Race 3 - Day 6
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 6
31 October

The heroic travelling diary of Wee Dram - part 1. It’s taken nearly two months but the human crew of Our Isles and Oceans have finally allowed me to update you on the journey of its most important and hairiest crewmate, Wee Dram, the first highland cow to attempt global circumnavigation.

Portsmouth…I was happily minding my own business, chewing my way through some of Scotland’s best pasture when David and Anthony from Our Isles and Oceans talked me into becoming their first bovine ambassador and promised that I would become a hero of Oban when I returned. I don’t actually remember them mentioning boats, sailing or weekly couscous when they sold it to me but then whisky may have been involved, and memories are sketchy.

My first stop was Portsmouth to meet the other Our Isles and Oceans ambassadors, their other crewmates, and a skipper named Max, who kindly found me a home in his bunk (but did insist on photobombing all my public appearances). So far, so good… no sign of us doing any sailing yet and they welcomed me to the boat with proper Scottish weather (and more whisky).

Race 1…Loved starring in all the team arrival and departure photos. Hated discovering seasickness. To be honest, the rest is a bit of a blur. I decided the best approach to sailing was to stay buried in my bunk and do my best to ignore the crew’s 24/7 on-deck noise making.

I kept myself useful though, mainly consoling Max every time he returned to his bunk and updated me on the latest boat thing they had managed to break or lose up the mast (sorry, they forgot to invite me to the he Level 4 training that they all keep talking about, so my nautical vocabulary is a bit lacking… something to do with generators, halyards and water makers though).

Puerto Sherry…Sun, beaches, sherry, cuddles from the open boat visitors…finally this Clipper Race life was living up to the adverts. Even better all the Race Crew stayed ashore and stopped their constant grinding of winches, so I got my first proper sleep-in weeks. I suggested stopping for a month, but they wouldn’t listen to me and buried me in enormous piles of crisps and toilet rolls as we prepared to sail again – hope that’s not all we’re eating.

Race 2…I’m still not convinced I’m cut out for sailing...it’s hard to keep your little fingers towards the winch when you’ve only got hooves. On the plus side though, the crew might fall over less if they had four legs, and my warm and waterproof fur saves hours of putting on all the merino and foulies the crew insist on.

The Atlantic crossing started to change my mind though – even I started to enjoy the long stretches of sunny downwind spinnaker sailing – great for heroic photos to send home to Oban and remind them how important I am – hope those nice people in Clipper Race comms are making sure I get prime coverage.

Note to other Highland cows though…avoid the doldrums…it’s hot (I mean really hot)…suddenly a fur coat didn’t seem as helpful after all, and the amount of sweaty human flesh on show in the galley was enough to put any cow off their food.

Punta del Este…I’ll admit that I wasn’t entirely looking forward to Uruguay. My insensitive crewmates seemed to have talked about nothing but steak and red wine for days before arrival and the stories I heard from the Asado are not repeatable.

But I loved it – they took me to a school visit, and it turns out that I’m a hero in Uruguay – everyone in the school wanted to hug me, take my photo, and have my autograph – the last is a little trickier but Andy and Lachy signed endless flags for me.

Race 3…All good (and dry) things come to an end, and we’re back at sea. The last five days have certainly been eventful, and I’ve had to do my fair share of skipper consoling again. I don’t remember David or Anthony mentioning the terror of a high side top bunk in 60 knot winds or that it rains inside the boat.

But now the sun is out, the spinnaker is finally up and dulce de leche muffins have emerged from the ovens. I’m off to eat one now before they disappear.

Moo!

Wee Dram