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.
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.
