Race 12 - Day 15
Crew Diary - New York, USA to Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland
05 July

Nathan Robertson
Nathan Robertson
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So we enter our third week and we are currently on a tack heading away from Derry... If it sounds confusing it's because this is the extended part of the race (the bonus miles!!)

We are in a very close battle for fourth place with Unicef and have traded places with them a couple of times in the last 48hrs, some clever early gybing by us and an apparent spinnaker issue for them got us ahead as we saw land for the first time in two weeks around the edge of Ireland but they have come back strong and its currently neck and neck, points to race for in these last 20-40hrs.

Blog break... Called up onto deck for a very efficient tack by the crew, onwards we sail just a slightly different course :-) So what has happened since my last post.... Boat life is swell (ocean pun but had to get that in sometime) and most of the crew are feeling healthy and energised with the exception of Charlotte who's been bed bound for a few days with illness (not sea sickness), she is currently out and up on deck though which is good to see.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day as Mother (chef) with my bunk buddy from the other watch Ken. Feeding 23 very hungry and tired ocean explorers is a big responsibility and decent food is very much appreciated by all, I even managed to make two different cakes for dessert which always sends people to bed or on deck happier..

As settled and happy as I am into life on our GREAT Britain boat I also can't wait to reach Derry, mainly to take a shower as I'm currently looking like a bit of a scarecrow with wild long two week wind swept unwashed hair. Also the chance to use a toilet that isn't at 45 degrees will be a luxury, we all agree using the toilet (heads) is without doubt one of the hardest and most uncomfortable "jobs" on the boat, auto flush for the next race please Clipper ;-)..

I forgot to mention in my last post that I went/volunteered to go to the top of the mast mid-way over the Atlantic to do some repairs on a damaged block which had took so much of a bashing I ended up removing it and bringing it down to be replaced by a brand new one.

Scaling 95ft on the end of a piece of rope as the boat sails along sounds scary but it was actually quite relaxing and I had an amazing panoramic view of the Atlantic for the 30minutes I was up there.

I may have promised my mum I wouldn't do any mast repairs in the middle of the ocean as risk of injury is high up there so sorry mum I broke that promise but it was fun ;-)..

Next post will be from land hopefully.. Let’s go GB!!

Nathan Robertson.