It has barely been a month since the highly successful Global Challenge 2004/05 finished yet the training for the next race, starting in 2008/09, has already kicked off and another group of budding new recruits have started their quests to race around the world.
As most of the Crews have now departed from their yachts it’s finally time to say not goodbye but au revoir, thank our Sponsors and close the working of the Global Challenge 2004/05. The fantastic memories will live with all of us probably forever.
A little later than planned, the Very Reverend David Brindley, Dean of Portsmouth, started the service of thanks and blessing for the yachts and crews of the Global Challenge.
PINDAR NEWS - La Rochelle is an attractive old city of stone buildings with sort of
cloistered walks along many of the narrow streets. It’s teaming with
holiday makers and life in general and a great place for visiting yachtsmen with
its three harbours and three ancient guarding towers right in the heart of the
city and its welcome to yachtsmen especially famous round the world
yachtsmen!! We had a slight, very slight, tinge of sadness for La Rochelle
when it was announced that London had won the 2012 Olympics as if Paris
had won La Rochelle would have held the sailing events.
The final Crew Briefing took place this morning, before the last day of preparations got underway.
The shore bags have been packed and collected and now navigators and skippers are concentrating on the weather forecast and the flexible racecourse laid out by the Race Committee. Leg 7 is designed to allow the fleet, all being well, to cross the finish line on Saturday lunchtime.
Well we made it! Another port, another ceremonial arrival awaits. As I type the crew are tidying up the lines and sails and getting on with little jobs, trying to use the time we have before we can enter the marina (at high water) to good use. We have about 2 hours to mill around before we can go
in. The 7 boats that finished before us are all here, there are lots of '3 cheers' and clapping all round.
Crews say final goodbyes to friends and families. Downwind start in light to moderate winds - Today there is an air of nervous anticipation on the pontoons as everyone prepares for race start and probably one of the most competitive legs of the race, given that the racing has been so close and teams are within a whisper of bettering their positions.
BG SPIRIT powered themselves into the lead and finished the leg in a clear lead from second place Barclays Adventurer, who finished 38 hours later, the largest gap between first and second place ever seen on a Global Challenge Race. VAIO and SAIC La Jolla then finished within the next 7 hours. Just four hours after that, BP Explorer, Spirit of Sark and Imagine It. Done. crossed the finish line in a group, with just 4 minutes and 57 seconds separating 5th to 7th position. There was then a long wait for Team Stelmar, slowing at the finish, so that Me to You almost caught them up, the time difference just 8 minutes. Samsung was also chasing them down, finishing in Boston just 2.5 hours later.
“We were on a liquid roller coaster and waves were turning the cockpit into a swimming pool." writes Samsung crew-member Dean Apps on Day 5 of Leg 4. "By 4 o'clock we had taken down our staysail and had put a third reef in the main. In short, we weren't laughing anymore. The blue skies and sun had disappeared. We were thoroughly wet and hanging on tight.”
I've spent a long time sitting on the toerail recently while we downwind sail with the number one poled out and little to do but think of some new angle for the Challenge newsletter. Our thoughts often turn to the number of unexpected people we touch who become followers of the race. Maybe for some it's an old boyfriend/girlfriend long since moved on who comes to wish us well. They probably think "I knew he was nuts glad I moved on". Or perhaps it's long lost relatives or new friends made at the ports of call along the way. So a few thoughts on the people I've met on the way. Multiply this by the 18 on the boat and by the 12 boats and there is a massive number we all have following us.
I've been reading up on my fellow crewmates' logs and they're keeping you well appraised of our strategy and the sailing conditions, so I thought I would do something a little different: what do we do when we're not doing anything? What goes through an ocean racer's mind when he's sat on the rail between spinnaker trimming sessions and maneuvers?
What is homesickness? I've had exactly seven months to think about it, today being May 3rd, the race having started on October 3rd, and I think it boils down to this: missing the familiar. Of course, the entire point of the race is to experience the unfamiliar -- to go new places and meet new people; to get out of your daily routine and push your envelope. But at some point, you've had enough. I want to talk to someone I've known for 18 years instead of 18 months. I want to have an Acapulco Burger at Island Burger and Shake on 54th and 9th or a nice garlic pie at Patsy's Pizzeria on 11th and University; to watch HBO on my own TV, send email on my own computer, and sleep in my own bed. Before the race, I couldn't wait to get going; now I'm really looking forward to returning to regularly scheduled programming. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the ocean.
We made it!! 5th place a deserved position, showing that Pindar's 4th place was just not a freak result. Just imagine over 7,000 miles racing and a nail biting 24 hours in light winds holding off SAIC La Jolla … the distance between us ranging from 1 to 4 miles for most of the time.
Into week five and presently we are neck and neck with Team Stelmar. That is ocean racing for you. So far travelled over 5,000 nautical miles covered and yet another boat is literally at arms reach. We can see them and of course they can see us.(I wonder have they any Easter eggs left!!!!!!) The crack is good. Nail biting stuff! I am pulling my hair out... The pressure is constant. There are no room for errors, barely time to breathe. All eyes in the boat as Skip would say, and of course Trim. Trim. Trim as Chay would say. Go Rocket Ship Go.
Hi folks it's my mother watch again so it's my turn to do the log again. I won't write about the dreaded mother watch except to say I actually enjoyed the cooking today and I can hardly believe I'm saying that as it was the thing that most scared me about the whole Challenge thing. Maybe I've
cracked it or may be I've just cracked!
Day 8 into the 4th leg and Pindar is heading west below Tasmania. Everyone knew that this leg would be the toughest of the challenge, and there was a feeling of nervousness approaching the start. Our fears have been correct and for the last 5 days on the run, we have been sailing through the worst conditions many of us have ever experienced.
"Another 500 metres and we could have overtaken them" were the noises coming from BP Explorer!
Wellington harbour, what an incredible place to start a race. The city backdrop coming down to the sea on one side and tree clad hills and mountains on the other. The city of Wellington lived up to its name, Windy Wellington, by sending us a fresh Northerly breeze instead of the light airs
forecasted to give us the wind for a spectacular start.
As the new girl on board I can't help but wonder how different this leg has been to the previous one which I was not onboard for. So over lunch today I asked my watch how they thought the two compared. The faces around the table
gave away so much as they mulled over the answer that they really need not have said anything!
Nick White reports from Yacht Pindar on the second leg of the Global Challenge as they sail from Buenos Aires to Wellington, New Zealand...
Archived news in 'Global Challenge Diary '04/'05'
2005
2004
