Welcome Back to the Western Hemisphere!

Wow, it has been since January since I lasted posted...and that's not because I haven't wanted to, but as we raced from Australia to Vietnam, then into China, our ability to communicate easily and effectively became less and less...more to come on that later.

But first, a huge shout out to all of you, friends, family, new friends who have supported me on this journey. We've raced so far, over 30,000 miles with more to come. I'm now in Seattle, Washington, USA, back in the Western Hemisphere! My home town in fact, so it has been wonderful to connect with family and friends here. I meant to do a more detailed blog, but some last minute boat activities in prep for today's start to Panama derailed that.

Some highlights:

• We raced from Australia to Vietnam and placed 1st with our new skipper Phil Quinn and first mate, Henry...we raced hard and put some good points on the board. It was amazing to race through such historic waters as the Coral Sea, Solomon Islands, past Guadalcanal and on into Vietnam. Ha Long Bay was beautiful, somewhat polluted and not unexpected, overbuilt and empty...strange what speculation and COVID have done in Asia.

• Racing up to Qingdao, we placed 3rd coming into our home city...Qingdao is very modern, and the site of recent Olympic sailing...a very warm welcome reception with lots of pomp and circumstance...fun!

• On this last race of nearly 6,000 miles from Qingdao to Seattle, we placed 2nd! We've had a good run and hope to continue it down into Panama and up to Washington DC...soon to be there in mid-June. We have 4 races left in total as we begin Leg 7, and then complete our circumnavigation with Leg 8.
  

I'll do more blogging when I get to DC, and hopefully get a chance to email and call more of you...our boat needs a lot of work provisioning, maintenance and prep for new crew, so our stopovers are very busy...plus a lot of me sleeping, eating and the ever wonderful shower after a month at sea! Wet wipes just don't match up to a nice hot shower!

Much thanks to my family for joining me here in Seattle...my mom, brothers, Jean and Katie were able to join me...great to see everyone! I was also able to reconnect with dear friends for breakfast, dinners, and tours of the boat. If you are in the DC area in mid-June, please come on down...details on the Clipper web site.

Lastly, a huge "thank you" to all of you that have supported my philanthropic efforts...to date we have raised over $13,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and over $1,400 for UNICEF! A great showing outcome...so far! Keep contributing at my donation page here: https://www.chrisfarisclipperrace.com/general-6

Well, I gotta run to finalize the boat prep...we cast off about 12:30 Seattle time and make our way out to our start line just outside the Straight of Juan de Fuca...then off to Panama!

We'll connect soon!

Chris