Happy Fizz Friday! I trust the week has gone well for you, and you have the opportunity to have a relaxing evening with some friends and family. I have been looking at the calendar this end, no chilled-out Fizz Friday with loved ones until the 23rd of August unfortunately, but I am sure it will be worth the wait.
Now before I forget, or get in trouble with #1, a massive ‘Happy Birthday’ shout out for her bestie, Lily. (Now Lily has been given the shout-out, is it your birthday today, the 12th, or tomorrow the 13th, Maisie doesn’t appear to know – have a word with her, please. Anyway, whichever day have a great one, from all the Bekezela team and of course, Maisie.)
The Ocean Sprint went well, it's going to be a tight time with PSP Logistics. We missed Code 2 and had to switch between Code 1 to Code 3 during the sprint, they were quick smooth evolutions.
On the Code front, today Code 2 will be fully repaired. So, a big shout out to ‘Mistress of the Sails’, Mel, who in the space of a week has repaired Code 3 and Code 2, both of which were pretty seriously damaged. The Codes (spinnakers) are showing that they have raced around the world. In fact, when the Code 3 was hoisted and set yesterday, a comment was made: “We are basically flying a lot of sail tape joined together, on the end of two bits of string!”
It's a little disappointing to see that the boats to the south have managed to bridge the high-pressure ridge before it was truly established, and are once again putting miles on us after we closed the gap so well the past few days. I think we will be consumed by the end of the day and grind to a halt. I must say the crew has worked really hard and remained upbeat and determined despite the setbacks of the two ‘kite-mares’ and the 15-hour wind-hole. It has definitely felt like a team on the race, we are just potentially not going to get the result we deserve, but that is life. “I get knocked down, but I get up again.”
Now, on the theme of firsts and lasts, today we made our final clock change at sea, we are now UTC, or as they still say in the United States, GMT, an indication that the last few miles are slipping under our keel for home. The next realisation we are back in home waters will be the first time we hear, “All, ships, all ships, all ships. For the routine safety and maritime weather information broadcast, issued on behalf of the Maritime and Coastal Agency for Rockall, Bailey, Hebrides, and Malin change to Channel …….”
That will stand the hairs on the back of the neck up, and I know from previous experience it will be an emotional one.
Talking of emotion, I know a lot of friends and family are attending Oban. For those who have done multiple legs on the race, this can be a very emotional time. The slow realisation that a potential lifelong dream is actually concluding, and a potentially harsh realisation that a return to normality is on the horizon, will be in their minds. Two worlds are about to merge, their Clipper Race world and their normal world. Their normal now might not look or be quite the same as you remember it. They might appear different, and I am not talking of weight loss, but they are still the loved ones that left the UK in September last year. Without question, they have achieved something completely remarkable and that can take time for them to process.
There’s
a race of men (and women) that don’t fit in,
A race
that can’t stay still;
So,
they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And
they roam the world at will.
They
range the field, and they rove the flood,
They
climb the mountain’s crest;
Theirs
is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And
they don’t know how to rest.
Think that’s all for now, standing by this channel.
David, Maisie, and the ‘nearly there’ Bekezela Crew. (UTC)