Race 12 - Day 3
Crew Diary - Race 12, Day 3
05 June

We left Flamenco Bay, Panama at 0530 on the 2nd June with four other Clipper Race boats, paused slightly at the mouth of the marina to welcome Qingdao to Panama as they had just arrived. We picked up a first pilot to guide us through the canal and set off past the huge loading docks for the container ships and into the canal. A second pilot joined us later.

We rafted with Zhuhai and made our way through the first few locks following the other three rafted boats. Enormous volumes of water were pumped into the locks and we were lifted by over 10 metres each time. The pilot told us 630 million gallons of water is moved as each lock fills.

We arrived at Shelter Bay Marina on the east side of the canal and spent some time getting our Covid passes ready for Bermuda.

As we were preparing to leave on the evening of the 3rd, Qingdao finally caught the rest of the fleet up and received a massive welcome from the other teams. It was an emotional reunion.

We all motored out to the start line – 250nm away in the middle of the Caribbean Sea and with Unicef leading the Le Mans start and some good trade winds the start of the race was exciting. Shame no one could see us but it was filmed.

The entire Visit Sanya, China team was awesome. After 10 mins we were in 2nd place having taken the middle road and sticking to the rhumb line. Different boats chose different sails plans, but our selection worked well, we started the race with the Yankee 2 (as required), then after 10 mins we swapped to the Yankee 1, having hanked both on at the start of the race meant this was a slick manoeuvre. We then downed head sails and launched our windseeker, later this was changed to the Code 1 Spinnaker. The team worked well and we didn’t stop pushing until the job was done and we had positioned ourselves with the front runners.

12 hours later and we had upwind conditions. The white sails were re-hoisted and we rode our bucking bronco, going in the right direction (that felt good after race 11). Sailing upwind brings uncomfortable conditions below decks. Heads stop pumping water, cooking at a 45 degree angle is tricky, bunks have to be positioned so you don’t fall out, which means those of us on the top bunks have our noses pressed to the underside of the deck.

Then as quickly as the trade winds found us, they suddenly stopped and we currently find ourselves in a wind hole. Windseeker is now up and the skipper is talking about the next sail change.

We press on and keep living the dream. With nothing to think about except the next meal or sail change, life is good on the good ship Visit Sanya, China and we are looking forward to arriving in Bermuda.

Best wishes from all the crew aboard Visit Sanya, China.