Clipper voyage begins at home

Bags packed and ready for an adventure.  The culmination of months of planning, preparation and training.  The anticipation reaching its climax.  The sadness of leaving loved ones behind.  Feelings of excitement jostling with apprehension.  I fly in the morning half way around the globe to take on the Southern Ocean with new friends onboard the Clipper race yacht "Singapore".  On 6th November the fleet leave Geraldton WA bound for Tauranga, New Zealand over 3,000nm away.

"Don't dream it! Be it"

Safe in Plymouth

Pleased to report that we are safely moored in Plymouth.

Still not sure of the root cause, but essentially the battery reserved exclusively for starting the engine was flat. So no way to recharge the main battery either.

Jeremy and I have thought over all the "if only's". But we take comfort in the knowledge that we had performed well in the often difficult first stage of the race and were positioned in the leading pack. And that lessons learnt include an upgrade to alternative sources of energy.

Bring on August 2013 - unfinished business.......

The Pixie strikes again :-(

I have just had a phone call from Richard to say that they are heading for Plymouth as they have had to pull out of the race due to an electrical fault.

Needless to say, they are gutted, especially as so far they had been up amongst the leaders and doing really well, but as they are unable to charge batteries or start the engine, it is unsafe to cross the Irish Sea without the back-up of being able to use the engine should they need to.

They hope to be in Plymouth late this afternoon.

Grace

Daily treats

Grace has kindly sent us off with a bag of daily treat to surprise us. Day 1 is a sugar boost to get us across the start line. Watch this space as the story unfolds....

Fastnet tracker

With final preparations complete, albeit somewhat stressed with a variety of electronic glitches, we are now ready for the start of 2011 Fastnet Race at 11:50 Sunday. To follow our progress go to the tracker page at http://fastnet.rorc.org and technology permitting we will also post comments on this blog.

Richard & Jeremy.

Seeing Red

Not a good start to the final Fastnet preparations. Firstly the rig is still missing - I can cope with that as its due back in today following a routine checks and some minor fixes. But red water in the bilges was a shock - diesel! Luckily I have found the source - the emergency fuel cannister had split with 7Ltrs missing. If this had happened next week, at best we would have had diesel in all the lockers, at worst.....

Fastnet 2011

The 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race is fast approaching, with the start on Sunday 14th August. Jeremy & I will once again be racing together, competing against 30 other yachts also racing 2-handed. Having set the bar fairly high we are out to improve on our 8th place in 2009. So go to http://fastnet.rorc.org/ to follow the race.