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.