#Clipperroundtheworld PT11 completion of Pacific leg of the 2017/18 round the world race

This is my final blog relating to taking part in the Pacific leg of the Clipper round the world race 2017/18. I have done it now and I am back safe at home! It has been an amazing and emotional experience. I could try to write about it in summary again but I have decided not to. Instead I am using the 3 separate blogs I wrote on the boat as it happened. (this was part of the Clipper format - with each crew member taking turns to write a daily blog.) I think this is the best way of keeping it real and is the record I want to keep for my own purposes.

Crew Diary - Race 9 Day 1: Qingdao to Seattle
24 March

Lots of jobs on a sailing boat are set by a rota and quite often that rota is formed by an equitable draw. It is my good fortune or otherwise (as a newbie) to draw first blog duty so here goes!

First of all what is a “newbie”? Well, our crew is made up of full circumnavigators and the rest leggers – doing one or more legs. I am doing one leg - the Mighty Pacific race to the Emerald City it is - so first time on the boat. We have 4 newbies on this leg out of a total crew of 18, of which 9 are round the worlders.

So what does it feel like to be a newbie on the first day of the race? That must depend very much on the skipper and core crew. It would be easy to give platitudes here – but I have none. The crew know what is to come. They have been tremendously supportive and considerate but at the same time from Sir Robin down we have been left as individuals, there's no doubt what we are undertaking will be full on – that safety is paramount and we have to look after each other to have any chance of a happy outcome. At times it has felt incredibly daunting but it has been tempered by plenty of fun and shore side socialising. Qingdao had given us a very warm welcome.

Before I say a bit about the start and the first race day, I just want to acknowledge the incredible amount of pressures, decision making and sheer hard work thrown at Skipper Dale and his key team members responsible for going through Dare To Lead (CV25) to get her ready for sea again in such a short stop over window. They have been so purposeful and committed which has been reassuring of course but makes us newbies feel we really have to get stuck in too – and I am sure we will.

Many of you would have seen some live cam of the shore side build up to the race start. Our hosts city put on quite a show for us but while it was appreciated – truthfully we just wanted to get going.

As it has turned out the race start was delayed by fog and therefore for safety reasons. In some ways this does seem a touch anti-climatic given the build up but as a newbie I can recognise it as a positive. Motoring in the calm waters of the Yellow Sea – albeit it in very cold airs - has given us a chance to settle in including a first sleep. Undoubtedly it will be the hardest challenge I have undertaken. Just dealing with the biting cold alone will be a test – but there will bound to be much bigger challenges to come from wind and sea states.

So there we are – blog done. All is good (touchwood). I feel extremely privileged to be here. I am thinking of my family – and already feel massively committed to my crew mates with whom I am taking on this challenge. Mega positive thoughts to everyone! Xx

PS – fog has persisted but lifted enough for a Le Mans start. We are now racing - conditions light but Seattle here we come. Fantastic!

Race 9 - Day 17

Crew Diary - Race 9 Day 17: Qingdao to Seattle

Mega mega touchwood – desperate not to tempt providence – but we are getting there. Maybe just over half way and heading for the International Date Line.

Most of the time now we are sailing fast, with the wind on the beam or even on a broad reach. We are on a compass course of 090 heading east to the US, the nearest land might be some remote Russian or Alaskan island I think. The boat is a helter skelter ride constantly – huge rollers, there is no let up – but somehow you adapt and that for me is becoming largely what this is about for the time being at least. It is doing things that seem impossible but finding they can become possible. I am not talking about major things but little things: dressing in layer after layer of clothing at every watch change, the bitter cold and wet is incessant, cooking, making hot drinks and doing essential cleaning jobs to keep the boat shipshape and the crew fit and healthy in such a close confined and challenging environment. Some nights on deck it has been absolutely pitch black and with the wind and crashing sea, so difficult to communicate. In these conditions, winches and sheets under great tension have to be operated and sometimes the massive sails reefed or changed. The helms are steering by compass only, speeding along at up to 25 knots. It is hugely challenging and I will admit to being, let's say, anxious at times but slowly you start to get used it and settle at just being scared, haha!

Finally a quick bit about the date line. This is my schoolboy explanation. Lines of longitude run pole to pole. The line that runs through Greenwich London is the 0 degrees (from which world time is measured) . The international dateline is literally on the other side of the world and numbered 180 degrees. If you travel east from London time goes forward – China is 8 hours ahead. However if you go west from London time goes backwards – Seattle is apparently 8 hours behind London. At the moment we are near maximum ahead of London. When we cross the dateline we will be maximum behind! What day it will be, you will have to explain – ha! We have to change our boat watch times by an hour every 15 degrees as we progress eastwards.

To my wonderful family. I have been sustained so much by thinking about you. I want you to know all is good (mega touchwood again). I hope you are all well – stupid worries. The biggest love possible from Dad and Grandad for darlings Annabelle and Ayla. A final thought for brother Mike on Liverpool 2018. Looking forward to seeing you in Seattle Mike and to brother Rob, I have been planning some wild camping for us in my head!

So another 12 days maybe. Fingers crossed. Lets hope we have fast but manageable conditions. The biting energy sapping cold and rocking and rolling and crashing is a gimmee.

It is a privilege to be here and to be with such an amazing group of people all trying to do their best to achieve this race crossing. We want a podium and hope for a win – we can dream – we will need luck as well as persistence and endeavour. Above all we wish more than anything for everyone to be safe. Respect indeed. xxx

Race 9 - Day 28
Crew Diary - Race 9 Day 28: Qingdao to Seattle
20 April

On the blog rota, I wrote the first, I think. It was written as we set out from Qingdao, full of anticipation, expectation and, to some extent, genuine anxiety. At that time nothing had really happened. Day 17 I wrote another. By then the Mighty Pacific and the relentless nature of ocean racing had surely tested us and CV25. One of my crew mates read my blog subsequently and described it as raw. I never felt low but certainly felt emotional – deeply so at reflective times – thinking about the massive challenge still to come to get to Seattle and what might unfold. Thinking about family and the beauty of my situation, that raw adrenalin pumping through the veins, as about as close to real as you can get, I think. Amazing really.

I am now writing one of the last blogs of this leg. Day 28. We are less than 150 miles from the race finish line – will be there tomorrow – before the 15 hour motor up Puget Sound to the marina in central Seattle and the real finish! I am “mother” today with Fiona, and just made some bread, playing the Editors from my Spotify playlist through the boats sound system as we work. All is calm and lovely. Starboard crew are on watch on deck – chatting and laughing in the cold clear morning. There is not much wind. Our race is effectively over, it is just about getting over the line now. We have had some bad luck with gear failure which inevitably happens when a boat takes such a pounding. This time despite valiant efforts from skipper Dale and the indomitable Justin Heiner, our man mountain watch leader, the major problem with our mast track cannot be repaired. Consequently we have had to sail with a much underpowered main sail (3^rd reefed). Gone has our real chance of a podium position and we are being passed like a sitting duck by other yachts on the run in. It is very frustrating and undeserved because everyone on the boat has put in so much into this race. The outcome is beyond our control now and we have to be philosophical. We are. The crew are not demoralised or downhearted – the opposite – we are in a really good place because we know to our core we could have done little more. We are now so looking forward to the promised and well earned Seattle party with massive justification for sure. Hope kid brother Mike on Liverpool 2018 won't be too far behind us! (Just to give you an insight into the extent of the impact of spending such close company and interdependence with my fantastic port watch crew mates – in critical and at times dangerous conditions - I have agreed to have a port watch tattoo! (if we have time in Seattle) and that comes from someone who has always been dead adverse to tattoos!).

So how am I feeling now as it is nearly done? Can I sum it up? It is a cliché but maybe it hasn't fully sunk in yet. It will be hard to describe the impact of these last 28 days on me even if I fully understood it now. I feel deeply grateful to Dale and my team mates for everything they have done to help me make this voyage. I am grateful to the Clipper Race for making it possible. I thank my wonderful family again for being so supportive and encouraging in this personal endeavour. I am not religious but if I was I would thank the Lord for keeping us safe in this most hostile environment. We have undoubtedly been lucky despite the brutal weather and seas. What I am feeling most right now is a deep satisfaction mixed with a heavy sense of relief. We are through this exaggerated and brutal marathon event and have come out smiling and undefeated. It has been a personal examination – definitively the hardest I have ever undertaken. Right now I feel I have nothing more to prove to myself – and can rest easy in retirement (content to sail my little boat Gold Crest in the Solent) – ha! It has been wonderful. Tears in the eye. More than that. Deep, deep satisfaction indeed which I will be able to draw on for the rest of my life I think. See you all soon I hope. Thank you!

Love from

Dave Shoulder, dad and granddad xxx

In addition I am attaching a link to the Clipper site to an article put together by Clipper relating brother Mike and I which makes us smile. Here is the link : April

https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/news/article/meet-the-clipper-201718-race-crew-mike-and-david-shoulder

Lastly I have included two blogs from our tremendous skipper Dale Smyth and one from a circumnavigator and great fellow crew member Jenny Hall. I have done so because their blogs add a further insight and means a lot to me.

Race 9 - Day 20
Skipper Report
12 April

Hi all,

So let me paint a picture. Outside its blowing a solid 50 knots and gusting 70-75 in the hail squalls. The temperature is sub zero. The sea state is massive and regularly breaking. We Just hit a top speed of........wait for it 32.8Kts!!!! This is where you tread lightly and feel like a gazelle running between a pride of lions. Safety is top priority, we stopped "racing" 24hrs ago. On the flip side, this is my drug, my passion, the reason I sail. The scene outside could not be captured in a million frames or painted on a million canvasses. Your weekend yachtsman will never see nature unleashed like this. This is what makes us human, risk and reward. These wild ocean vistas get tattooed on your soul.

We suffered slightly on the fleet because we were over cautious in the slightly light patch between the cold front and the system following. We had bedded the boat down nicely and eliminated chafe points and vibrations and chose to suffer the light stuff to keep crew off deck overnight. I regret it slightly but don't regret knowing that as we take our medicine now that the boat is in top shape and crew are warm and safe, double tethered to the cockpit sole with washboards in.

Wish us a safe night as we surf our way eastwards. Closest hot shower Unaska Island, Aleutians.

Dale Out

Race 9 - Day 26
Skipper Report18 April

Hi all.

Today has been a really tough day. We were sailing with our full mainsail this morning and the wind had increased so we decided to put a reef in. We could not get the mainsail down and discovered to our dismay that the mainsail track had again separated from the mast. This time it had separated about two-thirds of the way up.

Obviously with the wind increasing, not being able to reduce the mainsail was a cause for concern so we sent Justin up the rig and ended up cutting the sail away from all of the sliders above the damaged section and dropping the entire mainsail on deck. We then decided we could re-stitch the ten sliders on and hoist the main reefed underneath the damage. However, we couldn't find the big bag of sliders we have onboard so we didn't have enough as ten were stuck up the mast above the damaged section. We cut ten sliders off the bottom of the mainsail and re-stitched them to the top of the main and re-hoisted with our third reef in. At this point, we discovered that not even the third reef fits under the damage so cut off the top sliders to allow it past. We had to go up and lash the head of the sail to the mast to keep it close and the end of this sad saga is that we cannot hoist any more sail than our third reef and will unlikely be able to hold our race position in this state.

As I say to my kids, you get what you get and you don't get upset so I'm not going to be upset. We have a fantastic team who are highly motivated and excited to reach Seattle so we will sail our best with only 360 nautical miles to go.

Closest hot shower is Flores Island, Canada.

Dale Out

Race 9 - Day 25
Crew Diary - Race 9 Day 25: Qingdao to Seattle
17 April

This has been human endeavour like no other.

I'm not a work shy individual and I have constantly pushed my own boundaries through life. Taking on a big challenge each year is a given, and it has seen me complete events such as the New York Marathon, cycle the length of GREAT Britain (twice) and do a stage of the Tour de France. These experiences have always brought hardship, physical pain and sometimes what felt like mental torture. But, it's how I've learnt, developed and ultimately gained a sense of achievement, and through rose tinted glasses you always look back having enjoyed yourself.

This leg in particular has pushed the physical and emotional boundaries beyond what I thought were possible. It's not uncommon to hear comments such as “I hate my life right now”. These are all said in jest but there is an element of unsaid truth that bonds the crew together as we take some comfort in the fact that everyone else is feeling the same. The wet, cold, hunger and tiredness really does take its toll after 26 days. You have to use every inch of resolve you have to pull yourself out of your damp sleeping bag, put on your wet, cold layers of clothes and then finally rugby tackle your way into your dry suit. You feel you've done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson before you get on deck. As the watch progresses you feel the icy cold temperatures start to grip you. It starts with the hands and feet and then slowly seeps into your bones. Add in the constant drenching of freezing cold waves coming over the side of the boat and you start to feel like you've done something very wrong in a former life that deserves severe punishment. By the end of the watch, if you're not on the brink of some sort of emotional meltdown, you feel sick from the cold and you've lost all ability to feel any part of your body. Clambering back into your bunk seems your only way to survive.

Keeping spirits high is critical. The mothers have turned out some awesome baking recently which has put the biggest smile I've even seen on Dave's face. He gives us a running commentary when we're on deck on how things are progressing in the galley. The sheer excitement when Sam put a glaze on the hot cross buns nearly tipped him over the edge. Conversations about dry land have now been permitted on board, and we have jokingly been testing how much people have left in the tanks. £500 in exchange for one extra hour on deck was refused by Charlie G yesterday, and Dave said he wouldn't turn around and head back to Qingdao for all the money in the world. I think it's fair to say we are nearly done!

However, the magnitude and power of the forces of nature we have witnessed on this leg will stay with us for ever. The imagery will be imprinted in our memories and the overwhelming emotions will brim up inside us for years to come. The North Pacific has been without doubt truly epic, and once the need for sleep, hot showers and food has subsided the rose tinted glasses will show us this has been one of the most remarkable things we will ever do in our lives. Sir Robin sent our skippers a note recently thanking them for their efforts through the challenging conditions. He said, “You have just witnessed just how awesome the oceans can be and how dangerous”, and continues with “Whether you were frightened or awed, perhaps both, it is something you will remember for the rest of your lives and know you faced it and succeeded.” I couldn't agree more.

Lots of love to everyone back home.

Smiling as always,

Jenny xxx

Finally here are a few photos too :-

there were times when the sun came out and the sea was gentle - but not many!

On deck

Our fantastic "port watch" a while after we crossed the finishing line and motoring up the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Seattle. A great feeling to be able to relax. Mega hugs and respect.

Arrival at the finish

Mike arrives 12 hours behind us!

Repairing our massive spinnakers in a Seattle multi story carpark

Last of all - ha - a couple of videos of scenes from our Pacific Leg 6 2017/18 race. Mike and I have been part of it. Amazing. Tear jerking. Fantastic. Amen.

https://www.facebook.com/clipperroundtheworld/videos/10156230578762726/UzpfSTEwMDAxNzg3NDk5NTA3NToyMDQ2MDQwNDM0Nzg3NjE/

https://www.facebook.com/clipperroundtheworld/videos/10156277112647726/UzpfSTEwMDAxNzg3NDk5NTA3NToyMDQ1MjAyMDM0ODcxNDU/