And so it begins.....As I type, the boats are now racing in anger as the Clipper 2011/12 race begins, leaving the solent, turning hard right, next stop Madeira. I'm delighted to say that although I knew I couldn't make it to race start today I managed to get back for 24 hours on Friday for the race start party (arguably a lot more fun than the race itself!). It was great to see the boats all set to go, catch up with friends on both Derry and "other boats", and to meet some more people I'll be sailing with in March - I've now met all but 3 people from my leg. The city of Derry hosted a lovely drinks reception in the afternoon for our crew and it was nice to meet the people we'll be representing around the world - as one of the smallest cities sponsoring a boat it's really great to see how much it means to them. And then after another fleet-leading performance at the party (pretty much the whole derry crew was there to the death which was some time around 3am), the party was over and it was time for the Leg 1 crew to focus on race start and the month of sailing ahead of them en route to Rio.
The boats in formation leaving Southampton on the way to the race start in the Solent.
So for those of you keen to follow the race, there are a few ways to do so:
http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/the-race/race-viewer/ - this is the easiest way to do so with a snap-shot updated every 4hours (I think, might be 6 hours though).
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/# - search for vessel CV10 and you'll find the live location of Derry.
http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php - general race news.
http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/the-teams/derry-londonderry/ - the Derry home page where you'll get photos, blogs etc from the boat.
Please note - every boat can "go dark" for 24 hours during each leg during which time we and the other boats won't know their location - this is a tactical move, it doesn't mean they've sunk!
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