The fleet left the North Cove Marina in Manhattan as a group (above) to allow a helicopter photo opportunity in front of the Statue of Liberty. A morning fog grounded the helicopter, however, so we simply motored out into the ocean. We kept motoring as a fleet all night towards the north, waiting for enough wind to develop to allow a race. It did not appear until noon the next day.The race proceeded heartily for two days with Uniquely Singapore in 1st place much of that time. It wasn't long, however, until the entire fleet entered a wind hole and our speeds dropped from 10 kts to .2 kts, if that. We could see nine of the ten boats around us all at all times, bobbing and swaying, all of us gaining then losing position against each other as the various currents and occasional small breeze moved us about like drifting toy boats on a pond.
After more than a full day of this, the race was terminated to allow us to motor to Halifax in time to make our scripted fleet entrance into their harbor yesterday, Sunday, June 8th, as part of a festival. In the time we spent drifting in the windless sea, we'd fallen from 1st to 8th.
The parade and entrance into Halifax, timed down to the minute much like our entrance into Singapore, required a pre-stop to allow the fleet to gather. It was perhaps 5:30 a.m. yesterday morning when all ten boats straggled one by one over twenty minutes time into a small marina a few miles south of Halifax. The local sailing club had free beers and a free BBQ waiting for all 150 or so hungry mouths (we were too tired, dirty, and hungry to care about consuming beer and burgers at 5:30 a.m). The yacht club seemed quite pleased to be given the opportunity to offer this hospitality.
Even in my sleep deprived daze (having gotten off watch at 2:00 a.m. and back out of my bunk at 5:00 a.m. to prepare to dock), I was aware of and enjoying their sense of human giving simply for the joy of it.
I've felt it many times on this voyage, for we seem to be treated like celebrities wherever we go. To counter that unfounded admiration, I like to point out to whomever is eagerly asking the questions I'm answering in whatever marina we find ourself that my inquisitor is probably ten times the sailor I was before I began this race, and is probably still so. Though I like to think of myself as perhaps our boat's ambidextrous wizard in our snake pit (see video below), this ability applies only to this one particular boat. On a more practical level useful for day to day sailing, I don't know bupkiss about anchoring, dealing the international procedures of fog, dead reckoning navigation, and other far more useful skills. Right now perhaps I'm perfectly primed to learn them, yes, but learn them still I must.
After a bit of boat clean up at this nameless south-of-Halifax marina (no time for a personal clean up), followed eventually by a true breakfast at 11:00 a.m., we slipped our lines again at 1:00 p.m. for our grand entrance into Halifax proper (below), overwhelmingly drowsy from our lack of sleep combined with our full stomachs.
The city had a full day of activities scripted for us but I sneaked away after the 5:00 p.m. clam chowder party and before the 6:30 brewery tour and 9:00 p.m. party in the local bar. I needed a shower, damnit, and enchanting hosts or not, I was going to take one.
I took two...just because I could. Then I took another one this morning. I'm contemplating taking another one right now and might take my third one today later this evening (the fifth in 24 hours) just before I leave to I pick up Jamie at the airport. You never realize what a luxury a true shower is until you spend almost a full year yearning for them.
Jamie was due to fly in at 10:51 p.m. last night but some storm in the midwest stranded her in Chicago (here's her brief story). On my own unexpectedly, I was content to simply watch a movie (in my hotel room, an indulgence I allowed myself only because Jamie was coming) and then drifted into that happy kind of sleep that only cotton sheets and a large bed that doesn't move can give you.
Even though I still woke up at 4:30 a.m. this morning as if I needed to go on watch, I did have the luxury of rolling back over and spreading my arms full length on either side of me and drifting back to sleep again with my cheek turned to sink into a cotton pillow case. I'll spend a bit of today doing laundry while I delight in the feel of jeans and a cotton t-shirt on my body for once. Ah...cotton!
Other than that, I'll probably achieve virtually nothing else today and be most content with that. I am so...so tired, and not just physically.
Jamie comes in tonight, 24 hours later than planned.
Below is the video mentioned above on the snakepit, my favorite position on the boat. It was produced by Vic, our visiting videophotographer on the Jamaica-New York race.
