I thought I’d manage to travel to Subic Bay relatively lightly as I’d not been back in the UK for long. Ha! A request went out for “someone” to bring out gluten-free cereal bars for the long trip across the Pacific. How many “someones” were coming out from the UK? One! I bought a load then sorted them into GF, GF with chocolate (so eat first as they might melt) and not labelled well enough to tell. Plus some lemon and ginger tea bags in case they had run out too. I ended up, as usual, with a heavy case (but only one this time) of 27kg. It will be interesting to see what it weighs going back (assuming that I’m allowed out of The Philippines and into the UK. The coronavirus is keeping us all guessing what the different countries will do next).
As this was a race of only three to four days, it was not worth flying anywhere, so Becca and I (her husband is on WTC Logistics) decided to go and see a beach. About an hour’s drive, almost impossible to find as our local driver found out, is La Jolla at Bagac Bataan. Fairly new and still bedding in (cocktails start March 15th, we left 13th, rats) but so relaxing and perfect for self-isolating (see header photo, on my website page). We were almost the only guests there but it did not feel at all strange or threatening.
I should have mentioned that, in addition to the second place for Unicef in the last race, Danny Lee (one of the RTW crew on Unicef) won the Media Prize Pennant (green, I’m sure you’ll see it in some of my photos from now on if you look carefully). Danny’s prize winning crew diary (I think, all of his are worth reading to bring a smile to your face): https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/crew-diary/unicef/1120 oops no, I’ve checked, THIS is the pennant-winning one:
https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/crew-diary/unicef/995
I have discovered a huge advantage of my Kindle: you can enlarge the font size if sleepy and your eyes are tired to the extreme of about six words per page! Takes rather a long time to read a book, though it might come if useful if I have to self-quarantine. Maybe I should have hung onto those cereal bars. Back to crew diaries. Bruce’s crew diary mentions what JD gets up to during the day: (I don’t think it will be a huge surprise to those who know him) https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/crew-diary/unicef/1220 and a new crew diary from George: https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/crew-diary/qingdao/1260 but you’ll need to read Chris’s skipper reports of 12th and 13th to find out why their track looked a bit odd on the first side of the race and their reaction. https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/team/qingdao/skipper-reports
Now we’re back in Subic Bay yacht club. The fleet are all due in tomorrow, I’m happy to say, and not just because I’ll see OBB. As this was such a short race and a hot one (the Pacific will be long, cold and wet), I was asked if I’d mind storing “a few things” that various crew of Qingdao and Unicef didn’t want to take this race but would need for the next. No problem, although as I had to move rooms the chap who moved me must have wondered what on earth I was planning next! It’s also difficult drawing the curtains.
One final photo, this fruit was in our rooms for us on arrival at La Jolla. We hadn’t a clue what it was, I’ll leave you puzzling it out (if you don’t know) and try to remember to reveal the answer to you next time. It was incredibly aromatic and juicy but fibrous so not easy to eat.
George and John's boating trip no longer 