Here I am in sunny Cape Town ignoring the sun to bring you the news. It’s a hard life. Actually I think I’ll go get some sun and come back to you later….
Later, the next day. The sun isn’t so strong and there’s a wind so here I am again.
Day 3, will this blog post ever be finished? I ended up helping with the sails yesterday, not the sewing this time but the folding (“flaking”) once they were ready to go back on board.
If you’ve been following the Clipper website you’ll already know the results but here they are for those of you relying on me. I arrived very early on 7th November, the first day of the arrival window. As we know from the last race, boats may arrive before the window if racing hard, but I did ask Qingdao not to come in too early as I didn’t want to miss them. I was sitting at breakfast when I saw them in the distance. I didn’t want to get too excited after Portimao, but no-one else was in sight.
I finished my breakfast and went down to the docks to see them come in, FIRST, at six minutes past seven on Friday November 8th. (I was not eating a very early breakfast, once over the finish line they spend about an hour taking down the sails and tidying themselves and the boat up then have to motor into the dock). They had an amazing welcome with Isebane se Afrika performing for them. You can watch it here although it is rather blurred in places. https://www.facebook.com/ClipperRaceLIVE/videos/532013007361150/
Next in was Punta del Este at 15.25 that afternoon, THIRD was Unicef at 17.02 and fourth Ha Long Bay at 18.00. As you can see from the times, a hard fought race for these positions. At one point on the breakwater we could see Ha Long Bay behind Unicef and it was very tense watching. You can see from the photo above how strong the wind was. They were tacking close up to us then way off into the distance to try and reach the finish line. We were able to distract ourselves with the black oystercatchers and George managed to get a good shot for me. I couldn’t hold the camera still enough, the wind was so blustery. If you go onto Facebook live again you’ll see a video of Unicef arriving, with John being interviewed. I can’t get the exact link for some reason but if you follow this you’ll know which video to click on! https://www.facebook.com/ClipperRaceLIVE/videos/
On Saturday another five of the fleet came in. It is now Monday and we are waiting for the last two, Dare to Lead and Zhuhai, expected late tonight and very early in the morning. They will miss the prize giving ceremony tonight but I think they’d be too downhearted to celebrate with the others after taking so long to get in. The wind here can be very fickle and they can see Table Mountain long before reaching the shore.
Last night we heard that, due to infringement of the rules on how close to the coast they can sail, Punta del Este had a six-hour penalty imposed. If you go back to the times above, you will see that this meant they were actually placed fourth and Unicef promoted from third to second! Our first double Dawson podium one-two (first of many we hope, with Unicef allowed to beat Qingdao some of the time). It was extra special as two of George’s Godparents plus a very good friend from Somerset had joined us in Cape Town. Here are three of the groupies!
With the overall points known, but no penalty points yet announced (for damage to sails or other equipment, costing over £500 for the whole race), Qingdao are still in the lead with 48 points. Punta and Visit Sanya are joint second with 32 points each, Ha Long Bay fourth with 29 and Unicef move up from seventh to fifth with 23 points. I think Qingdao are the only boat to have a podium position in each race. We have been told that it’s consistency that will win the whole Race so let’s hope this continues.
Next up: a brief rundown of the rules and details of the next race, plus total results and scores.
George and John's boating trip no longer 