Training Level 3, day 3

During breakfast everyone had a worried face, we could all hear the wind howling above our heads. The forecast called for gale force winds and I guess this all made us a little apprehensive. But we need to get used to this as these are the kind of conditions that we can expect during our race.

In the morning we did a review of the procedure for gybing and simulated some gybes while docked. I think I was able to get a very good picture of all the processes involved and it was all quite clear in my mind. We did some additional work on knots, had lunch and departed from the dock.

I volunteered to lead the evolution to hoist the main sail and I think it all went quite well, I just forgot to ask for the backstay runners to be brought forward but otherwise everything went like a charm, I felt really well about this. I think that this is something that everyone should try to do as often as possible, leading an evolution really forces you to try to see the overall picture while also focusing in all the little details.

Then we hoisted the staysail and the yacht was heeling like crazy, we were putting the guardrail into the water. We were sailing in 35-40 knots of wind and it was really difficult to move around, I can't imagine what it must be like to be sailing like this for days on end during the race... It was all pretty exciting and we were all grinning. 

We did a lot more tacks and we ended the day with several gybes. They did not go too badly but we saw several weak spots that we needed to improve, specially the handling of the foreguys which was just taking too much time. It was really impressive to see the people tying and untying the foreguys while being almost immersed in the water. All really exciting stuff.

One thing to note is that the new Spinlock life vests are amazing, much more comfortable than the old ones and much easier to get into. I really love them.

That night we were planning to stay in Cowes so we soon started with all the tasks that need to be done before you can be moored: drop the head sails, drop the main sail, flake the head sails and pass them down below, flake the main, prepare all mooring lines and fenders... a lot of work and probably the part of the day that I like less, we were all pretty tired by that point in time and all these tasks can really wear you down.

After dinner we were all pretty exhausted after an exciting but tiring day, I took a quick shower as I was covered in salt and then we met at the pub where we had a really fun night, the team was working really well together and we were all having lots of fun, a great experience.

 

Training Level 3, Day 2

 

I didn't have a good night's sleep, my mind kept thinking about the training, and talking to my shipmates it seems that none of us did really sleep well, I guess we were all anxious to get started. Today it was our turn to be "cookies" (we discussed the issue of the term "mothers" being outdated and not really appropriate in our age, Hannah said that she liked to used Cookies and we adopted this), so we started the day by preparing toast for breakfast. My team mate was Toesie and I really enjoy working with her, she is real fun, attentive and full of good ideas.

After breakfast we did further security talks and took a look at the engine, doing the famous IWOBBLEDU routine. I really like that in the 70s the engine is in its own room, it makes it much easier to access it and to check stuff. We also did a full review of all the MOB procedure and of all the roles and tasks involved.

After lunch we finally left the dock and went sailing. The manoeuvre to get out of the dock was not easy at all but Hannah nailed it, she demonstrated an amazing control of the boat and she would continue to do so in the following days, performing some hair raising movements perfectly executed to the inch. 

On the way out of the dock I was able to say hello to Nano, one of the skippers of the race. He was the AQP for Punta del Este in last year's race and from following their blogs I know that he is a really nice guy, so it was great to be able to greet him.

We hoisted the mainsail with three reefs, the staysail and a storm jib in the place of the yankee. It was quite windy, around 30 knots. These yachts really heel over when there is a lot of wind, so you need to make sure that your sail plan is not overpowered. Even with such a small sail plan we were fully heeled over and sailing fast.

The goal of the day was to do a full review of what we had learned in previous training weeks, specially everything related to tacking. So we tacked and tacked and tacked until the sentence "Ready to tack, Runner back" became etched in our minds. I was feeling a bit rusty and it took me a while to get fully confident in what I was doing.

At the end of the day I got the opportunity to do some helming and I had a great time controlling this powerful yacht. Definitely the helming position is much more comfortable than on the 68s and being able to helm on any of the two sides is really great.

Then we did our first MOB procedure. It all went more or less well, the only issue is that somehow we took a long time to be able to drop the staysail, but we were able to recover Bob in a reasonable amount of time. In fact we were very close to him all the time and had to do several passes until everything was ready to recover him.

While everyone started preparing the boat to go back to the Gosport marina, me and Toesie started preparing our dinner. By the time we docked, dinner was ready and we were able to eat and then do a quick review of the day. Doing the dishes felt like an eternity, this is going to be a real pain when we have more than 20 people on board during the race! A quick shower and an early lie down, with the news that we were expecting really bad weather the next day...

Training Level 3, Day 1

 

It had been more than three years since I did my Level 2, just before the pandemic hit and broke all our plans. Fortunately I had been able to do the trip to Scotland with Skirr adventures last year, so not everything had been lost. So, finally, it was my turn to do Level 3 and get going again!

I arrived in the Clipper office on Wednesday morning to find it full of people, I had never seen so many people gathered together there! Two Level 3s were starting that morning with 10 crew each. If you add the skippers, AQPs and other staff, that's a lot of people. We eventually managed to get all sorted and got introduced to our skipper and AQP. We were really lucky in that our skipper was Hannah Brewis, one of the skippers for the 2023-24 race and the AQP was Mike Miller, another of the skippers for this race, so we were able to meet two of the potential skippers for the race, which was great. I immediately liked both of them, they were really approachable, great fun and not intimidating at all. And they had a great relationship, full of respect of each other and working brilliantly as a team to lead us.

We were also introduced to Ginés, an Argentinian guy who was practicing for a future training role and which would be helping during all our training. He turned out to be a fantastic guy, really helpful, with a nice sense of humour, always there when we needed him.

I got also introduced to the rest of the team: Jon, Dave, Steve, Toesie, Paul, Sean, Gary, Ella and Stan. They seemed like a really nice bunch of people, all eager to get going.

Mike and Ginés went off to do some final shopping while Hannah led us to the Gosport Community Centre where we were to spend the morning and afternoon doing our Advanced Survival Course. The course was okayish, really well delivered by Hannah, but with a lot of redundant content. Also a lot of what we went through we had already seen in the Sea Survival course on Level 2. So I guess that this course is needed, it is important to emphasise all the security aspects of the race, but I didn't feel like I had learnt a lot of new things. At the end of the course we took a small exam about it but it was really easy, all the answers had been clearly outlined during the course.

Then we had to do the theoretical part of our Crew Assessment which is done at the beginning of each level and it was surprisingly difficult. Not in the content of the assessment itself, it was all things that I knew perfectly but in the way it was presented. The wording of several questions and definitions was very confusing and some of the graphics were not clear at all, with detail that was too small or distracting. So, when you do it, read it carefully and in detail.

Then, around 5pm we finally went to the yachts and did a quick introduction of ourselves and a quick tour of the boat, specially looking into its security aspects like the location of the fire extinguishers. The layout of the 70s is very, very different from the layout of the 68s and I think I prefer it a lot. Down below the accommodation is all in the back, better isolated from the working part of the ship. The galley has a U shape with a lot of working space which makes it much easier to work in it and much easier to use when heeling over. It also helps socialising as everyone is really eating in a big communal area. The only things that I liked less were that in the back near the nav station the ceiling is very low and it is very easy to hit your head and there seemed to be less storage space for the crew than in the 68s.

Up on deck they are also very different. The foredeck is much more open and flat in the 70s, with a lot less tripping hazards. The location of the jackstays is also much more comfortable and convenient. Initially I missed the snake pit of the 68s but soon realised that having all the ropes led to the cockpit is incredibly useful. And the helming position is much, much more comfortable.

Then we continued doing parts of our Crew Assessment like winch handling, where I could see that I was a bit rusty and needed to improve, and knots, where my knowledge was perfect and I was able to do them all without a hitch (pun intended).

We had dinner in the yacht (we had had lunch in the high street near the Community Centre, lunch is not provided) and then went to the pub for a couple of beers. Things were relaxed and we had a lot of fun, this really seemed like a great group of people.

We learned that in this level we would be sleeping every night moored, either in Gosport or Cowes, so we would not be doing watches and we would instead aim to concentrate on the other objectives of the level, so off we went, hoping for a good night of sleep.