Message From nicole

We made it back to a great welcome in Liverpool, and finished overall in 4th place - which is truely a great achievment considering that we were in 9th overall back in Santa Cruz. I'm not sure how I am going to re-adapt to the normal world. The leggers are your good friends, whilst the other round the worlders are more like your family, and it is tough to drag yourself away - to go from seeing someone all day everyday, to 'i'm not sure when, but hopefully soon', and especially when they are people that have looked after you in the tough times. I'll miss everyone on board the Lady Qing. And in fact i'll miss the boat herself, as she has definately looked after us in the tough times - climbing up and down those 6m waves! So the end of an adventure, but hopefully plenty of time for more adventures in the future. xx

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Nearly home

The race is nearly over now.... time to start crying...
We had a great race across the Atlantic (apart from the excessive amounts of drizzle). New York were chasing us hard for a number of days - and they just couldn't catch us. They'd catch up a little and then we'd pull away again, so kind of stressful but also quite cool. But in the end, they went off on a little jaunt to the south, which paid off and put them 10 nmiles ahead. So then we had Hull and Humber on our heels, and we had a little duel with them for a few days, before coming out on top(Ha ha). Its quite stressful when a boat is close, and you can see exactly how much you have gained or lost - and especially annoying when you come on deck after 4 hours off and see that the other watch have lost two miles (obviously it is always the other watches fault!). In the end we came into Cork second though, so a great result and a great performance by the whole team. We also moved up to 4th place overall, which is amazing considering that we were in 9th overall a couple of months back.
We have been hanging out in Cork for the past few days, before the final race into Liverpool. The yacht club has been great, and the town is very pretty, but I think that I am ready now to leave and make the final trip home. xx

Message From nicole

145 miles to go in our last ocean crossing, & then we round the Fastnet rock &head up the Irish sea to Cork. Sadly the North Atlantic doesn't seem to possess any sunshine, just lots of drizzle (that may explain the UK weather) but the wind has come nicely behind us now & e are roaring along -hitting the heady hights of 18 knots now & again as we surf down the waves. Hull and Humber are close behind, & it looks like it will be very close all the way in....

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Message From nicole

Over halfway across the Atlantic. After the becalming, we had some gnarly weather for a while- lots of wind on the nose, &some crazy waves that made steering interesting -with the cold, it made life on board quite tough. Things have improved now. The wind has come around &the kite is up; the warmth of the Gulf stream has kicked in. We have been dueling hard with New York who are only a few miles back. Lots of wildlife around, & I nearly ran over a whale...<

Message From nicole

The last big race has begun...It was all a bit odd before we started. Everyone was a little apprehensive; the leggers because it was their first ocean crossing, & us, I think, because it was the last. We got off to a cracking start - tacking up the estuary, with the Lady Qing out in front, avoiding all of the chaos behind. But once out at sea the wind dropped, &as we hit the Grand Banks the fog rolled in; & here we are again flopping around in the fog...

TV show

If you fancy watching a bit of yachting, they have made a tv series about our race, which should be coming to sky sports soon. xx

In the middle of nowhere

An interesting trip up to Sydney... It was a non-race, to the middle of nowhere, 40 knots on the nose.... what was that all about? We just wanted a nice little trip, but no; a shit load of wind, freezing cold and icy water. Then we had to sail slalom style to get into Sydney harbour, so that we could avoid all the lobster pots. Luckily Marcus took over the helm at that point, as my skills aren't really up to that.... So I am not overly excited about the trip across the Atlantic. Am feeling that it may be a bit of a grind - cold and wet, and apparently there are 17 icebergs near where we are going??? It is also the last ocean, so a little sad too. But I have now bought a key piece of kit - some marigolds .... (dry hands, and hopefully warm ones!).
Canada has been nice though. V friendly people, though nasty old weather.