(Brian Luster is a fellow nautical blogger and author of the excellent blog A Movable Bridge. Brian took part in the big Asian leg of the 2005-2006 Clipper Race. The current race is taking place right now and the crews are in Asia as I write this –Adam)
The finish: 7 May 2006, Victoria
After 31 days at sea New York arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, and took seventh place in the race from Qingdao. The last cold, rainy 18 hours were some of the toughest of the race. The entire crew was on watch; no one got to sleep. We had a few people on deck at all times, and the rest on standby for tacking and changing sails. That last day, dawn broke to show that we were socked in by a thick fog. Out of the fog a ghostlike Glasgow suddenly appeared and sailed past us. We spent the rest of the morning chasing them.
Our skipper made a tactical decision to cut between some tiny islands, and we crossed the finish line just minutes ahead of Glasgow, after racing more than 5000 nautical miles. For the last couple of hours into Victoria we had beautiful sunshine and winds from astern. I had the honor of helming us into Victoria—spinnaker flying and crew smiling—and across the finish line.
By the time we made it to our dock, a crowd had gathered to cheer and welcome us. My parents and my kids waited impatiently on the pier until Canadian immigration told us we could disembark. The first thing I did was grab my kids and hug them. My daughter asked, “Daddy, can you stop?” All I said was, “No. I can’t.”
“But you’re wet,” she said.
“Too bad.”