The Royal Cork Yacht Club

Greetings from The Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork, the oldest yacht club in the World and our hosts for the penultimate stopover before race end in Liverpool ..... and what fantastic hosts they have been.

We arrived on Saturday, two days early, following an excellent crossing of the Atlantic. Since then we have been working on the boat and enjoying the legendary hospitality of the Irish. It has been wonderful to see so many crew members, family and friends come to Crosshaven.

Yesterday evening we gathered together to present skipper Simon Bradley with two framed pictures as a thank you from all crew members.

The first was an original painting which has been painted by crew member Mick Moran's cousin Laura Miller. As you can see it is a beautiful painting of our very own JAMAICA clipper. It is clearly unique and Simon was delighted to receive it.

The second is a photographic montage which Jon Gibbard has prepared showing JAMAICA as well as two photographs of Simon: the first is the one and only time anyone has seen him do any work on board - here he is taking a bit of rope for a walk - the second is on the occasion of his 51st birthday.

Later in the evening team JAMAICA won the dancing competition (of course!) to the sounds of a reggae band which was sponsored by the Jamaican Tourist Board. Liz Fox & Torrance Lewis from the JTB in London have come over to join in with the celebrations as well as taking part in a Coporate Sail today. They will also be attending our crew party this evening.

And so to the final race in the Clipper Round the World Yacht race 07/08. The race started in Liverpool on 16th September 2007 and will conclude this coming Saturday, 5th July 2008 after 35,000 miles.

It is perhaps fitting that team JAMAICA was the only team to have an eve of race party last September and we are keeping up that tradition this evening before race start tomorrow morning at 8am. However, we are making sure we will all be on top form; although our team drink of choice is rum and coke we will not be mixing our drinks this evening ...... so Simon has banned the coke.

The forecast for the race is light winds blowing from the South - perfect weather for that gad damned spinnaker (don't mention the "S" word!). But rest assured we have a plan :

Crew member Dan Garnett has donated a pair of his boxer shorts which we have hoisted from the forestay. Early time trials suggest we will certainly finish in the top 10 on Saturday.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Liverpool.