After 20 days and 4,208 miles from the Le Mans start off Seattle, the Clipper fleet has finished the Race 10 Seattle-Panama leg of their round-the-world sail and are now headed to the Panama canal after a quick stop in Cost Rica to refuel.

After making it through the canal, the fleet embarks on Race 11 to New York on 30 May.

Here’s a note from Linda just after the finish, a few hundred miles west of Costa Rica:

From the great send-off in Seattle to the amazing finish off Costa Rica, this has been very different race.

Our ClipperTelemed+ crew jelled quickly and once we started seeing other boats everyone went into high gear.

Compared to the other legs, the winds and weather made this one seem like a pleasure cruise. The squall activity DID make things interesting at times. The wind and downpours would hit quickly and hard but be over in a few minutes and then next to no wind.

Sunrises, sunsets, and lightning shows were spectacular and I became fascinated with the different looks of the clouds.

The race had five possible finish lines to deal with the Dreaded Doldrums and in order to get the boats to the Panama Canal on time for scheduled window through the canal.

Entering the first of the possible finish gates, we were in a close race for the top three.

As we began the final day, we were in third place with my watch coming on deck. During the next six hours, we watched Unicef get lifted on the inside. We took advantage of that information when we got that wind. It turned out to be an around-the-world lift that got us into first by end of our six-hour watch.

The other watch battled LMAX Exchange for the next six hours. Right at the end, LMAZ popped their code one spinnaker upon a wind shift and scooted ahead. Then up went their Yankee, down went the kite, and then a tack and cross in front of us, and the finish.

We ended up with an exciting second place finish, 500 meters behind LMAX and followed closely by Unicef.

Best part was our team then applauded their win. Very proud of our team! Pictures to be posted later. All for now.

Where’s Linda? Check out the Live Race Viewer to find out.