You wouldn’t think that going sideways from 111 degrees latitude to 112 there would be a sudden change in temperature. Literally from one watch to the next a change from shorts and t shirt to leggings under shorts along with long sleeve light weight thermal and jacket.
The two night watches before arriving in Hong Kong had already warranted jacket and socks under boots but all of a sudden Continue reading
“Good Morning Mrs. Sturt-Scobie. Your mission should you choose to accept it involves leaving Team Switzerland for 2,500nm on the toughest race of the Clipper Round the World yacht race to join a shorthanded crew… this isn’t mission difficult, this is mission impossible”…
(words borrowed and adapted from Mission Impossible conversation between agent Hunt and commander Swanbeck)
Mission Performance was 4 crew short of the minimum number required to sail a Clipper 70. They needed 12 and asked the biggest crews for volunteers Continue reading
Sitting on the bow at 6 am with starlight casting silver strands down to the sea; the gentle swoosh of water against hull and the glimmer of red and green navigation lights around us.
What a beautiful way to start the day. The start of the second half of this adventure as yesterday marked the half-way point for the round the world crew.
We’re motoring at a gentle 7 knots through the Basilan Straits Continue reading
Remember back to leg one when we crossed the equator from north to south? Remember the light airs and the heat?
Well the South to North crossing could not have been more different.
Monsoon season with every kind of squall imaginable; 40 knot winds gusting 80 – although we think our wind instruments are Continue reading
We’ve 7 new crew this leg and find ourselves in coaching mode a lot of the time. The enthusiasm of new joiners is fantastic yet brings its own challenges to “old hands”.
By the end of the last leg the whole crew were working like a well-oiled machine and having got used to that we find ourselves back to basics, Continue reading
My sheet is crisp with sweat. My hair is plastered to my head with sweat. My body is leaking sweat. Oh the joy of the tropics. But hey I can say that I have sailed by the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Borneo, New Britain and Continue reading
Privacy….. With 20 people in a Tin can, or rather a fibre glass tube, sharing a bunk, not, I hasten to add, at the same time!
And living and working 24/7 for weeks on end.
No escape. Continue reading
On watch at 6 am today brought with it a Yankee 2 hank and hoist, a Yankee 3 drop and bag, swiftly followed by a staysail drop thanks to a threatening squall. Then a hoist and another drop followed by a Yankee drop intermingled with cleaning the bilges, prepping for reefing in and out and tacking twice.
hanging in there
We were all particularly disappointed by Continue reading
spinnakersandspokes 