ALL PHOTOS LATITUDE/ROB

CLIPPER 'ROUND

Clockwise from top left — The Clipper 68s are big boats; so are their fittings; 'Cape Breton Island' crew member Adrian Healy chows down on a victory slice; 'Uniquely Singapore' and the rest of the fleet got a fireboat send-off; 'Qingdao's Andrew "Heston" Jones; Kathrine Simpson and Elaine Walker enjoy a rest before cleaning up 'CBI'; 'Uniquely Singapore's Nicole Ho gets curious about what's under 'Edinburgh Inspiring Capital' sailor Alan Campbell's kilt; overall race leader 'Spirit of Australia' just after the start of Leg 6; the galley aboard 'California'; Shana Bagley shows us the shower head each crew member gets to use every nine days, plus one of her contributions to her team: "Lady Anti-Monkey-Butt Powder"; Donna Womble, who hails from Monterey, joined 'California' for the leg to Panama; 'California' skipper Pete Rollason; Rhode Island-based 'California' sailor Chris Sheldon gets his gear stowed before heading for lower latitudes.

up a jury rig to mitigate Cali Cali's need for diesel. Among the teams still racing, Cape Breton Island put on a show, finishing on March 30 — two days ahead of the next boat! In fact, the crew moved the boat along so well that they received plaintive emails from race organizer Clipper Ventures asking that they slow down. After that much time at sea, we couldn't blame the CBI sailors for just wanting to git 'er done. There weren't many people out to welcome them to Page 94 •

Latitude 38

• May, 2010

the Bay, in part because CBI beat the race office personnel — scheduled to set up shop at the Golden Gate YC a day later — to the Bay. While they may have beaten the organizers by a day, they only beat the pizza guy by a few minutes; not long after they were tied up in the San Francisco Marina, the 17-member crew was devouring the stack of pies they'd ordered upon finishing. At the prize giving, the orange canister that had conveyed the all-important radio to California was passed around

to the couple hundred people in attendance, quickly filled with money for the Coast Guard Foundation. A CG officer in attendance conveyed the impression of the C-130 crew, who were amazed at how calm California's crew had been. Local Clipper racers like Charles Willson and Shana Bagley had commented to us in the past that the camaraderie between the sailors on every boat is strong. The feeling that the entire 400-strong participant pool is like one big family is prevalent. Because of the structure of