Browsing Archive: June, 2010

Race 12 - Day 7, Fri June 25th

Posted by Della Parsons on Saturday, June 26, 2010,
Race 12 - Day 7, Fri June 25th   

3am arrived and I have to admit to being slightly relieved when I heard I wouldn't be needed on deck. We reverted back to our Pacific crewing of just 2 on deck at any one time with a third person on “step-watch” just inside the companionway to act as comms between on-deck and off-deck crew.  I used the time in between to finish the edit of our weekly video and to check our position against the other boats.  It was clear early on that having gained miles, ...
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Race 12 - Day 6, Thurs June 24th

Posted by Della Parsons on Saturday, June 26, 2010,
Race 12 - Day 6, Thurs June 24th   

This morning we had a little respite. We must have had a total of about an hour and a half of sunshine spread out in sections across our 6 hour watch, It wasn't much but it was enough to remind us why we love this. Just a small amount of sunshine turns a completely miserable watch into the best place on earth to be. It's amazing the difference it makes and it put us all in a better mood. The early scheds also showed that we were the fastest boat in the flee...
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Race 12 - Day 5, Wed June 23rd

Posted by Della Parsons on Saturday, June 26, 2010,
Race 12 - Day 5, Wed June 23rd  

I've just come off night watch which on one hand was a success as we kept up some great speeds with the spinnaker all night and are now officially back at the front of the fleet chasing Cork.  We're now only 137 miles behind Cork but we are still only 2 miles in front of Jamaica and 6 in front of California and Spirit of Australia.  The fleet has split into 2 packs – which has so often been the case. Most of the fleet are following us and we seem to be takin...
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Race 12 - Day 4, Tue June 22nd

Posted by Della Parsons on Wednesday, June 23, 2010,
Race 12 - Day 4, Tue June 22nd 

Today is pretty well a repeat performance of yesterday (without the toilet drama!). The fog rolled in with the morning light and once again we were playing the 'guess what's more than 50 metres in front of us' game.  Last night we were flying headsails and still zooming along at 11, 12 and 13 knots. We're now back in contention with the other boats with Australia showing as 1 mile ahead in the scheds. We are pretty level with California, Jamaica and Qingdao. If...
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Race 12 - Day 3, Mon June 21st

Posted by Della Parsons on Wednesday, June 23, 2010,
Race 12 - Day 3, Mon June 21st

It's the Summer Solstice today – mid-summer's day and the longest day. It conjures a vision of a beautiful bright sunny day – blue skies with crisp white sails. What you don't expect is thick fog and zero visibility but that's exactly what faced us at 3am this morning. The fog horn was laid out on the deck ready and a couple of flares were also looked out in case we suddenly had 'too close an encounter of another boat kind'!  We also had to post someone on r...
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Race 12 - Day 2, Sun June 20th

Posted by Della Parsons on Wednesday, June 23, 2010,
Race 12 - Day 2, Sun June 20th

To say night watch last night was chilly, would be the understatement of the year. Icily cold or flippin' freezing would be more accurate terms and as we all piled on as many layers as we could fit under our foulies. I mused that one of my early training blogs – where I joked about being on iceberg watch in the Solent, might not seem quite so ridiculous now! In truth we are probably reasonably safe at the moment but we are certainly not too many miles away from...
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Leg 7 Race 12 Cape Breton Island to Cork - Day 1, Sat June 19th

Posted by Della Parsons on Monday, June 21, 2010,
Leg 7 Race 12 Cape Breton Island to Cork - Day 1, Sat June 19th

19th June
Today I was more than ready to set sail again. Today I was looking forward to tackling our final big ocean crossing and at the end of it looking forward to arriving in Ireland. All that eagerness is also tinged with a little sadness and trepidation though. I'm sad that this amazing adventure is so nearly over and also concerned about how I'm going to settle back into my old life again.....or not!

So today we waved a fond f...
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Race 11 Day 5, Thurs June 10th

Posted by Della Parsons on Monday, June 21, 2010,
Race 11 Day 5, Thurs June 10th 
Leg 7 Race 11

Got up for night watch to find that the Aussies have closed the gap to 3 miles. Not sure how that happened but it's scared the living daylights out of us. I'm obsessive about checking the positions of the other boats on our Nav station computer.  It's a bit like standing on a railway track and watching a train coming steaming towards you. You just stand there transfixed and watch it happen!  Of course we are sailing the boat too but whenever I'm no...
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Race 11 Day 4, Wed June 9th

Posted by Della Parsons on Thursday, June 10, 2010,
Race 11 Day 4, Wed June 9th 

Having been allowed to sleep instead of getting up for watch at 3am I woke up this morning around 6ish with my left hand in absolute agony. I can only assume that the standing over a sewing machine at a jaunty angel for about 4 hours, followed no doubt by sleeping awkwardly had pinched some nerves and/or stopped some blood flow to my hand. I couldn't move my fingers which were hot and had a bad case of pins and needles – no doubt some sewing ailment!!! I was in ...
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Race 11 Day 3, Tues June 8th

Posted by Della Parsons on Thursday, June 10, 2010,
Race 11 Day 3, Tues June 8th 

I was up at 7am for breakfast and ready to start work on the clew section of the sail.  It was hard to get out of my bunk not just because I was exhausted but also because the temperature had dropped significantly and we'd gone from t-shirts and shorts, still frazzling our way out of New York, to now being in full sleeping bag and into thermal base layers and full foulies.  However at least it's warm when you're buried under piles of spinnaker material – which ...
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Race 11 Day 2, Mon June 7th

Posted by Della Parsons on Thursday, June 10, 2010,
Race 11 Day 2, Mon June 7th 

With the whole fleet close and so evenly matched we knew we were in for a tight race.  Over night positions changed again. We went from 2nd to 4th but with only 3 miles between 1st and 4th it was really anyone's game.  We rounded the first mark and then it was into downwind sailing.  The other watch put the medium kite up but the winds picked up suddenly and by the time I got up at 11am to do some blogging before my next watch I was given the news that we had anot...
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Race 11 Day 1, Sun June 6th

Posted by Della Parsons on Thursday, June 10, 2010,
Race 11 Day 1, Sun June 6th 
New York to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Having had a sensible early night last night – for the first time since our arrival in the Big Apple, I was relieved to wake early and hang-over free!!  A usual final hour of making the most of port wifi followed before getting the boat (and my bunk) ready for another race. Dan from our Sponsors Yorkshire Forward, had been out in NYC to see us, promote business, jobs and tourism for Yorkshire and was there this morning,...
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Race 10 Day 8, Mon May 31st

Posted by Della Parsons on Thursday, June 3, 2010,
Race 10 Day 8, Mon May 31st

I was up uncharacteristically early for watch this morning, mainly because I hadn't slept at all. Reason 1 is that we had been quite overpowered and were so heeled over I spent the night with my face pressed up against the cold, hard sides of the boat. Reason 2 being that the hatch was open and the kite trimmers situated on deck a few feet away from it. So I was being lullaby-ed to sleep (or NOT, as was the case) by the far from soothing tones of “Grind please”...
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