After 22 days, 2 hours and 16minutes team DC crossed the finish line in Ha Long Bay in 10th place.
2/18/24 4:48 PM Central time
We have passed the waypoint at Hainan. Maybe 200 nm to go! Winds are light, but not too bad. Dare to Lead was with 500 yards last night, but my watch was able to put them 5 nm behind us. How amazing to race 4000+ nm and be that close. Just heard the other watch say the wind is 13 knots, so we’re probably doing 9+ knots boat speed. That makes Clipper’s ETA very doable. The code 1 just came down and the yankee 1 went up and we’re still going fast. Hannah should give us her first ETA in a couple of hours at our mid-day meeting. After the mid-day meeting the scheds have us in 10th down from 6th yesterday. I can’t tell you how demoralizing it is. I brought up that we should have a debrief after the race to review what happened, look at the race tracker, see what we could have done better, and come up with ideas for being faster on the next race. At this point I don’t really know what the problems are. That’s the whole point of the debrief. Right now we are trying to catch up to Our Isles and Oceans, which somehow managed to get past us and is now 2.4 nm ahead. We have about 100 nm to the finish, so it’s possible. I managed to gain 0.1 nm in 1.5 hours when I helmed. We’re doing 10+ knots, so we should finish in the early morning tomorrow, if the wind holds. Maybe at the dock in the daylight for once!
2/16/24 7:56 PM Central time
We are going very slowly. Winds are 6 knots and we’re doing maybe 5 knots boat speed. Very frustrating and the forecast is for even lighter winds during the next 24 hours. We’re getting half rations on food. Breakfast was pancakes OR porridge. I plan to do laundry this afternoon. Just finished. Very exciting elite ocean yacht racing stuff!
2/16/24 2:31 PM Central time
It’s 3pm on the 17th. We are still going fast. No wind holes in our future! We’re about 180 nm from our waypoint south of Hainan island going 10 knots. From there, we turn northwest towards the finish and race across the Gulf of Tonkin towards HLB. The winds should increase, but stay behind us. Probably too much for spinnakers, so we’ll switch to white sails, but should still be very fast. I believe we’ll arrive on the 19th. The weather is very nice. Warm sunny days, but not too hot, and cool nights. I’m actually wearing a fleece and long pants tonight. The winds have been very light on the 11pm to 3am watch. Boat speeds have still been 5-7 knots.
2/15/24 8:53 PM Central time
We had a nice relaxing day today. I took a solar shower and changed clothes. Tomorrow, I need to wash my team clothes I’ll need for the finish. The wind was light most of the day, but is picking up now (dinner time). We switched from the code 1 to the code 3 spinnaker. We are out of flour, oil, butter, porridge, and lots of other things, so improvising on the menus. We did have custard for dessert! It’s now the morning of the 17th. We are going fast with the code 1! No wind holes in our future. 10 knots should get us there in 2 1/2 days. Maybe later on the 19th. At the dock maybe early morning of the 20th. So close!
2/14/24 11:40 PM Central time
Someone on Dare to Lead broke their wrist, so they diverted to some island. Unfortunate, but that helps us. There’s no redress for medical issues. We just
passed PSP, but they have 8+ hours of redress for assisting another boat. The winds have lightened and we’re doing 5-6 knots. It feels so slow after doing double-digit speeds for 2 1/2 weeks. The weather is still hot during the day, but not nearly as bad as it has been. Nights are nicely cool. The forecast winds for the rest of the leg look good. No wind holes and picking up towards the end where we are worried about the wind shadow from Hainan. We are crossing the Gulf of Tonkin before the finish. I remember it from the Vietnam war.
2/14/24 6:14 AM Central time
We are still going fast with the code 2! We are gybing to miss freighters and fishing vessels. Winds are a bit lighter, but no wind holes are forecast. Vasi made a cake today. We’re celebrating being half way through with the race, time wise. We’re actually past halfway based on mileage. Vasi made a cake today. We’re celebrating being half way through with the race, time wise. We’re actually past halfway based on mileage.
2/13/24. 6:05 PM Central time
We have rounded the waypoint in the Luzon Straits and are headed to HLB going fast! I helmed after we gybed. It was fast and scary with the big code 2 spinnaker, big waves, and gusts to 28 knots. My arm is back to 100%. I’ll be more careful in the future.
2/13/24 7:52 AM Central time
Everything is good here. We are through the storm and back to very easy spinnaker sailing just in time for my cookie duty tomorrow. The weather is nice and cool at night and not too hot during the day. We’re just about 12 hours from the waypoint where we’ll turn towards the finish line. The winds from there for the next 600 nm look good—all downwind. The final part is in the lee of a large island, so a bit worried about a wind hole. Fingers crossed! I took a pretty hard fall this morning. I was coming out of the helming cage and fell backwards on my long tether. Luckily my tether and life jacket caught me, but I hit my right arm on something. I was very lucky. We’ve had a really rough storm the past 36 hours. In some ways much worse than any in the Roaring Forties. The seas were only 10-12 feet, but lots of solid water coming over the boat washing crew across the deck or knocking them down. Today is much better.
2/11/24 7:45 PM Central time
The generator is out, so we will be very limited on power. I don’t believe it can be fixed before HLB. We have the hydro generator down, but it’s not enough to keep up with demand. It’s a small propeller on the stern that spins and generates electricity. We’re preparing for a storm to blow through tonight. The winds are forecast to be quite strong-40 to 50 knots. Hopefully still in a favorable direction for us. After we reach the Luzon Straits, we will hopefully turn to port and head directly to HLB for the final 900 nm. Fingers crossed for it being a quick final leg. I’m guessing four days at best. Chelsea is paying Olly $50 to do her bilge duty. I will see if I can do the same for heads! We’re dropping the code 3 and going to the yankee #1 at 3pm. The plan is to go further north before the storm front arrives around 10pm. I saw one very interesting thing today. Boobies are using the boat to hunt flying fish. They circle to windward of us and chase the fish that fly away from the boat. I saw them catch two fish today doing thing. They swoop down, snatch a fish, crash into the water, then fly off with their catch. Another booby usually tries to snatch the prize.
2/10/24 8:19 PM Central time
We are still going like gang busters. It is such a thrill to helm this amazing yacht in these conditions. We’re expecting a storm front to come through sometime tomorrow. Hannah has been running race strategy and weather routing questions by me. I really appreciate it and feel like my knowledge and experience add value.
2/9/24 9:18 PM Central time
I had lots of helm time today. There’s a three-strike rule now. If you flog the spinnaker three times while helming, you are off the helm for rest of the watch. That weeded out a couple of crew. The code 3 needs to last for the next 3000 nm to HLB. The conditions were hard, but not too bad. We’re doing 10-14 knots in the right direction. We should have less than 2000 nm to go after tomorrow. One kinda scary thing happened today. We saw land, which Ella thought was 40 nm away. It turned out to be a very small island much closer to us. We bore away to the south to go around it once we saw breaking waves and trees. We checked the chart again and realized the you had to zoom in quite a lot to see the tiny island. It is almost invisible when zoomed back out to see the entire fleet. Very glad it didn’t happen during the night. We need to watch for things like that in the future. I did see the coolest thing… A flying fish came flying out of the water near the boat with some type of large predator fish maybe four feet long just behind it. Both just flying through the air together. We had another very fast watch from 3am to 7am sometimes hitting 16+ knots. A storm is forecast for tomorrow with higher winds.
2/8/24 7:02 PM Central time
Still going even faster this morning with the code 3 spinnaker. I had a great turn on the helm. Getting ready to do engineering duties and then help Florian with bilges.
2/8/24 5:02 AM Central time
We had a great 24 hours after the previous disaster. We’re still in 8th, but the gap between us and the 1st place boat shrunk from 40 nm to 20 nm. So, still a very close race! Some of the Leggers just aren’t fitting in for various reasons. It makes me appreciate our core group of RTW’ers. Everyone is a bit snippy from being tired and the heat. My cookie partner, Chelsey, is wonderful. We make a great team. She is Chinese and lives in Miami. She’s good at cooking and hates to wash dishes. After each time we cook, she brings me a gel cold pack to put on top of my pillow. I’m up for 7am breakfast before getting my “long sleep” until 1pm. Still just miserable hot. Just stuck my head out for fresh air and Dare To Lead is 300 yards away with a rainbow just behind it. It’s just amazing to be so close after so many miles. I had a great time on the helm today. Very windy and big waves going 10-12 knots (highest speed 15.5 knots) directly towards our waypoint at the Philippines where we turn west towards the final run into HLB. We need more 240+ nm days like this! The weather is finally starting to cool off this afternoon. We’re seven degrees (420 nm) north of the equator.
2/6/23 4:43 PM Central time
Just finished cooking breakfast. We’re heeling over quite a bit, but not pounding and it’s not too hot. Looking forward to the “long sleep” tomorrow from 7am – 1pm. It’s the only upside to cookie duty. Hoping for flatter conditions so I can wash clothes. We are going fast and in the right direction!
2/6/24 1:53 AM Central time
We’ve gone from perfect tradewinds spinnaker sailing to fluky winds with storms and rain. The boat is a hot stinky mess. Last night we were within 4 nm of Zhuhai and today they are 40 nm ahead and we’re in 9th. 1800 nm until we reach the Luzon Straights. Maybe another week. Then another 1000 nm to HLB. 40 nm is nothing compared with the remaining 2800 nm, but I’m tired of being in the back of the pack. The quote of the of the day was something along the lines of “Follow a compass, not a clock.” Chelsea and I have cookie duty tomorrow. Hopefully the heat and heeling aren’t too bad. She is doing better, but I think she will really struggle and not have fun on Lego 6.
2/4/24 3:00 PM Central time
At about 1030, we crossed the equator and said goodbye to the southern hemisphere. What adventures we had there! A few minutes later, the boat shook hard three times as a large log bounced down the hull. We checked the starboard rudder, then tacked to check the other. There is no damage that we can see. After our daily meeting we had a visit from King Neptune who converted our pollywogs to shellbacks. Bob was suspiciously missing during the ceremony. Chelsea was appalled that disgusting food was poured over her head and she was given a turtle tattoo with a sharpie. In the afternoon, the wind picked up from the northeast. Hopefully, this is the start of the tradewinds. We also have maybe a knot of favorable current. We are pointing towards the Luzon Straights. The solar shower I brought is a big hit. Hannah loves it.
2/3/24 4:08 PM Central time
We have not been totally wind-holed, but the winds are very light sometimes. But, we are moving towards HLB! We are very close to the equator, however the temperatures have really cooled off. Last night I didn’t have to use my fan to sleep. I’m on deck now at 3am and it’s very pleasant. Florian survived diving off the balcony in Airlie Beach, but the forward hatch almost took him out last night. He fell through it while we were gybing the windseeker. He’s bruised and banged up, but otherwise okay.
2/2/24 10:54 AM Central time
It’s been quite the day. We beat hard to windward in the “Doldrums”. A second cookie has had a crying come undone. I felt so sorry for her that I pitched in and washed dishes to help her out. I simply don’t understand why they force us to cook when it’s so rough. Unfortunately, we’ve been slowly passed by a few other boats. We’re trying to get as far north as possible before we’re wind-holed. The wind hole may last 3-4 days. :-(. I just helmed from 1 am until 2 am and just nailed it. The other boats near us just seem to have slightly more boat speed and I’m not sure why. We celebrated Bob’s 70th birthday. Vasi made a cake and Liz decorated it. Lots of fun. Everyone’s spirts are high. We’re hoping for some downwind sailing after the wind hole when we’re closer to the Philippines. We just now (2:45 am) tacked and are going northwest, so actually making miles towards HLB!
2/1/24 5:25 PM Central time
Bill was asked to write a blog post by The Clipper Race. Below is what he submitted On Passing Through the Doldrums and Other Thoughts
Hello from CV30 Team Washington, DC! We’re in the huge wind shadow of New Ireland, a mountainous island to our northwest. The lack of wind is not a problem since we’re in the motoring corridor and have been using our engine for the last day. Entering the motoring corridor, we were in 6th place, up from 10th at one point. We have a new focus on the crew proactively trimming the sails and it’s really paying off. This leg is unusual in that we have had much of the fleet on AIS and can see their relative progress. We moved up to 3rd place by the time we exited the motoring corridor and started sailing again, mostly due to smart motoring decisions by our skipper Hannah. Qingdao is a dot on the horizon—further north of us, but much further east to leeward. Dare To Lead is close by—slightly behind us and about a mile to leeward. UNICEF is 6 miles behind us. Our big decision when leaving the corridor is whether to immediately turn toward the west or go further north in search of the northeasterly tradewinds and favorable currents. We believe we’ve made that decision, but you’ll have to wait for the race tracker to see what we chose!
The heat has been relentless and our small battery powered fans only help a bit. The bitter cold of the Roaring Forties is a distant memory. It’s just so miserable down below. The temperature in the galley reached 47 C (116 F) while I was cooking. Since we’ve started motoring, we’ve been able to leave the sail locker hatch open to get air flowing through the boat, which really helps. Bucket showers of cool seawater on the stern are a blessing. We have been able to do some much needed boat chores and wash clothes. One morning, my watch cleaned the galley from top to bilge before the heat set in again. The other watch cleaned floorboards and dealt with a major plumbing issue in the forward head. It’s been very hard for me to sleep below next to the running engine, but I’m able to sleep some on deck at night. It’s wonderful to lay on the staysail, look at the stars, see the nearby Clipper boats, and get a much needed respite from the heat and tropical sun.
It’s also been a good time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished so far on our journey. It’s so much much more than just racing a yacht half way around the world. Through the good times and the bad, we’ve learned to work together, help and take care of each other, and trust each other completely. We’ve been privileged to see and do things most people never will. We’ve been able to put our fears behind us and “just press on”. We’ll never forget the new friends made along the way. We now know, more than ever, how much our friends, family, and loved ones at home mean to us and how much their support has made this journey possible. Most importantly, we’ve become a band of brothers and sisters on a wonderful, grand adventure.
So cheers to all of us as we move towards the Finish one watch at a time. Many more adventures await us!
1/31/24 10:33 PM Central time
We are making great time through the doldrums with good wind. We have been doing 200+ nm days in an area that was supposed to have light and fluky winds. We’ve done over 1000 nm. At our 1pm meeting we were 6th. I brought up that our proactive crew sail trimming was making a huge difference and Hannah said that was exactly right. In the afternoon, she invited me to the nav station to talk about the strategy going through the doldrums corridor, which I thought was very nice of her. We both independently came up with the same plan—stay to the west of the corridor and go further north after it ends hoping for favorable tradewinds and currents to take us west to HLB. There is some issue with the water maker dumping fresh water into the bilges. We know it’s fresh because Ronen took one for the team and tasted it. LOL. Yesterday, the bilge team took out 40 buckets of water. Bob our engineer, fixed a loose plumbing connection and replaced a missing bolt on a water tank access plate, but it’s not fixed. Today, they’ve taken out 25 so far. On a typical day, it might be a couple per bilge. It’s now just after dinner. The winds went light and we are motoring. We’ll go between New Ireland and Bougainville islands. NI is very tall and casts a huge wind shadow over the corridor. We plan to motor in that wind shadow. I slept on the deck last night due to the engine noise and heat. It was wonderful. I saw the lights of six of the other boat in a row to leeward of us. A good sign for how we’re doing in the race.
1/30/24 4:23 PM Central time
My helming skills are keeping me from having to do much of the drudgery work such as wooling spinnakers. Only Jono and I helm when it’s “dicey”. Izzy tried last night, but quickly gave me her helm spot. Last night we had the code 1 up at night and I helmed for half our watch. Early this morning, one of the spinnaker halyards broke. The entire boat shook violently and at first I thought we had hit something. We use two spinnaker halyards because otherwise the spinnaker could fall in the water in front of the boat if the single halyard broke and possibly wrap around the keel. That wouldn’t be good! Hannah was up the mast quickly to retrieve the halyard and replace the broken “Dyneema” doughnut. I am doing cookie duty with Chelsea and it is absolutely miserable. The temperature in the galley while making pancakes this morning was 47 C or 116 F! While finishing up lunch, Chelsea had a meltdown, phoned home, and cried. She cried more during dinner, so I ended up doing the washing up. It’s the glorious life of elite ocean racing! LOL We are in the doldrums motoring corridor, but so far the winds have been good. We are not doing well, but at least Bekezala is behind us. Glad to hear that we are up to 8th. We were slammed by a squall yesterday (as I was cooking, of course), but other boats were hit harder and we gained on them.
1/29/24
I feel like we have been sailing the boat well and doing a much better job of sail trim and helming, but we are in a disappointing 10th place behind HLB. They just set their code 3 and are slowly catching us. The 1st place boat, Perseverance, is only 10 miles ahead. The few boats which were close in front of us early this morning have pulled away.
1/28/24
And we’re off! We did a Le Mans start outside the GBR and headed north. We do that type when we’re not near a port and don’t have a committee boat and race committee. We lined up abreast of each other and at the same time raised our headsails and were off. The crew is disappointed about the start. We just let the other boats walk away from us. You can’t win without good boat speed and we just don’t have it.
1/27/24
We have been motor sailing toward the starting area since leaving Mackay. I will be so glad to get above the equator and into cooler weather. Just had lunch and am off watch and below now. It’s miserably hot and humid. Not sure I will be able to sleep in my bunk. Thank goodness for my fan! We had a nice rain shower on deck earlier which was wonderful.
1/26/24
We left Airlie Beach today as soon as cyclone Kirrily allowed. We were delayed two days due to it. We did a sailing / MOB refresher for the new Leggers in the afternoon. Tonight, we are sailing through the islands of the Whitsundays to Mackay 70 nm away where we will clear customs. Then we we will go 120 nm through the Great Barrier Reef for the Le Mans start of Leg 5. As I type this, I am on the bow stretched out on the staysail which is on the deck. the moon has risen and we have a nice breeze from behind. It really doesn’t get much better! I’ll probably sleep here since it’s so bloody hot down below. We should arrive in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, in 25 to 30 days. We will cross the Doldrums and the equator again this time headed north. Having crossed the equator before, I’m a shellback this time instead of a lowly pollywog, so I will escape King Neptune‘s wrath. The minimum distance of this leg is over 4000 nm, but we will probably sail about 5000 nm—a distance of about 20% of the circumference of the Earth.