41. When The Boats Come In

Another blog I missed from my last post, Hannah Rumble https://changingtack.blog/ plus an update on the fund raising: so far on the Clipper just giving pages they’ve raised over £100,000, a quarter of the target. My two beanie pages have contributed a tiny amount, I’m hoping that on Sunday our supporters will contribute some more.

There are only three days before they sail and I’ve not yet told you about them coming from Gosport to St Katherine’s Docks last week. You had some shots in the last post, there will be some more here. With luck and good proof reading they will be different! The header is of them before they left Gosport, with Imagine Your Korea having their spinnaker up already.

I told you in Post 39 about them setting off on Tuesday 20th. They gathered outside Southend on the night of 22nd (some being later than others, George sent me a video of Unicef motoring in in pitch dark. Good practice for night sailing). They came into St Katherine’s Docks under motor but in a flotilla, Unicef (CV31) first with the others following, Qingdao (CV30) second and so on to CV20 (Imagine Your Korea). They had to come in together as the bridge has to be opened (picture in Post 40). Here’s the first to arrive, Unicef.

The day before, my cousin Andy contacted me and said he and his wife Lynda were coming up to see the boats arrive so we arranged to meet and wave them in together. This took a bit of arranging as I wasn’t sure of my way around SKD, what did we do before mobile phones and instant contact? He’s my only cousin so it was great to meet up, he’s recently moved down to Wiltshire just as we leave Somerset. Timing is everything they say, not sure what message that sends out! Here they are with Unicef in the background (I’m on Qingdao taking the shot).

I’ll give you a picture of each of the fleet, except Unicef and Qingdao as you must know what they look like by now, and WTC Logistics, who featured in post 40. The next shot shows the short distance between arrivals. Each one had to hang around, heading ever closer to Tower Bridge as the tide turned, as the one in front came into the dock then backed into their berth. All this time their anthem was played, so I’m sure some took longer than they needed just so they could hear it. I’ll tell you about their anthems some other time, I’ll have to find out how to play music on this blog. My brain is really getting a work out.

In no particular order, here are the others arriving:

Ah, the order is reverse alphabetical, must have been my file names. Chose who you want to support and follow them on the Race Viewer, now LIVE! Although if you look today they are all just sitting there in Centre Basin at SKD. https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standings

Exciting!! What else can I tell you today? There was an article in the Waitrose magazine a few weeks ago and one in The Evening Standard last week. I’m not collecting them so I can’t give you a shot. The youngest crew member celebrated her 18th birthday last week and appeared on the Clipper website https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/news/article/youngest-crew-member-turns-18 More interesting to us, MBB were interviewed by Clipper, you can see and listen to them on YouTube here (I think) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3-eASX8tuY in their Clipper teeshirts.

I’ve been asked a few times to repeat the just giving pages we’ve set up. John and George each have one, https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/john-dawson25 and https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/george-dawson3

I OBVIOUSLY have two, ostensibly for beanie donations, but if you want to support any of us I’m more than happy to take your money. The Unicef team have already passed their target so please support Qingdao as John is winning this one. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/qingdao-32 and https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sam-dawson12

One more thing you may be interested in, the official route. They’ll not be coming back in SKD but the Royal Albert Dock nearby on 8th August 2020. There will possibly be another post tomorrow, if I get the time, telling you what’s been happening since they arrived.