The photo above was taken as we crossed the finish line for the race to Derry Ireland. We are the red boat at the mark. Derry and LMax are the little boats above us as they had already finished and were waiting for us.
Now for continuing the saga of the race!
June 29th 969 more miles to ! We are currently still in 1st with LMax behind us. They are still heading south east of us.
Took some time and worked in the sail locker during early morning watch. Did some whipping on bad areas of mooring lines and a replacement doughnut for the Code 1 clew. Wish I had a real doughnut to munch on!! Kat has a different way to make doughnuts that is much easier but leaving tape inside the line makes me nervous. Thus doing it the way I was originally taught on a small area really frustrates me but I DID IT!!
I am currently on my Time Out, so just trying to find things to fix below. Between pain killers I am sleeping a lot.
Just heard that the race has been extended 500 miles as we are currently going to finish prior to Derry law about advertised events happening. Crew is not happy, but I am still just sleeping a lot and fixing things below. After 3 days of sleeping a lot and doing odd jobs I finally started reading and then escaped and snuck up on watch!
July 3rd and 4th were rock and roll days and several position changes. As we got close to the Rock we had to go around Lmax is right in front and Derry is coming up in port tack to the left of us. We had an amazing experience and I will find someone that had their camera up, but we , LMax and Derry were about 3 boat lengths apart when Derry crossed LMax. Truly a highlight of sailing!! Then we let them go play and for some reason Matt thought we had to pass the rock with 2 miles clearance. Derry and Lmax were at a 1 mile clearance. Apparently he had not read a corrected email so we went way to far over. Later we were catching LMax and noticed they had changed sails (gone to windseeker) and then they gybed over and went to port of us. We should have taken good note of that as they were getting out of the wind hole that we then fell into. To make matters worse, we continued toward the land and really dug ourselves into the hole. Our saving grace was that the other boats were really far behind!!
Sean and Westy doing some great helming and keeping us in the race!
Kat, Linda, Justin and Sean doing their share to move the boat.
Neil and his work on making sure that our wining pennants are ready to go up our posting halyard when we dock! Go Neil!
Jo waiting for us to send a sail back down to the sail locker! Notice she is feeling much better than in the first picture you saw!
Neil, are you making Jo do all the work?
Finished at last and LMax and Derry both were there to cheer us on! Thank you!
What did we see on this adventure? Rough seas, doldrums (NO WIND and current pushing us backwards), Rain, big thunder and lightening, daylight that lasted FOREVER. There were some nights due to our northern position that actually did not go completely dark. At the most we sometimes had only 1 hour of gray light and the rest was like we were waiting for either the sunset or sunrise. Very different and just one more of Mother Nature’s special moments.
We also saw the white bellied dolphins and lots more birds during this race.
And now the Northern Irish coastline. Actually this is a picture of the Southern coast of Ireland, with Derry actually situated below and to the south of it. Very strange, but if they don’t have a problem with north and south I guess I don’t either.
And for my friends that are into light houses! Here’s one for you.
And another!
Just beautiful countryside. We are passing Greencastle now which is really in the Southern Ireland area (The Republic of Ireland)??
And here we have cows watching us motor up the Foyle river and well wishers at different parts. Though most of them are wearing Derry Londonderry colors.
An interesting time was having to wait in the current and tide area for the welcoming ceremonies to happen for Derry and LMax before we could come in. Did you know that the River Foyle is also the fastest-flowing river in Europe for its size?
People lined up along the river waiting for us! Justin Taylor, Race director working to get us secured at the dock!
And what a welcome! Confetti, canon shots, the mayor, bagpiper and just plain old craziness! Yes I am the one on the right holding the banner with confetti in front of my face. Tom and I knew what was coming and that was a champagne shower thus our hoods are on!
The Mayor and bagpiper awaiting our arrival.
The bagpiper then played us on to the welcome tent and bacon and sausage sandwiches accompanied by either wine or beer to drink. Where is the water???
So that is the saga for our getting to Derry. Great fun and once again all kinds of crazy weather! If my battery doesn’t give out you might get more later. Otherwise it is wait til London!
Journey of a Lifetime 
Cool.
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Great pictures, Linda. It’s a beautiful world out there and I’m happy you get to see it in person.
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