Final Race brief, dinner with Qingdao team and last night in bed and room with air conditioning…  this is going to be a hot hot race up to the equator!

We have a great crew of 20 in total – some super experienced round the world crew and a mix of newbie leggers like me. We have a new skippers mate, another Chris – so that makes 4 x Chris….Chris-skip, Chris-chief… our chief engineer who joined from Greenings, Chris-known as Q, our bosun/quartermaster, and Chris Sargent…henceforth Sarg – coincidentally with a military background!

Our race starts with a short inshore race then a motor through the Great Barrier Reef for an off shore start.  And you can follow our progress on  https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standings

Much appreciation to family and friends support that has got me this far… smiles. Susan

Qingdao is in Australia and already nearly half way round the world – and I am about to fly out to spend some time with Charlotte, my daughter who will see me off when I start Leg 5, in late January, racing from Airlie Beach to Sanya, China.

After training and preparing for more than a year it feels slightly surreal to be finally off next week.

If I believe we should expect the unexpected, this challenges the ability to prepare 🙂