The warm glow of victory
11:00, 19 March 2003
by Tim Hedges

A warm welcome may be waiting for the fleet in Shanghai but for the moment that is cold comfort for the boats that have finished the race from Yokohama. As if to compensate New York for the angst of watching first one boat then the rest sail off in to the distance to leave them trailing by nearly 100 miles they can be secure in the knowledge that for once the beer wont be flowing until well after they arrive.

After their well earned victory in the early hours of this morning the Glasgow Clipper crew will now be sitting at anchor off a remote group of islands 50 miles to the south west of the entrance to the Yangtzee. They will wait there as one after the other the following Clippers arrive until, finally, all 8 are safely anchored. At present we estimate that New York should cross the finish line some time tomorrow morning. Then, when all are assembled, they wait for the pilots that will guide them up river.

As recreational yachting is not exactly big in China arriving in Shanghai is not the same as, say, arriving in Southampton. Here one would make ones way to a marina of ones choosing, radio ahead to organise a berth, then tie up and do the necessary paperwork. In China the yachts are viewed in the same light as commercial ships, whose arrival times can be set to the hour, and as such each needs to take on a pilot at a pre arranged time and place. Being late for this rendez vous is not an option so Race Director Colin de Mowbray has to calculate the likely finish time for the entire fleet weeks in advance, without even the benefit of a recent weather forecast. As such the pilots are fixed to join the yachts in the early hours of Friday morning. They will then motor in convoy the 90 odd miles up river to Shanghai, a journey of around 10 hours, to arrive at their berth sometime Friday afternoon.

The anchorage is pretty bleak, and the weather at the moment has turned cold, the northerly wind bringing icy temperatures down from the arctic. The lights from a few inhabited buildings shine feebly into the gloom, but otherwise it is a fairly desolate spot and far removed from the arrival at the Bayside Marina. However it is a chance to clean out the boats and to do any immediate maintenance before the bright lights of the city lure the crews away, and also provides an opportunity to catch up on lost sleep so it is not all bad. And when they arrive in Shanghai there will be bright lights aplenty in what is one of China's fastest growing and most vibrant cities.

Apart from the cold the teams also had to negotiate fishing fleets in abundance, and we have had several reports of close encounters with boats and nets. Duty skipper Roger Steven-Jennings reported this morning from Cape Town "Fishing fleet causing havoc. Although position of fishing fleet passed down the line (to the other Clippers), you only see them at last minute with no time to manoeuvre out of the way if caught in centre. Cape Town caught on fishing gear this morning while trying to avoid chasing fishing vessels. Luckily line came free after a minute and could escape out of fleet." Bristol also reported some close shaves. It is easy to curse the habits of these fishing boats but it is important to remember that they are out in the cold doing their job as well and are probably wondering where the hell these strange looking sailing boats came from all of a sudden, and why they chose to sail through the middle of their nets.

Meanwhile Cape Town and Hong Kong continue to battle it out for 6th place and with only 5 miles between them it is still a close race. As I write this we should expect to find out who has come out on top any hour now.

Tim Hedges

Source: Clipper 2002/2003 Round The World Race Official Site