Finally! Leg 5 of the 2019-2020 Clipper Round the World Race has started! Come aboard for the LeMan’s start in the Coral Sea. It’s going to be epic!
The LeMan’s style start requires all boats to line abreast of one another, with a full mainsail up, head sails rigged to hoist, and motoring at about 7kts speed over ground. Crew are required to stand behind the aft coffee grinder. With 1 minute to go the engine is shutoff. The countdown is conducted by a designated lead skipper over VHF radio. At ZERO, the crew rush to their predesignated positions. The boat that can hoist and then trim their head sails the quickest will lead the fleet off the line.
We were located the second boat to windward which put us in a good position being on starboard tack. I was one of the sweaters, so my role was at the mast, hoisting the large yankee head sail by pulling down on the attached halyard. I had my GoPro on my head, but unfortunately I ran out of memory just before the start of the race. Bummer.
With the sails up and trimmed the race was on and the boats slowly spread out. We were in the front half of the fleet after an hour, but that doesn’t mean much in a 4,000+ nautical mile race.
This blog will be short, but I would like to share some photos of the race start and the first few days of life aboard. Below are photos taken by round the world crew member Susie Blair during the race start.
Below are some photos of life aboard during the first 72 hours. We went from wind hole to wind hole, with the true wind barely breaking 10kts. Pretty casual sailing for the most part and the food wasn’t too bad!
Join me next time as we celebrate a crew members milestone birthday, celebrate a Scottish holiday, and continue sailing from wind hole to wind hole somewhere in the Coral Sea.
Regular Mike 