the race

the race track

Start and Finish - Liverpool. 11 month of challenges in between.

What's the story morning glory? Sunrise at the Royal Albert Dock on August 20th, the day we slipped lines towards Punta del Este, Uruguay.

The fleet, 12 Clipper 70 one design boats on the way from home port Gosport to Liverpool (Copyright Clipper Round the World Yacht Race).

Arrival in Punta del Este, last boat but still the winners of Leg 1. Our skipper got injured during the first race and we had to make a detour to Porto.

After crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the second time in this race we arrived at night to Cape Town. We bet Dare to Lead (I was still Greenings at this time) by about 15 Minutes. For the last 36 hours of the race we had permanent visual contact with DtL, feeling their breath in our neck. What a thrilling finish.

Race start in Fremantle, heading towards Sydney.

Busiest Marina ever. Everyone getting ready for the legendary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. What an experience to sail with the boats of the boats, e.g. Comanche, Wild Oats XI and others.

A two weeks stop in Airlie Beach. The Whitsundays in Eastern Australia where just the right thing to recover.

Another night arrival to Sanya. We came second after PSP Logistics.

Did we have a night arrival before? Anyhow, late evening arrivals I liked, like here in Seattle, especially after a very demanding and tough Northern Pacific crossing.

Panama City. All I say is Rum and Music.

To head up to New York the fleet went through the Panama Canal. One thing less on my bucket list. BTW the shadow in the water was a big crocodile hanging around.

For sure one of my favourite stopovers - New York City. Actually we were based in the New Jersey marina, but therefore we had a nice view on the skyline while maintaining the boat.

Last stopover: Derry/Londonderry in Northern Irleand. I love this island. The people, the landscape, the pubs.

The final stretch from Derry to Liverpool. Quickly around the Fastnet Rock and home sweet home.

the highlights

Team Greenings during the winners ceremony in Cape Town. We could confirm our good result from the first race and also win the second one. What a party we had. ...please understand that I do not publish any details.

Us arriving into Cape Town.

Clearly my biggest highlight was the baby blue whale we met near Mexico. He was joining our journey for about an hour, playing with our boat. We had to alter our course a few times not to collide with him.. Check out my video in the blogs section.

Dusk and dawn - clearly another highlight - almost every day.

Once I was sailing with Dare to Lead we managed to win our first race from Seattle to Panama. From 5 possible finish lines the Race Director decided to end the race on the first one, because wind forecast was 0 for days. The whole fleet was caught in no wind in the north, we decided to try all-in and stay south, in predicted no wind as well. But in the end we had some wind and could sneak away. Just after the finish line we were sitting in calm, too.

During the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race we could sail against the fastest boats on the planet. On this picture we came very close to Wild Oats XI and our spreader almost sliced their main. Would have brought us on the title page of any Australian news paper for sure.

I consider the team aspects as highlight as well. Crossing an ocean together, fighting for the same goal for weeks and then finally arrive without major incidents. This is a very good feeling and one thing which fascinates me in ocean sailing.

the highlights

living on board

Accidents were part of the game. On the picture we are getting our skipper evacuated. He caught a quite serious hand injury. Other than that there were broken some borken bones, cuts, a dislocated shoulder and small things not worth talking about.

The daily routine. Helming, helming, helming.

A bit of a heel. It was worse at some stages, but then surprisingly no one took pictures anymore.

The nav station. In hot regions no one wanted to do log entries, in cold areas kinda everyone. What a surprise.

We were constantly racing, so there was no stop for repairs or such. 25.6 knots were not the max during the race but during the first leg near Madeira quite a nice start. The max Speed was almost 35 knots, but on the Pacific Ocean.

Eat. Sleep. Sail. Repeat. Me during mother watch, the day I had to prepare food for the crew. I'm preparing bread, luckily in nice sea. Of course it was not always like that, just saying that we had food on the ceiling some days...

The sleep part I liked a lot. But sometimes it was to bumpy or hot to sleep. But after a few days lack of sleep you could just sleep again.

the weather

Around the equator we had a lot of squalls, local thunderstorms. Some of them heavy enough to shower. A blessing after a few days at sea...

At night we used the radar to detect squalls. As they come with quite an increase of wind and often a change of wind direction we had to be alarmed to change the sails in time, not to risk damage.

Splash on the deck. A beautiful thing, especially when it's very cold. Those were typically the wet days, where you had to get used to put on wet gear after your rest. What a pleasure.

Oh yes, and waves we had as well. The fleet hat something about 20 meter waves on the Pacific. Quite fun to surf down. The winds at this time were constant at 40-50 knots, gusts went up 70-80. The highest I've seen was almost 90.

Better too much wind than not enough, but downwind please. This was the forecast when we left Hobart towards Whitsundays. A lot of beating.

There were also the calm moments. Believe me, I have taken 100s of sunrise and sunset pictures. Each and everyone was special. This is my fav.

Talking about no wind. So frustrating, at least we still had fun. On the picture skipper Dale and myself.

And a few days after no wind we approached the biggest weather change of the race. Never before I've seen so many lightnings going down like then. The picture was taken by Team Quingdao, we approached the weather when it was dark. What a light show...

the

weather

wildlife

Countless dolphins guided us through day and night. Beside them we have seen so much wildlife. Orcas, whales, turtles, swordfishes, countless birds which wanted to take a break.

Our friend the baby blue whale. 12m of joy.

This little fella we fed with apples and water. But in the end he did not take anything, stayed with us for a night and disappeared again. No clue if he ever made it back to land.

the lowlights

THE lowlight of the journey was clearly when we hit a reef near cape hope. The picture shows the boat washed up the beach after high tide set in. We were rescued around midnight and brought ashore by the coast guard. Quite an experience. The boat could not be recoverd, it was cut in pieces and disposed. I had to take the airplane to Perth to join my new Team Dare to Lead in Fremantle.

My second biggest low light was all the trash we spotted. Here and there I could help with a spontaneous beach cleaning, but we need to change our behavior. Sad. The picture shows Hudson River, taken from Manhattan, New York.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot sleep deprivation. :-P

the lowlights

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