4th May 2014

I didn't have time yesterday to write about the Ray doing flips and the dolphin standing on his tail, the turtles and the sheer beauty of natural world here. It must be awesome below the surface.

I was on mother watch, I didn't eat for 24 hrs, the heat and humidity were beyond description. Keith, Shona, Margaret, Rob all sick!

I am trying to be brave but this adventure is a nightmare. We hit a storm and trying to prepare food  was excruciating.

I still can't eat, half a piece of bread and it's now 30hrs. Will I make it to NY? I really don't know. The sweat and heat is unbearable. 

I miss Russ and his gentle ways.

I miss Franny and Elliot really badly.

I am full of admiration for those who sail the ocean. This has been made so much more difficult by the lack of buying essential fans. We have no water in the heads, no hot water at all. I try to wash daily and am found lacking because of it.

I would swim home if I could!!

Ps I forgot to say I had nowhere to sleep last night, ended up on a bench in the galley. It's so hot  my sheet, me, everything drenched. I ache all over!

2nd May 2014

A Funny Thing This Ocean Racing!

It's all Ying and Yang! Moments of extreme pleasure and dispair! The beauty of nature, the ugliness of human detritus.

The pleasure is an almost continuous display of wildlife, going about their daily business. The turtles lazily floating past our becalmed vessel, barely noticing our existence. The dolphins playing endlessly around us,  seeming to crave our approval and adulation. 

The dispair of hearing a 'thud' and the realisation we have just hit a turtle. The pain of not knowing if it is mortally wounded and left suffering a slow, untimely death.

The beauty of this vast, natural environment, with no human intervention. The seascape giving us an ever changing vista of beauty. The sea colours changing with the depth of the water, the height of the sun, the cloud base and time of day

The ugliness of human detritus, hidden unseen below the surface, waiting to capture or harm one of the innocents below. We, of the human kind, protest our environmental credentials, our commitment  to protect our environment from our filth and waste. 14 days have passed and we daily 'tip' into the sea 4 bags of paper covered in human excrement, paper, card, tins and anything else deemed bio degradable!

A Funny Thing This Ocean Racing!!

1st May 2014

10.18hrs and we have been on watch since 06.00hrs and nothing has moved except a few turtles and even they seem to be sleeping!

We have been in this weather system for several days; it is impossible to keep dry, a constant sweat on your body, with no respite. The deck is impossibly hot. Standing on the deck to trim is painful, heat from below and above from the burning sun.

Port watch have come on deck unable to rest below where the temperature has again climbed to 40+*. We are due off watch at 12.00hrs, but there is nowhere to go!

I am Mother's helper today. This entitles me to clean the heads, sweep and wash the floors, and be a general dogsbody. The temperature below will probably be in excess of 40* and it is going to be tough!

I am trying to sponge wash every day, unfortunately this has to be carried out in the heads. These are little sweat boxes and I wonder if I am just wiping away sweat and replacing it with more sweat. I hate to think what colour my shower water will be in Jamaica.

30th April 2014

It was 37* at 06.30 this morning below decks!!. I slept for 2 hrs before it becomes impossible. It"s now9am and I am sitting on the staysail, looking out over the Pacific Ocean, with Acapolco off to my left  probably about 35miles away. I know I told you we were off Acapolco yesterday, well surprise we still are after 24 hrs of exhausting effort.

The plan was to cut away from the rest of the fleet, which Gareth believed were heading into a wind hole, guess what, they are sailing and we have the wind hole!! PSP made the same decision as us and occasionally we catch sight of their mainsail. I feel for them, this is an awful predicament.

I suppose the lack of sailing has been my biggest surprise and disappointment. I prepared myself for hard, strenuous work, the inactivity is causing feet and legs to swell in the heat and sores on the butt. It's impossible to keep dry. Changing clothes takes gigantuen effort as the cloth sticks to the skin and refuses to budge. Interesting fact, the finer the material the more it sticks!!

I am sitting under the awning, which appeared on deck today, listening to the good humoured banter of my fellow sea farers. Latest update, at 08.46, we are cruising at a very respectful 3 mph, just sliding off the west coast of Mexico, lunch cooking has started in the galley and the temp. Is steadily rising.

Quick update on the 7 sqid. Lawrence won the day and yesterday,  he cleaned and cut them into little pieces. They are back in the fridge, the one that had the putrifying chicken in it! I'm not sure how long they will be left there, it is so sad that they were not returned to the sea and have become just more food waste!

Gareth, our leader, has persevered with the fishing rod, off the back of the boat. He cast the line about 3 days ago. As the sun rose this morning a pod of playful dolphins visited us. I think one of them did us all a favour and snapped the line. It seems that after 8 months of sailing round the world Gareth has landed 1 small fish and lost most of his fishing tackle! Not a good return on the ship's meagre fund!!

And so the ebb and flo of life on board the good ship Qingdao continues. Spirits remain steady. Keith has just tipped a bucket of water over Nick's head, soaking his ciggies. I wonder how long this good humour will last in these appalling conditions.

Ps. Something that has been playing on my mind since SF is the throwing overboard of all the tin  cans and some aluminium ones! Seems wrong to me!

11am and just dropped the windseeker and hoisted the C 1, wind at last ! PSP have pulled about 2 miles ahead, does this put us in 12 th place?

25 April 2014

Hello again, looks like I am settling into a 2 day routine for chatting to you all! 

 Yesterday, being my birthday was weird. Here I am 2 or 3 hundred klms off the Mexican coast, in the Pacific Ocean and I am in the galley ( kitchen to you) preparing 3 meals a day to 18 ship mates! Now, I don't remember that being in the promotional material; I do all that at home!

Other exotic responsibilities were; cleaning the heads (toilets to you), the galley, the hand rails, cooker, floor.........I  think you get the picture, oh, and washing up and boiling the tea towels. It was like upstairs and downstairs on a yacht!

A birthday cake was made by our chef, Lawrence, who is becoming quite a celebrity around the world. 

My birthday, was hot work , but  in a masochistic  (?sp) sort of way, a very lovely day.

Today I am back upstairs and, with my watch, learning how to race sail this sleek 70 footer.

Helming is definitely an art form. We are flying the C1 kite, it is the lightest of our kites and it is like driving a Ferrari, it  gives the boat a more skittish feel. The theory is that you trim the sail and make best speed. Soooo we have rigged a very fast and skittish kite and are tying to hold a compass course, which the wind, waves and currents are trying their damnedest to stop us achieving. It,s a bit of a fairground ride, but a  hundred times more fun because there isn't a little man telling you that you have been on long enough. Here they won't let you off!!.

Latest on the squid, There are 2 camps, Gareth and Lawrence. Gareth intends to use them as fishing built while Lawrence is designing a new meal for our menu, stuffed squid.! I'm definitely in the Lawrence camp, better a squid in the hand, than a..... You know how it goes.

I need to rest; i have been up since 4am and it"s 14.30,  we are our 6hr daytime watch, which is bliss.  I am back on deck at 15.30.

Love and hugs and keep tuned in. Send me request for info about life on board if I am missing anything out.

Happy sailing 

Gailx

23rd April 2014

Three things happened yesterday, non of which are related. First and most importantly I helmed with the C2 kite up....yippeee

Second, we tore 3 out of 3 Spinnakers....oooops, careless.

Third, my sea sickness has gone and I can function again, pure.magic.

An eventful 24hours. The saddest thing is that 7 squid landed on our deck and our not so kind leader put them in a bucket to use as fish bait. They died of course, deep cold water animals in a bucket on a hot deck!! Anyway, I suggested to Lawrence, our food guru, that he put them in the freezer otherwise no self respecting big fish is going to want to eat them as they would have past their 'sell by date' . I know it's amazing how legislation from  Brussels reaches us here, somewhere off the coast of Mexico.

Sea sickness. The most debilitating, disorientating, disproportionate, disgusting, disarming and diabolical illness I have ever endured! I am convinced the tablets made it worse. Headache, nausea, joint pain, webs of gold floating in front of my eyes and total exhaustion. I told the crew, ' if another powered ship comes by I am going to swim for it'. Oh and hot, you could have cooked dinner on my poor body!

That's it for now, more news after my birthday tomorrow, I'm on mother watch by the way!

And finally we saw a pod of dolphins last night with very small calves

18th April 2014

Organised chaos comes to mind as we clear, clean, victual the boat. Sail repairs done and sails stowed away ready for race day tomorrow. It's the saddest of happy times; the race is 'ON', but we leave our loved ones on the dock with a smile and a wave!! We are all looking forward to our race start, it  begins with a parade of sail. Leading the parade will be a fire tender with hoses spewing water,  what a magnificent sight.

We are now in the start preparation zone. All the boats vying for the best position.

 The wind is filling the sails. yachts are so close we can hear the shouts all around as the lookouts call the warnings. Under the Golden Gate Bridge through the central arch we all fly and out into the Pacific Ocean.

Quiet, everywhere, quiet! The armada of yachts that had escorted us to the bridge and some beyond have left us to the wind and waves of the great Pacific Ocean. How do I feel? Totally exhausted, happy and very excited about what is to come!

Our route takes us south down the west coast of the USA......to Panama.