The Three Amigos

 
The three female round-the-world crew members remaining on Mission Performance made a pact to complete the circumnavigation together. As they return into the ‘home’ waters of the Atlantic, they are looking forward to completing their ambition. 

With a number of Mission Performance’s crew leaving the race due to injury, the three fearless females Sophie Hetherton (19), Kate Davidson (25) and Claire Carroll (37), have pledged to support each other through the tough conditions so they can complete their journey together.

Claire Carroll, a sound engineer from Dumfries, UK, said the trio made the commitment to keep going and keep each other motivated, within the depleted core team of round-the-world crew members remaining on board.  “Kate, Sophie and I all found we had similar motives - we wanted to race and push the boat as hard as we could. We are pretty tightly knit. I always say that the only way I'm going back into London is on the boat as a circumnavigator so I don't have an option to get off, serious injury permitting. Sophie and Kate feel the same, so it's really good to have that strength there. “We learnt that to feel a sense of achievement you just had to get stuck in. Losing some of our crew mates through injury has been tough but in some ways it has made us realise that we don't want to get off.” 

Kate Davidson, a bartender from Georgia, USA, said the three were too stubborn to quit and it was nice to know that they will have each other through to the end. It’s also tough coping with the fleeting relationships made with crew members who may only be participating for a single leg.  “It feels terrible to watch people you really like and get on with leave the boat when they have finished their leg, and I think any one of us would feel guilty about doing that to each other and Matt, our skipper. Ultimately we are the core of this boat.  “Time together tends to be either on deck during happy hour or while one of us is on Mother Watch. We'll always gravitate to each other to talk about silly things like crazy cheese-induced dreams or show off particularly spectacular bruises.  “The best thing about having Sophie and Claire around is just that we do really understand each other. If we're on deck I can count on them to be in the right place at exactly the right time for any sail evolution. Likewise, I know we can share frustrations and stresses and the occasional exhaustion-related cry,” Kate added. 

Sophie, a student from York, UK, is the youngest female crew member on this edition of the Clipper Race. She said: “I accepted this whole race was going to be tough physically and mentally but I was never sure how I was going to react to it. “What I have found is that I love the physical hard work, the hard days are what make part of the experience for me and when you return from the bow after getting thrown by waves and pulling down sails that are being difficult it gives me a sense of achievement that we did it and hopefully no one was hurt. “I always love the first evening in port. We arrive in after finishing a race and we can all sit down, talk and even laugh at the times when we were frustrated. It's only then that I can start to comprehend what we have just achieved. It was tough and relentless but we got through and I am that one bit closer to saying I have sailed round the world.”

See what our intrepid explorer got up to in Jamaica!

Watch out for Sophie's guest appearances with the Scouts and at the cricket!
Thank You Jamaica - Clipper Race enjoys welcome & starts Race 13

YOUTUBE.COM

Fun in the Sun.

Our relaxing stopover in Jamaica has come to an end. With barely any maintenance jobs to do on Mission Performance, having six days rest allowed me to see some of the great sights around Port Antonio. 

The day after the Prize Giving party I spent helping show a party of Jamaican Scouts round one of the Clipper 70's, then later on we had a cricket match with some of the other boats (as I said in my previous blog I had never played cricket, but I managed not to show myself up!) and in the end out of the 4 teams we came 2nd! I also visited the beautiful beach at Frenchman's Cove with some of the Qingdao crew and after some heavy rainfall we decided to go to up to Reach Falls, where we were allowed to swim and jump off the waterfall and even go through it into the caves underneath accompanied by local guides. The next day I went with Kate to The Blue Lagoon where we borrowed some kayaks and paddled along the coast to an empty beach, after swimming in the sea for a while we paddled back to the Lagoon and swam there as well (the depth of it being 70 metres!). The rest of the time was spent relaxing and then on the last full day we had to prep the boat to be ready for the next leg. 

So yesterday morning we said goodbye to Jamaica and after a really good race start we are still in the top group with all the leading boats around us, hopefully we can keep up with the pace and continue it all the way to New York in about a weeks time!

Anyone for a drink of Jamaican coconut?

    

Reach Falls

Sophie on YOUTUBE

Sophie makes a quick appearance at the Party in Jamaica: 2 minutes 40 seconds into the video. Click the link below to watch;

Clipper, Prize Giving and Party

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, the world's longest ocean race, stopped in Port Antonio, Jamaica en route to its final destination. This year Jamaica...

YOUTUBE.COM

Unlike ·  · Share

'Jamaica'...... 'No she went of her own accord'!

The race from the Panama Canal to Jamaica was a short one lasting only 3 days. So after leaving the Canal we motored overnight to catch up with the rest of the fleet. Then early the next morning we had a Le Mans start with our Yankee 2 (middle weight headsail) which stayed up until the last 12 hours of the race, this meant few headsail changes and not much exercise for the crew. We decided to semi specialise in our helming, having only two helms on each watch alternating and also to have all of us that were on that watch on the high side of the boat with our legs over the side helping keep the boat flatter in the water, this might only make a slight difference to our speed, but it is about creating the right mindset and reminds everyone that we are racing, as sometimes with the long 6 hour watches it is hard to keep concentrating. The last 12 hours of the race were very frustrating as the consistent winds that we had thoughout were dying on us and Invest Africa was closing in, but then we managed to get some wind and pull away from them to finish in 11th place.

So far I have had 2 days in Jamaica, Port Antonio is beautiful and last night the prize giving was on the beach next to the marina. Luckily we have done most of our cleaning and maintenance to the boat, so these next few days are going to be spent 'chillin out'.  Later on there is going to be an inter boat cricket match and I've been selected to play. Having never played cricket before this could be a slight handicap to our team, but I don't think I will tell the others that, until I've seen how I perform!

One of 'The seven wonders of the modern World,' The Panama Canal

As I write this we are moored up in the middle of the Panama Canal, having spent the majority of the day travelling along it. 

After a short stopover in Panama City, we set off in the early hours of the morning towards the canal. Motoring under the bridge that joins North America and South America, we reached the first lock with Great Britain attached to us on our left side and Invest Africa on our right. It was an incredible site watching the huge gates close behind us and slowly watching the water rise, we went through 3 different locks (tucked in behind a huge container ship!) that took us most of the morning to get through. Each boat had their own pilot to help navigate us through the Canal.

The rest of the day we have been motoring, surrounded by rain forest on the nearby banks and the occasional container ship passing in the opposite direction. At the moment we are with Invest Africa and Great Britain waiting for our new pilots to navigate us through the rest of the canal. Tomorrow morning we will then meet up with the rest of the fleet and set off for race start towards Jamaica.

The Panama Canal

Today Sophie and her boat Mission Performance are going to transit the Panama canal (Panama is 6 hours behind UK time). Going from the Pacific to the Atlantic, It will take about 8-10 hours and  they will go through several locks, you can watch their progress on a live webcam: ( http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html ) which updates ever 30 seconds (a bit like watching paint dry). They will be at the 1st lock (Miraflores) at about 4pm our time with 2 other Clipper yachts. You can also track their progress on a satellite map: ( http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ ) their boat is a purple mark (CV 23).

16:12   You can now see the three yachts 
approaching the Miraflores lock, after the tanker


16:30   They are in the lock,
Mission Performance is in the middle


17:00


17:10

Arriving into Panama

Costa Coffee

I really enjoyed the race down from San Francisco, but we are now motoring to keep to our schedule and allotted time when we transit through the Panama Canal. The calm weather and the fact we are motoring means we have been able to get on with some maintenance chores and deep cleaning. The other day I spent a few hours polishing the mast (which is now sparkling) and carried out some minor repairs to the sails. Having now finished all the jobs this means we have got some more time to relax and when we get to Panama we can enjoy the transit without having to do anymore cleaning!

We are currently motoring with Invest Africa who we had to tow for a day, due to them running low on fuel. The two boats then had a 'Pub Quiz' over the VHF Radio and I was the communicator; at first I was terrible over the radio, but after a while I got used to it!

Yesterday was Skipper Matt's Birthday, we had all written cards and Orla made cupcakes for everyone, also the crew of Invest Africa made super cake for him! Then later on we called into Costa Rica a fuel pit stop. Now it's full speed ahead and we hope to arrive into Panama on Sunday lunchtime! 

The confessions of a sail repairer

We have been relatively busy over the past 24 hours hoisting and dropping kites. On the whole, these have gone pretty smoothly, something you would hope for after flying kites continuously for the past 13 days.

However, yesterday evening we were dropping 'Bruce' (the lightweight kite) and as we were grinding the clew inboard, too much tension built up between the head and the clew. This led to the old repair around that area giving way and the clew detaching from the rest of the sail. In some ways I had felt we were overdue a kite rip as our last repair was on our way up to Singapore (funnily enough, it was a similar rip). All our kites had also survived the Pacific with no damage - the first time we had survived a leg with no repairs needing to be done!

For any sail repairer, flying kites that have already undergone major surgery can be nerve-racking. Coming up on deck and hearing that the kite has ripped usually leads me to jump to the conclusion that I will have hours and hours of hand sewing to do in a hot sail locker. Thankfully, this was a repair in which I knew what needed to be done, had a working sewing machine and plenty of sail material, and had the help of my sail repair assistant, Orla, back to work with me (we'd worked together on a previous repair on 'Bruce' on Leg 2). The aim was to get the job done as quickly as possible as, 'we need to be flying this kite by the morning'- no pressure!

So we set the sewing machine up, fitting it nicely into a slot in the saloon bench conveniently right next to the snack cupboard, and set to work. Seven hours later the job was finished (compared to the 4 days hand stitching the same repair up to Singapore), and by the early hours of the morning 'Bruce' was flying quite happily.

For now I hope it holds... My 8 months of repairing kites has taught me a lot - NEVER take short cuts, do a thorough job or it will not last, and be prepared to spend hours sweating buckets while the sewing machine decides it doesn't want to play - my patience has been tested quite a few times!

Currently we are sailing along quite nicely with 'Bwian' (medium weight kite) flying. He has served us well and I hope he will continue to do so until we cross the finish line in 2 and 1/2 months!