In Simon’s latest blog and the final one of his first Leg of the Clipper Race he tells us of the lessons learnt and how he and his crew will bounce back by their disappointing race result.

The final week of racing had much more to do with the well known marriage vow: “for better or worst.”

After our catastrophic day in week three, it feels like we could only cruise the last bit until the finish line. Being out of spinnakers to compete against the rest of the fleet, we saw most of the boats pass us one by one. To add to the suffering, we were caught in two wind holes along the way.

Then one day, I heard: “Land, I see land!” This was what everyone had been hoping for.  Seeing the corner of Uruguay meant we would be on land within days.

Despite everything that happened and despite our late arrival (1:00am) we received a heroic welcome from the Clipper Race organisation and all the supporters who got there – hundreds of people.

That’s it, five weeks had gone by since we left Liverpool, UK. A full journey for some of us, the beginning of an epic story for the others.

The first thing I did when we touched land was to congratulate all my team mates for their accomplishment. It was by far the longest and toughest sail anyone had ever done and despite the problems and the result, we stuck together as one team and that is definitely something that we will build on in the future legs.

I’m not going to lie, I was disappointed by the final result. We had fought in front of the pack for the whole race and even lead the pack for one week. I thought we deserved better, but we paid a high price for our mistake and bad luck.

Everyone who knows me knows that I will bounce back.

We will use the time in Punta del Este, Uruguay to clean the boat, service and repair all that is needed. Hopefully we have enough time to fix our sails. We will also need to take some time off and reflect on the lessons learnt throughout this first leg.

See you on the docks or on the start line October 4th.

Cheers

Simon  #marlowropesambassador