Friday
9th February 2001, 1630 GMT
BBC Bristol
Online Clipper diarist returns home |
Jane Rickard,
back in Bristol |
Bristol
Clipper is doing very well in the round-the-world race, currently
on leg six. They are topping the leaderboard, and vying for first
place on between Hawaii and Japan.
During their stop over in Hawaii they had a crew change, one of
the crew members to come off was BBC Bristol Online's diarist
Jane Rickard.
Jane told us she would have liked to have been on the Bristol
Clipper longer:
"It was the adventure of a lifetime, I could have stayed
up longer, I would have liked to have stayed on longer if I had
the time and the money," she said.
 |
| Suddenly
they all leap out at once, and there's absolutely hundreds
of them. It is unbelievable. |
 |
| Jane
Rickard |
One of the best sights Jane saw while she was with the Clipper
between Cuba and Hawaii was some sea life:
"We saw two fantastic schools of Dolphins. You can see them
up ahead - everything's bubbling under the water, and you think
the water is troubled up ahead.
"Suddenly they all leap out at once, and there's absolutely
hundreds of them. It is unbelievable."
She added how amazing it was to see them: "They come close
to the boat, and go with the wake of the boat, and that is a sight
to see."
The dolphins didn't just pay them visits during the day - the
nighttime visits were equally spectacular:
"At night, if they were coming along the side of the boat
in its wake they created a fantastic phosphorescence. Alongside
the boat you would see streaks and streaks of blue under the water."
There were some scary moments mixed in with the good ones, with
Jane often having to hang on for dear life:
"The moment when I was on the helm at 23 knots or so. I don't
think we were paying attention when a squall came in off our starboard
side.
|
|
I said 'Simon, what do we do now?'
He just said 'We hang on!' |
|
| Jane
Rickard |
"It literally pounded in, hit us, and we went up to 35 knots.
The boat was knocked down, and my watch leader Simon jumped on
the helm to try and counteract it."
Jane went on to describe how they tried to gain control of the
Clipper:
"We were screaming along at I don't know how many knots,
with the boom in the water. We had let the main sail out to spill
the wind, so having done that we were still screaming along.
"We could not put the boat upright because we had no steerage,
so I said 'Simon, what do we do now?'
"He just said 'We hang on!'" |
|
