Far East tour comers to an end.

Firstly, apologies for the lack of information to date, this was due to
some technical issues this end, hopefully this has now been resolved.
We are now on day 14 of our passage from Qingdao in China to San
Fran, a passage that has not been without incident!!
We were delayed 2 weeks in leaving China due to lack of a mast so we are
now playing catch up with the rest of the fleet. Just after we left
Qingdao we started the brand new water maker only to find that it wasn't
working, our only option was to put into Yokohama and fill up jerry cans
with water - water rationing is now in place and Tony and I have
constructed a rain water collection system out of sail cloth, cable ties
and a funnel - I knew Ray Mears would come up trumps eventually!!
Since then we have had a fire in the generator which has rendered that
useless so we are now relying on the engine to charge up the batteries.
We are taking the crossing with caution since our new rig has not really
been tested and looking at the Californian boat which has been demasted
this would seem to be sensible.
Hull & Humber lost their skipper due to a compound fracture of the Tib &
Fib and one of the crew of California had to be taken off board with a
serious head injury!!
At 02.00 last night we fouled our prop with some old fishing nets so the
engine is now out of acton until we can put someone in the water to laer
the debris!
Apart from these mishaps life continues and spirits are high.

anyone out there!!

FW: O M G

 March 16th and it looks like we could be good to go at 18.00hrs today.
 It has been a long and eventful journey so far but should be sailing on
 the high seas very soon.The riggers are tensioning all the cables and we should be going out for
 a test sail prior to departure to make sure all is well.
 Last night we were entertained by the local sailing club where we were
 wined and dined and got involved in many drinking games - pleased to say
 that TF came out on top!
 Left at 17.00 hrs to a smaller send off but we still had the.......got
 that far before started feeling lousey again!!
 Another two days of sickness but hopefully it may have passed on now.
 We are putting into Yokohama so we can pick now water and make our way to
 SF.
 Things seem to be OK on board everyone getting on - case of having to
 really!
 Encountered some really heavy winds and seas over the last two days _storm
 force 8 and 40ft waves, sat on the edge of the boat loking down a huge
 black whole.
 Seen a large pod of dolphins which was great and today on Mother watch
 cooking for crew - tinned ham glazed withwhatever I can find, red cabbage
 and apples, mash and peas.
 Still hoping to get to SF on time and the target is to catch
 Edinburgh....yea right!!

---

Team Finland set sail

Team Finland finally left Qingdao at 9.30 GMT today !!

news from Qingdao via Anna !

I think Ian has nearly sorted out his technical details re the blog just in time before he sets sail hopefully tomorrow!
News to follow if this works xx