Setting sail today!

The crew of Welcome to Yorkshire bid farewell to Geraldton

Welcome to Yorkshire sails out of the port in Geraldton at Race Start

At 5.30am (UK time) / 1.30pm in Perth, Leg 4 of the Clipper 2011 / 2012 Race got underway. Welcome to Yorkshire along with the other yachts set sail from Geraldton, Australia and are bound for Tauranga, New Zealand in the first race of this leg, which will take approximatly 3 weeks, before heading on to Gold Coast, Eastern Austraila.

Have a look at the Clipper Race Viewer to see how Welcome to Yorkshire and its crew are doing on their current adventure! http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/follow/race-viewer/

(Posted by Eleanor Prior)

In Geraldton

Well I have arrived safely in Geraldton after a few days relaxing in Freemantle . It is very hot and sunny - over 30 degrees today. Only two of the boats are here as the whole fleet has been pretty much becalmed. They have been told to motor in otherwise we won't be ready to leave on Sunday. Welcome to Yorkshire is expected around 23.00 tonight which is 15.00 UK time.

Looking forward to meeting up with the crew.

Off I go!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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 7^th 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 4^th 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.

Leg 1 to Rio

Leg 1 is made up of two races - Solent to Madeira, and Madeira to Rio.

Welcome to Yorkshire came 6th on the race to Madeira - a good result for the first race when everyone is settling in to ocean racing.

The longer race to Rio of over 4,000 miles is still going on as I write this, but the first five boats are in, with Welcome to Yorkshire coming second. This is a great result and Rupert, our skipper, has emailed the 'left behind' team to let us know just how pleased he is with his crew. We are going to have a lot to live up to. He says that the things the crew have found hardest to cope with are the physical demands, and the sleep deprivation. I am already a regular at the gym to try and improve my upper body strength, but don't know how I will cope with the sleep problems until it happens.
I have a couple of sailing trips planned before I leave to make sure that I haven't forgotten too much.

Some interesting video clips are here:

Race start from Madeira
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d_ycDp-iiY

Rough weather!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBO2spq_ldk

The first three teams arrive in Rio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkR83vz4_Qo

Race start weekend 30/31 July 2011

Finally the weekend that would see the Clipper boats setting off on their big adventure arrived.

I went to Southampton for the weekend with Eleanor who was keen to have a tour of Welcome to Yorkshire. On Saturday morning we met up with my friend Brenda and her husband and went down onto the pontoon – all very normal for me but exciting for visitors.

I have forgotten what it was like the first time that I had to climb on board – the high side, the deck covered in ropes and trip hazards, the difficult stairs to get down below, the cramped (cosy) living and sleeping area for a crew of 16. There was a combination of shock, disbelief and admiration that anyone would be mad enough to want to spend any time in those conditions!

Brenda, Eleanor and me on deck

It was strange being at a marina with the boats and not being part of the sailing preparations. The Leg 1 crew were very focused on the last minute jobs and repairs to be done, crew briefings and so on.

Ocean Village Marina was a hive of activity with stands for various sailing related ventures and the Clipper stage where a variety of bands, dance troupes etc were performing until late in the evening. To close the festivities for Saturday there was a magnificent fireworks display across the marina.

On Sunday we arrived at Ocean Village to find it already very busy. There was no public access to the pontoons so there were lots of people lined up along the wall in front of the boats, many of them having tearful farewells with family and friends who were due to set off on Leg 1. It made me think that this is how it will feel for me in a few months time.

The crews went up onto the stage in turn with their boat songs playing loudly, the crowd cheering and clapping for them, but there was an extra special loud welcome for the crew of Welcome to Yorkshire as we are the English boat! The skippers were asked some questions about tactics (none given away of course). Then it was a return to the boats to get ready to leave. I think the crews must have been feeling very nervous and just wanting to get going by this stage.

Welcome to Yorkshire Leg 1 crew on the Clipper Stage

This is a video of the race start from Ocean Village:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w4cfJwZJU4&feature=share

Goodbye Welcome to Yorkshire!

The boats slipped their lines in turn and set off for a parade down Southampton Water to the Solent. We had places on a spectator boat which followed the yachts along with a multitude of other boats – motor boats and yachts being led by the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. It was a marvellous sight.

The weather was sunny with enough breeze for the yachts to get a decent start for the race which was good. Our spectator boat had supporters for several of the race boats so we made our way around the fleet and were able to wave and cheer at all the different boats.

Once the boats had crossed the start line and rounded the first marker buoy they headed off into the English Channel with 40,000 miles and almost 12 months of sailing ahead of them. The next time I see Welcome to Yorkshire I will be in Australia!