JAMAICA arrives in Panama.

JAMAICA clipper arrived at Flamenco Marina Panama this afternoon. The fleet of the Clipper round the World yacht race is gathering in Panama in order to transit together the 51 miles journey along the World famous Panama canal. Having entered the canal in the Pacific, they will exit in the Caribbean where they will start race 10 to Port Antonio, Jamaica. We hope to see many of you in our home port next week.

Meanwhile if any JAMAICA clipper fans are thinking of visiting New York when she arrives there (due to be around 1st June) at the end of race 11, crew member Guthrie "Gus" Steer (pictured) kindly sent us these photos of the Manhattan Sailing Club in North Cove Marina New York to whet your appetite!

Gus, who was a crew member on leg 5 - Qingdao (China) to Santa Cruz (USA) dropped in to New York on his way home and kindly sent us these photos.

Right in the heart of Manhattan the sailing club will be a fascinating stopover for the crew and we look forward to meeting you in The Big Apple and sharing a Big Applejuice (or something stronger) with you!

Before then we look forward to meeting those of you who will be in our home port of Port Antonio, Jamaica, over the next 8 days before our departure on 24th May.

JAMAICA will arrive in Panama this evening. Also, offers for visitors to Port Antonio.

The fleet is approaching Panama after their long journey motoring down the West Coast of North America. Having made a detour into Banana Bay Marina, Costa Rica in order to refuel, the fleet will start arriving from 10:00 GMT today, with JAMAICA expected to arrive this evening.

It is hoped that the rest of the yachts will arrive in the Flamenco Marina, Panama, on Thursday 15 May. There they will gather to prepare for the transit to the Caribbean side and the forthcoming Race 10 to Port Antonio, Jamaica, where they will be met by the new crew joining JAMAICA for the final leg, leg 7, as well as many family and friends who are travelling to Jamaica for her "home port" visit.

For those crew members, family and friends visiting Jamaica, please find below a number of special events which have been generously offered by Shireen and Barbara of the beautiful Mocking Bird Hill hotel to make your stay even more special :

Welcome cocktail at the hotel Mocking Bird Hill.

Please note this will now take place on Tuesday 20th May at 18:30. All crew, friends and family welcome. This has kindly been offered by the Mocking Bird Hill hotel who have also organised many other events for us. Pleae note they have one room available next week so anyone still needing accommodation please contact them direct - see contact details below.

Shuttle service

A shuttle service that will be offered from between the hotels and the Marina. This service will be offered between 6.00 - 10.00 AM and then again in the afternoon from 4.00 -8.00 pm. The price per person will be US$ 7.00 (one-way based on minimum 2 persons on any given shuttle) from Mocking Bird Hill.

The shuttle will begin from Goblin Hill and also stop at Fern Hill, Frenchman's Cove and Mocking Bird Hill, Jamaica Palace, Faith Cottage, Match Resort.

The fare will be US$ 10.00 per person for the hotels further away, that is Frenchman's Cove, Fern Hill, Goblin Hill. Between 10.00 AM and 4.00 PM guests can order regular taxi transfers.

Welcome breakfast

Welcome Breakfast on expected day of arrival; we can only determine this day closer to the time. They will be offering a lovely, hearty breakfast buffet with Jamaican specialities and a wide selection of home baked breads, homemade jams, cheese plate with fresh local goat cheese, quiches, eggs to order, fresh juices, famous Blue Mountain coffee and pastries. A Mento band, (local folk music ) with the famous Jolly Boys will welcome the participants and help them to find their "feet" on land again.

Dinner at Mocking Bird Hill

Complimentary Shuttle from either the Marina or the other hotels for dinner service at the Hotel Mocking Bird Hill. Guests are requested to please indicate if they want the shuttle service when making their dinner reservations tel. 993 7267 or 993 7133.

Art gallery visit and afternoon tea

Mocking Bird Hill will be arranging a special art show with works from various local artists. Guests might want to combine this either with lunch ( they can also use the pool and swim) or afternoon tea served between 3.30 - 5.00pm. Guests can enjoy a spread with home baked cakes, fruit tartlets, smoked Marlin on Toast, Goat cheese (Chevre) on home baked breads, Muffins, Scones or Waffles with a selection of home made jams and cream, Solomon Gundy on crackers and open sandwiches with homemade egg or liver pate. Our selection may vary depending on the availability of particular products. Price US$ 25.00 per person -

Introductory culinary session to Jamaican cuisine

With prior reservation, our chefs offer an introduction to Jamaican cuisine. A group of friends can have fun cooking a traditional Jamaican lunch together and then enjoying what they have cooked. We have a choice of 2-3 menus that they can select from. Price varies accordingly.

Massages

A visit to the hotel can be combined with a relaxing massage which can be booked in advance and can be enjoyed either in the garden gazebo or other secluded locations in the garden.The selection of massages and treatments that are offered can be viewed on the website athttp://www.hotelmockingbirdhill.com/english/hotel/gazebo.php Guests can email us in advance for their reservations.

Tours

can be booked in advance to help with the easy organization. Please e mail the Mocking Bird Hill at info@hotelmockingbirdhill.com . Shireen and Barbara from the Mocking Bird Hill said :

The advantage of booking the tours with the group is that the per person price becomes more reasonable based on increasing numbers. It is certainly more advantageous than booking individually. If any guests would like specialized guides for special interests such as birdwatching, please ask them to let us know in advance so that we can book the guides. This is not generally possible at short notice.

Sincere thanks to Shireen and Barbara for all of their hard work to make us all so very welcome.

Anyone wanting to meet the crew of JAMAICA clipper, we will be staying at the Jamaica Palace Hotel. Please come over and say hello and let's share a Red Stripe together!

Mick Moran recounts his experiences on legs 4 & 5

Hello JAMAICA Clipper crew and followers.

Its Mick Moran here.

I have just returned home to Dublin after spending the last 5 months on JAMAICA Clipper sailing from Fremantle - Singapore - Qingdao - Hawaii and Santa Cruz, and what a great experience I had. It was absolutly amazing and definitely one of the best things I have ever done. I had a great time, saw some amazing things, did some amazing things and met loads of really amazing people.

I am really missing them all terribly, its really hard to ajust to life on land when I am so used to living on a 68 foot boat with 15 people packed around me at all times. I had such a great time and I would just like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all the crew who I sailed with on JAMAICA Clipper.

The characters I met made the adventure such an enjoyable experience and made the boat a great environment to be in, even when the conditions onboard were a bit of a nightmare at times, the people on board always made it a lot easier to survive, so thank you to you all, especially Simon the skipper and my watch leaders Johnny B, Maloney and Harry (Julian) who were a huge help. So keep up the good work guys and I hope to see you get on the podium in Jamaica and of course in Cork too.

One Love

Mick

Messages to the whole JAMAICA family : stopovers in Jamaica and Cork

With Race 9 having been cut short and the fleet motoring down to the Panama Canal skipper Simon Bradley has these important messages to friends, family and crew past present and future. First a message for the crew joining in Port Antonio :

As soon as possible after our arrival in Jamaica I want to have a crew meeting (on board preferably) with all current and 'new' crew. This will allow me to outline our commitments during the stopover with regards to work on the yacht and anything else that is going on.

I'm assuming that we will be met by 7 enthusiastic crew who will want to join in asap with work on the yacht! I want all crew to enjoy the stopover, so providing we all get stuck in from the start the work won't take long to complete.

We will be doing as much as we can in advance in Panama and en-route. We are all very excited about the stopover and can't wait to get there! Please can I ask you to spread the word so that everyone knows - thanks.

One thing that can be done in Jamaica before we arrive is to find a service wash laundry service. As the stop is so short we won't have time to do the washing!

One Love!

Simon and the Crew!

For everyone who will be in Port Antonio, http://www.jamaicaclipper.com/ have liaised with hoteliers and the Jamaica Tourist Board to offer welcome cocktails and other events during our stay. Please watch these pages over the next few days for more information.

In addition we are hoping to set up a live stream from a web cam at the Miraflores lock at the entrance to the Panama canal. We are liaising with the crew on board to find when they should be going through there so that you can follow the fleet's progress live. At this stage that is scheduled to be Monday of next week, but watch these pages for updates.

Second, a message to all crew, family and friends about the final stopover - in Cork - before arrival in Liverpool in July sent by Mick Moran who did leg 4 and 5 on JAMAICA Clipper and has just returned to Dublin after getting off in Santa Cruz.

I just got a message from Simon a few days ago, he is planning to organise a big get together in Cork for all the JAMAICA crew, past and present, and family and friends, as he knows that there will be a lot of previous crew members such as myself turning up there as well as the crew that will be sailing into Cork and is worried that once people get to Liverpool they will just disappear with their families with out having a proper Jamaican goodbye.

He asked me to try and sort out a hotel function room or book a restaurant for the occasion, which I am more than happy to do. The only problem is I have no idea how many people plan on turning up in Cork.

Could all crew members, family and friends who are planning to come to Cork e mail me so that I can get numbers and organise the event? People can mail me at this email address : micko.moran@gmail.com.

Thanks to Mick for organising the party. We saw the crew off from Liverpool with the only eve of race bon voyage party of the whole fleet - let's make sure as many of us as possible get to Cork. The fleet is due to arrive some time between 29th June and 4th July and with http://www.ryanair.com/ offering flights at 0p (yes nothing!) plus taxes, a return flight can be booked for under £40 !

Finally Mick has written an account of his experiences on board JAMAICA from legs 4 & 5. His article, together with photos of his journey, will be published here over the next few days so keep visting http://www.jamaicaclipper.com/ for that as well as further updates from the crew on board the Rasta Rocket.

JAMAICA claims 8th place in very light winds

Skipper Simon Bradley and watch leader Claire Maloney pictured in windier and colder conditions on the previous race to Santa Cruz.

Having overtaken Western Australia and held off Durban, JAMAICA had to setlle for 8th place in Race 9. At the 11th hour the "go west in search of stronger winds" strategy of Liverpool catapulted them past JAMAICA to take 7th.

With race having been shortened due to light winds the fleet will now motor to Panama in order to achieve their scheduled transit time through the canal. From on board JAMAICA, Simon sent this message :

“The last few miles took forever to complete as the wind died away on us. We saw Liverpool 08 then Uniquely Singapore finish before us, very frustrating as we hoped to beat both of them to the line. Well done to them both. We’re motoring now to Panama and this will bring its own challenges: the noise, the heat and not running out of fuel. But it will allow us to get most, if not all, of our maintenance jobs done en-route.”

The first boats are due to arrive in Panama on Monday 13th May.

Congratulations to the crew of JAMAICA clipper - time now to relax and recharge your batteries before the journey through the Panama Canal and onto race 10 to Port Antonio in Jamaica. Wouldn't it be great if we could claim a podium position in our home port ?

Well Red Stripe may be the drink of choice on the island of Jamaica - but as they say on the Emerald Isle : BELIEVE!

JAMAICA sneaks into 7th place

Following yesterday's decision by the course committee to shorten the race due to very light winds lead boats Hull & Humber and New York have just crossed the revised finish line to claim a provisional 1-2.

Meanwhile at the interesting end of the race (no bias at all at jamaicaclipper.com) at 06:00 this morning JAMAICA had overtaken Western Australia to assume 7th place. But with some 100 miles for these boats to the Angel gate finish line there is still a long way to go.

As the race viewer shows WA is clinging to the coast of Mexico but in the last 12 hours they have experienced lighter winds covering just 22 miles. This has given JAMAICA the opportunity to overtake her and assume a wafer thin 6 miles lead, though a lead is what it is. If she manages to keep her nose ahead to the end of this race it will mark an incredible achievement for the crew who have been struggling with the very light conditions to get the Rasta Rocket in full flow.

However, closing in on the rails is Liverpool who, for the whole of this race, has taken a more westerly routing in search of stronger airs and it looks like this is now paying off as they have covered twice the distance of JAMAICA, WA and Durban in the past 12 hours and have just overtaken the South African entrant to be in 9th place.

Liverpool is only 20 miles behind JAMAICA. Having had all of their work pay off to overtake WA our crew will have it cut out to fend off Liverpool. But we know they can do it and get their just desserts.

Meanwhile, the most recent addition to the crew, Italian Ettore Filippini, writes exclusively for jamaicaclipper.com from on board JAMAICA. Although he's loving the experience the haute gastronomie on board leaves a lot to be desired .......

Hi Nick, there is a new country represent on JAMAICA Clipper.

I'm Ettore Filippini legger in leg 6, one of the 4 Italian crew member that join to Clipper 07-08.
I'm really happy to sail on this crazy boat, language is not a big problem, UK food is something that you can habit to.

Today is another hot day, sleeping in the bunk during the day is quite having a sauna.We are trying to speed up the boat as mach as possible to catch WA.

See you in Jamaica.

Ettore

Light winds bring an early end to Race 9

It has just been announced that the course for Race 9 has been shortened due to the lighter than expected winds en route to Panama City, threatening the fleet’s scheduled transit through the Panama Canal.



With the fleet currently logging 12-hour runs of between just 17 and 48 nautical miles and the winds forecast to remain light before building as headwinds, the Race Committee has decided to utilise the pre-determined Gate Angel, approximately 140 nautical miles ahead of the lead boats, to finish the race that started 13 days ago in Santa Cruz.


Gate Angel is one of several intermediate gates contained within the Sailing Instructions for Race 9 that allow the Race Committee to shorten the course and finish the race early in case of abnormal weather conditions that seriously affect the safety of the fleet or the overall programme for the race. Most of the fleet crossed the first gate yesterday off the coast of Acapulco.


Race Director Joff Bailey said, “The Race Committee has been studying the forecasted winds for the next seven days and monitoring the fleet’s slower than expected progress towards Panama City due to the lighter than expected winds since the start in Santa Cruz. In order to ensure a smooth transit through the Panama Canal, the fleet has been informed that the Race Committee has opted to shorten the course and finish the race at Gate Angel.”


It is expected that the first teams will finish during Wednesday with the remaining teams finishing over the following 24 – 36 hour period. After finishing, each of the teams will motor sail to Panama with the first boats expected to arrive in Panama City on 13 May.



At today's 12:00 schedule JAMAICA was still in 8th place, some 32 miles ahead of 9th placed Durban. The key objective over the next 24 hours will be to consolidate our 8th place whilst focusing on 7th placed Western Australia just 32 miles ahead. And with such fickle winds, and a wide variety in speeds being posted, overhauling WA may just be possible. The route they will take to Panama and then on to Jamaica is shown below.



Go JAMAICA !

Chief seamstress Bernard saves the day again

Bernard Tissier repairing yet another sail.

What would JAMAICA do without Bernard Tissier ? Not a great deal if truth be told. Round the Worlder Bernard has taken it upon himself to repair the damaged sails and his work has been cut out during this race as Claire Maloney reports from on board JAMAICA :

This is the first time since race start day that we’ve taken down the kite and hoisted the white sails. Unfortunately, the sail in question had to be the windseeker!

We’ve now hit the large area of light and variable winds that the other boats reached yesterday. The one good thing about being behind everyone is that we had a few more hours of wind and managed to pull back a number of miles on the fleet while they bobbed about, turtle spotting (so I’m told). But we were always heading straight for the hole, and we’ve well and truly found it.

Not surprisingly really, as we’ve been heading steadily towards the equator, it’s starting to get a wee bit warmer. We started the race by snuggling into our Ocean Sleepwear sleeping bags on the off watches, just a nose peeping out, trying to keep warm. Most people progressed to lying on their fleecy inners, with the bag unzipped, and now it’s too hot even to do that. There is an international collection of fans dotted about the boat now. The originals were installed in the UK, but we have picked up others in Fremantle, Singapore, Santa Cruz.

It’s just as well we’re flying the windseeker at the moment, because poor old Bernard is in the saloon, sewing machine whirring, putting the finishing touches to yet another spinnaker repair. The little team of apprentices have made the job a lot quicker this time, and the boat being flat helps too, but it’s still a painstaking process. Until you’ve seen one of our spinnakers at first hand it’s difficult to appreciate just how much fabric there is. We’ve become very good at retrieving blown spinnakers (no wrap this time), and I’m sure Bernard could go into professional sail repair after this. Although, funnily enough, he doesn’t seem too keen.

As I look up, the speed as picked up to 3.0 knots. I’m trying to type fast as any moment now it could be back down to 0.0 knots. And, for the moment at least, the direction we’re heading isn’t too bad either.

JAMAICA loses ground

The light winds which have hampered the whole fleet are making sailing on board JAMAICA very challenging. Having been one of the fastest boats last week, at 06:00 she has posted the shortest distance covered in 12 hours - a mere 17 miles : just 1½ miles per hour.

It must be very frustrating on board. But she is not alone as the rest of the fleet is managing no more than 3-4 mph.

Skipper Simon Bradley reports :

“It is hot with little wind here. We’re using the windseeker and lightweight kite a lot. A halyard shackle broke during the last spinnaker hoist, but fortunately we hoist with two halyards so disaster was averted.”

It means that JAMAICA is back to 8th, just over 100 miles off the lead and a mere 8 miles ahead of nearest rival Durban whom she overtook last week.

With such light winds there is a chance that the Race Committee may decide to shorten the race in order to achieve their scheduled transit through the Panama Canal so getting as much out of the boat as possible at this stage of the race is vitally important.

JAMAICA narrows the gap

If Carlsberg made Clipper racing car parks, this would be the biggest ocean going yacht car park in the world!

We're half way through race 9 and the race has almost come to a grinding halt. Having covered on average 10 miles per hour at the start of the race, the fleet is now averaging a frustrating 3 mph as light winds and "trim, trim, trim" are the order of the day.

However, things are not all bad as JAMAICA has siezed the opportunity to move up the rankings and to reduce the overall lead. As reported yesterday, she overtook Durban to assume 8th place and now has started to rein in 7th placed Western Australia who this time yesterday was 29 miles ahead but today is only 19 miles away. Indeed yesterday we were 72 miles behind the leading boat, today that lead is down to 65 miles.

So there is still plenty of scope for JAMAICA to make more gains in the second half of the race. Watch this space for further updates and postings from the crew on board.

A message to all JAMAICA crew, past, present and future

Skipper Simon Bradshaw sends a message from on board JAMAICA to all crew members past, present and those joining for leg 7 :

We have taken delivery of new JAMAICA Clipper crew polo shirts, they are new designs and colours, black with pink embroidery and pink with black embroidery. The two colours are slightly different in design, but basically have the Jamaica flag, JAMAICA and the Clipper 07-08 logo on them. We have enough for one of each for every crew member, at $25 each, incredibly good value as they are top quality items!

We have them all on board, so crew joining us in Jamaica can get theirs then. Any crew that are planning to visit at one of the remaining stopovers can collect from us, and any others can get them posted/delivered in some way.

We made an executive decision on this as it would have been impractical to try poll every crew member on choice of colour, design etc. We also felt that $50 (roughly 25 quid) for 2 unique, top quality polo shirts was an absolute steal!! In future all crew photos will feature one of these two shirts, the original Licensed to thrill shirts are now very faded and tatty looking (like several of us!), but make good drinking shirts!

The pink polo shirts are not being revealed until our arrival in Jamaica, they are quite eye catching to say the least!

Please can you also ask crew members to have plain black shorts to wear with these shirts, it does make a difference everybody dressing the same, it makes for good photos and PR and really shows the team spirit and camaraderie that JAMAICA Clipper is famous for, we all feel very strongly about this so please get the shorts!

Now, prompt payment for the shirts is obviously vital, two of our current crew have organised these shirts, they are Roger Perry (black polos from Hawaii) and Robert Morphee (pink polos from Santa Cruz). They each need to receive $25 or we don't handover the shirts!! This can be paid in cash and for those not seeing us they can send their money to Phil Thomas (who is also on board at the moment) who will then pass it on. We'll supply more details on how to do this shortly, including exchange rates to use etc. I hope this is OK with you, the shirts are definitely good value and will make fantastic souvenirs of this great adventure that we are all undertaking.

One Love!

Simon and the Crew.

Simon and the crew will be sending us further details of how to make payment for the shirts so please keep visiting your web site http://www.jamaicaclipper.com/ for more information.

JAMAICA outsails the fleet

With just over 1,400 miles to go JAMAICA has switched on the afterburners and at 12:00 today had outsailed the whole fleet. She had covered 76 miles in the previous 12 hours, allowing her to overtake Durban and claim 8th place. She is still 72 miles off the lead but if she can continue at this pace and snatch 10 miles off the lead boats every 12 - 24 hours she could be well up there with the leading boats when the fleet arrives in Panama.

Next target is 7th placed Western Australia 29 miles ahead. As the race viewer above shows WA is further in shore where the winds are less strong. And with the whole fleet only separated by 84 miles, as they sail past the International resort of Acapulco, this race is still up for grabs.

Let's hope the other boats go loco before we do!

Downwind sailing at its best, although JAMAICA is falling behind

Duncan Bagshaw constantly trimming the sails in changing conditions

After an excellent few days' sailing and making great advances, JAMAICA has slipped further behind the pack in the last 24 hours. Their strategy of sailing close to shore had clearly paid off as it allowed them to get within 47 miles of the lead boats this time yesterday. The earlier gains were made because the sea state picked up closer to shore and then the wind built quickly. Pretty soon they needed to peel to the heavyweight kite, and then that changed rapidly to forget the heavyweight.

The wind eased off and they were back under spinnakers by early morning and had peeled back to the lightweight by lunchtime, then pretty much in a wind hole for a number of hours.

Unfortunately, this has led to their falling behind again as, like Durban who are also assuming a similar position, they have covered just 88 miles in the last 12 hours compared to the rest of the fleet's managing over 100. Even Liverpool which had taken a wide westerly position has now come back into contention and is now only 17 miles behind 9th placed JAMAICA which finds itself 90 miles off the lead. A frustrating time for the crew and trim, trim, trim is the order of the day as they try to pull back the miles.

But spirits are still high as Claire Maloney, from on board JAMAICA writes :

‘A boxer left the ring after winning the world championship. His trainer took all the money and he never got a cent. Why not?’

Now, I don’t want you to think we’re sitting around in the sunshine doing nothing all day, it’s just that there are times in between sail changes when it’s possible to chat on deck. Granted the conversation is frequently punctuated with ‘trim’, ‘grind’ or ‘hold’, and the helm is often concentrating too much for full participation, but chatting is definitely possible.

We’re getting a bit intellectual on JAMAICA at the moment. Lisa bought an IQ test book in Santa Cruz, with the idea of testing the crew’s IQ before and after each stopover. So far we’ve discovered at least one crew member is of ‘borderline’ intelligence. We moved on to lateral thinking problems this morning, like the one above. The question master is only allowed to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to any queries. We’ve a whole book of these to get through.

There’s been a reading frenzy going on too. The only sail trim book left that managed to escape the wet has been read by nearly everyone. Every time you come on deck there’ll be someone quoting from the (very small) section on spinnaker trim. The saloon has been renamed ‘the library’ and is generally full of people just reading. Obviously, being a racing machine, there are books on trim, weather and tactics, but just occasionally the odd novel or biography might just slip through the net.

Every day’s a school day on JAMAICA. And the lessons don’t stop at night, you know. After dark ‘Stellarium’ gets pulled up on the computer. Introduced by Gus, it’s proving extremely popular. Once it’s set up for where you are in the world, it will show you the night sky in real time, with names of stars and constellations and even some cheesy artist’s interpretation of the constellations. It’s definitely our favourite new toy.

But anyway, as guessed correctly by the crew, ‘The boxer’ was a dog who had just won the championship at the dog show. "

And John Braithwaite, another round the world crew member has also got the reading bug :

"All is going well. It's been a lovely sail so far this leg, all down wind, we have kept moving & no wraps (touch wood!). It's about to get very hot. I'm reading Panama Fever about the building of the canal - very interesting."

At the end of the race the crews will enter the Panama Canal to transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean before continuing their journey to Jamaica.

The gap narrows as JAMAICA makes big gains

As the fleet approaches the coast of Mexico the gap has closed as only 47 miles separate leading yachts Hull and Glasgow from JAMAICA.

That distance has been reduced from 58 miles yesterday and more than 70 miles earlier in the week. Some great sailing has put JAMAICA right back in contention.

And with more than 1,800 miles and an estimated 9 days to go there are still plenty of opportunities for JAMAICA to reduce the gap even further.

Overnight we have seen her change tactics dramatically having gone from one of the most westerly boats earlier in the race to the furthest east. She is now hugging the coastline where fresher winds helped by a northerly breeze are allowing them to take miles out of most of the fleet.

May this move continues to pay off - if she can continue to shave 5 - 10 miles per day off the rest of the boats it could be one of the most unlikely ascents up the leader board since the leaving of Liverpool.

Let's not tempt fate but fear not and trust in providence wherever thou may be.

Who stole the wind?

Frustrating times off the coast of Baja California Sur.

As the teams turn left, leaving the coast of California and the USA behind them, the next time they will see land will be Mexico ..... that is if the wind decides to blow.

With more than 2,000 miles still to go in this race, there really is anything in it with the top 9 boats only separated by 58 miles. Currently in 9th, JAMAICA has Western Australia firmly in her sights just 8 miles ahead and will be hoping to reel her in over the next few days. But with average boat speeds down to 7.5 miles per hour (at the start of the race they were averaging over 10) the Clipper Round the World yacht race could be sponsored by supermarket giant Tesco : every little helps .....

It's a frustrating time on board with flat calm seas and trim, trim and more trimming of the sails and the situation will get harder before it gets better as they are just heading into the area where they will encounter the North Equatorial Current which flows at about half a knot in the opposite direction and is likely to impede their progress.

Time for the Rasta Rocket to switch on the after burners and fly past the others. Watch this space - it could be a very long race.

Light airs, fog and Catherine's 30th birthday

A very happy 30th birthday to Catherine Plane

Catherine Plane, seen here helming, is 30 today. Fellow crew member, Claire Maloney, reports on life on board and birthday celebrations :

"We’ll never hesitate to let you know just how tough it is out here. How cold, wet and windy it’s been; the basic living conditions; the struggle to perform those daily tasks. As a fully committed racing machine, we’re constantly battling against the elements, fighting against adversity, striving always to eek out those extra knots of boat speed.

But it’s not our fault if it happens to be rather nice out here sometimes. If we happen to be serenaded by sea-lions at the race start, or if we have a pod of six killer whales swim in formation up to the boat. You probably don’t want to hear any more stories of dolphins bow riding in their dozens, or blowing phosphorescence in the dark.

We didn’t choose the weather, and the gentle downwind sailing we’ve been granted just happens to mean that the boat is flat and dry at the moment. Moving around the yacht is easy, cleaning is not a chore and being in the galley is (almost) a pleasant experience.

Catherine’s birthday cake managed to come out of the oven an even thickness – no bias to the downwind side this time.

Not a bad day to have your 30th birthday. It’s warm and sunny these days, and we’ve been steadily removing layers since leaving Santa Cruz. But it hasn’t reached the blistering hot stage yet. Just perfect. We’ve got fog today, though, for the first time in the race really. Visibility is 100-200 metres, and we’ve been ‘maintaining a proper lookout at all times’. It’s not exactly busy out here, but as Simon says, “it would only take one ship.”

We’re actually enjoying the spinnaker sailing at the moment. Over the last few thousand miles we’ve definitely got better at the old kite trimming. Moving the pole up, down, forwards and back isn’t quite such a trauma as it was on leg one. And, frankly, you’d hope not!

So it’s not all struggle and strife. But we’ll soon let you know when it gets tough again, don’t worry."

Skipper, Simon Bradley added :

“As it became dark this evening it was quite eerie as the fog seemed to close in from all sides. The crew are keeping ultra alert on deck maintaining lookout by sight and sound, while down below decks a radar watch is in place - so far we’ve been on our own.”

In terms of race position, JAMAICA is currently 8th and 60 miles off the lead. In these light conditions they have decided to gybe further in shore, as the race viewer below shows, as the forecasted stronger off shore winds have not materialised. Only Liverpool remains on its lonely voyage to the West.

JAMAICA boldly conservative

JAMAICA is playing a waiting game.

She has followed Liverpool - currently the furthestmost westerly clipper - to the west but not in such a bold way, as the race viewer above shows. She is clearly hoping to benefit from stronger offshore winds as the forecasted lighter winds closer to the coast limit those boats who have taken up a position there, whilst hedging her bets by not being too far removed from the pack should the tactic not pay off.

She is currently 74 miles off the lead, having sailed 74 miles in the last 12 hours - coincidentally exactly the same distance as leading boat Glasgow, so speed is clearly not an issue.

The question is simply if fortune will favour the brave.

This is going to be a very close race and as winds die it may be, just may be, that our conservatively bold move has paid off.

Wind speed reduces - will JAMAICA's tactics pay off?

At 06:00 this morning JAMAICA posted the second fastest speed of the whole fleet, continuing their great progress having posted the fastest time at 18:00 yesterday evening.

As reported yesterday JAMAICA has decided to take a more westerly position in search of stronger winds and at a time when the winds have reduced dramatically, this tactic appears to have paid off.

As the race viewer above shows, JAMAICA has followed Liverpool's example and sailed to the West. It means that currently both Liverpool (10th) and JAMAICA (9th) have the furthest distance to finish of the whole fleet but as the winds continue to drop their positionswill give them more options both in terms of winds and sailing angles than those clippers hugging the shoreline.

The graphic below illustrates this point : to the left of the picture we can see the relative positions of the fleet. As they continue to sail south they will at some point have to gybe to port (that's "turn left" to you and me) so as to continue south east down the western coast of the United States, before arriving in Panama, which can be seen in the bottom left of the picture.

There's still a long way to go but the crew can be satisfied with both their performance and their tactics thus far.

JAMAICA does not have a monopoly on spinnaker wraps!

As we head into day 3 of this 19 day race it has been confirmed that the disatrous spinnaker wraps which beset JAMAICA in previous races have also been experienced by other teams early on in this one.

The race from Santa Cruz to Panama will be a dash south with the wind behind the boats and some very fast racing - normally the perfect conditions for flying the spinnaker. However, downwind sailing also brings huge challenges for the helm and both Glasgow and Liverpool have had spinnakers wrapped around their forestays which have made them reduce speed for between 7 and 4 hours of sailing whilst they unwrap them.

And with more than 2,800 miles to go, the teams need to do everything in their power to preserve their sails. It may be the prudent approach will pay dividends later on this race.

JAMAICA is one of 2 teams to be assuming a more offshore approach, hoping to benefit from stronger winds. It means that, for the moment, they appear to have fallen down the rankings - Liverpool in 10th and JAMAICA in 9th as the finishing line is to the South East - but a similar tactic paid off for both Singapore and Nova Scotia who finished 1st and 2nd in the last race.

You need one large spoonfull of great tactics and several buckets full of luck if you are to move up the leader board. Well, of course, we know that our expert tacticians on board JAMAICA are amongst the best in the World so here's hoping Lady luck is Jamaican!

Memoirs of Santa Cruz by John Braithwaite, aged 33 and a bit

The penultimate leg of the 2008 Clipper round the World yacht race has started. First up, race 9, a 3,000 mile dash down the West Coast of the United States from Santa Cruz to Panama, before a non racing transit through the Panama Canal, followed by race 10 to Jamaica. Then it's leg 7 when they're homeward bound to Liverpool via New York, Nova Scotia and Cork.


As the race began Joff Bailey, Race Director, outlined the task ahead :


“The teams have a wild downwind ride for the first half of this race which will see them achieving some great speeds and they will make rapid progress south. They will all try to make as direct a route possible, parallel to the coast, but at the same time trying not to get too close as the effect of the land my reduce wind strength. The trick along this initial part of the race is to try not to damage too many of the downwind sails. Several boats have recently been penalised for damaging sails and once the Race Committee considers the repairs and replacements in Santa Cruz further penalty points may be awarded."

Joff continues, “As the fleet approaches the southern tip of Baja California, the winds will start to reduce and become much less stable in direction. At this point the direct route along the coast is heavily favoured in terms of the least miles. However, fickle and inconsistent winds closer in may see some teams opting to sail further offshore in order to benefit from better wind speeds and direction.”


Sail damage will indeed be something team JAMAICA will be very wary of as they were docked 3 points by the Race committee for those disastrous spinnaker wraps and with this race being mainly downwind those spinnies will be up a lot.


There's certainly a very long way to go in this race so as the boats are so tightly packed we asked team JAMAICA round the Worlder John Braithwaite to share his memories of the Santa Cruz stopover just before the start of the race 9 :

"Hi,

Race 8 was a great race. Despite sailing into the wind for all but 2 days, this race was the most pleasant so far for a lot of reasons:

1. Our new watch system. We had 3 hours sailing and then 6 hours off watch, followed by 3 hours sailing then 3 hours mother watch then 6 hours off. And repeat. So this means we get bigger chuncks of sleep and do a short mother watch each day rather than a mother watch every 8 days or so.


2. We were able to sail in the right direction - it makes such a pleasant change from the last time we were sailing into the wind going to China. When you are sailing accross the largest ocean of the world at 8 miles an hour its nice to know you are doing it in the right direction rather than having to go at 45 degrees and in reality only be making 4 miles an hour in the direction you want to go.


3. We had a good race with Liverpool and beat them - get in! In the middle of the race we had a good spell where Liverpool were in sight for about 3 days and we had a bit of a tactical battle as the wind changed from the the south to the north.


4. The weather was just about perfect for sailing, if maybe a little cold. It was more cold than I expected but I would rather that than too hot.


5. We had lots of food and we knew what it was. Nothing like buying your food in a werstern speaking country for making sure you don't end up with random bits bits of meat.
   

The Santa Cruz stopover has been good too. Santa Cruz has an unofficial slogan 'keep Santa Cruz weird' and its doing a good job. We had a lovely meal at a vegan restaurant this evening, the local bar is straight out of the movies and has a good supply of interesting locals.

The people from the yacht club have been most welcoming. A trip up to San Francisco over the weekend was a lovely break away from the yachts. We spent time looking round Alctraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and Downtown, then ran back down for the Clipper Prize giving. At which we succeeded in winning the most important prize of the evening...the Hull & Humber organised charity Gurning Competition - nice one Claire.

Well its the night before we leave to sail to the Panama Cannal. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Cannal and sailing back into the Atlantic, and on to Jamaica for a bit of a party.

One love JB"

Only 10 hours into this race and team tactics have already split the fleet with JAMAICA heading a break away pack to the West, closely followed by Durban and Liverpool, as the race viewer below shows. These three teams are clearly hoping to capitalise on the stronger winds further away from the coast, whilst the other teams, led by Singapore and Nova Scotia, remain further in-land.

It means that JAMAICA appears to be further down the rankings in 7th place, but as wind speeds develop, it could prove a similar masterstroke to the one which saw Qingdao and Singapore shoot up the leaderboard in the last race. Here's hoping ....

Skipper Simon Bradley looking forward to Race 9

Following the arrival of the last 2 clippers - Durban and Western Australia - into Santa Cruz, the race committee has confirmed that the race will restart tomorrow, Thursday 24 April at 1300 hours local time (2000 GMT). The next race is the longest of all the races remaining in the Clipper 07-08 series and will test the teams with strong downwind conditions to begin with followed by light and fickle winds as the fleet approaches Panama.

Having received the confirmation, skipper of JAMAICA clipper Simon Bradley (a.k.a. Clint Eastwood) sent this exclusive message to jamaicaclipper.com :

"All is going well here in Santa Cruz, the yacht is in good condition (apart from a few deck leaks!) and the crew are in good spirits (mostly rum!).

The 'new' crew are all here and we'll all be at the prize giving tonight.

Hope everything is ok with you and we're all looking forward to our arrival in Jamaica even though the stopover is being cut short.

Best regards,

Simon."

Simon and his team will be sending us regular exclusive articles about their journey down to Panama so log onto jamaicaclipper.com for daily updates of their progress.

Good luck Simon and your team and have a safe and enjoyable voyage.

Race 9 due to start on Thursday

With Durban and Western Australia now expected to arrive in Santa Cruz tomorrow, 22nd April, the Race organisers are estimating the restart of the Clipper round the World yacht race to take place on Thursday 24th April.

Race 9 was originally scheduled to start on 19th April, however, following the dismasting of Durban and WA, they are currently traversing the Pacific by both sail and motor. At 06:00 they are just under 350 miles away from Santa Cruz. It will be a quick turn around for both teams.

Meanwhile the gallant crew of the good ship JAMAICA have had a little time to explore California before heading back to prepare her for the restart.

Keep visiting www.jamaicaclipper.com for news of the restart and daily updates of her position and life on board as she sails downwind to Panama. Good luck guys!

JAMAICA arrives in Santa Cruz in 6th place

After 2,000 miles of racing JAMAICA arrived in Santa Cruz at 01:47 (07:47 GMT) this morning, at the end of race 8, having crossed the finishing line in 6th place.

Skipper of JAMAICA, Simon Bradley, said, “It’s been a good race, the weather was quite varied, quite wet and cold and the thermal underwear was brought out again, which we didn’t expect. It certainly wasn’t balmy pacific sailing with grass skirts! The last few hours have been entertaining because there’s been no wind and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

The team can now look forward to a well earned rest before the start of race 9, a downwind dash down the West Coast of the USA to the entrance of the Panama Canal. Originally due to start on 19th April, the race will be delayed until some time after 21st April due to the late arrival of Durban and Western Australia who are still crossing the Pacific having had their masts replaced. Both yachts are still over 1,000 miles away from Santa Cruz. The Race Committee is still to confirm the reschedule race start as it will depend upon their progress which is hampered due to light winds but best estimate at this stage is next Thursday, 24th April.

It means a longer stop and well earned break in Santa Cruz for team JAMAICA.

Congratulations guys and enjoy the sights of Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Hollywood, the wines of the Napa Valley; well it's a tough job ...........

JAMAICA sweepstake as Singapore takes 1st

At 12:26 (GMT) today Singapore snatched victory just passing Nova Scotia at the 11th hour ..... literally. Having taken the most northerly approach, and therefore benefitting from the stronger winds, Singapore managed to just pass Nova Scotia, which had been leading for most of the latter part of the race. Nova Scotia crossed the line just over half an hour later; 2,080 miles after leaving Honolulu it just shows how close this race was.

Currently sitting in 6th position JAMAICA should cross the finishing line at approximately 06:00 BST tomorrow. Indeed their arrival time is the source of much discussion as the crew have a lot riding on the confirmation of their arrival time as this posting from the boat confirmed:

With less than 500 miles to go, talk has already turned to the finish. The jobs list has been rubbed off the white board and replaced with ‘The Santa Cruz Arrival Sweepstake’. A serious business and, with a $5 entry fee and a possible 15 players taking part, a reasonable prize at stake. (Although the rules of entry do state ‘winner buys the first round’.)

There was a long debate this morning as to which time zone we would be working in. There is boat time, Santa Cruz time and UTC. Boat time went forward an hour last night but we are still an hour behind Santa Cruz time. The skipper hasn’t decided yet whether to move on another hour before or after reaching the finish. So boat time, we decided, was too ambiguous. UTC was just too complicated, so Santa Cruz time got the final vote of approval. That brought on a sudden rush to change the predictions already made in boat time. There’s still bound to be someone at the finish who claims ignorance to the decision.

With the northerly boats still pulling away, we’re having our own little battle with Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper and Liverpool 08 at the moment. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with Liverpool 08 we seem (somehow) to have overtaken them and held them off for a few schedules now. Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper are ever allusive, and just as we seemed to have narrowed the gap, Hannah decided to go up a gear and has pulled a few more miles ahead. They’re not that far away, though. Still within catching distance.

The wind is so changeable. In any one watch there is such a wide variation in wind strength that it’s really quite tricky choosing a sail plan. There is a choice between being mostly ok but sometimes underpowered and slow, or mostly ok and often clinging onto the helm while frantically dumping the mainsheet to get back under control. As we heeled right over just now, someone commented that the driver had clearly picked Tuesday morning in the sweepstake…

JAMAICA expected to cross the line tomorrow