Advertisement
Published: February 20th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Hobart, Australia
Veronique and I on top of Mount Wellington, overlooking the city of Hobart Elisa’s Log Entries Below is my personal account of her preparation for the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race. As you will read below, the path to becoming a global sailor started long before becoming a Clipper Crew or even hearing about the race…
Early Account of Sailing Growing up on Cape Breton Island, I spent plenty of time by the ocean. My family always went for walks along the Baddeck harbour to check out the boats, and I even remember the Tall Ships visit back in 1984.
I was thinking back to experiences that might have lead me to dream of sailing around the world…
My first time on a sailboat was around age 11. A school friend, Heather French, invited me to go for a sail on her Dad’s boat. We were out on the Sydney Harbour when the wind started to pick up.
Heather and I had to stay down below for a while, and tried to play cards to pass the time. I remember the cards constantly sliding off the table as the boat heeled over! I’m sure the weather wasn’t really that rough, but
Sailing
Vero and I on board Scoundrel, with Hobart in the background it was very exciting at the time.
The main thing I remember about the day is my desire to be up on deck and be part of the action. I loved being on the water, and went out after that experience to get a book with pictures of sailboats!
Sailing 10 Years later in Halifax Years passed, and I left Cape Breton to pursue a career in Physiotherapy at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. My days were spent in classes or practical labs, and my free time spent at King’s College working with the sports teams. It was a fantastic opportunity to put my physio skills into practice, and be a part of the community at King’s. Some of my classmates and other helpful volunteers got involved, and we had a good set of sports trainers to work with the teams.
Thoughts of sailing were set aside during this time period, but I had not forgotten. That summer I worked at the QEII Hospital as a Physio Assistant by day, and at Murphy’s on the Water during the evenings and weekends. My job at Murphy’s was to advertise boat tours, and promote activities when Tall
Ships 2000 arrived.
The Mar II, a beautiful, wooden 75-foot ketch required a bartender at the end of the summer, so I left my usual position and spent 12 hours a day sailing around the Halifax Harbour. I loved it and could not believe it was a paying job!
Returning to school the following year, sailing creeped into my thoughts much more frequently. I promised myself I’d move to Australia to sail year round once I get some experience in physiotherapy. (as an aside, I had been fascinated with Australia since childhood, and now had a good reason to go there!)
Making it Happen Following school, I accepted a challenging position as Dalhousie Athletic Trainers Association Co-ordinator and clinician at the Dalplex Physioclinic. During this time, I met a physio colleague, Veronique Trottier, at a course in Halifax. We became friends, and discovered both of us dreamed of moving to Australia. We met regularly to make plans and get our work VISAs organized. By September 2004, we were on the plane to Hobart to start our first job posting. Coincidently, also home of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race! What better place to learn to sail!
Racing Crew
Our team at the Bellereive Yacht Club Some quotes from my travel journal:
Arrival in Hobart, 11pm, Sept 29, 2004 “ The taxi driver took us to 58 Alexander St, pointing out a few things along the way. I noticed the sailing club, and he thought they held yacht races every Thursday night. I want to make learning to sail my first priority, so I'll head down there in the morning.”
I did find a boat the next day. “Why Do I Do It?” was the name, and it was training for the Sydney-Hobart race in December. My job was to watch and learn from the expert racers (in other words, sit on the rail).
Soon after, I met Steve Hall, and started racing regularly on Scoundrel, later to become my home for many months!
Here I got to put all the theory into practice...myself and Mel, also new to sailing, worked the headsail. We started out in 16th place out of 17 boats in our division. By the end of season, we were 3rd overall and even had one first place finish!
Departing Albany, WA, my second posting, May 10, 2005 “ As I drove along the Princess Royal Harbour, getting my last glimpse of Albany, I saw things that made me realize what a good experience I had living here. Looking out on the water I could see the yacht club, and a little boat with red sails (possibly Ben’s?), the wind farm, and the hills of the national park.
“ I thought back over all the races with Grey Moose - and realized I learned a lot on this boat. Ian, the skipper, was keen to have me try a lot of different jobs on the boat, and was never too busy to answer questions, even during the race.
“ By the last race a couple weeks ago, I managed to hoist the spinnaker three times, which was a new skill for me. Also, I would get to races an hour and a half early each day and rig all the sheets, setting up the boat for racing. This gave me a better understanding of the whole system. I can see both from my sailing experiences, and otherwise, how the people you meet can impact your life in such a positive way”
Magnetic Island, Queensland, Aug 15, 2005 “ My first solo sail this weekend! I took the ferry to Magnetic Island, where I rented a small catamaran by myself! Managed to navigate it around Horseshoe Bay and bring it back in one piece - what a feeling when I got some speed up. Since it all went well, the next day I took a couple friends with me. Both were new to sailing, and loved the experience - they seemed to think I knew what I was doing!”
Last posting in Townsville, Queensland, Sept 3, 2005 A couple weeks prior to returning to Cape Breton…reflecting on events of the past year in Australia:
“ I think of my first racing experience in Hobart - my primary use on the boat was ballast. Heading into 25-knot winds and 2m waves, terrified I was going to plunge into the ocean, I moved as fast as possible across the boat during each tack. Even listening to lectures at the youth sailing program, all the sailing terms went over my head. I was a complete beginner at 25 years old!
“ But you gotta start somewhere - I kept showing up, and somewhere, somehow, it all started coming together. I picked up a racing book from my early stages of learning sailing. I hadn’t opened it in several months, for fear it would still be above my level of knowledge. To my surprise, it was making sense!
“ Over the year, I went from a 65kg weight on the rails, to someone who could walk up to a club and ask if anyone needs crew. This was tested when I had the chance to crew on “Zoe”, a race boat similar to the one in Hobart. They were short crew that day, so I was given proper jobs. First, trimming the headsail, then the spinnaker - I realized I was starting to understand how things on a boat operated, and felt my year away had been well spent”
I spent my last week in Australia taking the RYA Competent Crew course, to consolidate what I had learned over that year.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0389s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb