News

Durban’s drive and determination

02 August 2007

Durban 2010’s position in the parade past Hull Marina was flawless. We held an exact boat length, in perfect formation behind Liverpool. Great helming and throttle control was not the reason, but rather that we were being towed, and had no option but to be exactly one tow length (measured to be a boat length) directly behind Liverpool. The parade was great although we felt for New York who were blasted by the fire tug. I saw Justin getting very wet and Maggie looking soggy too.
 
Just after the parade, we slipped our tow and sailed out of the Humber and through the night, down to the Thames estuary, where we ran out of wind. Without a gearbox (it was removed in Hull after a line got wrapped around our prop), we had no option but to make a call to the Clipper fleet for assistance, and accept a tow from Clipper 10. No wonder the crew wants a new boat song – “Rescue Me”, by Aretha Franklin.
 
Tuesday 31st July, 05:20 and the wind is back. We have full sail up (Yankee 1, Staysail and Full Main), and have resumed our heel and 10 knots of boat speed. Life on an angle is good…
 
The plan is to complete the multi-boat part of the syllabus this morning, although I think we can already tick off the “Towing” section fairly comprehensively. Hopefully we will get a bit of a spinnaker run in today before the wind dies off completely, which is he prediction for tomorrow.
 
The good ship Durban 2010 is engineless, but not without drive and determination…

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