Clipper Update 2: Airlie to Sanya

February 23, 2018

Clipper Update 2: Airlie to Sanya

Garmin, Nasdaq and Liverpool at Airlie Beach Marina

As you may have heard, and perhaps seen, we arrived safely in the spectacular city of Sanya on Hainan Island on Friday afternoon after a relentless 24 day sail from Airlie Beach. We are both well, a bit battered and bruised but nothing that a good sleep and a few beers won’t fix.

The finish, after 4300 nm was very close with Nasdaq (Graham's boat) crossing the line in 8th place just 5 minutes ahead of Garmin (Jane's boat). The boats had crossed paths weeks earlier somewhere off New Ireland in Papua New Guinea before separating for the long leg up through the Carolinas, across the Mariana Trench (at 11,000 metres deep, the deepest point on the planet where the coins we dropped are still waiting to reach the bottom) and up the east coast of the Philippines.

After a dark and stormy night south east of Hong Kong with some close encounters with several oil platforms lit up like small cities, on the morning of the last day Garmin appeared on the horizon and was closing strongly during the final 2 miles into Sanya when Nasdaq’s spinnaker jammed at the top of the mast when trying to drop it. With the spinnaker streaming out behind the boat like a drunken women’s bridal train, we hastily had to send our hobbit (a kiwi named Tomo) up the mast to wrestle it free. Just as he did so we sailed straight into a wind hole in the lee of the mountain above the city and stopped dead. Fortunately Garmin found the same wind hole moments later and stopped almost alongside. With less than a mile to the line Nasdaq found the wind first and after tackling its way through an amanda of spectator boats finally made it across the line, having overhauled 3 boats in the last 12 hours of the race.

Nasdaq also won the Ocean Sprint, a 30 hour race near the Philippines, gaining 3 much needed points and putting us on the podium for the first time. We were also third through the scoring gate, just behind the pirates on Garmin gaining an additional point to achieve quite a respectable result from this race.

I’m not sure either of us would describe the race as enjoyable - “relentless” might be more appropriate, it just doesn’t stop, the boat going like an express train night and day; days become blurred and measured only by 4 or 6 hour watch cycles, alleviated periodically when your day for “Mother watch” comes round. Between making meals at 8am, 2pm and 8pm, baking 2 loaves of bread and making innumerable cups of coffee and tea for the crew in between as Mother you get a chance to rest a little and catch up on sleep. However that respite only happens once or twice in a leg.

The rest of the time it’s sail eat sleep repeat. This leg was characterised by unrelenting heat with life lived at 45 deg and 45C making every move an effort. The deck was too hot to sit on much of the time and below decks was like a sauna. Occasional rain squalls provided some relief with an impromptu shower party one afternoon with laundry and shampoo getting done in the torrents of fresh water cascading down the sails.

Other activities included kite flying and attempts at fishing until we lost our fishing rod, spotting dolphins, a small whale, a swordfish and a marlin. There were numerous flying fish, some of which landed on deck, visits from lonely sea birds and the occasional swallow and wagtails which had ventured too far from land. At night there were millions of stars particularly during the last two moonless weeks, matched by the phosphorescence like glitter in the wake,and numerous shooting stars and meteorites

We had spectacular sunrises and sunsets and one midnight at watch changeover we were treated to a memorable lunar eclipse party. It was strange seeing the full moon darken as the earth’s shadow passed across it and the stars come out so brightly. Whilst sipping mocktails to the sound of ethereal moon music (think Bonnie Tyler, moon safari, moon dance and dark side of the moon) we were each given fortune tokens and wrote wishes on paper aeroplanes which were dispatched into the sky, or sea.

Another day as we crossed the equator we had a visit from King Neptune and his entourage of shellbacks. After a tot of rum charges against each of the 'Pollywogs' were read out, pleas of mitigation heard and then summarily dismissed and punishments handed down. These ranged from having to listen to six hours of country music to having a tattoo on the forehead to remind the guilty party of which boat he was on, to having to wear an item of the sponsors clothing every day. Fortunately none involved leftover porridge or spaghetti and all the pollywogs are now full 'Shellbacks'

So now after 4300nm we are holed up in the tropical island paradise of Sanya, busy deep cleaning, repairing and all the numerous tasks needed to get the boats ready for their next race on Sunday. Fortunately it will be cooler although we are hoping Qingdao will rise above its current 1C at night. However it will be tricky sailing with millions of fishing boats and their nets to avoid, not to mention half the US Navy which I don’t think will be giving way to sail in a hurry.

China is its usual self, no one speaks English, impossible to get a taxi, sporadic internet blockage and no ATMs which work with foreign cards. However the hotels are good, the weather is warm and the beer is (sometimes) cold. Victualling is a challenge tho’ which we are happy to leave for others to discover and enjoy/experience.

We hope you have been getting the crew blogs which appear to have been more reliable this leg, as they give an insight into the insanity of this adventure. We leave again on Sunday 4th at 14:30 (UTC+8, Sydney -3hs) which may be live on the Clipper youtube channel. Our next bulletin will be once we arrive in Qingdao between 13-16 March.

In the interim, thank you for your support and encouragement and don’t forget our UNICEF efforts! Also if you haven’t seen them there are some photos on our Facebook posts and in theGarmin and Nasdaq pages on instagram.

Xièxiè, zàijiàn

Graham & Jane