Race 10 - Day 31
Crew Diary - Cameron McCracken
19 April
A month seems like a long time on land and for some it may feel even longer at sea. We’re running low on hot chocolate, dried mango, flour, jams and spreads and most of all, steam. Our morale battery, however, is approximately 85% full with the missing 15% dedicated to thoughts of steak, chips and gravy, hot showers, warm beds, personal space, dry clothes and of course a beer or two. The strong 85% is due to our proximity to Seattle, the ocean sprint and our chances against Zhuhai and Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam in the closing days of this race.
Everyone is drawing on their reserves of their reserves of energy, clutching at the scraps left in the tank before crossing that fated line. It’s been a long race now and Subic seems like years ago for all but we’ve had some great moments along the way. Amongst these great moments, here are some highlights from our current on watch crew.
Cameron- “Being on the bow, getting a headsail down and looking back at waves towering over the helm.” (He’s mental.)
Mary- “The big squall we had when we had everything eased and we were still doing about 27kts down the waves.” (She’s insane.)
Colin- “Seeing the wildlife! Seeing the whale!” (That’s cute.)
John- “Seeing the baby seals!” (That’s cuter.)
Liz- “The day we found we could warm our gloves on the kettle.” (A genuine depiction of the race.)
Paddy- “The warmest crossing of the North Pacific so far.” (Undoubtedly. He’s done this 4 times.)
Carl- “Just surfin’ waves man!” (He’s extremely fast.)
Afshin- “27.5.” (He matched Carl’s all time boat speed.)
There’s been many more amazing moments to name including epic low pressures, hard beating upwind, amazing surfs, challenging helming, the respite of a small windhole, enormous Pacific birds, leaping tuna, bright moonlit nights and fantastic speeds. All of this was successfully managed by Skipper Mike, AQP Mary and this fantastically stoic Visit Sanya, China crew; you trained them well, Seumus.
That’s pretty much my wrap-up of this roller-coaster of our North Pacific trek so it’s now down to us to stay stubborn in our focus, dig deep and grind out these last few days. Well done guys. Almost there now. You can practically smell freedom and liberty.
A final massive thank you to my wonderfully lovely 2017/18 Unicef crew mate Alison Ryan for the use of her infamous dry suit! Much love!
Hooroo Cobbers and Jia Yo Sanya!
Cameron CV29