Everyone should be so lucky as to have hugs like this waiting for you at the end of a journey, particulary one on the sea.
Yesterday we arrived at La Rochelle, France, the site of our first stop in this race. Sian, above, is a new friend who's boat we actually beat in our first race but who ended up docking just before ours. She was, therefore, amidst the crowd on the dock to greet me.
When one of the official photographers took a picture of our embrace and we both were so delighted with it, he graciously asked for our e-mail addresses and sent us both a copy.
I should note that at the moment of that embrace, neither Sian or I had the chance to shower for the previous four days but, at times like those, it doesn't really matter. Then again, had the weather been more conducive to fewer layers, perhaps it would have. When we land in Brazil, we will be wearing shorts and a t-shirt...or perhaps less. Perhaps there I won't receive as many hugs from friends on other boats as I did yesterday.
Tonight is the first chance I've had to find an internet cafe to post. Where to begin?
How about here: the official website for the race is http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/.
Within it, you'll find this page dedicated to my boat, Uniquely Singapore.
At this point, all the video, photos, and blog entries on it are of my doing, though I'm hoping to get others involved in photos and blog entries. Officially I'm the videophotographer and our boat's sponsor, a new marina in Singapore, has paid the extra bucks to allow our boat to send back video by satellite from the sea. Any video you'll see this entire race is something I created. It's exhausting work editing video with a limited laptop in a cramped navigation station on a heeling boat while exhausted from the work of sailing amidst a continually interrupted sleep pattern, but I'm glad I've been selected to do it.
Our race down from Liverpool ranged from tacking duels in a river channel in the pouring rain (just out of Liverpool) to limping along at 1 kt in a near windless sea with La Rochelle still 120 miles away. As the forecast left no hope for wind and we all had schedules to meet, it was annouced in the middle of Wednesday that the race would end at midnight that night. One boat (happily it was Carrie's boat Qingdao) was one mile behind us at that point, limping along just like we were. Holding them off for seven hours didn't seem like much of a problem but in the end, they beat us by 176 yards after 500 miles of sailing. They got sixth place. We got seven.
That amounts to an extra half a point for them in a race that has 145 points up for grabs, but it will certainly be bittersweet if that half point comes back to haunt us.
Then again, it's all fun in a sense. Both Qingdao and Uniquely Singapore were full of happy words, hugs, and respect for each other when we docked side by side in La Rochelle last night, having motored the last 120 miles in.
It's midnight here and I've skipped dinner to write this. Hopefully I'll be able to post something from the sea during the four week voyage we have to Brazil beginning in 36 hours.
I'm off to bed.
