On
Sunday 1st September I was up early for a 7am breakfast joined by my school friends , then at
8am reported for duty with all my kit for the next 11 months on board Mission Performance. St Katharine Dock was getting very busy and after a brief from our
skipper Matt all the teams stood in line on the foredeck for a service of
blessing and prayers. This was then followed by each team walking through the
crowds to the main stage and our boat song was played for the first time; 'Don't
Stop Me Now' by Queen (we will have to brush up on the words and dance routine
as this will be played many times in the next year). Having been presented to
everyone we were then asked to man our boat and under engine we made our way
out of the dock (more 'Queen') through the lock on to the Thames to wait for
all the boats to get in line for the parade from Tower Bridge down the river,
lead by the Great Britain yacht. A flotilla of smaller boats, spectator boats
and a helicopter all followed, with crowds on the bridges, on the banks and
balconies we waved and shouted all the way with family and friends doing the
same back to us. It was a great send off! Having reached the Thames Barrier the
spectator boats turned away for the last time and we made our way towards Queensborough,
where we moored up against each other for the night.
The
next day was the moment everyone had been waiting for and at 9.30am we set off
from a mark just off Southend pier for the race to Brest in France, with a good wind we hoisted one of our largest
front sails, the spinnaker, which allows us to go even faster when the wind is
coming from behind. Unfortunately a few minutes later it partially detached (and again
later) causing us to lose speed, but we recovered and sat towards the front of
the pack. The rest of the day saw the fleet spread out and we went into our
watch systems. That evening the sea got rougher and we had difficult
sailing causing some sea sickness (so far I have been alright).
On
Tuesday I was on Mother watch with Alan who is sailing to Rio de Janeiro. Starting
early; we made hot drinks and meals for everyone, cleaned the heads (toilets), then the inside of the boat before we
baked some fresh bread and it turned out to be very good for a first attempt! Over
the next few watches we all started to feel a bit tired, as a 4 hour on, 4 hour
off watch system takes a while to get used to and we had some unlucky
incidents; our main grinders which hoist up the main sails stopped working and
we spent the next 3 hours trying to fix them which meant we lost some ground.
Also as part of the race rules we were not allowed to go into the TSS (traffic
separation scheme) shipping lanes, however we unknowingly clipped a section of
one (Old Pulteney did the same). That meant we ended up with a 9 hour penalty
from the race committee; although very frustrating it all made us try harder to
make up for the lost time. With
sometimes little or no wind we made our way up through the fleet and at one
point managed to get to first place, then the race committee decided to shorten the
race due to our positions in the English Channel with little wind, strong tides
and busy shipping lanes. When we crossed the new finish line we were in 2nd
place an amazing result.... but because of the penalty we were pushed back to
last place! Although very annoying it boosted our determination for the
next race to Rio de Janeiro. We were then allowed to turn on our engines to
meet an arrival time in Brest travelling in thick fog through the night with
our fog horn sounding, while still on our watch system it was all very eerie !
We
made it to Brest on Thursday afternoon (the same day as the Mount School term
started, without me!), all of us having deep cleaned our boats and cleared
customs then went to the prize giving reception in the Town Hall with the Mayor and to see Invest Africa receive their winners pennant for the race. With local
cider and oysters to eat, it made up a bit for our last placing. This was then
followed by going out into Brest with
the rest of my crew for the evening.
So now we are getting Mission Performance ready
for the next long race across the Atlantic and the Equator to Rio, which starts
on Monday. We are excited and reassured knowing that we are a good team, with a
good skipper and a great sponsor and ready to fight hard for the next winners
pennant !
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