Recap from Australia Pt. 2

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is the only event of its type. Anyone, even if they have never stepped on a boat before, can join the adventure and circumnavigate the world in a one year marathon.Taking part in this year’s race as a full circumnavigator is Andrew Taylor.Andrew is the former general manager of Wembley Stadium with Delaware North Companies (UK) and project director for the Amadeus Olympic Park North team. He has agreed to share some of his race experiences with us via EP and we will be publishing extracts from his blog and some photos from aboard his yacht during each of the race stopovers.In his latest blog he explains the team’s progress since we last heard from Andrew in Australia. Since then he has travelled across the Pacific from Qingdao, China to foggy San Francisco, California. In a frightening turn of events during this leg of the race Andrew was thrown overboard. EP is happy to report that he is well and has shared the following update.I awake on 11th of February with some trepidation, I have dreaded this day for some time. It is Siobhan's birthday today, and I have not been looking forward to being away from her. I had made a point of telling a few of the crew this, just in case I seemed preoccupied in any way on the day. Michelle comes and sits on the edge of my bunk. She asks how much I must hate her for forgetting my birthday. I said, I wasn't expecting anything and had a great day anyway. She apologises profusely after finding out by text whilst we are in KK refuelling yesterday. I continue it really doesn't matter. “Anyway” she says, “I do however know it's Siobhan's birthday today, so I thought we would celebrate them together, look" she says, with a massive grin pointing down the ghetto towards the galley. It's completely lined with balloons she has put up whilst I have been sleeping! She grins again and with a massive smile says "I baked a cake too!" "Wow, that's awesome!" I reply, and so we celebrate Siobhan's birthday with cake and balloons. I insist it is just for Siobhan and not me, but the crew sing happy birthday to us both anyway and present me with a really nice card they have all signed and written some really nice things in too. I make a rare satellite phone call in the evening to Siobhan. It's an amazing treat to speak to her, and she is really excited about me calling. I owe a lot of gratitude to the race office for allowing me this, the outgoing sat phones are really for emergencies only. I try hard to hold it together whilst chatting to her and I don't cry until after the call, when I take a while to compose myself. A few days later we finally make it into Singapore for a well earned rest after 33 days at sea. We have 6 days of stopover for maintenance and repairs, and we manage to take a whole day off each to rest.The afternoon before race nine start day, a message comes through to me from skipper Sean-he would like me to take over as watch leader, am I ok with this? Wow! I hadn't expected to be asked. I thought about it for few minutes. It is a massive responsibility, takes up much of your time and as a consequence is pretty tiring. This was going to be a tough race already. The hardest sailing you might ever do”, “look after the mast when slamming”, “be prepared for the extreme cold” were just some of the phrases that had been used by Sir Robin in our pre-race briefing! Was I ready for this, did I want to take it on? It was not an opportunity I would or should turn down, and having been specifically asked I felt I really should accept, so I gratefully accepted the offer and took over as watch leader.We slipped the dock next morning and made our way out to join the fleet. Meanwhile, all this time a frantic race behind the scenes was going on to get us new battery chargers, ours were completely shot and needed replacing. We finally got the call to say they were on their way, and as soon as the media shoot was over we were to come back in to have them fitted. We came back in and moored up, waiting for what seemed like an age for the charger to arrive. It took the shore crew around an hour and a half to fit them, and eventually we were on our way. The fleet had been instructed to wait for us and delay the start. We had a 55 mile motor to get to them. We motored out through the incredible shipping traffic lanes and dodged our way safely out offshore. By the time we reached the fleet it was dark and duty skipper and Pete Stirling on Jamaica decided to delay start till next morning and motor overnight. We set into formation and motored for the next 13 hours until first light. At just after 06:00 the one hour notice was given and we set about making our sail plan and getting into position for the Le Mans start procedure.We had nailed the last one in Brisbane and felt a little pressure amongst us to do well again. As we lined up and prepared to start all was clam and Sean was calling the shots and keeping us clear. One minute to go, all goes quiet and we wait. VHF countdown from Pete, 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 ......... And we are off, straight into our positions and hoisting head sails, from where I am on the grinder, and in our position as boat eleven in the line up, I can see most of the fleet. Our Yankee is up and trimmed first, closely followed by the stay, also first. Qingdao have a problem, it looks as though they have a stay halyard on their Yankee, so it won't go all the way up, they have to drop it and switch over which costs them dearly and they back right off. We are away in the lead. Brilliant! Two out of two Le Mans starts for Derry. We really put ourselves under pressure by doing this, but it makes us work harder and boy does it feel good. As the fleet sails on forward over the first few hours we share the lead with GB and Henri, whilst the pack starts to spread out. It is really hard sailing, into the wind on a close haul, really very hard work for the next coupe of days.I am standing in the companion way hatch, talking to Jason who's down below, when there is a loud crack from above us, sufficient to make me flinch and duck. This loud crack from above is not good, and we know this. We look each other in the eye briefly with a puzzled look, we don't have time to discuss it when again from above, this time a louder and more crunching crack, which resonates through the boom and mast giving us the first clue as to what it is. We both look up again, this time to be met by the entire main sailing falling down around us. There are many calls on deck for people to move and the crew scatter. Everyone gets out of the way and no one is hurt, but we have no main sail hoisted now. We can see a small tail of main halyard left on the head of the mainsail so we know this is what let go. Quickly and without any fuss we all know what to do and just get on with it. I jump up onto the boom end and Jason eases the topping lift, as soon as I have enough slack I untie the lashings and pass it forward to him, he jumps up onto the mast and ties it onto the head of the main sail, meanwhile Michelle has loaded the other end of it back onto a primary winch and several others join with me straight away on the twin grinders, by the time Jason has tied it off we are already slowly grinding it out of his finger tips. Before you know it we are full main hoist and back underway again in double quick time. We barely loose a half mile during this whole manoeuvre and we congratulate ourselves accordingly with high fives and some yeehaa! Great team work. No fuss, just getting the job done.We hear a few days later that Jamaica have broken their forestay and retired from racing, they are rerouted back to Kota Kinabalu for repairs and will rejoin us in Qingdao. A broken forestay is a pretty big and possibly very dangerous occurrence for one of our boats and the fleet is instructed to add safety lashings to the bottle screws in the forestay where the break has happened.The pack splits around some Indonesian Islands in the Palau archipelago; we head south and east with Jamaica, Henri, Old Pulteney and Qingdao, with the rest of the pack going north and west. I am really enjoying the sailing on this race. Perhaps you get out what you put in, as I am also enjoying the watch leader role. I have never found responsibility a chore nor a burden and am happy to stand up and be counted when required. My approach to the watch leader role is to be up, dressed, ready and on deck early, help others and stay calm. I didn't approach it with any kind of 'I'm the leader' style. We are a team and so I just continue to work with the others as such as I did before, regularly sitting back and allowing others views or opinions to lead through. I am also becoming way more confident on board, after nearly 7 months full time sailing now I feel really comfortable moving around and working the boat to the best of its ability whatever the conditions.We have set up for the run into the scoring gate nicely from the east, which gives us a great head to wind. The breeze is picking up from the north east for the next 24-36 hours and with just over 120 miles to run we are in with a real shout at this one, with the rest of the fleet further out east. We focus in on the helming, squeezing every last knott out of the boat, each and everyone of us taking our turn and concentrating hard. Closer and closer to the gate you can start to feel the tension building on board. Around 70 miles out from the gate at around 04:30am, I am awake in my bunk. We are crashing over waves still and the boat creaks and cracks as she always does. We drop heavily over one wave and she gives out a chink/bang unrecognisable noise, immediately I feel sails flogging and loss of drive. This is not good, but quite what it actually is I am unsure, I do know however instantly and instinctively this is however bad. I jump up, get dressed and make my way onto deck as quickly as possible along with a couple of others; I wake along the way from my watch team. The forestay has broken and the Yankee is now down on the deck. Skipper is already frantically trying to tie off the loose ends of forestay and rigging up temporary support with spare halyards. It's a really dangerous few moments with heavy rigging swinging loose above us. We tie off the Yankee head and pull it out of the way so that skip and the crew assisting him can work with more space on the foredeck. I call to him, “what's the priority”? “Drop in another reef, take the pressure off the rig” he replies. I make my way back to the cockpit, where there are four other crew poised and waiting to help. I tell them that's what we are doing next, several ask me to call it off, I check back that everyone is ok with that, “absolutely” is the response.I position everyone with jobs and together we put the reef in really quickly. Skip appears to be getting on well on the foredeck with many hands assisting, so I rally a team together, we drag the Yankee back, flake it away into its bag and drop it down below out of the way as quickly as we can. In all it takes us a couple of hours to fully stabilise the boat, during which time Skip makes a few sat phone calls to the race office. We hear back that PSP have broken their forestay too, that's three boats now all with the same break. Within minutes the race office calls and suspend racing. The fleet is instructed to motor sail making best time to rendezvous at Hong Kong for repairs and safety checks. Bugger, we were so close to three points as well! We get ourselves set with a stay sail and three reefs; I take the helm to get us moving again. It is a really nervous next two hours. Like driving a car with three wheels over sheet ice, the concentration to ensure we don't slam over a wave is immense and I feel like she is super fragile to helm. I think about the potential for lost confidence in the boat as we sail on. Up to this point we have had so much faith in her and trusted absolutely everything she did. I really hope this does not damage that in the team.We receive further updates from the race office with details of the exact destination and repair plans. Race restart is scheduled for 2nd - 4th and will be a time trial with all boats to start as soon as they are ready. This gets some of the boats to Qingdao quickly so we can deliver on our corporate and sponsor agreements for the port at least. Upon arrival in Hong Kong we are met by Sir Robin Knox Johnston, and deputy race director Mark Light, who have flown out with the repair materials and set about the repair straight away with our assistance.  We bind the forestay back to the deck with new shackles top and bottom and a Dyneema binding. Dyneema is a technical rope line, much stronger than steel. We tension tighten the binding with the primary winch before binding off the ends. After a test sail out in Hong Kong bay we return to port for a further rig tune up, then once we are refuelled we head back out and do another test sail and some final rig tuning.As we approach the new race start line we call up GB and agree to wait for them and start together to make our racing a little more interesting. We cross the line pretty close together and set off north. We very quickly head straight into wind over tide again and we slam over every wave, bang bang bang relentless slamming. It is possibly the most uncomfortable sailing you could do and tests the boat and us to limits as it continues for several days and nights. It is almost impossible to sleep and every move has to be carefully timed and thought out before you move to prevent personal injury. Helming is a real challenge, trying to reduce the impact where possible and maintain a straight course.We face the extra challenge of increased cargo ship traffic and massive Chinese fishing fleets and installs a permanent Nav station monitor presence. We steer as best we can to avoid these, calling on VHF radio the ones we need to for safety. The fishing fleets broadly just ignore us, but the cargo ships generally are really helpful and obliging, with the odd one showing interest in the race and wishing us well.As the sheds come in, they become increasingly difficult to follow. The fleet all started at different times, the race is working on time elapsed, so all the different times are difficult to calculate. We do however know we are pretty close to Mission Performance who started around 3-4 hours ahead of us, and GB who started at the same time as us are just in front, so we have a competitive spirit in full flow and chase them down.I am still enjoying being watch leader on this race, it has it's moments when you perhaps remember in the middle of the night when three or four things are all happening at the same time and you have to make a decision quickly, skipper is asleep, as are a dozen or so other crew, and it's your call to keep the boat fast and safe. I guess you get out what you put in, and I am certainly putting in on this one; it is much harder being 'in the chair' so to speak. Out of bunk 10 minutes earlier and always last off deck and into bed plus, the constant awareness and tension of being responsible. Much more than responsible in a work sense, this really is life and death at times in your hands and occasionally I do really sense the weight of this.The cold continues to settle in and we wrap up more and more, I am now wearing almost all of my thermal layers. They are working well; so far I have not been cold. My boots are amazing, never once, even with thin socks, have I had cold feet. Gloves are another matter altogether everyone's gloves are failing desperately and everyone's hands get supremely cold. During the cold and wet we describe the surroundings as black and white, with shades of grey and no colour at all. All around us, grey sea and grey skies, dark nights follow dark days. When it rains it stings your face like being shot blasted.We continue to beat, tack after tack up the Taiwan Straights, sailing in excess if 200 mile + days! but making way VMG (velocity made good) no more than 120 miles a day. Boy it's frustrating and uncomfortable! As we head into the last 24 hours, we are still tacking and gybing all the way north into the Yellow Sea. On one afternoon whilst going through the weather grib files for the next 24 hours with skipper, the colour coding shown is shades of blue and purple for very low numbers, or low current and tide, with progressively yellow, orange and red shades for higher tides or currents. Without thinking I ask, “is the Yellow Sea always blue?” We pause and smile then laugh, recounting it for others amusement later. As we sail past the Shanghai port entrances the shipping massively increases as does the fishing fleets. At one point we have 1124 AIS targets on our radar, each one is a ship or boat moving and each one is within our AIS range of around 20 miles! In amongst the ships are massive fishing fleets dodging around and dragging nets behind them, and showing little or no regard for us ever! It's a nervous and tricky time.Eventually we arrive at the finish line, a marker buoy lit just off Qingdao outer harbour. After such an eventful few weeks racing we are pretty happy with a provisional second place to GB, and congratulate mission performance on their first potential podium place.Next morning we wait outside the harbour entrance and listen to the noise as GB and Mission enter the dock. There are fireworks, drums and music followed by speeches. We get the general gist of what is in store but nothing prepares us for the actual experience.We are called in to dock and almost immediately we are surrounded by media boats, TV cameras and still photographers hanging off them on all sides. One of them is flying an aerial drone with a gyro stabilised camera taking amazing aerial shots. As we get closer in the fireworks go off and the crowds can be seen and heard, thousands have turned out to see us all around in every direction there are flags waving and people cheering. On the dock ahead of us there are several hundred drummers playing in tune. We walk up the dock in between the drummers waving and taking it all in, having been semi crushed already by a media scrum as we tried to get off the boat. We are ushered to the stage by security guards and wave and smile as we are presented to the VIP party. The British ambassador, the president of sailing China, the chairman of this and secretary of the other, I cannot remember them all, there were a lot! Sir Robin and William Ward are amongst them too.We are presented with red scarves and red stuffed horses with the clipper and Qingdao logo embroidered on (it is the Chinese year of the horse). Skipper is presented with a bright red brushed cotton Cape, with gold embroidered Qingdao logos on. Speeches are translated into Chinese in an instant over the pa and skipper gives his quality rather than quantity speech as always, he says “Hello” and welcome in Chinese which gets massive cheers. We get stuck into another media scrum as the speeches finish and we are ushered towards the yacht club building some 100 meters or so away. The security guards start escorting us there, but most of us break ranks to greet friends and family on the dock side. We subsequently get caught in the crowds and it takes us forever to get to the yacht club, signing autographs and stopping for photos. Once you stop it is impossible to move again as the crowds close in. At one point I am handed a baby and a crowd gathers to take pictures of me with it, I feel responsible and nervous until it is taken back. It's an amazing experience and quite overwhelming having been at sea for several weeks. Eventually we reach the yacht club where there is massive spread of food and drink laid out for us and more speeches to follow. The most amazing and incredible welcome to any city so far. We do what all clipper crews do after being on the boat for several weeks, we Hoover up all the food and dink!I get as much well earned rest as I can in between the normal boat maintenance workload, corporate sailing and sponsor events we are required to attend. I get out for a half day into the city and see some of the sights. The next race is a really big one and I want to be fit and ready so I take some of the down time to just relax whenever I can, in doing so I realise yet again what little precious time we actually have in port.The night before race departure, after our race briefings and final boat prep, I pack and sort my kit to save some time and hassle in the morning for a really early start. We are treated to the most amazing sunset which I stay outside in the cold for while and enjoy. The tension is really building again; you can feel it and sense it in the conversations with other crew. I don't sleep well at all, listen to some music, drink tea, eventually I get off and sleep soundly for a few hours only. I feel ever so slightly sick when I wake, it's time for the big one now, North Pacific, this has always bothered me since I signed up for the race. All the big incidents and accidents on previous races have happened here, many people have been very badly hurt before, and the boat crew numbers reflect this, some crews are as low as 12 or 13. We are lucky to have 17, which includes a sea cadet trainer guest and a media cameraman. I think about the race ahead and it fills me with dread. Why should I feel like this, I am trained, experienced and fully prepared for this? I am a stubborn person so I am highly unlikely to ever back out. Skipper has me as watch leader again, so he obviously has much confidence in me too. We have a sociable chat with crew friends from several other teams over breakfast, no one is really looking forward to this race. Most of the Worlders just want to get it over with. I have by now sorted this in my mind and decided I am now looking forward to this race.Nothing adventurous and rewarding I have ever done has been easy, running marathons, completing triathlons are hard, but that's why I do them. The work and career I have chosen was intensely hard at times, but again that's one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. I enjoy the feeling of success, knowing you have committed to doing something and seen it through, and having adventure stories to tell afterwards. I signed up to circumnavigate, which is extremely hard, and this particular ocean crossing is one of the reasons many who set out fail to complete the circumnavigation. So I have fully sorted this now in my mind. I am here to circumnavigate and I want to have an epic crossing with many stories to share as part of this great adventure, let's bring it on and get going. I say my goodbyes to crew friends early as we prepare and make ready the boats. Once the start ceremony starts here there will be no time to socialise, so I make a point of seeing as many of my friends as I can before the music starts up. We are running around a little too with some last minute repairs. Our main sea cock, which allows sea water into the boat, to feed the heads, engine and generator, without which we cannot use any of these facilities is on its way back from being repair welded, but has not yet arrived at the boat. It's a five minute job to fit it, but without it fully fitted and tested we don't sail. As we set off to the stage for the departure ceremony we pass the engineer with it in his hand on the way to the boat, talk about cutting it fine with this one!The departure ceremonies are bigger than the arrival ones. 100's of drummers line the pontoons, media cameras everywhere and crowds line every vantage point as deep as we can see. It's an amazing send off, reminiscent of London last July. It helps take our minds off the race briefly. As we slip and head out of the dock, Richard, a fellow Worlder comes over and puts his arm round me, “We're going home'” he says, and bursts into tears! In his round the world race in his head this is a critical turning point for him- we are heading east now and it's caught up with him. We hug and chat about what that means to us both.After our usual flags and banners media parade we line up for a racing start, take line honours with GB and Henri and the fleet heads out to sea. After only a few hours, racing is suspended as the wind eases to virtually nothing, and then fog drops down over us right on top of the main shipping lanes. It's far too dangerous to race here, so we all motor away from this overnight and Le Mans start again next morning at first light. We sail through a couple of nasty storms over the first week, wind in excess of 100kts at one point, we are making good progress and holding 3/4 position well. Qingdao get struck by lightning and loose all their electronics for a couple of days.We receive news that PSP and Jamaica have both had medical evacuations of crew by Japanese coast guard- one with a shoulder injury from a fall on deck, and one with severe chest pains and possible angina. It reminds us of the fragility of our environment and I spare some thoughts for the angina sufferer, another week and we would have been several days minimum from medical help and could be very tricky place to be with that condition. We are lucky so far with our injury lists on this one, apart from Richard with a really bad back we are still in reasonable shape.The temperature plummets as we head further north, boots, gloves and sleeping bags are really pushed to the absolute limit of providing warmth. At night we rotate between deck and down below to stay warm. On the clear and really cold nights 40 minutes is about as long as you can stay on deck. We are making great progress though and complete our first ever 300nm VMG sailing day to much celebration. We surf along at 20-25 kts at times which is the most amazing feeling, treating our massive race boat like a sports car.Continue onto Part 3Check out their new website for yet another way to follow the race, or email your name and country of origin to: dailyupdate@clipper-ventures.com for daily newsletters.For more information on all of the initiatives run by EP or to get (more) involved with the community, please contact Nicole Thompson