Level 1 Clipper training

Time flames like a paragon stove

and what burns are the minutes I live

~ Irving Layton, The Selected Poems

Day 1: The Importance of Attachments

The first day of training was so reassuring. Felt just like home….rains on the first day of school. Dull dreary weather and the first look at your new school mates and class teacher.

And just like school, I was exhausted by the end of the day. Of course it was a lot longer at 12 hours, from 8am to 8pm and crammed with information. I finally got to exercise the muscles in my head – Paul, our skipper, made sure of that. We learnt all kinds of knots, bowlines, clove hitches, figure of eights..he would be speaking with us while his fingers were busy tying knots..muscle memory he calls it!

For the most part it was about safety. What can possibly go wrong with the boat, how to prevent it and what to do if there is an emergency, like a MOB. No not the one around celebrities, a Man Over Board. Which we practised with a dummy called Bob. Why Bob? Since he keeps bobbing in the water. In order to avoid being Bob, the boat has Jack Stays. Why? Because Jack stays on the boat. Then there’s Handy Billy. He’s the Man Friday around. And keep in mind, a boat is always feminine. Interesting right!?

The key to safety on board is to stay attached to Jack Stay. He keeps you safe and everyone has a happy sail. Paul drilled that into our heads repeatedly

We're a team of 11 plus Paul and Martín. Of the 11, 8 are from China. This race, China has two cities as stopovers – Sanya and Qingdao. So they've sent a contingent of people to be trained with Clipper,including a media person, an event director, a marina manager and more. The other 3 are women from Auckland, Paris and Goa. With the overwhelming Chinese presence, we’re also learning the language…nee hao ma?

Already we have a routine -  breakfast at 730 followed by a crew brief and to work stations at 8. A break for tea at 1030, lunch at 1300, tea again at 1630 and dinner at 2000. Tea is easy, but the meals have to made by the crew and we’re all learning how to cook. Lunch yesterday was kidney beans and pie, a first for me. Dinner was spaghetti. The challenge is getting the meals on time. Since the designated crew starts cooking when everyone  gets off their tasks, the meal is often an hour later. Dinner yesterday was an exercise in patience!

And today, we go sailing….more later

Day 2: Thrown in the deep end

Do I really want to do this!!!? All of us had that question in our minds after a long, crazy first day at sea.

The boats are moored in a sheltered marina so we had no idea just how different things were jus outside. For one, the tide as one moves into the Solent, the water body between Gosport and the Isle of Wight, is so strong, the smaller boats get pulled into it sideways. And once into the Solent, the temperature drops a few degrees, the wind picks up and you can actually see the white caps on the waves. Yesterday, the wind was over 20 knots and the temperature was about 18 degrees. All of us Asians were in two to three layers of clothes, warm headgear and gloves. The outer layer was waterproof clothing in Clipper Red. Talk about Santas on a Sail boat.

We learnt to prepare the main sail and the Yankee before setting out, and then to hoist them when out at sea. By the end of several practice sessions, I can converse ever so glibly about halyards, sheets, reefs, shrouds, clews, tacks and ship cuisine.

It's so easy to cook up a meal here. Just about everything is available in a can. In a space of 3 days I've had fish and chips, chicken curry and rice, beef stew with mashed potatoes, salmon and mayo sandwiches besides the stuff I mentioned earlier.

Day 3: It's a Cowes life

Yesterday seems so long ago. Today was a beautiful, sun shiny, fantabulous day at sea. It did start in a bit of a mess though. One of the toilet flushes quit working and the pipe had to be replaced. Since we're on level 1, a plumber fixed the problem; but next level onwards we will have to figure it ourselves.

That gave us a chance to go visit our boats, the ones we will finally sail on and meet our Skippers and crew mates. The first of the level 4 training sessions was completed and all twelve boats came alongside in Gosport in the wee hours of this morning. I met Roy, our race skipper and Mario and Richard who are both sailing the same Leg as me.

Today we hoisted the main sail, the stay sail and the Yankee sail and practised tacking. Feel so competent already, even if completely knackered as my day is yet to finish at 2230.

The cherry on top of an absolutely fantastic sail, was to breeze into Cowes harbour, on the Isle of Wight and polish off hot chicken curry watching the sun go down behind the multitude of boats docked here.

Then another sit down session with our training skipper and I'm ready to call it a day.

Day 4: Yarmouth and a night at sea

A mast climb was a splendid way to start the day. Notice how British my language is getting to be!?

The view was simply magnificent and as I picked the long straw I got to go up first.

Only problem being the rest of the team was briefed about bringing a person down only after I got up there. So I had good few minutes of dangling around. Then we were off rowing on tiny single seater row boats. That done we now qualify for the RYA Competent Crew certificate

That took us to lunch time and my Chinese crew mate and I made stir fry veggies with chicken. I'm learning a lot more than I expected! We ate sitting on deck, enjoying the sun and watching young children sitting four to a boat, strung along in 4-5 boats, ducklings following a mommy motor boat.

Then we motored out again, having set up the main, the stay and Yankee sails. Out of Cowes harbour, we put up all the sails only to dunk them for a MOB practise session with a dummy man over board and a real live crew mate to rescue him. We actually had to inform the coast guard that this was a training exercise.

That  done, we took off towards the nine pins that mark the gateway to the Atlantic. We will spend the night here at sea, anchored just off the coast from the beautiful coastline of Yarmouth

Day 5: Sailing in the Solent

The team insists I brought the monsoons along with me. It's never rained so much this summer says the Skipper. Started the day with a hearty breakfast and then went straight into rigging the sails and changing them. Even did a racing sail change where we put on a new sail while the previous one was still on. Bagged the old one and hoisted the new one. Phew! Then practised the MOB yet another time.

Lunch was jacket potatoes with tuna and cheese. Just the dish for a dull dreary day.

I was wet through and my deck shoes were completely useless. So were  my gloves. I should have followed Clipper advice and waited to get here and buy stuff.

We were back in Gosport by 1600. Put away all the sails, which we had dunked for the MOB practise and learnt to hoist a storm jib. That done, it was party time. Cider and wine followed by something to eat – I know I ate something, but I simply cannot remember! A week spent on a boat and dog tired at the end of it, we got back home to the boat in high spirits.

Day 6: And we're done!

For the duration of the training we were in two groups, Port & Starboard. We were assigned daily duties as a group as well as on board tasks. So every morning one group would clean the insides, including the loos, heads in sailing lingo, while the other got the sails on deck and set up the rigging.

Today, all of us together did a deep clean of the boat. This involved taking the floor boards off, vacuuming the bilges to take out all the water, and wiping the walls and handles with disinfectant besides cleaning the heads. And after the insides were done, putting everything back and hosing down the deck.

All of which took the better part of 4 hours, and then, just like that, we were done.