More on Earth Race

The day after Ryan spoke at school I went down to “tour” the boat first hand. If you can actually call a visit to a pointed cupboard a ‘tour”! it was drizzling and I had slip on shoes…I am glad I took Sarah coz I sure don’t think I would have been getting on it if she hadn’t leapt down there like a bunny! (thanks Sarah!)
So pleased I went! It was an experience. I was sure I was gonna end up in the drink…

As you can see in the bigger version of this pic, it was QUITE the drop from the green netted platform onto the deck of Earthrace. That and the rain and the fact the boat (or the pier I was standing on which is what it FELT like!) was moving about 1.5 metres to my left, then doing the same to my right…well, let’s just say I made good use of the kind young man standing there.
The actual time on the boat was kinda a blur coz , well there isn’t much to see and plus I was still reliving the fact I had actually got ONTO the boat and was already planning what a nightmare it was gonna be to get off it. I briefly pondered stowing away to avoid the debacle that I assumed getting off was gonna be but considering the claustophobia I was already having combined withthe motion sickness in a calm port… well let’s just say that getting off was probably the lesser of two evils. Apparently there WAS a toilet, near the entrance. Apparently there was a galley (complete with a triangle bottomed custom made fridge). I do remember seeing the beds. Four of them but room for 8. Although why on earth there woudl be 8 is beyond me seeing as there is only standing room for 5 people…
This is a bed (the small long thin thing under the orange light there).Yes. They REALLY are that narrow and thin looking (that is not me in the photo btw).
The deal is four crew will travel on the boat for the race. They will sleep two at a time for two hours. There really isn’t enough room for the four of them to be awake all at once.
Earthrace can carry about 11 tonnes of biofuel. The tanks are horizontal under the main carriage area of the boat. They will stop at (I think) 11 ports along the way for fill ups. They have to travel as close to the line of the equator as they can. There will not be showering on the boat and I imagine that it will be the most hottest stinkiest cabin ever! If it is cold out at sea they will have to shut the boat up which will make it hot inside and stinky and if it is hot they will of course be HOT and stinky. Either way, it’s gonna be hot and stinky!
In this next pic you can see Pete (the Captain) out in the RAIN on the slippery nothing to hold onto bow, doing something. Behind him you can see the only windows - they are the ones that the pilot looks out of and I have to say that when I sat in the Captain’s chair I could not see out of them unless I stood up so I am not sure how THAT all works! I certainly could not for the life of me imagine being at all able to cope out at sea in big waves having any idea where I was or what I was doing.

All in all the boat is like the Anti-Tardis, like the cupboard in Narnia, except it gets narrower and kinda ends in a point and there is nothing behind the coats…