Sophie is a new convert to the game of Rugby.

Clipper Race Crew Touch Rugby Tournament in Derry-Londonderry

The crews of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race take a break from sailing and head to Derry Rugby Club to represent their team on the rugby pitch. More a...

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Mission Performance are a winning team!

Recovering from another late night, but no time to stop as I headed off on Friday morning to the Giant's Causeway with my Dad. Where it seems all the other Clipper crews had made same the same journey to see the amazing stone formations. 

After that it was back to the City of Derry airport to pick up my Auntie Susie who had flown in for the race start. Then we headed out to the City of Derry Rugby Club for inter-boat rugby 7's. After fighting off some fierce competition, guess what...? We beat all the other boats in a knock out and won the trophy (and I scored several of the winning Try's)! Which led to yet another late night celebrating at the Rugby Club.... (how much more can I take!).

'I Get Around'

It's nearly 10 months since I left London and I know I'm nearly home as I walk around Derry with all the familiar shop names using British money to buy things. Yesterday I did a short interview with BBC Radio Foyle, collected my washing and then went to see the Beach boys in the evening for some 'Good Vibrations!'

Having a Punt

After a great night out at the Prize Giving in the Guildhall, the following day was spent recovering and getting all my washing sorted after 3 weeks at sea.

In the evening, all the Clipper teams and spectators drove 5 miles along the shore of Lough Foyle to the yacht club where each of our teams had 2 representatives racing sailing punts on the Lough. Now with my knowledge of betting it was a good opportunity to make a few £'s and help pay for a good stopover. So my money went onto Patrick the skipper of Old Pulteney... and guess what, he won! This was then followed by another great night out in Derry... and now another day recovering!

Back on to UK soil.

This morning we made it into Derry-Londonderry, having spent the last week falling into wind holes along with the rest of the fleet. The race office then called the result early and we all motored towards Lough Foyle. We came into Derry-Londonderry with my Dad taking pictures from the Foyle Bridge as we sailed under it (after being asked by the police whether he was okay or was he thinking of jumping off!).

We received a great welcome from the Lord Mayor and after a bacon bap I spent the rest of the day repairing sails with Stephen. Later this evening we are all heading to prize giving at the Guild Hall.

360 Degrees

At 43 deg. 80. 890' W .... it's official... I am a circumnavigator! This is the line of longitude we crossed last Sunday, and is the line that passes through Rio de Janeiro, so I have now crossed every line of longitude in the world! However, this is perhaps only considered mathematically a circumnavigation as our real goal will be when we cross the finishing line and arrive into London in around 25 days time!

In terms of this leg of the race... it hasn't gone too well. The wind died 24 hours earlier than expected and it seems we lost our wind longer than the rest of the fleet, consequently we are back into 12th place, but we are hopeful with 1,200 miles to go we can crawl back up the leader board again. It has been an exciting few days, icebergs have been a potential issue, so an 'ice watch' was set up; News spread across the fleet that 'growlers' had been sited by other boats, these are icebergs that sit just below the surface, although they would be amazing to see, we thankfully didn't see any and have passed safely out of the danger zone, we also sailed not far from the site where the Titanic sank over 100 years ago. 

In other news- 'Thor' (our heavy weight kite) decided to go for a swim again! Unfortunately, he didn't fare too well and we hauled him back on board with some quite serious tears. I set to work on mending him, but due to ongoing problems with the sewing machine (surprise, surprise!) this has meant he has only been partially repaired; A job to do in Derry-Londonderry it seems!

The Labrador Current

After a good start out of New York we managed to make first place for awhile. We spent the day matching speeds and were insight of other boats, even overtaking a few, however this was short lived as we then entered a large fog bank with very little wind in it. I was on the helm and there was a sudden drop in temperature and an awful smell of fish, we checked the temperature of the sea and that had dropped 4 degrees, this meant we had entered 'The Labrador Current', this runs from The Arctic, heading south with large amounts of fish in it, hence the smell. For most of the night we traveled at slow speed while the other yachts avoided the fog and made off at good pace. The following lunchtime the wind picked up, but we had dropped to 11th place. On the plus side we saw lots of wildlife, dolphins were coming up to the boat, whales kept surfacing and amazingly we saw sharks, one swam up to the boat, seeing its tail and fin we estimated its length to be about 3 metres.

Since then we have been creeping back up the leader board and we are now into 6th place. The wind is increasing, everyone is working very hard and in 24 hours we did 9 head-sail changes, each one taking about an hour to do in these difficult, cold conditions; This is The North Atlantic we were expecting and with more low pressure systems passing over us bringing wind, the faster we will make it to Londonderry.

The Clipper Race Departs from New York for Race 14 (+playlist)

Homeward bound

This is not the end, but it is the beginning of the end, ... of my fantastic adventure! Four days in New York allowed me enough time to see some of the sights, get ready for the next race and do some corporate sailing.

On my first day there I had the whole day off from boat duties. My cousin Priscilla and her boyfriend Lloyd had come over to  see me, so we decided that it was the best day for sightseeing. We first went to have a look at 'Ground zero', then a trip all the way to the top of the Empire State building for some great views, after that a picnic in Central Park and a look round the famous Guggenheim Gallery where there was an Italian Futurists art exhibition. We also called in at Time's Square which was packed with people! We managed to do as much sightseeing as possible but still there is so much more of New York I would like to see... next time!

The following day I had a corporate sailing day with; Matt, Kate, Ben, Farmer and Jax, we took 15 guests out and taught them the basics of sailing Mission Performance. They were all incredibly enthusiastic helping out, so that made our day much easier and fun. Our last full day was spent prepping the boat for the next race and our last ocean crossing... The North Atlantic. With all jobs done (and thankfully no damage to sails) we set sail on the Saturday. Another 'Le Mans' start and this time we were one of the first to get our sails up.

Over the past 24 hours we have been surrounded by other Clipper yachts as we all gybe and head in the general direction of Ireland. Soon we will be watching out for Icebergs and we are expecting some strong winds on this crossing so hopefully we can do well. On my watch it's Kate as watch leader, with me as assistant, then we have Richard, Carl, Jax, Paddy, Stephen and Jack (our new crewmember) and on the other watch; Derek as watch leader, Orla as assistant, Claire, Ben, Chris (Farmer), Jon, David (leg 1 and 8) and Katherine (1, 4 and 8). So far we are doing just great and we even got into first place for awhile! I'm hoping we can keep up with this and have a fast crossing to Derry-Londonderry to be there for the 21st of June and a week of parties that are 'Legenderry'!

At the top of The Empire State Building

Central Park

The Guggenheim

The Free Range Happy Boat Company!

The good (and happy) ship Mission Performance got off to a great start from Jamaica, keeping pace with the leading pack over the next two days, it was exciting upwind sailing with the boat excessively heeled over. Working on the bow, spray coming over the deck and getting soaked to the skin, these are the best times! Unfortunately with inaccurate weather forecasts we began to lose ground and ended up in a huge wind hole. Being at the front of the pack must be over rated .....well that's what I'd like to think and I definitely wouldn't want to swap boats for any of it! 

The race up to New York was meant to be fast paced and take about a week, but with this lack of wind we have accepted 9th place and 4 points, So now the engine is turned on along with three other boats and we are trying to get to the Big Apple by Monday, where we have corporate days, maintenance, ...oh and a bit of sight seeing to do.