However, I am going to give you a bit of a story on our trip from Panama to NYC.

Well, in the dead of night, (10pm) 9 Clipper boats slipped out of Shelter Harbor with the remaining three still making their way out of the Panama Canal.  We were to gather for a 3pm start the next day after the remaining 3 caught up (yes we were supposed to be motoring slowly toward NYC).

3pm comes and due to 2-3 knots of wind start is postponed until 6pm.

6pm arrives with 3-4 knot winds so start postponed, instructions to continue motoring towards NYC and start will be at 5am.

5am and still 3-4 knots of wind so postponed to 7am.

7am and the winds have built so we get a start off in 15 to 20 knots!  YEA though our start was not so great.  However we have a few thousand miles to go so we will just smile and get on with it.  We reached off under the fleet (yes we were really out of it) and moved to the westside .  Then, in the first couple of scheds (the 6 hour info on all our positions) we show up in the lead.  Now how did that happen?

Oh yes, we now have Rich, the media man on our boat. Sorry about that jump in thought.  Just needed to let you know that he was on.

Rich is interviewing Han, Justin, Skipper Matt and me for this race.  He changes boats each race and is working on a documentary for Clipper.  He is insisting I am involved because I am the wisest but we all know it is because I am the oldest!

June 1st- LMax,, Derry, Garmin and DaNang gast and soon they are in the lead.

June 2nd- Wind still awesome and great sailing and still on starboard tack which is great for me in the bunk I have!!!  I am less likely to fly our or fall out of it while sleeping.

This evening we saw a long thin phosphorus greenish yellowish thing in the water alongside the boat.  Not sure what it was but once again Mother Nature is showing me new things.

June 3rd- lots of changes in positions on this race and most fun of all still lots of boats in sight!! (this is not a normal happening).  Winds going from good to nothing to really shifty, etc.  Good thing as it keeps us alert and on our toes.  We have now passed between Haiti and Cuba with the Bahamas next.

Interesting tactic as Matt decided not to cover LMax, Derry, Great Britain and DaNang as they go west.  I am thinking oh no, another flyer.  We should be up there with Dennis Conner for not covering.  However, this one PAID OFF!  Unbelievable!  The boats west went into a giant hole and we keep moving toward NYC and are now in the top 3!

June 4th- Today on watch we are treated to an amazing dolphin show!  Even had a couple jumping about 15-20 feet out of the water.  This is truly better than Sea World.  Not sure why, but everyone becomes like a kid watching the dolphins.  Cameras come out, we run to the bow and watch them crisscross under, around and in front of the boat while others swim alongside and leap out of the water every once and a while.  Do they have radar or incredible instincts that they can swim so fast together and turn without running into each other.  (Reminds me of marching band days and wondering if kids are going to turn wrong way and run into each other…..yes I have seen that happen!)

Great stars tonight with 3 shooting stars.  Question for all since I can’t google currently. The bright planet that has slowly been moving over the weeks from inside Scorpio to currently above Scorpio is? Mars or Saturn ? or something else?  Also is Ceres a star?

This race has been great fun as we maneuvered our way past Visit Seattle and then ended up in a great duel with Garmin for 1st place.  Besides being able to see Garmin and having  fun, we discovered that we could reef main and have smaller Yankee up and still be very competitive and fast.  Now if we can just transfer that knowledge to the last few races!

 

You thought you would not have to see anymore sunsets?  Wrong.  Don’t you love the way the colors change?

 

 

Just thought I would entertain you with a few of our meals.  The one that looks a bit pasty is my version of raisin bread that I was in process of making.  It turned out well and even got compliments!  Don’t ask me what they might be, just enjoy your food at home and understand why we get so excited to get to shore and take pics of the food we eat!  It can’t be all that bad though as we all clean our plates and some even ask for seconds.  When I ask for seconds it is a calendar event for the cooks for that day.

OK, they look the same, but if you look carefully there are some slight differences.

Along the way form Panama, we started noticing flies on the boat.  A new first.  Not sure why, but they were multiplying every day.  Really annoying! Soooo,

Linda the fly killer at work.  This became my self appointed daily job! Others tried also but I was the master!  Toward the end of the race we found out why.  We had eggs still on board from Seattle and they had become a bit disgruntled on not having been eaten thus they rotted and became a fly incubator.  In comes Sean and carefully and stealthily cleans them up and tosses them overboard and almost instantly the fly numbers decreased until a few days later we became fly free!!

Kat signaling what trim is needed (I love this way as I don’t have to hear) while Mike later on trims the kite with Great Britain to our starboard side. (just throwing the starboard in so you non sailors can think thru this)

John pushing me to my limits on grinding.  He is really strong!  If these pics were bigger you could see the expressions on my face as I tried to keep up with John.

Another beautiful day with everyone relaxing.  John reading, Lynn in the beanbag pretending she is trimming and then Lynn and Jen showing off their trimming skills.

Going to start a Part 2 as I think this post is going to keep you busy for a while.

It is a beautiful day in Derry.  First day with Sun most of it!

After a spectacular sendoff with the drum and cymbal group, dignitaries, fireworks, and good wishes, we did an exhibition start and short race then motored the 100+ miles to start line in order to carefully go through the many fishing nets and boats that are everywhere off of the China coast.

Once we arrived at the designated location (longitude and latitude) we lined up for the Lemans start.  In absence of markers/pins for a start line, there is a designated boat who becomes the lead boat and calls everyone together.  They will then set up the timing countdown.  Everyone then jockeys for a position and at 1 minute left, motors go off, crew is lined up behind the front pedestal and when the count hits zero all move quickly to their position and raise the yankee and staysail as quickly as possible and begin racing.  For the Clipper races, no one is allowed to make any sail changes or tacks for the first 10 minutes.  Then all is fair.

The beginning of this race was very good weather and enjoyable for all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Code 2 Kite did a little explosion and now needs attention.

 

 

 

We managed to get all of Code 2 taped and 2/3rds sewn up when the weather became a factor again and work stopped.  Great work though by Mark, Kat, Eric, Sean, Jason, and me.  Code 2 was finished in Seattle along with Code 3 who had a misadventure later.

A side note about our Mother duty here.  Elaine and I were a team and with the crazy weather we had some wild moments….when two of three bowls of Tuna salad went flying in the galley and flew all over the sitting area.  That night we had Shrimp curry and several of our crew that were not sick at this time did not eat, self included due to little green monster attack.  Those that did eat found themselves sick later that evening.  Did discover that tuna, egg and potato are a good combination for tuna salad.  In case you haven’t guessed, we had tuna everytime we had mother duty.  Not our choice but was the way the day bags were set up.  You pull up the bag and then you go with what you pull out of the bag.

March 27th we saw dolphins during our 2am to 6am watch.  Also beautiful moon and not overly cold.

Excitement on board when Eric tried cooking bacon and the winds hit.  We eventually had a small grease fire and then life settled though wind did not.  Good news was that we sighted LMax.

April 1st was a great starry night with amazing lightening flashes that filled the sky.  I wondered if the flashes would have been so evident during the day with fairly clear skies.  Will have to notice next opportunity.  I know they are evident if there are lots of storm clouds during day.

April 3rd we had 40 to 60 knot winds causing top batten to break, main sheet broke, tricing line on port side broke.  Is there anything else that might break??

April 4th the first time (we are almost at date line) we saw an amazing meteorite (?) flash behind us.  Giant flash of light that seemed really close and way too bright to be a shooting star.  During the day we got some rain, sun, hail, snow, sun, etc.  That night I was happily cleaning bilges.

My smile was wiped off a bit later as I was taking bucket up to have thrown overboard (THE WATER IN THE BUCKET, NOT THE BUCKET) when while on the steps out of the galley we got a huge hit by a wave, I lost my balance, flew down the stairs, around the corner and into the bilges by the wet locker.  Smashed the side of face and right shoulder when I landed.  Got some ice on my face, but still had an amazing black eye and red bruise on face for the next few weeks.

April 4th again- Kat and I did a redo of reef three once again and now having to use part of Yankee sheet (outer covering) as anti chafe.

April 6th mother duty again and this time I made some cookies with cooking oil instead of butter (Elaine is allergic to butter).  Actually they tasted ok.

Weather has begun to be really bitter cold.  Feet and hands feel frozen everytime I am up for watch now.  Have begun to put hand warmers under cap to keep them dry and then pull them down to warm hands when I can.

April 8th did yet another version of reef two (redo #4) by splicing together parts of old reef 2 and old reef 3.  Another day of sun, sleet, hail, and sun.  WHAT IS WITH THIS WEATHER? Had Sean’s pizza for lunch!  Yum!!

April 9th All hands on deck called and Code 3 is in the water dragging behind the boat.  The halyard had snapped and all hands were on portside working to pull it into the boat.  This took about an hour and the kite shredded more the whole time it was dragging back there.

I was not lucky enough to work on this as I was dealing with the immersion/trench foot issue at Nancy’s.

April 11th more excitement when the starboard upper backstay line snapped.  Sean went up and fixed it and then we dealt with trying to get the main back up going downwind bare pole (no sails up).  The fix and getting the main up took over 3 hours as main kept getting stuck between shroud and mast under first spreader.  I wonder if there is a better way to do this in the ocean with rolling waves pushing you forward.  My thought would be to turn into the wind.  Would this not work in these conditions?

More sunny days followed and finally we see land!

And there was land on both sides.  Which is US and which is Canada?  Duh, the right side is US and the left side is Canada.  The mountains looked higher on the Canadian side but that is ok.

And now for some cleanup while we motor the 100+ miles through the Strait Juan de Fuca.

And just a few fun shots.

 

That’s it for now.  If you become friends of Clipper Telemed you will see some of the posts of the going through the canal.  My versions will come once we hit New York.

Have a great few weeks til we meet again!