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Diary of a Clipper Racer
Around the world in 333 days with Mark Osgood
Supporting my chosen charity - "Dreams Come True"
Final Diary entry, 54, added Monday 6th October 2003.
Diary of a Clipper Racer Around the world in 333 days with Mark Osgood Supporting my chosen charity - "Dreams Come True" Final Diary entry, 54, added Monday 6th October 2003. |
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Latest Diary News 20
- Race 5 - Race to Hawaii - Jan/Feb 2003 Mad, mad, mad Lightning
doesn't strike twice does it? At
the end of Race 2 as we approached Cuba, somebody turned the fan off and we
flopped around for 36 hours before setting off slowly again towards the finish -
in that time, we dropped from 2nd to 6th place. We are now less than 150 miles from the finish of Race 5, the Hawaiian Islands are almost in sight and somebody has turned the fan off. And we have already dropped from 2nd to 4th place. At least everyone else seems to be caught in this windhole as well and we are hoping to make up some places before the finish, which may still be over 36 hours away. It is hugely frustrating being on board at the moment. Only a few days ago, we had expected to be moored up in Hawaii by now, recovering from our first night out on the beers for three weeks. And we also expected to be celebrating another podium place and possibly a first place. But I am learning rapidly that expectations are a dangerous thing in a yacht race. Being stuck in a windhole going no-where is frustrating enough, but when it has dashed your expectations of a few beers and a good night's sleep, it is maddening. And I am not the most patient person in the world which doesn't help. All we can do is keep pressing on - and learn a little patience. That is proving to be easier said than done. A
sobering thought We heard yesterday that a crewmember from Cape Town Clipper fell overboard during the night. Fortunately, she was recovered unhurt although very shaken. It is the first man overboard incident in the four years of the Clipper Race apparantly. The incident happened at night during a spinnaker drop. A Clipper 60 with a spinnaker flying can be travelling at speeds in excess of 10 knots. By the time the boat has been stopped, the spinnaker cut away and the boat turned around, it can have travelled a couple of miles from where the casualty fell overboard. To then try and find a head in the ocean at night is like finding a needle in a haystack. It must have been a very frightening experience for everyone on board Cape Town. We are trained to think about our safety at all times (one hand for the boat, one hand for the job), to clip on to the boat at all times when the conditions are dangerous and to deal with a man overboard emergency if it should happen. I am sure that there will be some form of inquiry as to what actually happened but everyone on London is very relieved that the recovery training worked. Itching to get across the Pacific We had a large number of unwanted guests on the way across the Pacific. All the girls and Ed went down with headlice for the final week of the journey and with no lotion to get rid of them, life became quite uncomfortable for them all. So they had to learn to love their nits for a week. I did not go down with them - my head would be the equivalent of a desert for any poor nit that came my way. Aloha! from Hawaii Arrived
at last. At 6am on Friday 31st January, we finally crossed the finish
line outside Barbers Point on the island of Oahu.
We finished in fourth place several hours behind Jersey who were in third
place - we will get in front of them at some point!
Bristol won the race and Liverpool came second - all of us on board
London were very pleased for everyone on Liverpool, as it was their first
pennant and our two crews et on very well.
We were about 36 hours later than we had expected but we were still two
days earlier than anticipated by Clipper so we have nearly two weeks before we
have to set off again. Skipper Mark III We are about to start leg three of the Race and we have our third skipper. Rory Gillard, originally from Yorkshire but now based in Gosport, Hampshire is our new skipper - and hopefully he will stay with us for the rest of the journey. Initially impressions are very good. He seems a really nice chap who is very willing to help us with maintenance and he is good fun to have a beer with - so he must be OK! We
are sad to see Ed go - the mad hippy disappears to work on the setting up of his
new company, Mango Sail, which is an ecologically minded sail training school -
although Ed will happily take people off on holidays, trips, racing etc.
All will be revealed on his new website, the details of which I will post
on here as soon as I have them. But
he goes with all our good wishes from the Good Ship London.
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