Well, here we are after approximately 7,000 nautical miles and only 36nM to go, jostling for sixth, seventh, or eighth as a position...
The whole fleet is so close it’s absolutely unbelievable. The boats and the crews have come so far in just over a month - it astounds me.
We left Liverpool as a bunch of twelve Skippers each with about 23 non-professional crew each, and here I am writing this blog having discussed how to shake a reef out (increase the size on the mainsail) and I have left Claire Fulton to go back on deck and her watch are doing just that…taking two reefs out without me having to go and supervise.
It’s a testament to how much they have learned, how well they work as a team, how they have progressed, and how capable they are as sailors.
I have two Watch Leaders, Claire ‘foghorn’ Fulton and James ‘dreamboat-not a real doctor’ Macfee, and what a pleasure it’s been sailing with them. It must be a few hundred sail hoists and drops, reef in, reef out, shake it all about, and each and every one has been done without question to the best of their abilities...I’m very proud indeed of their professionalism.
Well... the crew - what a happy band of brothers, taking on a challenge like this, sailing a 70ft racing yacht all the way from Liverpool down to Uruguay in South America as if it was another Level 3 training course in the Solent.
The trepidation and, in most cases, the fear in their faces as we slipped lines in Albert Dock, finally realising we were on our way, and the next stop would be South America, almost 7,000 miles away, and thinking about what challenges lie ahead.
Not to mention the simple things like sleeping, cooking for 24, the heads...(few stories there) and living in close proximity for over a month.
I thought back to Liverpool and how a few previous Skippers told me the hardest part of the race would be "the people" and keeping peace when characters collide but, I hope I’m not alone in saying this, on our yacht it’s the "people" that have made the trip for me. Not one single cross word between any of the crew at all, well almost. "Really?!" was used in haste when a packet of Haribo was thrown over the traveller to the helm group and it landed on the deck and a few spilled out! That’s the nearest we’ve had to any kind of mutiny.
And
here are those "people":
James ‘dreamboat-not a real doctor’ Macfee
Paul Almond (little P)
Pat Kavanagh (big P)
Nano Bernardez Antia
Christopher ‘the penguin’ Denham
Steven ‘sharky’ Finn
Helen ‘the huntress’ Lane
Steve ‘wasteman’ Schoultz
Mark ‘Clint Eastwood’ Vantrease
John ‘JV’ Vearncombe
John ‘Wozza’ Worrall
Graham ‘Grand Master Dodge, AKA Gray-Z, AKA the real doctor’ Dodge
Dan ‘Masterbaker’ Eastley
Claire ‘foghorn’ Fulton (defender of the Haribo, guardian of the crisps!)
Mike ‘the seamstress’ Kidwell
Torbjørn ‘The Tobanator’ Nordmo
Jonny ‘Prosecco, man of the sea’ Pillar
Nicholas ‘can’t tie a bowline’ Redman
Carrie ‘the fish whisperer’ Rich
Pier-Francesco Rocci (the Itallian stallion)
Neil ‘Elvis’ Stafford
Richard ‘wes’ Wesencraft
AND
Dani ‘snatch block’ Devine - the media Oompa Loompa
Heroes one and all and makes me very proud to be part of the
Liverpool 2018 "Team"
What a blast ....
Can’t wait for Leg 2...
Bring it on!
Ta,
Lance
Remember "Think Pink"