Race 13 - Day 1
Skipper Report
18 July

So, another stopover done and what a stopover it was. A massive thank you to the City of Derry and Strabane District Council for an amazing welcome and hosting in a wonderful and colourful city. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all and we have had so much fun in Northern Ireland that we need to go to sea to get some rest!

The finale of our stopover ended with a Parade of Sail down the River Foyle/Derry-Londonderry waterfront that was lined with literally thousands of people waving a sea of Clipper Race flags. This was one of the most memorable stopovers of our race and I will miss Derry-Londonderry.

Now on to the racing, as I write this we are heading down the Foyle, through the Lough to our starting point off Greencastle in the Republic of Ireland, where we will have our first line start in a long time. I think our last line start was off Qingdao, China and that was a false start to entertain the crowds. All of the other starts since Qingdao have been Le Mans starts, so this one will be very exciting as we tack and gybe for a good starting position and then round a windward mark for hopefully a fast kite hoist out of Lough Foyle and northwards towards the Outer Hebrides and Pentland Firth around the top of Scotland.

An interesting start with most rounding the mark within a boat-length of each other, the tide was still flooding into the Lough so it was a fight to get out and around the corner, but the wind eventually filled in and we have been busy ever since! So far in the few short hours we have been racing we have peeled 2 kites (changing 1 for a smaller or bigger one while the other one is still flying), wooled and packed 3 kites, put the Yankee and staysail up twice and down of course, and generally trimmed constantly! So, all in all a very busy couple of watches.

The sea state has increased since we left the shelter of Lough Foyle and so the seasickness has infected some of the crew, who are being made to 'fight through', we also seem to have a cold sweeping through the boat, which doesn’t help with crew morale! Such is life, it is only a short race down to Den Helder in Holland, so everyone will just have to 'man up' and get on with it regardless.

Until tomorrow...

Mission Performance Warriors OFN.