Race 11 - Day 2
Crew Diary - Panama to New York, USA
02 June

We weren't happy with our Le Mans start; but we recovered quickly to bear away to our first waypoint. After witnessing very little wind and calm, glassy seas en route to the start line, it felt that suddenly the wind had picked up and we were back living life on a tilt. You do forget how much energy is needed to get up and down the companionway and generally get around the boat.

The leggers suddenly were excited for their first le mans start (having watched the other boats leave as we were fixing our mast track at the start of Race 10) but then faced with the new task of managing the tilt - with all the joys that brings of going to the heads; eating dinner and sleeping either in your cave or pretending to be spiderman getting into your bunk and then holding on to stay there; leecloth firmly in place.

Panama was a good stopover for us and again maintenance supported our preparations to get the boat ready for the race. We want to be back on the podium and are going for it on the trim and helm and keeping morale up. People are driven by different motivations but the one thing that unites everyone's ambitions is getting into New York early.

So we have set a date to get there early and are pushing ourselves accordingly. Right now as I type this at 8am on 2nd June; we can see 3 boats – LMAX Exchange; Derry~londonderry~Doire and Garmin - we think; so are motivations are high as we love sailing against the fleet; the energy and anticipation really builds and we try to harness this. We are getting ambitious and want to improve our overall standing on the leaderboard and have Da Nang – Viet Nam and Mission Performance in our sights. Anyway I’m needed on deck for a tack; so I must go and don my lifejacket and get to it on deck! From a lovely Caribbean blue sea; this is team ClipperTelemed+ looking to give our supporters another ride as they follow our little green boat on the Race Viewer :)

Love you all

Elaine