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Saturday, March 5
Photos of Below Deck on the Clipper 68s
Thursday, March 3
Level 3
Level 3 started a little hungover as is now becoming the norm - note to self, avoid Keith Price the night before Level 4 training. We arrived at 10am and went straight to the classroom where 12 of us were doing our Level 3 theory. Despite rumours of vicious exams and remarkably low pass rates on previous courses, our instructor was a very laid-back welshman who made it clear from the off that he wasn't in the mood for failing anyone on this course. The group was as diverse as ever - from an 18 year old girl who was still in school to the 63 year old coach of the Swiss national rugby team. Although the group got on well, there wasn't really the same bonding as Level 1 & 2, largely because it was learning in a classroom rather than sailing together at sea, but also because people stayed in a variety of places so went their separate ways every evening. And so began 5 days of learning about weather patterns, rules of the road at sea, lighting for boats, buoys and lighthouses and charting passages (journeys at sea). The latter took up nearly 3 days of the course and was very useful stuff, taking into account tides, local hazards, wind direction when deciding on a route to the destination. And then after 2 fairly informal assessments we all duly passed our Day Skipper Theory.
And so we went straight from the classroom onto our boat for our Level 3 practical - 5 days continuous sailing at sea in real race conditions. Just 2 of the others from the classroom were doing their practical along with Sparkey and I and we were joined by a retired Japanese Banker to make a remarkably small crew of 5 - this was going to be a long 5 days with just 5 of us running the boat. It was great to be back on the boats though and all my new gear combined with significantly warmer temperatures than last time (0-10C rather than -10-0C last time) made me confident I would be a lot warmer this time. We met our skipper, Simon, who we had in fact met briefly at Level 1 training. He had completed Clipper 10 years ago as crew and 2 years ago as skipper so was something of an oracle in terms of Clipper know-how. Over the course of the 5 days he must have answered over 200 questions regarding life onboard during the race. And we were joined by our first mate Rich who was something of a character. Aged just 23 he was already almost fully qualified as a skipper as well as being a lorry driver among many other things. And so after getting the boat fully equipped and ready we headed off in a westerly direction to see where the winds would take us.
- A Very Empty Deck with only 5 Crew on Board
Once we got into the Solent we ran through a few of the basic manoeuvres - partly to remind us of how the boat worked but mainly so Simon could see if we were competent enough to head off to sea - and then we made for the Needles (narrow bit of water north west of the Isle of White). However visibility soon deteriorated to the point that we were now surrounded in fog and couldn't see more than 500m away. Given the conditions and the narrowness of the Needles, Simon decided we would have to find a sheltered cove and drop anchor for the night. It was frustrating for all but the correct decision. And as Murphy's Law would have it, no sooner had we found a suitable place to drop anchor and manoeuvred the anchor into position (a lot easier said than done), the fog cleared and the wind picked up and off we went to sea. So the 5 crew members were split into 2 watches - we had 3 in ours which was something, though we quickly were down to 2 as the lady in our watch was struck down badly with sea-sickness - to put this in context, during the race we'll have 9 people on each watch. We were working in a 3hrs on/3hrs off watch pattern - it would normally be longer but due to the small numbers on each watch and the cold conditions it was felt any longer than 3 hours on watch would be too much. So at 10pm we headed down below for some sleep while the remaining 2 sailed westwards. I was sleeping well downstairs until they tacked the boat and I nearly slid out of my bed and then once awake I noticed conditions had worsened and struggled to get back to sleep. We were now sailing into the wind with the tide behind us which gives probably the worst conditions you can get at sea. And then at 1am it was our turn to go up on deck. I was greeted with the darkest night I've every experienced - no stars or moon visible, too far from land to see any lights, so all we got was the tops of the waves either side of us illuminated by our own navigation lights. It felt like we were sailing down a valley of waves and when I took over the helm from a clearly exhausted Sparkey he left me with the directions of "we're heading roughly west - good luck".
- Conditions were a little rough this week but nothing compared to conditions in the Pacific last year which resulted in one boat losing her mast (above) - if you consider the boat is over 20m long, I can only imagine the size of the waves she's surfing down in the above picture.
The second member of our watch made it on deck but simply was sick continuously and then there was a surreal moment when Sparkey came back up from below to be sick all over the deck which then triggered the other 2 people on deck to join in - all this action was taking place right in front of me while I was trying my best to keep the boat in a straight line. It felt like it was going to be a long night. And when we lost the third member of our watch to mild hypothermia, the skipper made the decision to turn back to the Isle of Wight. Although a little disappointed, I wasn't looking forward to helming the whole 3 hours on my own so did welcome the change of plan. And so with the wind and tide now behind us, conditions improved immediately on board. I went down below at 4am wet and a little cold but after 3 great hours sleep I felt a lot better. And when I went back up on deck I was greeted with the sun rising into a completely clear blue sky - it was just wonderful and a great reminder of how amazing life at sea can be. Over the next 48 hours we spent both nights in harbour and worked as a crew of 5 on deck all day which was a sensible decision given how tough it had been in watches. So we didn't complete the exact aim of the course but learnt an awful lot nonetheless.
And that was Level 3. In some ways it had flown by, at the same time we were fairly exhausted having got through a lot of work in 5 days. And upon returning to Gosport we just about managed to make a well deserved last-orders in the pub where we bumped into Idiot #3 and the Yacht Ninja from our Level 1 & 2 courses which was a lovely surprise - they were midway through their Level 3 theory and keen to get sailing again - boy could we have used them on our boat over the previous 5 days! Now all that's left is our Level 4 training in July and we're all done. I felt a lot more comfortable on board this time - my kit was great and I was warm throughout, and I'm really getting a feel for sailing the boat in all conditions and understanding the things we need to look out for in order to make the boat go as fast as possible - it is after all a race we're entering. Sparkey as ever was great to have on board and noises from Clipper HQ suggest there is a good chance we'll be picked on the same boat for the race. Next significant date is 1st May which is crew allocation day when we'll find out our race crew. Back to the real world now with a big conference starting in Cannes this weekend and then of course the small matter of Charlie's little brother arriving in 2 months time!
And so we went straight from the classroom onto our boat for our Level 3 practical - 5 days continuous sailing at sea in real race conditions. Just 2 of the others from the classroom were doing their practical along with Sparkey and I and we were joined by a retired Japanese Banker to make a remarkably small crew of 5 - this was going to be a long 5 days with just 5 of us running the boat. It was great to be back on the boats though and all my new gear combined with significantly warmer temperatures than last time (0-10C rather than -10-0C last time) made me confident I would be a lot warmer this time. We met our skipper, Simon, who we had in fact met briefly at Level 1 training. He had completed Clipper 10 years ago as crew and 2 years ago as skipper so was something of an oracle in terms of Clipper know-how. Over the course of the 5 days he must have answered over 200 questions regarding life onboard during the race. And we were joined by our first mate Rich who was something of a character. Aged just 23 he was already almost fully qualified as a skipper as well as being a lorry driver among many other things. And so after getting the boat fully equipped and ready we headed off in a westerly direction to see where the winds would take us.
- A Very Empty Deck with only 5 Crew on Board
Once we got into the Solent we ran through a few of the basic manoeuvres - partly to remind us of how the boat worked but mainly so Simon could see if we were competent enough to head off to sea - and then we made for the Needles (narrow bit of water north west of the Isle of White). However visibility soon deteriorated to the point that we were now surrounded in fog and couldn't see more than 500m away. Given the conditions and the narrowness of the Needles, Simon decided we would have to find a sheltered cove and drop anchor for the night. It was frustrating for all but the correct decision. And as Murphy's Law would have it, no sooner had we found a suitable place to drop anchor and manoeuvred the anchor into position (a lot easier said than done), the fog cleared and the wind picked up and off we went to sea. So the 5 crew members were split into 2 watches - we had 3 in ours which was something, though we quickly were down to 2 as the lady in our watch was struck down badly with sea-sickness - to put this in context, during the race we'll have 9 people on each watch. We were working in a 3hrs on/3hrs off watch pattern - it would normally be longer but due to the small numbers on each watch and the cold conditions it was felt any longer than 3 hours on watch would be too much. So at 10pm we headed down below for some sleep while the remaining 2 sailed westwards. I was sleeping well downstairs until they tacked the boat and I nearly slid out of my bed and then once awake I noticed conditions had worsened and struggled to get back to sleep. We were now sailing into the wind with the tide behind us which gives probably the worst conditions you can get at sea. And then at 1am it was our turn to go up on deck. I was greeted with the darkest night I've every experienced - no stars or moon visible, too far from land to see any lights, so all we got was the tops of the waves either side of us illuminated by our own navigation lights. It felt like we were sailing down a valley of waves and when I took over the helm from a clearly exhausted Sparkey he left me with the directions of "we're heading roughly west - good luck".
- Conditions were a little rough this week but nothing compared to conditions in the Pacific last year which resulted in one boat losing her mast (above) - if you consider the boat is over 20m long, I can only imagine the size of the waves she's surfing down in the above picture.
The second member of our watch made it on deck but simply was sick continuously and then there was a surreal moment when Sparkey came back up from below to be sick all over the deck which then triggered the other 2 people on deck to join in - all this action was taking place right in front of me while I was trying my best to keep the boat in a straight line. It felt like it was going to be a long night. And when we lost the third member of our watch to mild hypothermia, the skipper made the decision to turn back to the Isle of Wight. Although a little disappointed, I wasn't looking forward to helming the whole 3 hours on my own so did welcome the change of plan. And so with the wind and tide now behind us, conditions improved immediately on board. I went down below at 4am wet and a little cold but after 3 great hours sleep I felt a lot better. And when I went back up on deck I was greeted with the sun rising into a completely clear blue sky - it was just wonderful and a great reminder of how amazing life at sea can be. Over the next 48 hours we spent both nights in harbour and worked as a crew of 5 on deck all day which was a sensible decision given how tough it had been in watches. So we didn't complete the exact aim of the course but learnt an awful lot nonetheless.
And that was Level 3. In some ways it had flown by, at the same time we were fairly exhausted having got through a lot of work in 5 days. And upon returning to Gosport we just about managed to make a well deserved last-orders in the pub where we bumped into Idiot #3 and the Yacht Ninja from our Level 1 & 2 courses which was a lovely surprise - they were midway through their Level 3 theory and keen to get sailing again - boy could we have used them on our boat over the previous 5 days! Now all that's left is our Level 4 training in July and we're all done. I felt a lot more comfortable on board this time - my kit was great and I was warm throughout, and I'm really getting a feel for sailing the boat in all conditions and understanding the things we need to look out for in order to make the boat go as fast as possible - it is after all a race we're entering. Sparkey as ever was great to have on board and noises from Clipper HQ suggest there is a good chance we'll be picked on the same boat for the race. Next significant date is 1st May which is crew allocation day when we'll find out our race crew. Back to the real world now with a big conference starting in Cannes this weekend and then of course the small matter of Charlie's little brother arriving in 2 months time!
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