Wasn't planning on blogging on this trip but Twitter's 140 character limit isn't really sufficient to cover all that I've gone through this morning and I'm not even on the plane yet!
It started with the taxi arriving & my pet hate, taxi drivers who just honk their horn rather than parking the car, getting off their arse & knocking on the door. If he'd done the latter perhaps there may have been a small chance he may have offered to help with one of my bags rather than just standing by the boot watching me struggle.
The journey was peaceful & uneventful (thank goodness) but there was morefun still to come when I got to the airport. I'd booked my ticket with Expedia and I thought I was flying with BMI - well it was a BMI flight number, so not an unnatural assumption I think you'd agree. Tried the self check in, but it failed to find my booking so I went to the desk. The check agent said we don't fly to Malta, it must be a code share ... And then asked me who with. Erm love surely the fact I'm stood here tells you I thought I was flying with BMI. She eventually guesses it must be Air Malta & they fly from terminal 1 (I'm in terminal 3!). So I head off in the direction I think T1 is in but stop to ask just to make sure. The guy on security had asked which airline before directing me but realized after I'd left I'd been given duff info by BMI lady and actually took the trouble to come after me to tell me that I should actually be going to T2 & where I could get the bus from which I thought was nice if him.
I eventually get to T2 & the Air Malta checkin & see that they have a hand baggage limit of 5kg!!! Damn BMI didn't have that & I'd stashed the heavy stuff in my carry on! Cue mad re-arrangement of items between bags & being left with no choice but to put my video camera & chargers in my hold luggage. At the check they tell me the flight is overbooked!! Fortunately I'm early enough that I'm just being the choice to off load if I want - I don't! I breath a sigh of relief as my hold luggage is well under the 20kg limit & cross my fingers for the carry on. Except he doesn't weigh it. I paniced for nothing!!
Oh well I've made it through to departures & am now enjoying a Starbucks - the only saving grace of T 2 ;)
Next weekend I'm headed to Malta to take part in the Rolex Middle Sea Race. It's the first off shore racing I've done since the end of the Clipper RTW race and I can't wait.
The race starts from the Grand Harbour, Malta and heads up through the Straights of Messina, then around Sicily and back to Malta. It's just over 600 miles, so should take us about 5 or 6 days (weather dependent of course!).
It's now just over 12 months since I returned from Santa Cruz where I finished my part of the Clipper 07/08 RTW Yacht Race, so what have I been doing?
Well I went back to work on 14th May - which wasn't easy, it's got better, but it's never going to be quite the same. I've got a fantastic view of the river from my office window so there are many times I look out and wish I was out there rather than behind my desk.
Summer was quite busy sailing wise. I has a great Cowes week followed by a good weekend at the Beneteau Cup. As well as trials for the Spice Race, which meant we got to spend a couple of hours sailing on a Class 40 which was a great experience. In Sept I spent an intense week doing my Yachtmaster Offshore Theory. It was hard work, but I passed. I also spent the weekend at Southampton Boat Show telling potential crew about the amazing experience that would await them if they took up the challenge of the race. I continued with the courses in October and November with my First Aid, VHF and Powerboat L2. The Powerboat course was good fun ... but November on a resevoir in Lincolnshire is not exactly the warmest of locations!
After Christmas it was off to the boat show to meet up with fellow 07/08 crew and as ever that was a typically messy affair! Although due to a really bad cold I wasn't able to enjoy things as much as I would have liked, but it was great to meet up with friends and also to meet some of the 09/10 crew.
By February I'd booked to go to Antigua Race Week in April, so was really looking forward to that, however our expectations didn't even come close to how the week turned out ... but more about that later.
March saw more crew gatherings with trips to London for Eleni's birthday and at the beginning of April there was a trip across the channel to Jersey. It was time to get back on a Clipper 68 for the first time since Sept at the boat show. The newly formed Clipper Race Yacht Club had organised an Easter Trip from Gosport to Alderney, Jersey and Cherbourg.
We had chartered 2 boats and the crews were made up of crew from various past races as well as guests and crew for the 09/10 race. Friday we set sail from Gosport to Alderney and were there in time for a couple of pints. Saturday morning we headed over to Jersey and the intention had been for us to go to Cherbourg on Sunday, however as one of the boats had something caught on their prop we stayed in Jersey so that could get looked at. It was a better decision in the end as it gave us a chance to explore St Helier and enjoy the sunshine before heading back to Gosport on Sunday evening.
The following weekend saw the launch of Lisa Pover's exhibition at St George's Hall in Liverpool. Daring to be Different charts Lisa's journey from Taxi driver to Ocean Racer. The launch night was yet another opportunity to meet up with ex-crew to talk about the race and also to find out what everyone else has been upto since the race finished.
April 23rd saw the start of our adventures in Antigua. We had only booked the flight and accommodation (at the fabulous St James Club) thinking that we'd see if we could get out on a boat for a day or two but that if we didn't manage that at least we'd have a fantastic holiday in a great place. Thursday night we headed to English Harbour for dinner and as we walked into the restaurant were invited to join a table of about 7 or 8 people - we thought why sit on a table on our own when we could enjoy new company and meet new people. As it turned out this was a great decision. The guy who had invited us to join them, Tom, had spaces for crew on his boat and they invited us to join them for the week. After dinner we went back to have a look at the boat and arranged to meet them all the next morning to go out for a training sail.
The week was amazing, the racing was fantastic - we were getting 2nd's and 3rd's in our class all week, resulting in us being 3rd in class at the end of the week. Wow, our first Antigua race week and we're on the podium, it was all a bit like a dream.
The best way to describe our week would be to say we turned up on Thursday without a boat and by the end of the week we're sat on an Oyster 72 sipping champagne before we go off to prize giving to collect our trophy for 3rd place in Cruising 2. Who'd have thought it! Each day just got more incredible as we met some amazing people and had the time of our lives. We've been invited back for the season next year, so we're hoping to do some more Caribbean sailing next year at one of the other regattas.
And that brings us up to date. So what are the plans for the rest of the year? I did consider doing the Fastnet this year, but it would have taken up all my spare leave, so perhaps I'll do that next time when I've got a bit more leave to play around with. I'll be doing the Round The Island race in June, back on a Clipper 68 again, which I'm looking forward to. Probably do Cowes week again, and on Sept 13th the Clipper 09/10 race starts from Hull, so there'll be a bit of a reunion for 07/08 crew to wave tehm off. Might well be heading back to Antigua early next year as a friend is going to be rowing across the Atlantic (yes she is mad!) and the race finishes in Antigua, so seems like a good excuse to head back there :)
So it's been a busy year, let's hope 2009/10 will bring just as much fun.
Well my adventure is over & I returned home on Sunday. I've spent the last couple of days uploading my photos (no thanks to the Flickr Uploadr!!), so you can check out my pics. There aren't many from on board - in the end with so many other people taking photos I decided to concentrate on in port activities. The Flickr photos are of any sight-seeing I did, if you want the party pictures, then they are on Facebook.
Hawaii so far has been amazing, the local yacht clubs - Waikiki and Hawaii have been incredibly welcoming and of course a special mention should go to the Magic Island Fuel Pontoon who hosted the ladies night last Friday, which was great fun.
We're making the most of our time here in paradise - after all, don't think I'll ever make it out this way again, which is a shame as it's an amazing place. We've been up to North Shore to chill for a couple of days. The area is so different to Waikiki which is a big of a concrete jungle, in contrast North Shore is very quiet with masses of fantastic beaches and of course for you surfing fans it's home to the Banzai Pipeline, which is an awesome sight ... there was certainly no way we were going swimming in that! Instead we opted for Stand Up Paddle lessons in Hale'iwa (cheers Adam!) which was great fun ... pictures to follow when I can pinch someones laptop and don't have to rely on internet cafes. We also visited Waimea Falls - where episodes of Lost have been filmed apparently - for an early morning swim. Thursday we went to a Luau which was hosted by Glenn Medeiros (remember him from the 80's!) and the Clipper girls even managed to get our photo taken with him - very cheesy. Friday Neil had organised a diving trip - I didn't quite manage to do the dive proper, couldn't really get my head round breathing underwater, it just seemed all wrong. That was disappointing as having had a brief glimpse underwater it looked fantastic. Fortunately it hasn't put me off, but rather convinced me that I need to practice the breathing in a swimming pool first before jumping into the ocean!
Today we flew to the Big Island and are busy exploring in our hire car - currently we're in Pahoa. Tomorrow we've got a helicopter ride over the volcano, so I'm rather excited about that.
Stranded in Hawaii ... it's a tough life ocean racing .....
Yippee, 2nd place after the toughest race so far. We've been soaked & freezing on deck & it's not much different down below! We're all delighted with our 2nd place, it seemed a long way off back when things started breaking! At one point with still nearly 1000 miles to go we were match racing with NY & Hull & Humber, all battling it out for 2nd to 4th, then bang went one of our yankee sheets (the second of 4 in total) and down the table we went. We were then just wishing for a safe trip to Qingdao rather than points, but then as we started to creep back up the positions the competative spirit returned. The news on the last sched before the cut off point that we'd managed to pull a couple of miles ahead of Glasgow was fantastic. The sun came up the next morning and the weather became drier as we crossed the finish line. No media frenzy just yet, that will come later as we had 200+ miles to motor. This race has been really tough and it's been difficult to drag myself out of my bunk sometimes & when we were really heeled over quite a challenge requiring assistance to prevent me from flying out & breaking something! It's all been worth it though & there have been some great laughs along the way. I'm now really looking forward to climbing into a nice warm dry bed particularly one I don't require a sail tie to haul myself into. Fingers crossed we make it in time.
Singapore gave us a great send off this morning. The marina put on a great spread for breakfast - a selection of local dishes including dim sum, plus the normal eggs, hash browns etc. Each boat had their own chinese dragon on the pontoon & we were presented with a little goodie bag on our way to the boat.
Each boat did a little circuit of the marina before heading off out, getting across the Traffic Separation Scheme and arriving just off Nongsa Point where the race started. There's not much wind here at the moment so consequently the boats are heading in all sorts of directions trying to find some.
Found the previous mesage in my outbox which I'd clearly attempted to send from the boat - oh well better late than never!
Singapore has been great fun, we had an amazing welcome into Keppel Bay Marina & because we managed to get all our work done in Nongsa we've had a lot of time off. Liz & I decided to head up to Kuala Lumpur for a couple of nights. A great city - like one huge shopping mall! obviously we did the Petronas Towers as well as shopping and took a tour of the city on the hop on hop off bus. We're now on our luxury bus heading back to Singapore. Tomorrow we need to go through all the immigration procedures prior to leaving on Sunday plus there is the fresh food shopping to be done. Tonight though we're off to Raffles for a Singapore Sling or two!
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