What an absolutely amazing day! We really had a blast and now the race is really starting to feel real. A little bit more than three months and it will be on its way!
I arrived in Portsmouth the previous evening and went to a pub where I met Dumitru, one of my mates from Level 2 (back in 2020!) and we spent some time talking about what we expected for the next day, we were really excited!
Next day I woke up really early, I guess I was too excited for a proper sleep. I was in front of the Guildhall around 7:30 and there was no one around, so I took the opportunity to take a picture of the empty stairs before anyone started to arrive.
Soon the AQPs and the skippers started to arrive. I was able to say hi to Mike, one of the skippers who had been my instructor in Level 3 and to Tom, one of the AQPs whom I had met in the Skirr trip last summer. I wanted to say hi to Hannah but soon Mark Light, the Race Director arrived and they all gathered around him for a rousing speech. It ended with a big group hug and all fists up, ready for a brilliant day.
Soon the doors opened and I waited in line for a while until they started letting people in, chatting with the people who surrounded me. Once we got in we were given our Clipper soft shell jacket and a mysterious electronic wristband. Soon everyone started wearing the jackets and it was great to see a lot of "Clipper Crew" all around you. Then it was time for our official Clipper Picture to be taken, they quickly sat us wearing a Clipper Race red jacket and gave us a card with a code to be able to get the picture later.
Once in, I wandered around for a while waiting for the event to start. I took a look at all the stands of the official partners of the race and picked up some swag. They had given us a Clipper bag with a Clipper water bottle, a Clipper notebook and a Clipper pen. I was also able to say hi to some of the people I had met in previous levels like Toesie and Ella from my Level 3 or Chris from my Skirr trip.
At 10:30 the main event started. The event was led by Mark Light and Della Parsons who did a great job. They presented the race, its rules, its legs and a lot of other information. This was probably more interesting for our supporters or for people who were quite new to the race as I already knew about most of what was shared. The presentation was great nonetheless, with great graphics and ambience.
But it was disappointing that there was almost no new information shared, the only new thing that we learned is that Freemantle has been confirmed as a stopover but otherwise there was no other announcement about stopovers, dates or partners. From speaking with other people I know that we were all disappointed that nothing else was shared, specially taking into account that the race is only three months away!
The presentation ended with a short speech from Sir Robin and then came the exciting part. I think it was brilliant the way they did it this year. What happened is that they introduced a skipper, they would introduce the corresponding AQP and then, after a countdown of 10 seconds the wristbands of the people that would be on that boat lighted up. It was really incredible and energetic, people seeing their wristbands light up and then jumping up with their fists up in the air. Some people told me that in previous years the skippers read a long list of the crew and this was obviously much, much better and much more fun.
After four or five skippers it was the turn of Nano Antía. He introduced Angus, his AQP and now it was the time to learn who would be on his team. I was really hoping that I would be in that team as I had really liked the way that Jeronimo and Nano had handled the Punta del Este boat in the previous race. And my wristband lighted up!! I jumped up all happy an ecstatic.
When all the skippers had been announced and all crew assigned, we all gathered together at the steps of the Guildhall to take the group picture, all wearing our Clipper Crew jackets. Well, not all, as the photographer had to spend a few minutes calling out the people who were not wearing it or who were wearing sunglasses :-)
After this, we broke into the individual teams and we met with Nano and Angus in a room and started the afternoon meetup. You could immediately tell that there was a really good connection between the two. When they were introduced on stage, they had done a chest bump, which I thought was a great gesture which showed how well they connected. And they soon told us that they thought about themselves as "Team Nangus". I am really happy that they seem to get along so well, really good vibrations coming from our leaders!
We started by introducing ourselves, first Nano and Angus and then the rest of the team one by one, telling our names, why we wanted to do the race, the legs that we were doing and one curious fact about ourselves. Two things quickly became apparent: it would be impossible to remember everyone and there were a lot of Spanish speaking people in this crew! There was no one that I knew from any previous training, which was a little sad (though later I would learn that Sean, the great Australian guy from my Level 3 was on the team)
We then had lunch while we started to chat amongst ourselves and started to get to know each other. Then Nano and Angus started explaining their philosophy for the boat. I was glad to hear that they want us to be the happy boat, the humble underdog that just makes sure that everyone is having a great experience and that this would lead us to being competitive. It really fits my view of the race and I am glad to be in a boat that shares these values. They told us that we should have received an information pack and a questionnaire by email and that they would use our responses to further tune our goals.
We then did a team building exercise. We were split into 5 groups and each group was given a piece of rope and we had to think of a term that we thought described what the crew ethos should be. We came up with things like respect, empathy and safety. After each team proposed their word we had a brief chat about it and then we handled back our piece of rope. When we were all done, Nano tied an admiralty knot with all these ropes and this is going to represent our team and we will carry this knot around the world to remind us of our core values.
We then started the part of our afternoon meeting that I enjoyed less. We spent a lot of time with Nano and Angus talking about all these values and the boat ethos in more detail, with many pictures to describe this, talking about things like a no blame culture, trying to put ourselves into other's people's feet, breaking out of our comfort zone, etc... Nano and Angus did a really good job and I think it was important to raise these issues but it is not my kind of thing, I am more of a practical kind of guy who believes that all of this is really demonstrated in the day to day handling of things.
After a short pause for coffee, we then moved on to the more practical side of things, which is the part that I liked most. We learned many new things and it was very, very interesting. The good thing for those who were not present is that most of the information that was shared is also available in the race pack that they sent us.
We started by learning that we would be working under a two watch system, with watches being 07:00-13:00, 13:00-19:00, 19:00-23:00, 23:00-03:00 and 03:00-07:00. I was hoping that we might have gone for a three watch system as I had tried that during our Skirr trip during the summer and really liked it and I had heard other people with similar experiences but Nano said that he did not liked this system as it was very confusing, with people struggling to know what they should be doing and when.
We then started talking about our roles. We first talked about the rotating roles. Each day a couple of us (one from each watch) would be assigned to one of these roles, which would be:
- Logbook and nav
- Bilges
- Bilges help
- Engineer help
- Safety officer
- Heads
- General cleaner
- Spare hands
- Parents
We then talked a little longer about this last role. First of all we talked about the name of this role. This used to be called "Mothers" but Nano and Angus think that we need to move away from a term which reflects the gender inequality that has been prevalent in the past and to move into something that reflects a new vision and I 100% agree with them, really happy with this change.
They told us about the Parents responsibilities, cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for everyone, preparing hot drinks and keeping everyone hydrated, baking bread and cakes, keeping the fridge tidy and well organised and reviewing our fruit and vegetables to make sure that any spoiled item was quickly removed. Once they finished with the day they would be entitled to a whole night's sleep and a hot shower! We are going to carry one of these camping showers and we will use the kettle to heat up some sea water, finishing the shower with a warm fresh water rinse. Amazing!
We then discussed all the other more "permanent" roles and what each of them entailed. Watch leaders and watch assistants will be proposed by Nano and Angus after our level 4s, once they have been able to sail with each of us. It was interesting to learn that we will have a "Navigations and routing" role and a "Performance and tactician" role as that is something that not all boats have and which I think can be very advantageous.
The other roles that we discusses were Team Coordinator, Victualler, Engineer, Medical assistant, Media, Bosun, Sail repair, Stopover manager, Social secretary, Fundraising coordinator, Crew fund treasurer. and Pastoral care. Some of the roles like victualling are too big for a single person, so they will require a team. It was great to learn that we have two people who are nurses and that both are round the worlders, so it is fantastic that we are really well covered on the medical front. We also learned that Nano has a lot of dry food that was left over from the last race and that we could use for this one, great news for the victuallers.
It was really interesting to learn that we would have someone on a new role that I had never seen before called Pastoral care. This person will take care of supporting the people on the boat, helping them with their worries and would also take care of the team spirits, trying to keep us all motivated. I think it is a really good idea. I just wish that they had chosen a term that reminded me less of church, as I am far from being a religious guy.
We then talked about communications. We are going to set up a Whatsapp group, a Facebook group and an Instagram group for everyone and then a specific Facebook group for each leg. Nano would be inviting us to this groups as soon as they were created. They also informed us about communications on board and how it would work, it is all very well detailed in the crew pack.
We then talked about the crew fund and the kind of things that we could purchase with it. It was really good news to hear that Clipper is going to provide a fridge/freezer for each boat, so there is no need to purchase one. Nano also told us that he has a lot of stuff that he rescued from the Punta del Este yacht when the last race finished, things like a rice cooker, a printer and a laminator and lots of netting, so we don't need to purchase those either. Finally he told us that he does not like anti-wrapping nets and that he has a special technique to avoid spinnaker wraps that he would be teaching us, so that's another item that does not need to be purchased.
We then talked about our luggage allowance. We will be allowed a 60L bag (90L for circumnavigators) or an equivalent of 23Kg. Initially we all panicked because Nano said that this would include everything but then he quickly clarified that these limits did not include foulies, boots or sleeping bag. Phew! Nano said that we are all adults and that he would not be enforcing these limits with a scale and a rule but that he expected people to be responsible.
The last thing that we talked about was our team building weekend. This is taking place on the weekend of the 8th and 9th of July and Nano proposed a surfing day (Nano has previously been very involved in surfing and he is a surfing instructor) with a big "asado" (barbecue). This is not mandatory.
In all a lot of information to process and this has just started!
Once we were done with our meeting, we all went to a pub located in Gunwharf Quays and which had a really nice terrace. The weather was really nice, ambience was great and we spent the whole evening talking to each other in little groups, learning about the other members of our team, getting to know their supporters and generally having tonnes of fun. I finally went back to the hotel at around 11:00, when the terrace was closed and we moved inside as it was just too noisy and I had the beginning of a headache.
In all a really amazing and exciting experience, really happy with my team and my skipper and AQP and fully pumped up for what's to come!
