A series of important announcements have been made regarding the race over the past couple of weeks. Firstly, I will be racing on the most politically-correctly named "Derry-Londonderry" boat, which seems to be the only "Irish" boat in the race this year (I guess funds for sponsoring sailing boats are fairly scarce south of the border these days). This is a great result and although I don't know the skipper, Yacht Ninja (from Level 1 & 2) is also on board as is his daughter idiot #3 although we won't be racing on the same leg as her. And best of all is that after a little wheeling and dealing, my old friend Tim "Idiot #2" "Hippo" Sparkes will also be racing on the same boat so we will get to see out this adventure in full together. We've encountered a couple of other people on our boat along the way though no one (other than Ninja) that we'll be sailing our leg with next March so it will be fun getting to know everyone else. They do a great job of organising a load of team building events between now and the start of the race, none more exciting than this weekend where they sailed the boat up to Derry to be officially launched. I'm gutted at not being able to go as it's a really big deal and reports back from Derry so far are that they are having an amazing time and being treated like royalty. And in June and July there are various sailing races, go-karting days etc being organised though it's unlikely I will be able to make it back for any of them other than my Level 4 training which is the first week of July, when I will meet my Skipper and some of the other Derry crewmembers. The rest of the crew will just have to get to know me en route to San Francisco!
Our boat in all her colourful glory - nicknamed "the Pink Panther".
As well as that they've announced the race will start on the 31st July in the solent, probably Southampton (though yet to be officially announced) which will be a great day out if anyone is in the area around then. Sadly, again due to July/Aug being our peak season I won't be able to make it along to wave them off but I will be closely following their progress over the start of the race online. As a result of the start date being announced we now have a good idea of when we'll be racing - 4th March to 5th April are the likely dates barring any seriously terrible weather along the way which could delay the overall race. So now starts the fun of getting visas sorted, booking flights and hotels for the race itself. Next March is still a long way off but when you think it's nearly a year already since I signed up for this adventure, I have a feeling that time will fly. Next update will be after Level 4 in July.
