PORTIMÃO, Portugal
Wed 2 October 2019
Nothing could have prepared us for the gale force winds we have just experienced over the last 5 days. We beat upwind with tide against us and though the skipper felt the conditions weren't too bad, none of us had sailed in such conditions before. The experience was all the more exciting because we were racing with much sail up.
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CLIPPER RACE - THE START
Wed 2 October 2019
Leaving ceremony: lots of excitement at St Katharine Docks. Good weather shone on us as we all left the docks to a fanfare of music and thousands of waving supporters. The Clipper fleet passed under Tower Bridge and then processed down the River Thames to Southend. Supporters in multiple boats followed us down the river circling around us as we went. A very happy send off for us all. At the Thames Barrier the supporter's boats turned round and we waved our last goodbye.
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AT SEA
Wed 4 September 2019
When first asked to keep watch at sea, I wondered what it was that I would watch. There was nothing but sea, nothing to see except sea. After a day or two of four hourly watches round the clock, I realised that there is just as much to see at sea as on land. It doesn’t all look the same, I just haven’t got my visual parameters yet, a bit like when I visited a bird sanctuary and the guy said he knew the swans individually. At a glance they all look identical, but slowly one learns to see the differences in the markings. So with the sea.
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DRAG CLEANS
Wed 4 September 2019
I was waiting at the station the other day for a friend. Her train was delayed and I was bored enough to watch the rolling adverts on the screen by the exit gates. If you haven’t seen the Method ad campaign, give yourself a treat: sit down and enjoy this colourful, ground breaking Drag Cleans campaign, in partnership with the LGBT Foundation.
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