'll never make it to DaNang in decent time!
The arrival window was the 17th, but we knew a few days in that we were making good time and would get in early. So you get excited for the extra time you will have on land and people start telling loved ones who rearrange their flights and accommodations to come early. Then they tell us way late in the game about this change and it screws everyone over! With all the backlash, I've been told that Sir Robin will try to get everyone in on the 17th still including us stragglers in the back. So that is some positive news if it actually happens.
As for us on Visit Seattle, we have already mentally lost the race even though we are still in 11th place at the moment. We were hoping to at least have a go at the ocean sprint but they screwed us over there as well by changing the sprint from south to north instead of east to west. Now we are trying to figure out ways to pass the 17 days on the boat and keep it entertaining since we have nothing left to race for. One thing we changed was the watch systems. We can only fly our head sails now so that requires about three people on deck at any given time. As such, we broke the watches into four groups again, this time with four hours on watch and then eight hours off and so on. New watches rotate in and out on the last hour of each watch, giving you more people to interact with and also there is more downtime to hangout when you are off watch instead of just sleeping. This does create an issue with the bunks but it will now just be sleep in any bunk available when you are tired.
In addition to that, we are trying to come up with an interesting way to present our bowsprit on arrival into DaNang and also come up with some act to perform in a talent show that we've been requested to participate in while we are there. And lastly, I am determined to rig a projector so we can watch a movie on the sails one of these nights!
And one last positive note, we saw what I am labeling a "moonbow" last night! We were headed for a rain cloud as I was on the helm and the moon was shining bright behind us. I noticed a distinct arc in the cloud which reached all the way to the water on both sides. It was just pure white but it almost looked 3D the way it stuck out in the dark cloud. As we discussed it, it became more eerie looking and we were wondering if we might be passing through another realm as we went through it. I was sufficiently creeped out, but it eventually dissipated and our discussion moved on to something else.
Playing cards passing the time while Tino cleans everyone's knives
I can still barely see over the helm
The days continue to drag on but we are managing to find amusement still at times. The other day when I woke up, Karri had nicely placed one of the flying fish that came over the deck in a ziplock bag and hung it over my bunk. Unfortunately for her, I was too groggy when I woke up and didn't even notice it, thinking it was just a piece of clothing hanging on my bunk. When I came out in the galley, Lukey asked about my bunk buddy to which I had no idea what he was referring to. He led me back where I finally saw the fish hanging above my bunk! I give Karri no points for this failed attempt to scare me but also give her props as this would have been really good had it worked! And I am so thankful that she put it in a ziplock bag because those darn flying fish stink!
My new bunk buddy
Amancio and Karri have been getting creative with food, but I suppose that is standard for both. Karri made us these veggie fritters with dehydrated veg which were amazeballs! Who knew dehydrated veg could taste so good. And then she made us beef patties, which were like gourmet bun-less hamburgers and another day made us beef skewers! And Amancio truly outdid himself by making us steak tartar! Are you kidding me! I can guarantee no other boat will ever have that on their menu. I have to admit that I doubted Georgio at first, considering how hot and gross our boat can be. But he delivered as usual and it was delicious! I promise never to doubt him again!
Georgio working his magic
We have also just been told that the area we are sailing in is the sight of some rocket launch that will be landing around us. I wasn't sure if we were informed of this to look out for it as it would be a sight to see or if it was because we needed to avoid it as it came shooting down from the sky...turns out it is the later, WTF! Now I have to look out for pirates and falling rockets from the sky! We are basically being attacked from all angles!
Today is Saturday, and Lent starts this coming Wednesday. Although I am not the most devote Catholic, I do still give something up for lent every year and avoid meat on Fridays. With the consumption of sweets on the boat, I've decided that I'll give up biscuits and candy this year. So the $70 bag of sweets I bought in Albany will have to continue to wait for me to consume unless I manage to scarf down the contents in the next couple of days before Ash Wednesday. I am hoping that is very unlikely otherwise this hobbits' size belly will be in true form as Jan so nicely keeps reminding me! But until Wednesday comes around, I'll ignore Jan and continue to eat unholy amounts of biscuits and candy to hold me over the next forty days to come!
Ana, our party planner on board is also planning to make us a pineapple upside down cake on Monday for the start of Carnival which is very big where she is from in Trinidad and I'm hoping to get pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Tuesday as they apparently celebrate Fat Tuesday by eating pancakes all day! Win for me!
Some random cloud shots
Moon peaking out
Squall on the horizon
Cool shot with boat on the horizon
Sometimes at night on deck, I feel like I am inside Space Mountain. The stars at night have been incredible the last couple of nights and so many shooting stars! We'll see if any of my wishes ever come true!
It has been about a week since I last jotted anything down and there has been a lot of hocus pocus going on! To summarize, LMAX came upon a boat that was demasted, had a crew member go aboard who found a dead body and DaNang saw a fishing boat on fire! Okay, only two things, but still quite crazy! I had a discussion with Huw about the demasted boat and if he would send me aboard if we happened upon one...that was a big fat, NO! I guess he thinks I would scare any people on board or something, not sure why he has that impression though? I was just thinking, what if the boat had been hijacked and then whoever you sent onboard could be shot or slashed or who knows what! I certainly would not be volunteering to go aboard! Luckily no one from LMAX was injured by looking into it.
In other news, we are not the only boat who is breaking things. Thirty days at sea means LOTS of shit gets broken! LMAX lost a rudder, which had also been repaired in Rio along with our bowsprit...I wonder if that says anything? Mission Performance broke their inner forestay, so they can also not fly spinnakers. A couple of boats have snapped their main halyard, I think someone ripped a grinder off, and I'm sure there are countless kite wipeouts! Telemed ended up cutting a kite down that they couldn't unwrap. Lucky for us that we couldn't fly them anymore I suppose.
Since we are still just chilling after the announcement of the additional race miles (oh did I mention they extended the race a second time since Derry was still sailing too fast?!), we've been doing lots of maintenance work on the boat so we will have less to do when we get to port. Karri and I have gone through all the Yankees and most of the ropes on the boat with lots of helpers, so hopefully we will just have to glance over the spinnakers in port (fingers crossed)! And at the same time as doing all this, I've still managed to work on getting the world's greatest shorts tan!!
Patsy and her bowsprit
Lent started on Wednesday, which means no more cookies or candy for me! :( And this also means no meat on Ash Wednesday or Friday. I'm not sure if it is considered cheating if I ask the mother to set my meat aside so I can eat it as a midnight snack when I come back on watch at 1 AM several hours later? I'm going with, no. What I failed to realize when giving up these sweets is that Valentine's Day is this month! Actually it is today and Ana of course has outdone herself and made us fresh bread for breakfast, cookies for lunch and we get cake for dessert tonight! So I am only really missing out on the cookies since cake is still allowed! :). But the cookies looked really yummy! I did however manage to finish my sweets bag with the help of my crew mates on Fat Tuesday except one M&M's bag I saved for the day Lent ends and a couple snickers bars which I left in the fridge for my crew mates to enjoy.
The best news ever came when I was on watch last night! They finally put an end to this darn race! We got a call on the satellite phone around 4 AM boat time and we thought who could that be. Within minutes, I realized it must be Justin, the race director, calling to end the race!! I excitedly ran back to the nav station, trampling Roz on the way, who confirmed it was indeed Justin, and continued on to hear from Huw what the news was. Sadly, Justin just called to wake him up and tell him to check his email in 20...ugh! I had to wait the painstakingly 20 minutes to find out the outcome. After I did my duty of antibacting the surfaces, I was quickly back in the nav station getting the news from Huw that 12th place was ours for the taking! Never had 12th place sounded so good!! The only problem was that it had to be a crew decision and not the skipper's. At the time, we were sailing south away from DaNang on the ridiculous circle they were rerouting us through, so the sooner we decided, the sooner we could turn the boat around and head there. We decided to wake everyone up and get a crew decision right then and there since we knew everyone would be eager to finally end this everlasting race! After everyone was on deck, including Huw in his latest toga getup, it was a quick, unanimous decision that we accepted the 12th position! Within 30 minutes, the email was sent and we had the boat turned around heading back upwind toward DaNang! Although this is our worst finish yet, I have a feeling we will be the most excited when we arrive into the port this time!
Today we went back to the basics and thought through the sail change evolutions to figure out what we could do to go faster and then we put our ideas to work and practiced with a few sail changes. I think the sessions were quite productive and hopefully we end up in a better position next time! As we were debriefing one of the evolutions, we saw a pod of whales that we decided to chase down. So we "practiced" out tacking skills and found them again! However, we decided they were some weird breed of dolphins. They were the size of dolphins but had whale like heads instead of small, pointed noses. Although they jumped out of the water like dolphins, they didn't want to play with us. So we tacked back to find them again and then continued on our way to DaNang. It was a fun little detour though! And now I'm off to eat some of Amancio's delicious mushroom risotto and frozen custard for dessert! nom, nom, nom...
Amancio "chopping" our ice cream
Well we finally made it in! We were told that we needed to meet the pilot boat on the 17th to follow them into the river around 6 PM. The last 300 or so miles we had to travel were going fast, so we had slowed down some to avoid getting in too early and risking going into Chinese waters or having to anchor. Garmin did happen to drift into the Chinese waters and were kindly escorted out by a military ship...nice! I, however, insisted that we continue to go as fast as possible in case a slot opened up. As the day progressed, we realized we may not make our own time slot, so we let the race office know. However, it was either arrive on time or wait another day! This is why you should always listen to the hobbits! We revved up the engine and hoisted the main to help us go at full speed to make the arrival time. Luckily, we eventually made it and we were the only boat to arrive at night getting to see the lovely lights of DaNang. With all the bright lights, it was similar to driving up to Vegas after driving forever knowing all the fun about to be had! We finally docked and had a huge reception, being brought on stage and taking pictures with all the local children. I, of course, nabbed one of the babies being tossed towards us!
Coming in through the Han River under the bridge
Made it!
Huw is finally learning how to do this!
It was an insanely long and hot leg and I am so grateful for it to be over! Our stopover in DaNang has come to an end and now we'll be heading up to Qingdao for a couple of really intense weeks and then the dreaded Pacific ocean crossing to our home port, SEATTLE!!!
And as promised, here is the story I thought up of on the boat...
Yankee 4 Does the Dark Death Cloud
The first night watch started and a cloud loomed on the horizon with various lightening bolts illuminating the sky. As Huw arrived on deck, he decided our best route was through the ominous dark death cloud AKA the "chunky squall" as he called it. As we approached the death cloud, we spotted what looked to be pirates heading straight towards us from their hiding position within the dark corners of the chunky squall. But, just as they were about to converge with us, lightening struck down from the sky hitting both ships simultaneously and blowing them to smithereens! We continued to pass through the death cloud, the rain turning from warm to cold as we whipped through the waves at a whooping 11 knots.
That's when Huw said we were getting to the good part, the "guac in the tac" if you will, of the squall as rain continued to pummel down upon us. Moments later we were hit with a strong gust of wind and were heeling quickly into the sea. The main was let out but conditions were too much for the helm correction and the boat snapped into a crash gybe as everyone hit the deck and another hard bang screamed out as the boom swung back into place! Luckily, no one was injured.
The rain let up briefly and we made safe passage through the dark death cloud even as lightening threatened to strike us. We skirted past the last bit of the death cloud and as we looked back past our stern, miraculously, a rainbow appeared within the lightening that illuminated the sky...we thought that was a good sign but as we turned forward towards the bow, another chunky squall formed ahead within the continuous lightening storm and the battle to survive the night continued...
And one last artsy fartsy shot that I stole from the media camera!