Qingdao City congratulate Team Qingdao...

The City of Qingdao has sent a message of congratulations to their team today, currently battling the 'Roaring Forties' in the Southern Ocean.

Not only are they leading Race 4 and have today picked up three extra points by reaching the scoring gate first, but this also puts them in serious contention to challenge for a podium position in the overall rankings.

“The fearless and fighting attitude of the yacht demonstrates the enterprising spirit of Qingdao people and presents to the world its strong will to build a better maritime city. It’s believed that the international recognition and reputation of the Sailing City of Qingdao, as the way to promote maritime culture and blue economy, is surely to be enhanced by the Qingdaoyacht sailing round the globe in the Clipper Race.

“We expect the Qingdao yacht to further its glory, and we are looking forward to welcoming it home next year!”

A little about QingDao...

Perhaps you would like a little background information about Qing Dao...the city of and, my boat!  For those that are interested, here it goes...

Qing Dao, historically known as Tsingtao, is a major city in eastern Shandong province, Eastern China with a population of over 8.715 million.  Lying across the Shandong Peninsula, looking out to the Yellow Sea, Qingdao is a major seaport, naval base, and industrial centre.

Internationally, Qingdao is perhaps best known for its Tsingtao Brewery, founded by a German-British join venturein 1903, it produces Tsingtao Beer.  

Language

The local accent (青岛话, pinyin qingdao hua) distinguishes the residents of the city from those of the surrounding Shandong province. Due to the efforts by the city government to promote standard Mandarin, most educated people can speak Mandarin and some English in addition to their native dialect, business and traffic signs in English are becoming more common.

Cuisine

Seafood is a typical delicacy of the coastal city, divided into two categories: "Great Seafood" including sea cucumbers, abalones, shark's fin, prawns, crabs, conch, and some big fish, and "Little Seafood" comprising squid, shrimps, octopus, oysters, razor clams, clams, periwinkles, yellow croakers, etc.The distinctive cuisine of the area is Lu Cai, the Shandong regional style.

Olympic Games

Along with Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics, Qingdao was the host city for the Olympic Sailing competitions which took place along the shoreline by the city. These events were hosted at the Qingdao International Sailing Centre and held in Fushan Bay, near the city's central business district.

Chinese Dragons

Chinese Dragons are legendary Mythological creatures. In Yin Yang terminology, a dragon is Yang to the Fenghuang's  (Chinese Phoenix) Yin.

Dragons symbolise potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane and floods ( this could be useful! )

The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength and good luck. (Sounds good!!)

In Chinese daily language, excellent and outstanding people are compared to the dragon. ( that's us!!!)

DRAGON KING ( Longwang) Divine Rulers of the 4 Seas, weather and water.

There are 4 major Dragon Kings, representing each of the 4 seas. The East Sea ( East China Sea), The South Sea (South China Sea), The West Sea (Indian Ocean) and The North Sea. Because of this association they are seen as "in charge" of water related weather phenomenon.

The Gold 4 clawed dragon, as depicted on our boat, was typically for use by Imperial Nobility. It was a capital offence for anybody other than the Emperor to use the Gold 5 Clawed Dragon, using it was considered treason, punishable by execution of the offenders entire clan, crew.  (Phew.....!!!)

The worship of The Dragon Kings as rulers of water and weather continues in many areas and is deeply ingrained in Chinese cultural traditions such as Chinese New Year Celebrations.

Fair Winds and Calm Waters to you all.  Gx

My last big adventure, training is over......

As with all well laid plans and expectations, and after the euphoria of week 1 training,  came the sheer agony of week 2

There I was in the middle of my second week of training and feeling wretched I  felt rough, the sort of rough a couple of bottles of cheap wine brings on. I was not amused, I was sea sick. Funny thing, I wasn't sick; stupid thing,  I didn't recognise I was sea sick. Dr Charlie was my knight in shining armour, stick this under your gum he says with a bedside manner to die for, you're sea sick; 24 hrs and lots of tablets later I am functioning again.

I soon learn that my week 2 skipper, Juan, doesn't take prisoners! And by the way,  he goes barefoot, no really, he runs and jumps around the boat barefoot. I have to admit to a bit of a snigger when after a few days at sea I saw his toes wrapped in blue tape, little accident I say, too late, I realise my foot is now well and truly in my mouth, a mistake i think, to mention the 'toes'. This will definitely not have improved my popularity ranking which by this time is already about as low as the ship's cat! I am puzzled by a thought, not normally being of an  envious nature that  deep down I lust after the freedom of barefoot sailing but with my poor, high heel damaged size 39's, not a chance!

Anyway, back to sailing.  here we are in the Solent, just off Portsmouth, UK, preparing for a  'Le Mans' start, against another Clipper training boat. We are heading towards the line, adrenalin up, sails up and up goes the shout MOB, Man Overboard! I jump into the harness, my blood is up, the fore sails hit the deck, the crew are leaping around the boat which is looping back to the poor unfortunate 'Bob', a key member of the crew.

All thoughts of racing have gone we are a finely tuned rescue team. Our skipper Juan is at the helm, our pointer has Bob in her sights, the mate has me attached to the port side Yankie halyard and I am being hoisted up and over the side.  the boat is racing to Bob, I am confident I am going to rescue my shipmate who weighs in at 140lbs and is bright orange. Absolute failure, Bob freezes to death before we manage drown him in our rescue attempt. I am not the heroine i imagined i would be. I am wet, cold and miserable, life as usual hasn't gone to plan. Probably a good idea to keep the sailing boots on!!

PS: We won the race and lost Bob, collateral damage I think they call it; I wonder if I will end up 'collateral damage'? With very fond memories of a great crew, skipper and mate. Special thanks to Dawn and Susan, the 3 of us made up the coven and Richard the honoury member.

Forever the optimist, well it can't get any worse, can it?

My last week of training and I meet my skipper Gareth. This is the 'real deal', I am sailing with my Round the World shipmates Our crew is made up of around 20 people, of all ages from 19 to 70, from diverse backgrounds, students to professionals to retires and everything in between.

As you may have gathered by now I fit into the upper age bracket and as such  some investment into my body was in order. I have never got to grips with the gym, couldn't get my head around all those machines and weight training has always been a  mystery! My reason for bringing this to your attention is because I am now totally addicted to the gym, weight training, my bike and pilates. My body is now a fine tuned machine, an old machine I have to admit, but a machine to be reckoned with; a machine to take on the oceans, the wind and the waves.

And so back training. I am full of anticipation, what could possibly go wrong this time? What went wrong was my confidence, I know I hear you all shout, not you Gail surely not you!! 'Fraid so!

It dawns on me, a bit like being hit by a thunderbolt, this is bloody difficult I might not be able to do it. I might not be able to take the pain, the sleep deprivation, the food, the sickness and worst of all I can't read the instruments without my glasses. all of a sudden I can feel every year I have lived in my aching bones, and my long 'partially' sighted eyes.

Ocean racing is hard, gruelling, sleep deprived, mentally exhausting and I simply Love It!!

Crew Diaries....Being on board.

It's harder than I thought being on dry land and watching fellow crew members fight the sea!  I'm desperate to be out there with them.  The Clipper website however provides a great recourse and ability to stay in touch with whats going on and just so you could get a  little feel of what it's like to be out there, I've shared part of a crew diary.  Special thanks to 
Justin Besley.  He here is.....

THE LIBERATION OF ISOLATION

A day or two ago we surged past the settlement of Edinburgh, which as everyone knows is on the remote island of Tristan da Cuhna, in the South Atlantic. Population 300 or more, it is 1500 miles from the nearest land. 

The inhabitants were given a taste of the world beyond after being evacuated to Calshott in Hampshire in 1961 when the volcano that is home for them, erupted. Yet after having had the opportunity to remain in England, they chose to return to their lives on the island. Remote and cut off from the outside world.  

What do they do for news in Tristan? Do events beyond their ocean coast line really matter to them? Are they concerned about the consumption of porridge at the English breakfast table? According to our pilot, the mail boat calls twice a year.  Presumably that brings enough “news” for them. Their lives are uncomplicated by a constant flow of information about events in worlds other than their own world.

For the crews racing towards Cape Town and beyond there is an overriding singularity of purpose. To reach Cape Town safely and ahead of our rivals.

Crew members have focused for months, some for years on the preparation for this objective. Some have used the opportunity to put their affairs in some sort of order before abandoning friends and family to pursue this goal. As we race through the oceans we can put aside thoughts for events occurring  in the outside world. After all there is nothing that we can do to influence such events. There is no action that we can take that may otherwise have been demanded . So why do we need news of them?  In our watery world the only relevant news is, what position we hold in the fleet and what strategy the other yachts are pursuing. Such news comes daily  at “Happy Hour”, which is around boat noon each day. It is unsullied with the irrelevant.

For some of us this clarity is quite liberating.

South Africa arrival...

They did it....they arrived safely and all in tact!  You may have seen my tweets but I was very excited about My boats arrival in South Africa.  After a hard race and despite being the last to arrive they were welcomed in with enthusiasm and I could not have been more proud.  

Here is a snippet from the official Clipper news article for those that would like to know more.  Go team, go!!

'Skipper Gareth Glover remained philosophical. He said: We thought we would try something different rather than stay with the rest of the pack. I’m sure if we had stayed with the other teams we would have definitely finished in the top five and maybe even a podium position. It’s not all about chasing the boats though, we wanted to try a different tactic like we did in Leg 1 which paid off for us where we won a podium position. It’s just a shame it didn’t work out for us on this occasion. 

"The crew were fantastic, even when we had really light winds and they could have felt disheartened or frustrated they didn’t. Now it’s just a case of taking a little bit of time to rest and enjoy Cape Town before we prepare for Race 4 to Albany, Western Australia and take on the power of the Southern Ocean."

The crew managed to complete much of their maintenance and deep clean tasks over the last couple of days to maximise personal time in Cape Town. Qingdao agreed to an offer from race officials to accept twelfth place and one point to enable them to motor in to make best speed.'