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Published: February 20th 2009
Charlene and I in La Rochelle
Home of thousands of sailboats!Today I depart Sydney, Nova Scotia, to join the Clipper Round the World training yachts in Gosport, England. The events and training leading up to my departure have been a lot of work, and very rewarding.
Since my acceptance the Clipper Race three months ago, the focus has been yacht racing in Cape Breton, physical training and starting a business to support my fundraising efforts. Working the mainsail on a C&C 38 all summer, along with weight training, has left me much stronger, and 10 pounds heavier. I hope the training will pay off on board the Clipper 68’s, a bigger boat and forces to match.
Aside from sailing and my usual work at the clinic, there have been many late nights trying to collect information and prepare a website. The dedicated help of Tim, a fellow sailor and friend, allowed it all to come together on time for my departure. Each day presented a new host of challenges and leads to follow up on, but things are heading in the right direction. What a relief!
I managed to get a Paypal account to collect
donations online, so the ground work is finished for my return from England at the end of October. This has all been a good learning experience…with a health care background, preparation for this project has been a crash course in business!
The plane has taken off and it’s a clear day. I can trace the roads back to my parent’s place…their car’s not back from the airport yet.
October 5, 2008 A few days to relax in France with a friend, Charlene…perfect to bridge the gap between the busy preparations at home and race training. I luckily found a return flight to France for about 10 pounds! Charlene was the best tour guide I could imagine…being from France, she took me many places a visitor would never find on their own. A favorite stop was La Rochelle. There are more sailboats than I have ever seen in one place, and we ate at a restaurant right next to a marina! Thought I was in heaven!
After Charlene’s wonderful tour de France, it was time to focus on training. I made my way to Gosport, England, home of the Clipper race fleet - a plane, train,
ferry ride, and walk later, I was finally there! There were 2 days before training to get familiar with the area and make any last minute preparations. Staying at the Spring Garden Guest House, a 10 minute walk form the marina, is like a home away from home…a 3 egg breakfast arrived this morning, some good fuel for the next week of Part A training.
I made my way down to the boat to meet my fellow crew and Clipper staff…it was amazing to have so many adventurous people in one place. Although different paths may have lead us to join a round-the-world yacht race, we all stood there waiting to move our gear aboard for the week. The excitement was not easy to contain!
While waiting for Clipper staff to arrive, I looked down the long pier and noticed the Nova Scotia Clipper. Last time I saw her was in Sydney last June, and the reality set in…this was really happening! I felt grateful to come across this opportunity and be here with others that chose the same adventure.
Today was my 30th birthday…
October 6, 2008 First night on board, tied up at
the marina. This morning we get a good tour above and below decks to get familiar with the boat. There are two yachts on Part A training at the same time- Ariel and Blackadder Clipper. I have been assigned to Blackadder Clipper, and promptly reminded that Ariel was “the enemy”. A rivalry has already started to form, and we haven’t even left the pier!
Onboard are a people from a variety of backgrounds and ages…some closer to retirement age, others in the early years like myself. One individual saved up for eight years to take part in the race; without having a sailing background, just knowing it was what he wanted to do. The positive attitude of the group is great, and the training is off to a good start.
After a morning of navigating our way around the halyards, sheets, and winches, it finally came time to go for a sail. I could hardly wait…having a few years of sailing behind me, I was familiar with the techniques and theory, and was looking forward to seeing the differences of sailing a larger yacht. With larger forces on the lines, there were safety precautions that must always be
followed…like 3 safety wraps on a winch at all times. Some people on board had never sailed, so the training started with the basics. One of the crew is always to wear a safety harness should a man overboard (MOB) rescue be needed.
We pulled out in the harbour between Gosport and Portsmouth…winds were fairly light, which gave everyone a chance to get used to the feel of the boat. I couldn’t help but feel excited to get out in some windy weather and see how fast she would go…but there will be plenty of time for that. For now, it’s about working as a team and perfecting our tacks and gybes for the 5pm race with Ariel Clipper!
We started our race from a dead stop, sails down. Everyone in the cockpit, we waited for the word to jump to our positions and get the boat moving. It was a combination of all the skills learned today, and the evening ended 1-0 for Blackadder Clipper!
October 7, 2008 Today was overcast with 15-20 knot winds…enough to get some of that speed I’ve been hoping for! I’m also on Mother Watch with Clive. This means it
is our responsibility to make sure all the crew is well fed and keep the cups of tea coming. It is no joke that the English drink a lot of tea!! Preparation of 12 tea cups in a bit of wind certainly challenges your co-ordination. Between meal preparations and rounds of tea, this was the best sailing we’ve seen yet. Although I’m not one to get seasick, I had to come up for air a few times after chopping veggies in the galley…after a few minutes at the helm all was forgotten!
Today we focused on reefing practice and building on the skills from yesterday. Again some friendly competition with ‘the enemy” to finish off our day of sailing (Blackadder 2-0!). We pulled into East Cowes for the night, which by the way has a good pub! There are always interesting and historical artifacts in the English pubs…I seem to spend more time looking at the walls then talking to people!
October 8, 2008 Pole drills this morning before leaving the dock…there’s a technique to climb up to the pole and pop the spinnaker to get it down quickly during a race….I had a go at
climbing up the downhaul, making it all the way to the pole. What followed was an (embarassing) entanglement of my leg, my harness, and the downhaul…I thought they were going to have to cut me out of there and release me into the harbour. A children’s sailing school passed by just at the right moment to have a laugh at my awkward position! Oh well, this is something to work on!
One of our older crew members, Dave, also proved himself to be the fittest. He climb up to that pole at record speed, and hoisted himself up top with ease!
We set out today for a sail to the west, past The Needles, for an offshore race with Ariel Clipper. It will take us into our first overnight sail and watch system. It’s a good chance to take a turn at all the positions…there is less crew on deck where half are down below sleeping. I was glad to have a good run at the helm during one of my watches…I could have stayed there for hours without a break. By the next morning, we were 3 miles ahead of Ariel Clipper. The wind had gradually tapered
off to the point where it would have been faster to swim…the race was called off. I’m not sure who forfeited first, but the consensus on Blackadder was 3-0! Our location for the evening was a little town called Weymouth - home of the 2010 sailing olympics. There were a lot of fishing vessels and small yachts…I’ve decided to return here after my training for a visit!
October 10, 2008 Today we’ve introduced spinnaker work…all the lines have been run each morning as a drill, but today was our first hoist. We decide to head back around the other side of the Isle of Wight for a longer sail…I didn’t take many pictures today, as I was on mother watch yet again. Nick and I decided to stick with the menu and make tuna nachos for lunch…even though we were at sea, and it was a bit windy. If you could wedge yourself in the right position, chopping can be done with minimal mess or injury. We thought all was under control when we were called up on deck to help with a manoeuvres. The safest place to wedge the partially-made pan of nachos was in the
sink…nice and deep with no where for the nachos to spill. When we returned to continue or meal prep, the nachos were floating around in water! Little did we know water has been known to come up through the sink. Who likes soggy nachos? Well hopefully they won’t notice if we keep a few soggy ones in there. So there would be enough to go around our 12 crew, we layered the new crispy nachos on to the rest and put them in the oven. To our amusement, everyone enjoyed them, and the only complaint was from those sitting downwind of a full nacho plate!
Our day ended at a peaceful anchorage off the Isle of Wight…it reminded me of my time spent cruising and brought back memories. I sat up on deck on my own for a little while, thinking life is heading in a good direction.
October 11, 2008 Our last sailing day…we raced Ariel through many manoeuvres including racing headsail changes. Although they won the knot tying race at the pub the other night, we were felt good about our performance on the water. As someone who has sailed before, it was
amazing to see the progress of the new sailors in only one week. Spending that much time out on the water speeds up the learning curve, and it was great to see people tacking and working the sails with much more confidence than 7 days ago.
We spent some time on Meteorology, taught by Robin, and will go into more detail during our shorebased training. However I liked his approach, and hope to take my Ocean Yachtmaster course from him one day.
Once back in Gosport at the Royal Clarence Marina, we gave the boat a good cleaning to have it ready for the next set of trainees. The Part B course is on board the Clipper 68’s, the same fleet that was in Sydney. Ariel and Blackadder Clipper were from the previous RTW fleet, and 60 feet long, not to mention a different layout. The 68’s are set up better for racing, with more deck space for the crew to work and a “coffee grinder” connected to the primary winch.
I’m looking forward to my next week of training, and will have tomorrow afternoon to do laundry and prepare. In the meantime, crew dinner is shortly!
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