Liverpool/Maloy
After waving to lots of family, friends & randomers in the crew parade, we finally hit open sea & turned off the engines! We all had to wake at 4.45am to leave Wellington dock at 6am, a taste of things to come! We travelled through the locks. Good steering Tamsin, what a tight squeeze! Unfortunately this coincided with the onset of seasickness for several people. luckily all vomiting took place over the side or into the heads so no extra cleaning required - including Chloe's matching pink sick (either coconut fudge or black current squash)!!
Our time on the Mersey. A brave male pilot boarded the ship to guide us during the parade of sail. Katie a GG who teaches locally in Liverpool, was given the opportunity of a lifetime to steer the ship along the Mersey during the parade of sail. 'I felt like a VIP. Millions of spectators, cameras flashing and TV crews - Victoria Beckham eat your heart out ha,ha!!!'
The parade was so much fun. Every ship supplied entertainment, although we were obviously the stars of the show. We were heard from the river banks and our 'pink' Mexican wave was legendary. We attracted the attention of a smaller passing vessel who tried to steal our thunder by launching water bombs at us. A few soggy crew, just wait till we meet them in Norway...to be continued!!!
By the way Captain Clare is showing herself as a bit of a whizz at cloud spotting. She has informed us that cumulus clouds apparently weigh the equivalent of 80 elephants!!!!! (WOW how fascinating Dave x)
We passed the Isle of Man during the night, & by morning Ireland was visible. So we are well on our way to being in the race start position for 3pm tomorrow, off the coast of Northern Ireland. The wind was getting up in the right direction , so after a 'tacking and wearing' briefing, we did some tacking practice this morning (unsuccessfully), at least we had a good workout.(Thanks for that Captain!) Lots of laughter as the Captain announced that the medical purser and engineers were in charge of 'Spanking at the rear end' (they were most disappointed when they realised that she meant the Spanker sails). Tall ship Mir passed us mid-afternoon pretty close, making a wonderful photo opportunity, amongst jellyfish spotting & lots of hauling on ropes. Wind now dropped so the engines are going on again.
We know that the race hasn't started yet but we took great pleasure in over taking Mir in the early evening.
Update By: Aft Port