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.
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.
