Surfs Up Baby!!

The 3 hourly internet race viewer watches are over and now that i think
it's safe to say sea sickness is behind me, i'm feeling better and it's
awesome to be actually on board! At our last happy hour up date we had
advanced to second place overtaking the Aussies and gaining on Cape
Breton who are both further south than us. It's actually slightly easy
to forget your racing out here on our own with only birds for company
(albatross! - very cool!) Especially since we get our position updates
much less frequently than is available on the race viewer on land!

We've had a great few days, We crossed over the 40th parallel so are
officially in the southern ocean now! Conditions aren't quite the
natorious ones you'd expect of the Southern Ocean....Yet. We've had some
weird weather and I've quickly realised that if you think the weather can
change quickly up in the mountains (or in Dunedin :) it's nothing
compared to what can happen in the middle of the ocean! The other day we
had fog with thunder and lightning as i went off watch at 8 in the
morning and when i got up again at 2 it was a beautiful day and perfect
conditions! We were on a broad reach so apparent wind was low despite it
gusting up to 40 knots at times, the sun was shining and we were quickly
into our shorts and t'shirts. Foulies, boots and socks off and hanging
anywhere we could find to dry them off.

The swells have only been 3-5 metres so far but the competition for
highest speed has started already. It's an exhilarating feeling on the
helm with 68ft of boat infront of you as you surf down the front of a
wave and she actually starts to hum, can't help but let a smile break my
look of concentration - just as well there is no rear view mirror to see
the wave coming or it would be more a look of terror! I've just come off
watch (0400-0800hrs) we just shook out a reef before i came of deck and
so have our full main, with stay sail and poled out yankee 2. It's quite
a 'safe' downwind sail combination so it's been great to get more
practice on the helm. It'll be back to my learners licence and feeling
very nervous when the spinnaker comes out! I've also been spending quite
a lot of time on the bow, quite a challenge in the dark and wind trying
to communicate with the crew in the snake pit (= Pit with all the winches
and ropes behind the mast) to co-ordinate things like sail changes and
taking a pole up and down. Especially as you open your mouth to yell
something as the bow hits the back of a swell and a you get completely
soaked by a massive wave.

Bed time
xx

Fish Feeding!

Well the clipper diet started off with a bang! I can no longer claim I
don't get sea sick!! I've managed to stop feeding the fish for now and
am hoping to stay that way all the way to Qingdou but it was a bit rough
for a while there! Had to schedule throwing up time into the time it
took me to get kitted up for being on watch!! I'm still feeling a bit
spaced out though from the drugs that have helped me to so far keep down
some water, a hot choc, few mouthfuls of 2 minute noodles with a weird
selection of vege and some tinned corned beef and smash! Oh and some
chocolate! Ahhhh talk about fine dinning!!

We had a fantastic race start and got off to a great lead (which has
been lost since but we have our tactics and there is a long way too go!)
we made so much ground that the media helicopter thought they'd missed
us until the pilot spotted us off on the horizon! It was initiation by
fire for us new leggers who joined in Cape Town. We had some great wind
for the race start that was super exciting!! (Although feel for the two
boats that are back in the marina in Cape Town after being involved in a
collision on the start line). The wind then died as we entered the wind
shadow of table mountain and we got our light weight spinnaker out.
Wasn't long before it had to come down and the wind kept climbing! We
managed to work our way through almost our whole sail wardrobe to
settle with Yankee 3, stay sail and main with 2 reefs. In the middle of
the night with the wind gusting over 35 knots we were over powered and
with 5 of us up on the foredeck, fought hard to bring the yankee 3 down
(During the nice little window of time you get of feeling fantastic
after throwing up!!).

A lot of people were suffering from sea sickness and with the boat
bouncing hard through the waves on crazy angles life on board was
initally a matter of just getting through it. Very little sleep was
had and one of my off watches was spend gripping onto the edge of my
locker beside my bunk to stop being bouced our! Last off watch I had
a great sleep however woke up realising just how sore my muscles and
whole body in genereal was, being unaccustomed to life at sea. I'm sure
i'm covered in a rediculous numaber of bruises that i'll never get a
chance to even see! Today however the wind and sea have settled, we're
averaging about 10 knots speed over ground off about 17-18 knots true
wind and the sun and smiles are out.

I'm losing track of the days already, but there are A LOT to go!! We
are in our own wee world with our own boat time, No longer south african
time but a long way off being on australian time yet too. Not that the
time matters other than to know when your watches start and finish. Its
1430hrs boat time, I've just come off the helm at the end of our 6hr day
time watch (Saw a turtle (actually I just about hit it!!) and the others
saw a whale behind us but i couldn't turn and look while i was driving
(dedication or what!! haha) Lunch is tinned sausages and smash (powdered
potoato, just add ?water and = instant mashed potato.) Then it's bed
time for me until I'm woken at 2000hrs for the first of our 4 hour night
watches.

I've also changed my socks, cleaned my teeth and had a baby wipe
'shower' - doesn't get much better than that! Life on board Team Finland
is all good!

Night Night
xx

RACE DAY!!

No more sleeps!!  My nails have been cut and jewellery removed!  I've had my last shower for at least 3 weeks, used my last flush toilet and had my last land based meal!!!  At crew briefing yesterday we saw the video footage of Hull and Humbers man over board which was amazingly caught on camera - very difficult to watch and very much a reality check!!!
We slip lines at 11.00.  Race start at 2! 
 
Becs xxx

---

New Windows 7: Find the right PC for you. Learn more.

Final count down has started!

Moved out of the backpackers and onto the boat today!! Another step closer!! This time in a week we'll be on our way to oz!!  I've drawn top bunk up at the bow so it's going to be an interesting ride while we surf the southern oceans waves and i'm off watch trying to sleep!! 

Had an amazing 28 hours staying with a crew mates family in Jo'Berg while she was on the boat on her way to Cape Town. I had springbok for lunch and my face painted at an african restaurant, and a Braai for dinner then before flying out to Cape Town the next day we went to a Rino and Lion safari Park!  

Just walked up Table Mountain today, Bit tough on the legs!! Especially after 3 nights in a row of celebrations going on into the early hours of the morning!!  

Boat maintenance tomorrow, prize giving and sight seeing on tuesday, corportate sail on wed, sight seeing thurs, last training sail friday, leaving sunday........It's a tough life :)  x

---

Click here View photos of singles in your area.

I'm finally off on my adventure

Hi, Sorry i know I haven't been in touch with some of you for quite a while but I though now was a good time to send you an update and say hi and bye!  
 
If you have managed to escape hearing me go on and on about my next adventure then I should let you know i've been doing some sailing training throughout this year and am crewing in 2 legs out of 7 of the 09/10 Clipper round the world yacht race. This is a race where 10 identical 68ft ocean racing yachts sponsored by various cities or countries race each other around the world each sailed by one professional skipper and 18-20 amateur crew.
 
So life in london has been packed up for 6 months and I've just arrived in Cape Town.  I'm typing as I wait at the yacht club for my team to sail in from Rio!! They've had an amazing race so far ......No pressure for those of us joining!!! haha.... They won the first race from the UK to france and the second from france to Rio and are currently due to arrive in cape town in about 5 hours in 2nd place! - Hopefully - it's not over until they cross that line! 
 
Leg 3 starts with us sailing out of Cape town in 10 days time (22 nov) and racing 4,743 miles across the southern ocean to Western Australia (geraldtown-north of perth) which will take about 3 1/2 weeks non stop.  We 'rest' in oz for xmas and NY while completing maintenance etc and leave again on the 3rd Jan racing 2,450 miles up to singapore.  We stay there a week before racing 2,578 miles on to Qingdou in China following a similar course to the volvo ocean race.  Qingdou is where i unfortunately leave the boat at the end of feb but I'm coming home to NZ for 6 weeks after that before heading back to try and return to 'normal' life in london!!!
 
Anyway I better go, Cork have just crossed the finish line first and are due to arrive at the marina so Im going go congratulate them while waiting for my team 'Team Finland' 'who will hopefully hold off singapore who are only about 8 miles behind us to arrive in second in about another 4 hours - quite a close race for having come 3,385 miles!!!!
 
I'm going to keep a blog site that i will email messages too from the boat, if your interested in following it the web address is
 http://becslivingthedream.blogspot.com/
 
There are also 3 hourly race position updates on the clipper web site which is
 http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/Follow/RaceViewer
 
So while life on land goes on hold for me as i sail off... Happy Birthday! Merry Xmas! Happy New Year! Happy Pregnancies!  Happy Engagements, Happy Weddings... And everything else i'm going to miss until i get to NZ in March!!!!!
 
Miss you already
Ahhhhh this is all starting to feel real!!
 
Becs
xx
 

---

New Windows 7: Simplify what you do everyday. Find the right PC for you.

---

New Windows 7: Find the right PC for you. Learn more.