Historic win as New York romps to victory into home port - 31 May 2008

Breaking what has been referred to as the ‘home port curse’, skipper DuggieGillespie and his team have achieved an historic victory by winning into NewYork at the end of the 1,420-mile race from Jamaica of the Clipper 07-08Round the World Yacht Race.This elusive accolade of a home port win has only been achieved once beforein the history of the biennial round the world race, by Canadian entryVictoria Clipper, in Clipper 05-06.

Onboard JAMAICA

There is a mixture of pride & disappointment onboard JAMAICA as we have tosettle for 6th place. Having been 3rd for much of this race there is a sense of what could have been. However this crew has been excellent, have tried so hard & yet fell back at the final hurdle when a poor spinnaker drop lost us time. Would we have finished higher with out that ? Probably. Would we have achieved a podium finish ? Unlikely. Racing is like that. But what we do know is everyone tried oh so hard. We know we can keep up with the best ande ven out sail them so we have confidence for the next race. Before then we have 2 days' motoring to arrive in New York late Sunday /early Monday. Time for reflection before another reduced stopover. With corporate sails on Monday & Tuesday & the race start early Wednesday there is little time for relaxation but we will be ready for better things for the next race.

From Nick Jacobs posted by Jon Gibbard

11 HOURS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

It is 08:45 on Friday 30th May (14:45 UK time) and we have just received the news that the race will end at 23:00 UK time tonight. Currently we are in 5th position though little separates the fleet. The Sea is calm & wind low though rising so every little helps. Forget the "off" watch this is serious! Glasgow is in our sights. Please may the Rasta Rocket succeed !!!

COME ON JAMAICA

Nick Jacobs posted by Jon Gibbard

Dr Clare's Blog

27 May 2008 - Dr Clare's Blog

You can feel the excitement in the air on JAMAICA. It’s day three of sailing and we are up there at the front of the fleet. We’ve never sailed so close to the other Clippers before, other than at race starts. Both Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper and Qingdao are just in front of us, New York are so close to starboard we can read their branding, and just a few miles behind us are the white sails of Hull & Humber and westernaustralia2011.com.
Yesterday, we managed to overtake Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper. It took us a good few hours of just steadily creeping up towards them, and we spent a fair while maintaining a parallel course to them, but eventually our perseverance paid off and we managed to slip past them on the windward side. Obviously Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper just saw it as a challenge, bore away for a while and now we’re chasing them again, but it was good while it lasted!
Being so close to the other yachts means we can all see each other’s sail plans. As soon as one boat shakes out a reef the others follow. One boat does a headsail change and immediately the rest of us are up there on the foredeck changing the yankee. Like the most devoted followers of fashion, we’d ideally like to lead the way, but certainly don’t want to be the last to join the new trend.
The stopover in JAMAICA was sadly much shorter than planned, but most of our new crew joining us there flew out on the original dates anyway. It’s seemed to really help the dynamics, as they’re all now rested after their holiday and have bonded over JAMAICAN rum, rafting down the Rio Grande and drinking more JAMAICAN rum, from what I can work out! We’ve inherited a relaxed, happy and enthusiastic new crew and the rest of us are picking up the vibes.
You know by now what this Clipper racing business is like, and how difficult it will be for us to keep up with the likes of Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper, New York and Hull & Humber. But you know what: we’ll give it our very best shot!

JAMAICAN SUPPORT CREW

The JAMAICA Clipper support team, including new crew members, took their responsibilities very seriously. As the crew were only in port for a short period we started the party early with a sociable lunch at the beach bar, followed by team trips to the Reach Falls, Rio Grande rafting and the Blue Mountains. The crew did get time to recharge their batteries, and the awards party, sponsored by Red Stripe, was drunk (temporarily) dry by 6.45pm. Perhaps the British troops based at the adjacent JDF base may have had something to do with it?

JAMAICA were summoned to the stage and made sure everyone present understood that this trip is about the experience, the friends you make and the great times you have at sea and on shore, and they are definitely top of the league table on this scale!!!

The fleet was waved off from the quayside, then the beach, then from the balcony of the start line lighthouse, with huge JAMAICA flags and much enthusiasm, and the crew saw them and waved back as they sailed for New York.

THE WINDEX MERRY-GO-ROUND.

Here in the Atlantic mill pond with the lightest of winds shifting 360 degrees we are teasing every little inch out of JAMAICA. Amazing that in this vast ocean we are still sailing within 1 mile of Liverpool & Western Australia. At mid-day today (Thursday 29th May) with 574 miles to go & currently travelling at just 2 knots per hour it would take 12 days to get to New York & with corporate sails scheduled for Monday surely the Race
Committee will call this race soon. We therefore have to do everything now to pull ahead. Fighting for 3rd but next schedule at 1pm (18:00uk) will be eagerly awaited. Have tried to move all possible weight to low side to catch as much air as possible so after a yummy lunch of baked potatoes & tuna mayo only the starboard heads are to be used! Bright sunshine and calm seas are great for sea sickness but very difficult for racing. All You JAMAICA supporters please say a little prayer for us!

Nick Jacobs posted by Jon Gibbard

JAMAICAN QUICKSTEP

Slow, slow, Quick Quick Slow: that's the order for today as very light winds have bunched fleet close together. But JAMAICA are holdng their own in 3rd.
Boat speeds down to 4-5s though we were closer to 0 when wind direction changed & a flurry of activity across the fleet saw all us put up spinnakers
then back down again. Now back to wind seeker & keeping abreast of the best.
Tactics are to closely follow others & sail the shortest distance to New York. Great team work for sail changes, excell helming & vigilant trimming helping us make such good progress. Winds forcast is to stay light so much of the same for the next few days maybe more. Still Xmas in New York is said to be beautiful! Let no-one doubt are commitment to win: there do appear to be naturally faster boats than ours but we have 6 other Clipps insight & are still amongst the leaders.

Nick Jacob posted by Jon Gibbard

The Race returns to the North Atlantic

Overnight the fleet has cleared the Bahamian islands and the ten teams nowfind themselves out in open waters once more.
Race Director, Joff Bailey, says, “With the whole fleet now back into theNorth Atlantic and making great speeds, it will not be long before they allarrive in the ‘Big Apple’. At this rate of progress we are expecting thefirst boats to arrive in North Cove Marina, Manhattan, over the weekendafter crossing the Race 11 finish line which is situated at the famousAmbrose light house.”Qingdao and Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper are still battling at thefront to gain the upper hand in near perfect fast reaching conditions.

Meanwhile on board JAMAICA:

FRUSTRATION ABOARD JAMAICA. 02:00 (08:00 uk) Wed 28th May.Having held 3rd position for most of race we have just been over taken byNew York. Though 4th position is still very good. Our goal is to haul in NewYork, Glasgow & Qingdao who are 1-2 miles ahead and fend off Hull & Humberas well as Western Australia. Four days into the race & we can still see 5other boats close by. It seems that JAMAICA doesn't sail as fast as othersin these light winds though we can be proud that we were as fast as the bestin strong winds. Let's hope for stronger winds & a little luck to see us onthe podium in New York this week end. It is what Simon & the crew deserve aswe are all working extremely hard. The Wind forecast is to change to behindus, so we may be able to fly the spinnaker soon. The 3 watch system isworking well with 6 hrs off. Sleeping for England (or is that Jamaica?)Haute gastronomie continues with a lunch of corned beef curry & a supper ofchilli spam & mash. They say an army marches on its stomach!

Posted by Jon G, Nick and Karen Jacobs

Message from JAMAICA

It is 5.30 am (11.30 uk) & just finishing 3 hours of Mother watch following
3 hours of normal watch. 6 hrs off soon. Sleeping like a baby whenever off
watch. Must be the activity, sea air & life at 40 degree angle making me so
tired. Got the dreaded sea sickness after a night of choppy conditions but
feel stronger now & stopped puking. Had overtaken Glasgow for 2nd but back
to 3rd now & NY trying 2 take us.

JAMAICA IN 3rd

Overnight JAMAICA have moved up to second position and are now holding onto 3rd behind Quigdao andGlasgow: Scotland with Style, I wouldn't want to suggest any correlation between Nick Jacobs joining and this new competitive edge but...!



The boats are now split by the Bohemian Islands and are now ot the north split West / East with Liverpool and Nova Scotia favouring the eastern track and the rest of the boats keeping west. It will be intersting to see how these tactics develop over the coming day!

Go JAMAICA...lets see you on the podium in NY.

Kindest,

Jon

JAMAICA in 3rd! News from the boat

News from the boat via Nick Jacobs, our roving reporter. Hopefully now keeping of the champagne!

Day 2, race suspended as no wind. Fleet motoring, flat seas, sunshine, calm, all well. Even I can't be seasick in these cond's!

Cuba to West, Haiti to east. Beautiful! For crew joining in PA this is perfect as eases us gently back 2 sea in idyllic calmness & chance to train our sailing skills.

Left PA yest 2pm. 9th over start but no prob: as lead boat we will automatically cross new start point in 5th i.e. mid fleet. May need to continue under motor for rest of day as winds still very light. As yet new start point not known so will continue to motor until Simon determines new start point. 3 watch system: allows 6 hours off for great sleep. I'm buddied with Dan. We're on Mother watch now so prep'ing yummy egg mayo s/wiches! Haute Cuisine on board JAMAICA! What a great way to start leg7.

day 3 & all's well aboard JAMAICA. Just rec'd 7am (middayUK) sched & 3rd so excelt news - IRIE MON! Came on watch 3am and watchedsunrise as stronger o/n wnds died a little but still 9-10 knots boat speed.Weaving our way thru small islands of Bahamas on another beautiful day.Please God we can keep this up, tho it's early days yet.

Posted by a very jealous Jon.

Stringfever gig Tuesday 10th June, London

String Fever

The fantastic Stringfever who kindly gave a brilliant performance at the pre race JAMAICA party on the Walk the Plank boat in Liverpool are playing at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on Tuesday 10th June (Doors 6.45pm & performance at 7.30pm)The guys who travel the world with their music & regularly appear on TV are closely following the daily progress of the JAMAICA Clipper. Following their gig at the pre race party, the JAMAICA Blog has received many enquiries about the string quartet. Further information can be obtained by visiting their web site at http://www.stringfever.co.uk/ .

Tickets for their Bloomsbury concert in London on Tuesday 10th June can be purchased through the box office on Tel: 0207 388 8822 or via the web site www.thebloomsbury.com

From Karen Jacobs

JAMAICA IN 5th AFTER LE MANS RE START

JAMAICA Clipper is now in 5th after a successful Le Mans restart yesterday evening BST.

Within a few hours of the start of Race 11 from Jamaica to New York yesterday, the fleet stopped racing and began heading towards a rendezvous point in the Windward Passage, midway between the islands of Haiti and Cuba, some 200 nautical miles from the start line at Port Antonio. The decision was taken because the weather forecast for today and the next week shows little or no wind for this initial stage of the race. To prevent the teams wallowing around for several days making no progress and the race becoming a lottery the Race Director decided to restart the race today north of the Windward Passage.

Joff Bailey, Clipper 07-08 Race Director, said, “The conditions that the crew will experience over the initial part of the race will be similar to the Doldrums. Unfortunately, unlike the Doldrums which move around, this area of light winds is very static at the moment and we could not see when, if at all, the light and even no wind would be replaced with more steady pressure that would allow fair racing.

“During the skipper and crew briefings all the teams were informed that this would be a likely possibility and Simon Bradley, the lead skipper at the moment, made the final decision after talking to me a couple of hours after the race start yesterday. The effort put in by the teams during the start was still recognised as the positions around the first turning mark were used as the start order for the Le Mans start today.”

JAMAICA'S skipper, Simon Bradley, the lead skipper for Race 11, reported that a successful Le Mans start took place at 2211 GMT today, Sunday 25 May. It was slightly later than the fleet had planned. As they met at the rendezvous location Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper’s crew discovered they had several fishing nets caught around their keel, propshaft and prop and had to send a diver down to untangle the mess.
Simon said, “After Glasgow: Scotland with style Clipper had freed themselves from the fishing nets the fleet had got very close to the TSS off the eastern end of Cuba. The decision was taken to motor just north of the TSS to ensure the safety of the fleet as the wind angles at the time would have meant sailing straight towards the shipping lanes.
“Hull & Humber, New York and Uniquely Singapore all had very good starts, but as expected we’re all very close together as we head towards New York approx 1200 nautical miles away. The wind is light from the northwest but boat speed is around the 8 knots mark.
“An interesting 24 hours is ahead of us as we negotiate our way through the Bahama Island chain into the open North Atlantic.”

Jon

LEG 7 starts from JAMAICA

At 8pm BST the boats left Port Antonio to start the race upto New York. The plan was to conduct a short race in the Harbour before all the boats motored upto Cuba to restart the race just north of the island. This was to avoid light airs that have slowed the fleet for several days in previous years.

However as the Clipper website doesn't currently contain any information to this effect and they may have started the full race, we will update you as we get more information.

The crew will be busy as Simon had been selected as duty skipper, this means he is responsible for checking in with the entire fleet every 6 hours and assisting with any challenges they might face over the coming week.

During the short stopover in Jamaica the country’s Tourism Minister, the Honourable Edmund Bartlett MP, visited the fleet in the Errol Flynn Marina, to welcome the crews to Port Antonio. During the prizegiving ceremony he said, “Clipper is for us the latest of the great adventures of the seas that have found Jamaica an exciting place. So I want to welcome you to a proud country, a proud land that has a beautiful history with wonderful people. We have been blessed with geophysical features that are unique in these parts. You are in a country that has learned how to do things well and one of the things we do best is to welcome visitors and to make them feel irie. Now we want to tell you that the yacht that bears the name of Jamaica is going to leave Port Antonio to New York and I will be there to see when it wins on that leg! So I congratulate the team that came in first to Port Antonio and I say to you, watch the JAMAICA boys, they are at home now!”
Jamaica’s skipper, Simon Bradley, said, “No pressure then! We look forward to seeing the Minister again and hopefully it’ll be the right result. We’ll do everything we can to do it as we have done in every single race – we’ll just have to work even harder.”
Of the crews’ time in Jamaica Simon said, “This has been absolutely fantastic, absolutely brilliant, the best stopover in the race so far and the only one that will come close will be Cork, but it’ll still be second to Jamaica. It’s a shame we’re not here longer. The Jamaica Tourist Board has been absolutely wonderful and all the Jamaican people have been absolutely fantastic.”

Jon

New content from JAMAICA

After the JAMAICA stopover we are lucky to have recovered a series of pictures and some videos from the boat, I'll look forward to publishing this content over the coming weeks.

I'll also recount a selection of experiences from the leg 7 crews pre-race preparation!

I have also recruited the help of a number of the wider 'JAMAICA' family to assist with content and provide on-the-ground reports from the NY, CANADA and CORK stopovers. Please let me know if you have any stories, pictures or comments. Email me directly at gibbardjr@hotmail.com

JAMAICA going through one of the locks on the Panama Canal.

JAMAICA's Katie Hearsum climbs the mast.

Kindest,

Jon

Celebrity Chef causes a stir on JAMAICA

Yesterday as I prepared to depart the shores of JAMAICA I was treated to watching the crew prepare for the arrival of the 'Pressure Cook' - chef Ralph Pagano. Ralph had been challenged to cook a meal aboard JAMAICA and was joined by camera men, sound engineers and crew as well as ITV's competition winners, flown out to JAMAICA to see the start of the race and meet the boat and crew with the chance to go for a sail.


Ralph seemed to be unimpressed by the food available onboard JAMAICA, an opinion I'm sure is shared by many of the round the worlders now! However fresh fish and other ingredients were quickly found.

Insiders tell me that the crew enjoyed the food however there was a distinct lack of any washing up being done, what would Gordon Ramsay say? and several of the camera crew succumbed to seasickness in the flat calm, gentle breeze and tropical sunshine. Maybe the 'pressure cook' would like to have another chance to prepare the food in a force 9? :-).

Simon briefs the TV crew on standard safety procedures.

Streaming video of the episode is currently only available in the US but will hopefully come to other countries shortly, I am looking forward to watching the episode. More information at http://www.hulu.com/pressure-cook

Jon

Leg 7 about to begin

It is 11:30 on Saturday 24th May. Leg 7, which starts with a race from Port Antonio to New York, will commence at 2pm today local time (8pm UK time). We have completed all of the last minute jobs and are waiting for the departure in formation from the Errol Flynn Marine at 12 o'clock.

Simon Bradley, skipper of JAMAICA, is lead skipper for this race as the rest of the fleet lines up in formation behind JAMAICA and a Coastguard clipper.

It's at this stage that I am delighted to be handing over the web site baton to Jon Gibbard who has kindly (and no doubt reluctantly) agreed to post details of the forthcoming race. I hope to be able to send posts to Jon on a daily basis to let you know how life REALLY is on board the good ship JAMAICA but that will depend on how busy we are ....... and the dreaded mal de mer!

For me it has been a long time coming but it will be a pleasure and a privilege to join such a happy crew.

So fare you all well; we hope you enjoy our voyage just as much as we will, and see you in Cork for a big JAMAICA party before arriving back in Liverpool on 5th July.

In the meantime :

GO JAMAICA !

Photo added by Jon...sorry Nick!

Nick Jacobs

JAMAICA Clipper welcomes visitors on board

Following the arrival of the fleet in the wee small hours of this morning, the crew of JAMAICA have been welcoming visitors today.

Amongst the many locals who have come on board was a party of school children from the Shebian Preparatory school who were given a guided tour by crew members. They then repaid the compliment by proudly singing the Jamaica National Anthem. It is an honour for the crew to be representing such a proud nation.

This evening will be the prize giving ceremony and party which is hosted by the Jamaica Tourist Board.

At 10am tomorrow JAMAICA will host a group of media representatives and take them out of the Marina for a morning sail. On board will be a celebrity chef and TV representatives from the UK and the USA. We look forward to welcoming them.

The race will restart from Port Antonio on Saturday 24 May at 1400 local time (1900 GMT). The boats will leave Errol Flynn Marina at 12 noon (1700 GMT) and sail in formation past Folly Point where spectators will be able to have an excellent view of JAMAICA and the other nine yachts in the Clipper 07-08 fleet.

JAMAICA arrives in Port Antonio

Team JAMAICA arrived in our home port of Port Antonio this morning at 2am local time (8am UK) to a hero's welcome.

The crowds and media were here in force to welcome our gallant crew as they finished the race in 8th place.

Resplendent in their magnificent shocking pink tee shirts, specially designed to match the colour of their eyes after this 500 mile race, they have now disembarked, completed the immigrationb formalities and are now looking forward to some rest before the next race to New York starts on Saturday.

These 2 days are a really short stopover for the crew and they have a round of media visits, celebrity chefs on board as well as their routine maintenance and training sails.

In the meantime they look forward to spending a few hours recovering and sharing the Jamaican experience with their friends and family.

Hull & Humber finish first

Just before midnight this evening (06:00 UK time) Hull & Humber moored along side at the Marina in Port Antonio. Yes, you heard it hear first on http://www.jamaicaclipper.com/ !

At the end of the 590 mile race from Panama Hull crossed the line just 1 minute and 4 seconds ahead of second placed New York.

Meanwhile, the family and friends of JAMAICA clipper are waiting patiently for their heros to arrive. Uncharacteristically they are camped out next to the beach side bar. Well it's a hard life !

Watch this space as we publish the very first pictures of JAMAICA's arrival into our home port of Port Antonio.

JAMAICA expected to arrive midnight Wednesday.

They're coming home, they're coming home, JAMAICA's coming home ....

The first of the Clipper 07-08 teams are expected in Port Antonio, Jamaica, just before midnight tonight local time (0500 GMT) at the end of the 590-mile sprint from Colon, Panama.

And at 13:00 local time (19:00 in the UK) JAMAICA were sitting in 8th place but only 13 miles off the lead, and with just 70 miles to go, as can be seen from the race viewer above, all of the top 8 yachts could be in with the chance of a podium finish.

JAMAICA skipper, Simon Bradley, says :

“Just losing a single mile against the rest of the fleet can change your standing by several places as we’re so close together. It’s great to see the other yachts, it really keeps everybody on their toes! We’re racing hard to Jamaica, looking for our first podium of the race. We had a fantastic Le Mans start fighting for position with the rest of the fleet. We’ve sailed through several heavy squalls and are now making good speed to the finish where we know there’ll be a huge welcome from friends, family & our Jamaican supporters.

One Love!”

All of the teams have been making very fast progress towards Jamaica in the moderate F5 easterly wind, however Nova Scotia and westernaustralia2011.com were trapped for several hours in their own personal wind holes and now lag behind the pack.

The current good winds will continue until the teams reach the eastern corner of Jamaica and then the final 30nm to the finish will be light and fickle and we will see lots of position changes on the finishing straights.

The first of the yachts is expected between 2200 and midnight local time (0300 and 0500 GMT) with the rest of the fleet arriving through the night.

The JAMAICA crew members and their family and friends are in Port Antonio and will be staying up through the night to give team JAMAICA a hero's welcome when they arrive. They have been preparing themselves both mentally and physically for the task ahead and were guests of honour at a reception at the Mocking Bird Hill reception last night where local Jamaica Tourist Board representative Polly was presented with a RNLI / JAMAICA Clipper pennant by Dan Garnett of JAMAICA Clipper who is also a RNLI volunteer as a thanks you for all of their help and support during their stay in Port Antonio. Crew member Nick Jacobs was invited to join a local Reggae band who provided the entertainment for the evening.

With the crew are Barbara and Shireen, owners of the Mocking Bird Hill, who kindly hosted the cocktail reception.

Jamaica leading the way to home port

At 6pm today the JAMAICA team were in 3rd place, just one mile behind New York and Hull & Humber leading the way to our home port.

Although we are running slightly to the west of the 'rhum line' this puts us into an excellent position for the short run up-to JAMAICA. Fingers crossed for a podium finish.

As the boats continue to make their way north the shore crew have been undertaking a gruelling itinerary of pre-race training sessions. This has included, but is not limited to, early morning running and swimming, employing the services of a series of dieticians to ensure maximum crew strength and yoga lessons led by friends from 'Hull & Humber' and roman wrestling competitions, selected photographs included.

Meanwhile the editorial integrity of the JAMAICA clipper website is under question as Nick Jacobs prepares to handover to Jon G, oh dear! We have been training hard for this for several months!

Finally the team have been studying hard, paying off the 'Hull and Humber' crew with a series of brown envelopes to get additional weather routing information for the coming legs.

JAMAICA in the lead at the start of Race 10

The JAMAICA clipper team welcomes you from Port Antonio, Jamaica, where we have moved for the start of Race 10, from Panama to our home port.

We are delighted to announce that at the start of Race 10 which took place at 10:00 this morning local time, 16:00 UK time, JAMAICA was first past the post. The fleet is due to arrive overnight Wednesday / Thursday where JAMAICA will arrive to a hero's welcome.

The small town of Port Antonio is slowly filling up today and the Clipper race team will arrive shortly. Other crew members from JAMAICA as well as the rest of the fleet are arriving through the course of the day.

It will be a short turn around for the fleet as a VIP welcome supper has been arranged by the Jamaica Tourist Board for some 250 people on Thursday night. On Friday, there will be a celebrity chef cooking on board JAMAICA as well as visits from local school children and a film crew from ITV and the BBC.

It means that the new crew will only be able to do their training sail on Saturday morning just before the race start when the boats will muster at mid-day (6pm UK time) for the start of race 11 to New York.

Meanwhile the finely tuned atheletes of the JAMAICA crew who have arrived in Port Antonio have been aclimatising themselves to local conditions. Just as JAMAICA clipper has started race 10, we are delighted to report that the arriving crew and families have been practicing their skills on the River Grande, as this picture shows.

After 3 hours of rafting, the occasional red stripe beer and some swimming training for good measure, the crew met later yesterday evening to enjoy a traditional Jamaican supper at Woody's International Acclaimed restaurant.

Keep watching http://www.jamaicaclipper.com/ for further updates throughout the course of the week

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.