meredithcbi

Vessel Name: Cape Breton Island Clipper
Vessel Make/Model: 68 ft Clipper
17 July 2010 | Hull, England
16 July 2010 | off the coast of England
16 July 2010 | Holland
13 July 2010 | Ijmuiden, Holland
13 July 2010 | Ireland
10 July 2010 | Ireland
28 June 2010 | Kinsale, Ireland
25 June 2010 | Mid-Atlantic
21 June 2010 | Crossing the Atlantic
19 June 2010 | Sydney Harbour
18 June 2010 | Sydney, NS
17 June 2010 | home!
12 June 2010
09 June 2010 | A day from Cape Breton
07 June 2010 | Cape Breton Bound
06 June 2010 | Departing New York
03 June 2010 | New York City
02 June 2010 | New York
29 May 2010 | New York bound
Recent Blog Posts
17 July 2010 | Hull, England

The Fat Lady Sang

4th position..... That's where we finished race 14, the final race! With the winds getting lighter and lighter, we were quickly losing boat speed, and before I finished my night watch.... Australia had over taken us, and Qingdao was breathing down our neck!

16 July 2010 | off the coast of England

Blog 22 - Almost There!

I know this is my second post for today... But I forgot to mention the advantage we had over Jamaica since this morning! We watched them blow out their spinny right in front of us!! It was spectacular sight! Sad for them.... Helpful to us!

16 July 2010 | Holland

Blog 21 - Pulling Away

After our disastrous start to this race, and fight upwind through the wind farms last evening, we managed to gain some mileage back on our competitors! On my night shift, we flew our heavy weight spinnaker in what even I(known as Spinnaker Woman at home) would call 'testy' conditions!

15 July 2010 | Holland

Blog 20 - Windmills, Clogs, and Race Start

Well here we are in IJumuiden, Holland (about 40 minutes outside Amsterdam). This was a short stopover, and really only scheduled as a muster point for the fleet after Cork, and before we head to the grand finale in Hull. Our race into Ijmuiden was much faster than anticipated. Therefore the crews had [...]

13 July 2010 | Ijmuiden, Holland

Blog 19 - Holding Strong - 3rd place AGAIN!

Holding Strong

13 July 2010 | Ireland

Blog 18 - WELL over due blog

ok... so keeping up with the blogs is NOT as eay as I thought it would be. I have one on the boat which I need to email and then post. it belongs here... im trying to stay on top of them to keep you all as well informed as possible. you would think when on shore it would be easy, but without a laptop [...]

Blog 19 - Holding Strong - 3rd place AGAIN!

13 July 2010 | Ijmuiden, Holland
Meredith Macneill
Holding Strong

I have to write this blog while it is fresh in my head because, wow! what a race! When we left Cork on Friday, we had all decided, the only way we would have a chance to be on the overall podium is to defend our points over Jamaica. So we set out with that goal in mind. We, or I had no idea it would come down to battling for 2nd place finihs into Ijmuiden! Talk about bonus!

Last night, after we all gathered for celebrations and drinks, I was asked, "how did you like the race" by a friend from Uniquely Singapore. I can honestly say, the only thing I could compare the pressure and stress of that final day to the finish to the rce where we were neck-in-neck with Sthe Singas into NYC! it was so intense! In the last 24 hours of the race, we saw every type of weather, wind conditions and half of the fleet come and go in any direction in and out of sight! There was a point where I thought we had lost the race completly!

its so hard to put it into words for those of you at home. Comin int the finish line, we had Team Finland about 3 miles ahead, and Hull & Humber off our port stern. They hoisted their heavy weight spinnaker and bear away to the west (away fom the finsih line and the direction we were headed).
Analyzing this maneuver, we debated following their lead. but we were holding the same speeds and on a mroe direct course. It was a gamble, but we knew one little mistake and we would lose this podium for sure! so we held off with the hoist, to be safe. Basically handing 2nd position over to H&H. Through all the shipping lanes and anchorages we managed to steer steady and hold speeds.

It as when we noticed the encrouching 4 clippers off our stern, we really cranked it into high gear again! with quick hoist we were back side by side with H&H and steaming!!!!

We were haulin' ass, a solid 12 knots towards the finish line!! Spinny up, skipper on the helm, and the winds building, the milage was diappearing as fast as we could count down! Rockin and rolling watching H&H like looking in a mirror, 2nd place was up for grabs!

Crossing the line just minutes aftr H&H, we cheered for another triangle penant to fly high and proud on our forestay! It was intense and exciting! knowing Jamaica was well behind us, and we were on the podium again!!

Now, one more race to go... Srace start is on Thursday, we will finish in Hull on Saturday to mark the end of a circumnavigation!
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