After a fantastic stopover in Kinsale/Cork, Ireland, we are sailing again in familiar waters – up the English Channel!
A contingent from Cape Breton, representing our sponsors and Celtic Colors, made for a great combination of the Irish and Cape Breton cultures. Dawn and Margie Beaton, with their band, performed with Irish musicians, and had everyone up stepdancing. It was fantastic to see the similarities and differences between the music styles, and provided a chance to share our CB culture with Ireland.
Of all the stopovers, Ireland will be one of the first to which I will return. I felt amazingly at home, partly due to the landscape, but mostly because of the hospitality extended by everyone we met.
I stopped for a quiet supper to take away one evening, and they insisted I take the plates home so the food would stay warm. The next day, I went to return the plates, and ran into the same fellow from the restaurant on the street! He returned them for me. Everyone went that extra mile, and it is a place I can’t wait to visit again.
Back to the racing, we set off on June 9th for the closest race yet. The team to beat for us this time is Jamaica, so we are covering them constantly. I’m please to say our hard work over the past two days has resulted in a four mile lead! We just took a couple miles out of the lead boats this afternoon, Finland and Australia, who are both within two miles. What a close race!
To top it off, the wind has been in our favour from the start. What looked like a messy beat around Land’s End turned into a perfect wind angle, keeping the same tack all the way across from Ireland. We’ve been getting some good mileage up the English Channel as well. We spend a few hours working against the tide, then a few hours flying as it carries us along.
For many it means coming home for the first time in months. As we headed along the coast, David Raeburn informed us his farm was only a few miles away. Next we passed the Bill of Portland and Weymouth, familiar sights from my training almost two years ago.
Although I’ve already been home, the familiar waters of the English Channel felt as if I was returning somewhere special. This is where it all started, and the place where we departed for our circumnavigation almost ten months ago.
A beautiful sunrise came up just as we were approaching the Isle of Wight. Gosport, home of the Clipper Training HQ, is tucked in just behind the island. For myself and the crew who did the delivery from Gosport to Hull last September, we crossed our track to complete the circumnavigation! What a feeling of accomplishment to be here again!
For the moment, I am enjoying each moment of the race, rain or shine, as I realize our time on Cape Breton Island is short. In six days we will reach the finish in Hull. I feel a sincere appreciation for what we have accomplished as a team, and am proud of every one of us for sticking it out and making it this far.
Thanks to all of you who are following our progress – the messages of encouragement are much appreciated.
Back to racing the last 150 miles to Holland, it will be a close one. All the teams are in top racing form, but so are we!
Standing by on CBI