Welcome to Yorkshire takes a battering

As the boats head round the bottom of South Island and up the eastern coast of New Zealand, they have been experiencing winds in excess of 52mph and a succession of huge waves creating 40-foot ‘cliffs’ of water to sail over and walls of spray. The night time brought the strongest winds and biggest waves hitting the yacht with great force and requiring the best helms to take the boat through the storm.

One particular wave which was around 20ft hit Welcome to Yorkshire, sending a blanket of water over the crew on deck and put their safety lines to the test. The crew below deck were tossed around with cutlery, crockery and food flying off their storage shelves, crew being hurled out of their bunks or thrown around the interior of the boat. Several crew members sustained injuries ranging from sprained muscles, cuts to the head, burns, bruising and shock. A few of the crew have been temporarily removed from the yachts watch system, however due to the efforts of the onboard medical officer, Steve Reid (a paramedic in his day job); all crew members are recovering well and will be resuming their duties soon!

(Posted by Eleanor Prior)

The calm before another storm.....

The crew onboard Welcome to Yorkshire on Remembrance Day

As the yachts sail past Tasmania and Welcome to Yorkshire enters the Ocean Sprint, all crews are bracing themselves for another storm ahead. Yorkshire Skipper, Rupert Dean said "as the low approaches us from the south east, the winds are really picking up and we know that there's much more to come" (Race News, 15/11/11).

Having been on board for just over a week, Kate has reported in, saying that now she has got her sea legs, she is enjoying herself and says "it is really a great experience being here". Welcome to Yorkshire is currently in 5th place, making good progress with Derry/Londonderry visable only a few miles ahead as they plow on towards Tauranga.

(Posted by Eleanor Prior)

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.