Clipper 13-14 Homecoming

The fun started 12:00 11th July with lunch at The Anchor in the company of Roz and new Clipper buddy Gary. A nice couple of hours spent catching up with Roz and getting to know Gary. Then just as we were thinking of heading over the river to the Little Ships Club a trepid lady came over to us, "Are you Roz, Chris & Gary?" said Maggie.

Turns out Maggie has just signed up for Clipper 17-18 and managed to track us down by the power of the 15-16 FB group. It was really nice to meet someone in the next group and to see they felt the same way we did back all those years ago when we signed up for 15-16!

We got to TSC and met up with more old friends and said hello to new ones. David then called us to our seats and we looked forward to finding out more about our race. A great video was played of the 13-14 race leaving San Fransico - full sails, healed over, creaming along, very evocative.

David's message; The 13-14 crew have just 24 hours of glory left, on Sunday the focus would shift to us, we would be the race! That was quite a powerful message. Other than that we didn't really learn much about our race, other than the start would be mid August give or take a week.

Saturday morning boarded a spectator boat with our freinds Sue & Gary. The spectator boats headed down river to meet up with the Clipper flotila approx 1 mile east of the Woolwich ferry. Lots of shouting, cheering and waving between the boats. What a great river trip!

The spectator boats dropped us off allowing us to greet the boats onto St Kats. They came in one by one to great cheers, but the biggest was saved for Henri Lloyd, the winner, who came in with flares blazing.

Now that the 13-14 race was over, Henri Lloyd were selling 15-16 branded wear. Not that I needed anything, but there was now way I was leaving without my first piece of official branded race clothing, so a rash top was purchased, which I prodly wore Sunday when we went round Tate Modern!

After a great weekend welcoming home the 13-14 race, plus celebrating our freind Paul's birthday, Monday came down with a bit of bump. I felt quite low, dispondent with no motivation. The FB group chatter indicated that I was not the only one suffering with "Yellowbrick Withdrawal Syndrom" as it is known as.

Only another year to go!