Training Level 1, 7th Day

Today was our last day and we did not do any sailing. After breakfast Will Stokely from the Clipper Race team visited us and we had a chat with him to learn about the next steps and to be able to give him some feedback. He also asked us to confirm our commitment with the race. We then started the deep clean of the boat. In between we each had a one-to-one final private meeting with Stefano to learn about his personal assessment of each of us. Stefano told me what I already knew, that my overall sailing knowledge was more than adequate and that I just needed to practice more to transfer all this knowledge to the handling of these bigger yachts, so I was quite happy with this assessment.

We started the deep clean by removing all the stuff inside the boat, starting with our personal luggage. We then removed all the ropes from the forward cabin, removed all the cushions and mattresses, removed all the wet suits and the life jackets and removed all the floor boards. We then split into teams, with each team taking care of cleaning some part of the boat. Some people worked on all the parts of the boat which were covered by the floor boards, other persons cleaned the galley, some other people took care of cleaning all the floor boards... I ended up working most of the time cleaning the aft lazarette, which needs to be emptied of all the stuff and then cleaned in depth with an anti-bac spray. I also helped with the cleaning of the floor boards, cleaning all the ropes, cleaning the cushions and mattresses... It was a great team effort and, though we spent several hours doing this, I think it was quite efficient and we worked together very well as a team.

When we finished, and after a final shower, we met in the Clipper Race office where we were able to  get our RYA Competent Crew certificate. Also, those people who had sailing logs were able to get them signed by Stefano. We finished the day by having lunch together in a nearby cafe. It was sad to have to say goodbye to all these people, we really had an amazing time together. I was already looking forward to our next training. And I already knew that a couple of my team mates would be doing the same dates as I was going to be doing in March, which was great.

We had created a Whatsapp  group to keep in touch and Maxim had posted a very nice poem about sailing by a Russian poet. I was flying that evening to Spain and somehow I felt inspired by this poem and decided to write my own, so I spent all the flight doing that. It is very far from a literary masterpiece but I am quite happy with it as I feel it reflects our training very well. I have decided to reproduce it here

Grinding on the topping
and easing on the main,
these words are not stopping,
these thoughts still remain.

Lots of new instructions,
too many words to learn.
Can't have no distractions
or it all ends in pain.

Honey in your coffee,
pot noodles in the air,
running out of toffee,
no problem, we don't care.

Bob is in the water,
he's fallen in again.
Well, it doesn't matter,
we'll find him in the rain.

Distance from the pulpit?
"Thirty meters", then "Reverse!"
No matter how you look it,
I think it makes no sense.

Enrico, have you eaten?
Two-six and hoist the sail.
We all look badly beaten.
Someone is getting pale.

Team is getting stronger,
supported by your peers.
Can't take this any longer,
I'll have just two more beers.

We need to thank the skipper
and also the first mate.
Patience runs through them deeper,
there's always someone late.

No matter that we're all tired,
we're doing a deep clean.
The bilge pump hasn't fired.
Where the hell is Maxim?

These words are not stopping,
these thoughts still remain,
easing on the topping,
and grinding on the main

Training Level 1, 6th Day

Today it was our turn to be "mothers" again but given it was our last sailing day we basically did a "potpourri" of anything that was left to try to have as little leftovers as possible. After breakfast it was time to do the crew assessment. We started by having to tie some knots (bowline, admiralty and double sheet bend in our case), then we sat down individually with Stefano to answer a battery of questions and finally we went outside with Kym to demonstrate our handling of the winches. We then proceeded to do some agility tests that we had not done yet, like checking that you can climb on board with the help of a mooring line or that you can throw a mooring line. Finally we had to show that we were able to row a small dinghy. This part was a lot of fun as there was a lot of current and it was not particularly easy, so we had a good laugh watching the struggle of the people banging around in the dinghy. In all I think that the assessment was quite easy to pass and none of us had any trouble with it.

Today was the turn to learn about downwind sailing, use of the preventers and gybing. But, although we did practice all of that, this day we had the worst weather of the week, with lots of wind and rain, so we did not practice as much as I would have liked. By the end of the day you could tell that we were all exhausted after all the activity of the week. The return to dock in the late afternoon was silent, with everyone sitting quiet and reflecting about the week, also a bit sad that it would all soon be over.

During the day we had seen a couple of other Clipper boats which were doing training for other levels. We were practically alone in the water, it seems that no one else was willing to be sailing under the rain and a heavy wind.  When we arrived we got a radio call saying that one of these boats was having a bit of engine trouble and asking us to be on standby in case they needed any help when mooring. So we took turns in going to the shower and waiting for this other yacht to show up. In the end they managed to dock without any need for assistance.

Since this was our last night, we went out for a group dinner. The dinner was not very good and they managed to cook my "medium-rare" fillet to the level of an inedible stone but we had great fun sharing all the best moments of the week that we were about to leave behind. An amazing group of people and I am sure that some of them will be friends for life.

Training Level 1, 5th Day

Today was our turn to be "Navigators", so we started the day by listening to the weather forecast on the VHF radio. The forecast included lots of rain and increased winds so it sounded like a fun day. During the rest of the day we would take turns to add entries to the log every hour and every time we did a significant evolution.

As our first lesson of the day we learned how to shake a reef. Again the evolution seemed quite complex, with lots of steps and again we were a bit overwhelmed. I guess that only a lot of practice will help us make this second nature. As part of our training material we received a set of "wet" notes, with lists of all the steps needed during each evolution and these proved really helpful, specially with the most complicated ones.

All the evolutions that include the main sail (hoisting it, dropping it, taking or shaking a reef) include a step called VMT (for Vang, Main, Topping lift) where you first release the vang and then in coordination you ease the main while you grind on the topping lift. The two persons who handle the main and the topping lift need to keep in synch and to do so one of them will shout "easing on the main!" and the other will reply "grinding on the topping!". We repeated this so often that it became a kind of group "mantra" and we used it all the time. During breakfast someone would say "easing on the butter!" and someone else would reply "grinding on the jam!". It is great when this kind of group dynamics develop.

We spent the rest of the day mostly practicing tacking and tacking. I was able to helm for a long time and it was great as the wind had picked up to around 30 knots and I really enjoyed it. The yacht handled beautifully and responded easily to the helm, it was amazing to be able to be in control of such a beast.

In the afternoon after lunch we did a new MOB manoeuvre. I wanted to try what it felt like to be the designated swimmer (this is the person that is lowered to the water with a waterproof suit to help recover the casualty) so I had placed myself strategically near the companionway so that I could pick up that role when the MOB came. So, upon hearing the "Man Overboard!" cry, I jumped below decks ready to pick up this role. Maxim helped me get dressed and I came on deck, was tied to the halyard that would be used to lower me, went over the hand rail and was lowered to the water (it is like rapelling on the side of the boat). The first approach to the casualty was not successful as it almost ended up under the boat but on the second one I was able to recover Bob, our clumsy passenger. It was an experience that was at the same time terrifying and exciting, I am really glad to have taken the opportunity to perform this role.

Two of the persons that I liked more of my team mates were Maxim and Enrico. They had been working together as a team but they couldn't be more different: Maxim was ex-army, very organised and disciplined, with a clear idea of how to do things in a straight manner, quite serious. Enrico was a wild spirit, disorganised, a bit of a disaster but a really lovable guy, very affectionate. They were like night and day. But somehow they worked together brilliantly as a team. That night Maxim asked Stefano "How do you say 'many' in Italian?" and Stefano said "Molto" and Maxim said "Argh, I have spent half an hour trying to get that from Enrico and there was no way!!!". He told us about a conversation with Enrico which went something like:
- Enrico, how do you say "many" in Italian?
- Yes
- Yes? I wanted you to translate "many" into Italian
- Italian? Yes, I am Italian
- But I want you to translate
- Translate is to convert English to Italian, yes?
- Yes, so, how do you say "many" in Italian?
- Yes
And on and on it went. We had a great laugh with this.

That night we also docked in Cowes, in the Isle of Wight. I did not feel like going to the pub so I just stayed in my bunk, a bit sad because the next day would be our last sailing day.

Training Level 1, 4th Day

Today was our turn to be "engineers" so we started the day (after a nice breakfast with some croissants that Nicola and Andy bought) by checking the engine (IWOBBLEDU!) and then draining the bilges. It is good that John is a real engineer as he developed a system so that this process of taking out all the water accumulated in the bilges took us half the time of what it had taken the other teams.

We then left the dock and started all the lengthy process of getting the boat ready to sail: get all the fenders and mooring lines down below, hoist the main, get the staysail and the yankee up on deck, hoist the staysail, hoist the yankee... It was good that someone suggested "cuppa tea?" after we finished with all this as we were all ready for a small rest.

Then we spent all morning tacking and tacking and tacking until we had all assimilated the process. It was the first time that I was able to helm the boat and my smile was as wide as my face. Stefano then tried to do a MOB but when he was throwing Bob overboard, his tether got tangled in one of the stanchions so we ended up doing a tethered MOB, a manoeuvre that we also needed to practice, so it was all good. This is much simpler than a normal MOB and the most important thing is to heave to and stop the boat as soon as possible, to eliminate the possibility of drowning.

When Kym was returning the halyard that we used to hoist the casualty to the pin board somehow the halyard got tangled with the radar reflector. Stefano and Kym spent several minutes trying to untangle it to no avail. We decided that we would leave it as it was, as we really did not need this halyard (it was the spinnaker halyard and, in any case, all the foresails halyards are duplicated) and try to untangle it when we were in port, probably needing to hoist someone up the mast.

After lunch we did another MOB, this one a real one and things went much more smoothly than the day before, the communication was great and we were able to recover the casualty in good time. It is great that to see that the team was learning to work together.

The last thing that we did that day was to learn how to reef the main. The process is quite complex and involves a lot of steps. I think that we were all a bit overwhelmed with so many things going on, including myself, this being an evolution much more complex than what I am used to in smaller boats.

Today we returned earlier than usual to the dock at Gosport as we had an appointment to try on all the gear that the Clipper Race is providing for us for the race. So, after a nice shower, we all took the ferry to Portsmouth and went to the Musto store where they had set up everything for us. We got to try all the stuff that the Clipper Race is providing: fast dry shorts, short sleeve polo, long sleeve t-shirt, softshell wind jacket, Sardinia BR1 jacket, pro series salopettes and pro series smock. Everything was of the highest quality and I was specially impressed with the salopettes and smock. They looked incredibly tough and awesome, ready to take on oceans and oceans. They are even better than the stuff that Clipper provides for training (which is already great). They also informed us about some other Musto stuff that is available for sale with a 30% discount for Clipper Crew (we got our discount codes in our emails a few days later). We will only get this stuff just before our Level 4 training as they need to wait for team assignments so that the colours match the team colours. One of the nice things I learned is that for a small price they can do some work on the suits, like shortening a little bit the legs, which is great as I am not too tall and the sizes I need to use are usually too long for me.

It was really a great moment that we all enjoyed a lot and we all left with a big smile on our faces. We then went for some beers to a pub in Portsmouth and we had a great time. The team is solidifying and we are all enjoying working together.

Training Level 1, 3rd Day

We started the day having porridge for breakfast. I have always hated porridge, to me it has always been an inedible mash. But today I discovered that if you add enough sugary items like honey or syrup it becomes more or less edible, which is a good discovery as I suspect that we will be eating porridge many days during the race.

Today was our turn to be deckhands so while the rest of the team was busy with other tasks down below, we went up on deck and started preparing everything to leave the dock, starting with a deep look at all the security items like the jackstays, the dan buoy or the hand rails. We also prepared all the mooring lines for our departure. We finally left the dock after stopping at the fuelling point to fill up on diesel. It was great to be finally sailing, the weather was not too bad and I even got to wear my sun glasses for a while.

We started the day by learning how to hoist the main. The process is not too complex but it takes a really long time. The sweaters (the people manually pulling down the halyard until the point where we need to grind it to continue hoisting) did a great effort and it seemed to never end. You think that you must be almost done and when you look up you have barely reached the first spreader. And once you cannot pull by hand any longer you start grinding with the coffee grinder and this also takes ages until the main is fully hoisted.

We then hoisted the staysail and the yankee. The staysail is quite easy as it is a small sail (thought it is probably bigger than any sail in any boat that I have sailed before) but the yankee is huge and again we needed a lot of effort to hoist it fully. The lessons that I seem to be learning is that everything is bigger and requires more people and effort than what I am used to.

We were sailing under full sail now and I saw a lot of smiles on people's faces. It was time to relax a little while lunch was prepared and I used the opportunity to take some pictures. The weather was slowly deteriorating but this was probably the day which was nicer in the whole week

After lunch we learned how to tack. To me it was an easy exercise, the main difficulty was understanding the role of the backstays as I have never sailed a boat with running backstays before this one. The people who had never sailed before were struggling a little bit to understand what was going on and Stefano had the great idea of asking them to take turns in staying behind the cockpit just looking at the manoeuvre as a whole and I think this helped them a lot to understand what was going on.

After a lot of tacking it was our turn to do our first proper MOB. Stefano dropped Bob (our mannequin which simulates the casualty) overboard when no one was looking. This first MOB was a bit disastrous, specially in the communication of the people in the snake pit with the swimmer. We did not have anyone relaying the info from the deck to the swimmer and back, everyone was shouting at the same time and Maxim, our designated swimmer, spent a lot of time going up and down like a tea bag. We finally recovered Bob and had a quick group pow-wow to analyse the MOB and try to find ways to do better next time.

It was starting to get dark so Stefano decided that we would stay the night at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight. While on our way there we started learning all the tasks that needed to be done at the end of the day: dropping the yankee, folding it, storing it in its bag and getting it below decks, dropping the staysail (that one remains on deck in case of an engine failure as a backup), dropping the main sail, preparing all the fenders and mooring lines, mooring, covering the main sail, folding and storing the staysail... None of these procedures were too complex and were familiar enough, everything was just bigger and took more effort and more people. But when we finished the day we were quite exhausted, both mentally and physically with all the new stuff that we had learned today. 

After dinner we went to a pub in Cowes and I was able to have a really nice chat with some of my mates like Jenifer or John. They are a really nice bunch and I am enjoying it a lot with them. The relationship with Stefano and Kym is also very good and it seems that everyone is having a blast.

Training Level 1, 2nd Day

Today was my turn to be "mother" with my mate John. This mainly means cooking all three meals and keeping everyone happy and fed. I got up early around 6:30 to start preparing everything for breakfast. We were going to prepare bacon and eggs but we soon discovered that the only pan that we had was a "everything sticks" pan and we made a little mess of the bacon as it was sticking all over. We did some semi-edible scrambled eggs using another pot but not a great start to our day.

After breakfast we learned how to check everything in the life jackets, including checking that they had not lost any air during the night and how to pack them. We each had to pack several jackets, including the one that we were going to wear during the week so we learned to be careful as our life might depend on it. It is good to learn that the life jackets that we will use during the race will each have its own AIS device, though the ones that are used during training don't have it.

Next lesson was about performing all necessary checks in the engine. We learn how to open the engine compartment and learned about IWOBBLEDU, which is just an acronym for all the different checks that need to be performed  (Isolate, Water, Oil, Belts, Bilges, Leaks, Electricity, Diesel, Unisolate). The engine is a powerful beast, really huge and noisy.

Then we went on deck and continued learning. We did a security review of everything on deck, including which parts of the boat are more dangerous depending on the heading relative to the wind and we learned how to use the jackstays and how to clip ourselves to the boat and when we needed to do it. The boat is well equipped with jackstays, so it is not too difficult to move around while tethered, probably the worst part is just forward of the mast, where the two side jackstays are quite apart one from each other. In the 70s this has been solved with another jackstay which travels perpendicular to the boat just forward of the mast.

We then learned about the proper use of the winches. This is probably one of the areas which differed more from my previous experience. In the Clipper Race world they insist on handling the winches in a very particular way, always with your pinkies pointing to the winch. This is a great idea as it makes handling the winches more secure but I had never handled them like that, so it took me a while to get used to it.

It was time to have lunch so while the rest of the team moved some of the sails up on deck (the sails are huge and even the smallest one needs several people to move them) we prepared some rice with the leftovers of the pasta sauce and some pastries. It took forever as the cookers and the oven are pretty small and not very good for cooking for so many people. Again we managed to get something edible, with the pastries only half-burnt but again it wasn't a very satisfying cooking experience.

After lunch we all learned how to manage the coffee grinder (this machine which is very spectacular, with two people turning the handles and which is used to grind on the two main winches). We took turns working in pairs to raise one of the yankee sails to the height of the second spreader using the coffee grinder, it was tough but something that we all managed to do without any problems. This is one of the agility tests that you are required to complete to pass Level 1.

We were supposed to have done our first bit of sailing that day but it was already quite late and given how early it gets dark in those dates, Stefano decided that we would not leave the port that day. As a final lesson of the day, we learned all the steps involved in a Man Over Board situation. That is probably the worst that can happen during the race and it was great to see that they have this manoeuvre perfectly studied and defined. We learned about the different roles needed and what everyone was supposed to do during this situation. I was glad to learn that us much importance is given to how to recover the casualty back on deck as to how to locate and approach the casualty. In many cases when talking about MOB I had seen a great emphasis on locating the casualty but very little thought on how to get them back on board once located.

During all this we had to prepare tea/other hot drinks several time during the day. I have never seen people who drank so much tea as these English people did. "Cuppa tea?" seemed to be one of the most heard sentences during the week. We managed to keep everyone happy and warm.

It was time to prepare dinner so we went down below while the rest of the team learned about folding the sails to get them back below, another task that requires a huge number of people. I really can't imaging how this can be done in a rough sea with the boat jumping around, but I guess I'll learn. Dinner was not too bad, we managed to prepare some decent vegetables and to cook some fish fingers in the oven without burning too many of them.

I was quite tired at the end of the day, being "mother" is difficult as you have to spend a lot of time down below preparing the meals while the learning continues, so I was glad that we were able to get that out of the way on the first day. I decided to skip the pub altogether and stay in my bunk for an early night, really looking forward to our first sailing the next day.

Training Level 1, 1st Day

The first day of training for Level 1 starts quite late, we were supposed to be in the Clipper offices by 17:00. In the morning I checked the weather forecast for the week and it was quite disheartening, we were supposed to have rain every day! Well, that shouldn't be too different from what I can expect in Leg 3 so it is time to start getting used to it. I took an early train as I did not want to get there very late. I was feeling nervous and excited, really looking forward to the experience.

In the ferry from Gosport I met Keith, you could easily tell that he was joining the Clipper training by his (as he himself described) "biggest sleeping bag in the world". It is one of these Ocean Sleepwear sleeping bags and the people who brought one (Keith and Andy) recommend them, so I'll probably look into getting one myself as I was able to confirm that my current sleeping bag is not good enough for the Clipper race.

We met in the Clipper office and slowly my training sailing mates arrived one by one. They seemed a nice bunch. We had Nicola, Keith, Andy and John from the UK, Jenifer from Brazil, Enrico from Italy, Maxim from Russia and myself, with a mix of experience and sailing knowledge. We had three persons who had never sailed before, four with some sailing experience and I was the one with more experience. A pleasant surprise was that the Clipper Race guys provided each of us with a very nice metallic water bottle with the Clipper Race logo. This was great as I had forgotten to bring mine.

We went to the boat and left our stuff in our chosen bunks (I was lucky to be able to pick a lower bunk, which I much prefer, in the quietest part of the boat) and met in the main cabin for our first talk. Our skipper was Stefano, Italian (very Italian!!), a really nice guy, outspoken, very funny, food lover and a very good teacher. He would be a great skipper for the race but he said that even though the Clipper Race have asked him several times, he is not really interested (I guess he does not want to spend too long far from his loved Italy). The first mate was Kym, an almost opposite personality, quiet, relaxed, with a great attention to detail. But she was also a great teacher and I think she complemented Stefano perfectly and they made a great team. She is looking forward to being able to be an Additionally Qualified Person (AQP) for the race and I think she would make a brilliant job in that role.

This first talk was about security below decks, we learned about all the things that could go wrong and what to do in each case. I was feeling a bit tired after all the excitement of the day and my mind disconnected a little bit. We also had our first opportunity to practice knots, I knew how to do most of them except the rolling hitch which I had never used.  We had dinner, some pasta that Kym had been cooking while Stefano gave his talk, it was really nice. We finished the day by taking apart all the life jackets and inflating them to leave them overnight and check if any of them was punctured or had any air losses.

We walked to a nearby pub but there was a lot of noise and it was difficult to speak to each other, so rather than stay there looking at my beer I decided to go back to the boat and call it an early night, really looking forward for the real training to start the next day.

Under the London Tower Bridge

The Clipper Round the World 2019-2020 Race departed London on the 1st of September and I did not plan to miss this. Besides, we had been invited to a get together gathering where I would be able to meet some of the people that would be doing the 2021-2022 race. So I reserved a hotel near St Katherine's Dock (the place where the Clipper yachts were moored) and drove there on the afternoon of Saturday the 30th. It was a really spectacular sight seeing all these boats ready to depart the next day. You could feel that there was a lot of energy in the air and a lot of people looked like they were trying to have their last bit of "normal" fun before they embarked on this adventure.

I was meeting the other people of the Clipper Crew at The Dickens Inn, a very nice and beautiful pub that sits just by the dock. I was able to share a wonderful time both with many people from the Clipper Race organisation like Della, Will or Jilly and with many people who had decided to do the race, wonderful people like Eric, Stéphanie, Bettina, Tony, Gary, Martin or the Belgian guy with the impossible name. We had a blast and spent a lot of time talking about our experience, our goals, our dreams and some advice, specially from Eric who had already done Leg 6 in the 2017-2018 race and was planning to do the full circumnavigation now.

The only problem of the night was that I thought that the Clipper Team would offer something to eat, even if it was just some snacks. But there was no food in sight so when I left I was feeling quite hungry. A quick visit to a kebab place on my way to the hotel put an end to that :-)

The next day there was even more energy in the air, you could feel that everyone wanted this to get under way. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was walking around with a happy smile on his face. It was good to see some of the people I had met the night before like Eric or Stéphanie hanging around. All the crews looked pretty excited with lots of farewells and hugs.

While reading the magazine that the Clipper Race people distribute, I learned that one of the skippers was Spanish and came from Galicia, the region where I used to live in Spain before I moved to the UK. So I decided that I needed to meet him and give him my good wishes for the race. I waited near Punta del Este, the boat that he skippers and was finally able to spend 5 minutes speaking with him and wishing him the best for the race. He looked like a great guy and I knew that I now had a yacht to support. Vamos Punta del Este!!

Then came the time for the presentation of the teams. One by one they went into the platform, accompanied by their chosen team songs, to say a few words of farewell. All really exciting, the crowd loved it and you could see that the crews were proud of what they were about to embark on.

And finally the moment that we had all been waiting for. The boats dropped their lines and left the dock one by one under the joyous cheers of the crowd. Then they went up river to go under the London Tower Bridge, turned around and went back under the bridge to start their journey downstream and from there go around the world. It was a brilliant show, the crowd loved it and it was very emotional for me, thinking about how in a couple of years it would be me and my team mates who would be under the gaze of all this people. A wonderful weekend that I will never forget.

I'm In!

In May 2019 Clipper held an open door day in Portsmouth Harbour and that was the day that I first got to step into one of these mighty ships. They are huge!! The mast is incredibly high. They are also quite spartan on the inside. It was a great opportunity which I enjoyed a lot

Then finally, the day that I was waiting for arrived. They opened the inscription for the 2021-2022 race. I quickly submitted my application (I must have been one of the first persons to do so) and arranged an interview on a Friday at the end of June. So, there I went, a little nervous and not really sure what to expect. They made me really welcome and Della was amazing, she made us feel at home from the very first minute. Thanks Della!!

It started with a general introduction about the Clipper race, what to expect from it, including a generous disclosure of everything that could be not so exciting or glamorous about it. I guess that the idea was to trim anyone who did not really understand the challenges involved in this adventure.

After that we did a one on one interview with Della and it all went really, really well. She asked a lot of questions about my experience and background but she also poked a lot about my attitude towards life, team work and relationships with other people. She also told me a bit about her personal experience with Clipper, which was really interesting.

When the interview finished I asked Della when I would get the news of whether I would be accepted or not and she told me that sometimes they would wait until they had discussed this a bit but that in my case she could tell me right there that I would be accepted. I had not expected that but I was so happy!! I wanted to dance!! I called Puri immediately and told her the big news. Then I posted it in my Facebook page and everyone seemed as excited as I was. So the adventure could finally begin!!

Now was the time to start with the paperwork: get the contract, read it carefully, sign it, pay the initial deposit, arrange for the instalments to pay the race fees, start looking into insurance, join the crew hub, join the crew Facebook group, get the medical report, start looking for adequate training dates, etc... but the important part was that I was in so I needed to start preparing mentally and physically :-)