On Saturday the 4th the crew’s of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race
prepared to say fare well to the cityscape’s of Singapore with its neon
lights framing the side walks and get ready to embrace the landscapes
offered up by the ever changing ocean. The crew on-board Gold Coast
Australia lined up along the bow as our boat song blared out across the
speakers accompanied with a local group of drummers offering us a
ceremonial fair-well and safe passage for our 8th race sailing from
Singapore to Qingdao, China. Most of the fleet had by now slipped there
lines and it was just us and the Singapore boat awaiting departure when we
discovered that we were leaking fuel every where. So with our friends and
families looking on we slipped our lines and bid our farewells to the
crowds of onlookers only to motor the short distance around the corner to
the fuel berth to assess the problem.
Setting off for the Singapore Race Start
With the oil spill kits at the ready and all the maintenance staff
standing by we berthed one last time in Singapore. After a quick
assessment it turns out that some one had by accident left the fuel
transfer pump on causing it to overflow into the on-deck compartments and
in turn into the ocean. The fuel transfer switch was promptly turned off
and we were instructed to once again re-fill our fuel tanks at the same
time we moped up the spill. Lucky not much of the fuel got into the
water. So for the second time in less than a hour we waved fare-well to
our friends and families who were by now standing by on the break-wall
wondering if we were ever going to make the start line and headed off to
the start which was across the Singapore Strait and just outside Batam
Island, Indonesia.
The race start was originally set for 1630 but due to the fact that we all
arrived there in record time it was brought forward to 1520 so it was time
to hoist our sails and get ready to race. With less than 5 minuets to go
until the start gun fires the fleet begins to bunch up in-front of the
start line. From my perfect vantage point on the bow I can see the
skippers of many boats throwing the helm hard to port, hard to starboard
then tacking and tacking back in efforts to avoid running into one
another. They were close and most of them were coming straight for us. 1
minuet to go and we have New York coming up from behind so close that if
we were to tack than our stern would have collided with them so no
tacking… 15 seconds to go and the start line is a mere boat length away
and De Lang Langdon were coming up in-front forcing us to close our gap to
the start line before we were ready. Three seconds until the start and we
were out of options so we did the only thing we could and crossed the
line. At the time we weren’t sure if we were across early or if we had
just made it but then the race officials radioed telling us we were across
early. Even though we were pushed up by a boat that should have given way
to us we were still early so our only option was to go around again.
Ready to tack. Around we went in a series of tacks and gybes probably
giving the local Singapore crew in the marker vessel a fright as we tacks
closely around them and back over the line in last position. Not to worry
we still have 2 000 nautical miles to catch up.
Because of what happened at the start we were all focus all night long as
we tried to close in on the leading boats. Taking the option of less
speed but more height we were able to take the lead back during the late
hours of the evening as the rest of the fleet tacked to get the height that
we already had, forcing them to go behind us. By the following day we had
gained a steady lead of 15 nautical miles of the rest of the fleet setting
a great start into the 8th race.
