Crossing the North Pacific in the Clipper Round the World Race 2005-2006 Part 2 by Guest Author Brian Luster

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)

(Day 4) 11 April 2006: 31 52N 128 20E, East China Sea

Leg 7 did not start in February, as originally planned. During leg 6, from Singapore to Qingdao, several of the boats reported that they were taking on more than the usual amount of water. It turned out that there was a problem with the keels; they had begun swinging, which was causing cracks in the hull. All 10 boats put in to the Philippines for emergency repairs, and the race was put on hold for six weeks.
The start three days ago in Qingdao was spectacular. At the still-under-construction Olympic marina there were dancing dragons, drummers, and gun salutes, and hundreds of people lined the seawall. Each boat left while its song played; we heard “New York, New York” as we followed Dame Ellen MacArthur’s trimaran, B&Q, into the harbor.

Winds were 20 to 25 knots right on the nose, with a short, choppy sea, and we had to put a double reef in the main as we bashed into the waves. That’s a wet way to sail, with plenty of water coming up on deck. It was like that through yesterday. I quickly lost track of how many watch rotations I’d been through, and after being on the boat for only two days I sent an e-mail home saying that this “gets real old real fast.” Then the fog came in and the wind died. Sailing through the fog and dark was quite an experience: The waves weren’t visible, but suddenly the bow would point to the sky, then plunge down the other side. Despite their size, these were gentler waves than at the start.

Today Lizzie and I are on mother watch, which means we are excused from regular watches so we can stay below all day cooking and cleaning. Our day started at 7:30 a.m., when we made breakfast for the watch coming on duty. Once they finished and went up on deck, the other watch came down for breakfast. After they ate, we washed the dishes and tidied the galley. Then we cleaned the heads. After that, we vacuumed the water out of the bilges, which tend to get quite wet during upwind sailing. (Besides the fact that it is unsettling to see water sloshing around inside the boat, the weight of the water slows us down.) After serving lunch to the two watches and more bilge vacuuming, I got to take a shower, get more-or-less clean, and put my dirty clothes back on. Practically everything I have is either wet or dirty or both.

Tomorrow: Things get rough off Japan