Ni hao Qingdao! 1,200 nautical miles to go! Time flies when you’re having fun. We’re now approaching the first Hawaiian island. Apparently there is a prize for the first one to shout “Land, ho!” and actually mean it. The Lady Qing and her crew have had a few days of rougher seas, rain and winds between 20 and 35 knots. Marcus said that we’ve even had about 45 knots (F9) at one point but since we are running down wind it didn’t feel too bad. The wind now is around 10-15 knots and it’s a lot easier to get around the boat when it’s not leaning at 45 degrees. We are all enjoying the fast sailing and surfing down the waves. Last night at about 2 am we crossed the anticipated International Date Line. Its crossing has brought a lot of confusion amongst the crew. Some are expecting to re-live the same day again, others are still trying to work out the time difference to the place they need to send emails to. For Gary it’s been a good thing since he forgot his sister’s birthday yesterday and now he gets another chance to send her that ‘happy birthday’ email. As for me, I am just enjoying the fact that I am having two Mondays in a row. One doesn’t get to experience that very often. We celebrated the crossing with a bottle of champagne, chips and silly hats we bought in Qingdao. You can laugh at the photographs later.

Crew profile: Christian Lambie. Christian is 38 years old. He is from Scotland. For the past several years he’s been living and working in London where he is a partner in a law firm. His firm has offices worldwide, including Beijing and Shanghai. Christian started sailing a few years ago when he did a trip with ‘Challenge’ from Scotland to Iceland. He has been hooked ever since. He decided to take a career break and go on an offshore adventure with the Clipper Race. Why now? “It just seemed like the right time.” He is loving every minute of it. Best memory from the race so far- the beautiful Southern ocean and all the wild life he saw along the way. Another unforgettable (and believe me he hasn’t let the British crew forget) memory to add is the day he found out Scotland beat England 15-9 at rugby in the ‘6 Nations’ rugby cup.