Well, the time for leaving has come round very quickly all of a sudden. I am off to Heathrow tomorrow morning to fly to Perth. I will be staying in Freemantle for a few days before heading to Geraldton on 31st October and then joining Welcome to Yorkshire on 3rd November.
I am nervous but looking forward to the challenge.
Monday, 24 October 2011
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Clipper Race Yacht Club Regatta 7-9th October
The Clipper Race Yacht Club is open to everyone who has sailed on a Leg of the Clipper Race. This year they decided to allow crew who are taking part in the current Clipper Race to take part in their annual regatta which takes place from Lymington.
We had hoped to have a full crew of 7 from Welcome to Yorkshire but in the end only 4 of us were able to make it - James, Tony, Harriet and myself. We were allocated to an 11/12 crew boat along with Aggie and Simon from the Qingdao boat, and Jane who is a non-Clipper sailor. Our skipper for the weekend was David and our boat was Whisper, a Sun Odyssey 42.
Friday night was spent in the Mayflower pub, having a great dinner and socialising with the other crews. It was very interesting to meet crew from previous races and be able to pick their brains about kit, stopover ports etc. There were people there from every previous Clipper Race (the current race is the 8th).
Saturday was spent racing (or cruising in company as the charter company dont allow racing), with two races - before and after lunch. The Clipper 11/12 crew won the first race by a large margin, and we came second in the afternoon so we won the race trophy! A great result.
Leading the race!
James, Harriet and Jane celebrate being first past the mark
Saturday night was spent in Cowes. We ate at Manuels, a lovely little Portugese restaurant at the Marina. We took over the entire restaurant and had a long and cheerful evening with lots of toasts and awards for various deeds!
It was a very good weekend, and a lovely introduction to the CRYC. We are all encouraged to join once we have completed our bit of the race, and I think that next year there will certainly be a Welcome to Yorkshire boat taking part in the Regatta.
We had hoped to have a full crew of 7 from Welcome to Yorkshire but in the end only 4 of us were able to make it - James, Tony, Harriet and myself. We were allocated to an 11/12 crew boat along with Aggie and Simon from the Qingdao boat, and Jane who is a non-Clipper sailor. Our skipper for the weekend was David and our boat was Whisper, a Sun Odyssey 42.
Friday night was spent in the Mayflower pub, having a great dinner and socialising with the other crews. It was very interesting to meet crew from previous races and be able to pick their brains about kit, stopover ports etc. There were people there from every previous Clipper Race (the current race is the 8th).
Saturday was spent racing (or cruising in company as the charter company dont allow racing), with two races - before and after lunch. The Clipper 11/12 crew won the first race by a large margin, and we came second in the afternoon so we won the race trophy! A great result.
Leading the race!
James, Harriet and Jane celebrate being first past the markSaturday night was spent in Cowes. We ate at Manuels, a lovely little Portugese restaurant at the Marina. We took over the entire restaurant and had a long and cheerful evening with lots of toasts and awards for various deeds!
On Sunday we sailed back to Lymington in fairly strong winds which was good practice. The other boats were keen to get back to the Marina so no more racing!
The Jamaica 07/08 crew in blazers, tie and red wig!
The Jamaica 07/08 crew in blazers, tie and red wig!It was a very good weekend, and a lovely introduction to the CRYC. We are all encouraged to join once we have completed our bit of the race, and I think that next year there will certainly be a Welcome to Yorkshire boat taking part in the Regatta.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Day Skipper Practical / Leg 2 news
A glorious week spent doing my Day Skipper Practical with Elite Sailing who are based at Chatham Maritime Marina.
There were two of us on Spitfire, a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 35, along with Tony the instructor. Amy was doing her Coastal Skipper practical which is the next step along from Day Skipper. With only two of us to share taking turns at boat handling we had lots of time to practice. Tony was very calm and patient, even when we had an engine failure in the middle of the Medway shipping channel when there was almost no wind.
Tying up to a ship’s mooring buoy was quite an experience. We were rescued by Brian who came out from Chatham on Spirit, another training boat. We had to rig up a boat to boat tow, something that we had practiced on Clipper Level 4 training. It was very interesting to have to do it for real.
The other highlight of the week (apart from the fabulous weather) was sailing in thick fog on Tuesday while on the way along the coast to Ramsgate. It was quite scary, especially when a vessel showed up on radar, heading directly towards us at high speed.
It was a good week with nice company, but not quite the sailing practice I had envisaged as we had almost no wind for most of the time. I enjoyed the boat handling but it is something that needs to be practiced to gain more confidence (and competence).
Clipper News
Welcome to Yorkshire came 7th on the race from Rio to Cape Town and won a point for the Ocean Sprint on the race as well. This puts us currently in 4th place overall.
The next race starts on Wednesday – to Geraldton, Western Australia, where I will be joining the boat.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance
Just a reminder to anyone who would like to donate to the Welcome to Yorkshire boat charity that you can do so via Virgin Money Giving here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=ClipperWelcomeToYorkshire
And the link is also on the right hand side of this blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)