Race 12 - Day 3
Crew Diary - RACE 12 DAY 3: NEW YORK TO DERRY-LONDONDERRY
28 June

Three days after leaving New York, my Clipper Race adventure is beginning to take shape. The trip into the North Atlantic was more memorable than I could have ever imagined, with dolphins and then multitudes of whales adding to the excitement of race departure. The evening sunset only added to the magic of the day.

Life on board is now settling into a regular routine, and even my greatest fear of not being able to sleep has been allayed. Apparently last night, right next to my bunk, the spinnaker was packed away and safely stored in the sail locker. To my great delight I slept through all of this! To complete our excellent start we are also even leading the race, and whilst I am aware that there is an long way to go, it is hard not to start dreaming of podium finishes.

Today's highlight for me involved not anything on sea but in the heavens above. A full halo parhelia was seen around the sun, encircling it with a rainbow of colours. I was sitting next to Alison our victualler at the time, and as the sun shone above her head there was something slightly godly about her appearance. She says this happens to her on a regular basis.

The natural beauty of our location has been tempered somewhat by the regular visits of garishly coloured helium balloons and plastic bags which float past aimlessly on the wind. Yesterday as the dolphins played around our bow and danced and jumped in the wash we created, a silver and blue coloured balloon in the shape of a number 1 glided past. It was the best and worst juxtaposed in a single moment.

My sailing knowledge is improving daily. I spent much of today's watch trimming our Yankee 1 and Staysail. The great thing about this as well is that you get to stand at the bow of the boat, and get to experience the rise and falls of the waves before anyone else in the crew. Our Skipper's motto seems to be 'trim, trim, trim', so I am happy to help with this. I hadn't considered myself a particularly competitive person but now we are leading it would feel particularly disappointing to see another crew sail by.

Finally and shamelessly selfishly, a happy birthday to my dad for tomorrow and a special hello to everyone in 5B and 6D – I hope you are all working hard!

Love to my family as always,

Neil Kohler