So with the race extension, we finally arrived the morning of
Friday, July 8th. Derry welcomed us in with welcome drinks and
breakfast sandwiches at a nearby tent.
Tino’s family was also there to welcome us in with their famous rum
punch! And Pony was ready with Tino’s
birthday gift, a painting of our boat by his father. Really nice.
We gathered the troops and then moved into the opposite side of
the river. Karri, Amancio, and I went to pick up groceries down the street. The local store unfortunately had no alcohol
for sale, so Amancio went back with the food and Karri and I carried on to find
a store that sold alcohol which was supposedly close by…After a while and
meeting the main road, we gave up and jumped in a cab that was on the side of
the street and had him take us to the store.
We finally made it back with alcohol and showered! We all headed
out to granny Annie's, the bar our team was being sponsored by, to meet up for
drinks....bad news, no food! Gerard, the GM there who was taking care of us,
brought us upstairs where champagne flutes were lined up and waiting for
us. He toasted our arrival and gave us a
low down of all the events they had in store for us!
 |
| First Guinness of the trip! |
 |
| Champagne lined up! |
 |
| Getting the low down for the week |
 |
| Double iced at some point? |
After a few drinks, we headed over to the Bentley bar down the
street to get food. We ended up going to the bar terrace area afterwards and
meeting up with some other crew there. Jonathan and Cliff from 1080 were also
there. Cliff noted, he’d been "watching me" on the documentary...which
is not at all
Saturday, we were back to the boats bright and early by 8
AM. We got the code 2 ready to transfer
and then lugged it up to the street. What we didn’t realize is that you had to
book a space in advance for sail repair. So there was nowhere we could repair
our code 2 early in the week. But Gerard came to the rescue and offered up the
2nd floor space of Granny Annie’s for us to work on the kite! Have I
mentioned how amazing this host is?!?! Martin had the van and drove us over to
the bar to get the work started.
 |
| Attempting to hide the kite on the third floor for the night |
 |
| Love this...sewing is not so great for the back |
We got to Granny Annie’s around 10, the cleaning staff were
slightly surprised but after they did a quick cleanup of the broken glass, etc.
on the floor, we rolled the code out and got set to work! Couldn't have asked for a better work space…minus
the slight possibility of ripping a small hole in the kite from the broken
glass on the floor that may have been missed…but at least we had beer within
reach! We managed to get the rip patched
up front and back and saved the sewing for the next day. We ordered pizza for
lunch along with the most amazing garlic bread pizza with cheese I'd ever had,
not that I've ever had it before, but just saying. We ended up sticking around
having drinks at Granny Annie’s after and slowly people from other boats
started joining us outside, then eventually headed home.
Sunday, we were back to Granny Annie’s to finish sewing the
kite. Karri arrived first and found a
lovely surprise on the tables of which I won’t mention here. Karri’s family had just arrived in town and
stopped by to say hi. We had a quick drink after we finished then I headed back
to the apartment to clean up and decorate the cake that Posh made for Granny
Annie’s year anniversary. They had been
such a great host so far, we wanted to repay the favor with something nice!
Posh and I met up with Amancio and Jan at Pier 59 for a lovely
meal before heading over to Granny Annie’s with the cake. This was a long night
with lots of drinking and I think I even got iced by Hollywood at some point of
which I don’t remember…and lots of dancing. We ended the night with greasy
chips with gravy along with the dirty seats and managed to get gravy on my
jumper! There were no cabs available, so
we ended up walking all the way home across the river, 45 minutes of torture
trying not to wet myself!
Monday, everyone had their team outings. Our team met at Granny
Annie’s. We got there a bit early, even Tino who came separately, so we walked
down to get coffee, and ended up meeting the rest of our team there who also
needed coffee!
Our tour started with a walk around town, taking pictures in
front of shops that had helped sponsor us for the stopover. Then George, our
tour guide, took us on a very insightful tour around Derry telling us about all
the historical events that had taken place there. I highly recommend for anyway
who is planning to visit this area. After the tour, it was over to the Guild
Hall, where we were picked up by our tour bus and taken over to Giants
Causeway.
We ran into some other Clipper folk there and I had a blast playing
with a 360° camera
compliments of the photographer on board. We had a quick drink at the pub then
over to the Limavady Granny Annie’s location for lunch. On the way back to
Derry, the bus kindly dropped us off down the street from our house since it
was on the way. We all took a quick nap, then it was back to Granny Annie’s for
our hosted party that evening.
Granny Annie’s being the amazing host it was, got us some
cupcakes in return for the lovely cake we baked them and provided us with lots
of pizza! We were joined by many other Clipper teams and the night continued
again with lots of dancing! We made another late stop to get burger and chips
for Jan and then made our way home…fortunately by cab this time!
 |
| Amancio rummaging through the drawers...haha |
Tuesday, I went into town for a wax, but found out it had been
cancelled so made my way to the mall and ended up getting a UK phone number!
That night, I had dinner with Jan and Amancio at Ollies on our side of the
river, then had a walk around the city where we randomly ran into Karri and
Mark who were in an alley having a smoke break.
Karri invited us up for a drink, and we had a nice evening chatting with
her family.
 |
| Prime #s continued... |
Thursday, I got to sleep in and then spent the day preparing my
taxes (JOY!) After being stuck looking at my mini iPad forever, I needed a
break and took a long walk to the store with Jan, where I got to practice my
Dutch! It is pretty much my second language now, I think Jan would agree.
;) That night, Jan and I met up with
Karri, Mark and her brothers in town for a drink. Although, we ended up staying
until it closed so wasn’t such an early night!
Friday, I finished my taxes and am now looking forward to money
coming in instead of constantly exiting! I went on a walk over to where Tino
was staying with his family after to get some fresh air. That night Derry was
hosting a Maritime festival, which a few of us attended and celebrated Ali’s
birthday. Unfortunately, it was raining and the venue was just a dirt floor…so
lots of MUD! Me, being the wise person I am, wore my crocs to the event…best
decision ever! Where everyone else ruined their shoes, I could so nicely just
rinse mine off when I got home…I should be a spokesperson for Crocs…just
saying.
We continued the night at, you guessed it, Granny Annie’s. I don’t
know if it is because the race is coming to a close, but people were out to
have fun every night in Derry! I supposed it helped we had an awesome bar to go
to any night of the week. That night, I cleverly planned my revenge on
Hollywood. I coordinated with the owner of the bar, Paul, to deliver a Smirnoff
Ice to Hollywood on the dance floor. However, I somehow got confused and
thought Matty was in on it because he downed it in no time flat and I thought
Paul had given him an empty bottle! But, no, Hollywood is just too quick…I did
still manage to get a pic! |
| Selfie with Riptipe! |
Once we were kicked out (due to the bar closing), I walked with
Ana back to her place. As we were in the hotel lobby, we noticed that the band,
Riptipe, from the festival was hanging out at the bar. So of course, I made Ana
go over with me to say hi. We ended up chatting with them for quite a while and
I introduced them to the amazingness of crocs, proceeded to get all their shoe
sizes and an address to send them each a pair. (Update: Riptide, if you are
reading this (because why wouldn’t you be?), I apologize in the delay of the
crocs being delivered. They were too expensive for my broke ass to afford and
you will get them at a later date when I can afford to buy you them again,
Cheers! ;)
Saturday, although I only made it to bed at 4, I was still up by
8 AM, as I still had lots to do before we left for the next race. I continued
the day sorting my life away and then had to be on the boat by 3:30ish with
most of my gear to unload. Our crew briefing was at 4 at the Guild Hall,
managed to sneak off to quickly buy a luggage bag for my travelling post-race,
and then back to the boat by 5:30 for our team briefing.
Lars so nicely had posters made to give to Granny Annie's as a Thank you for being amazing hosts during our stay in Derry, which we all signed. That night there was a boat parade for all the Clipper boats but I opted out as I like to get in an early night on the night before race start. So Amancio, Jan and I hit up the food stalls that were up next to the marina. Jan introduced me to the amazingness of poffertjes, which are mini Dutch pancake deliciousness! Jan and I headed back while Amancio joined the others on the boat. I got in a quick phone call with home, then went and watched the boat parade and fireworks with Jan. I finally managed to get a hold of my parents on the phone after, looked up stuff for our meetup in London and then finally into bed!
Sunday, was race start day! I waited my turn for the shower,
packed up the rest of my belongings and devoured scrambled eggs compliments of
Posh (best scrambled egg chef there is!) Over at the marina, we delivered the
gift to Gerard and Paul, which they loved! We even had time for a quick coffee
down the road and then back to the boats for departure photos. We slipped lines
around 1 and the penultimate race was due to start at 6 PM…
No comments:
Post a Comment