Welcome to the latest in an ongoing series of guest posts from my future crewmates, current and past crew members! This is a chance for them to tell you all a little bit about themselves, why they chose to sign up for Clipper, and share some of their experiences.
Now, over to Peter Brumby who sailed RTW in the 13-14 race - enjoy!
Anyone who has completed the Clipper Race will remember the feeling of knowing you had signed up to do something “big”, but not really knowing what “big” actually was. Many, including myself, will never have sailed before, many will not have been in sporting team environments for some time, many will not have been extensively living “in the elements” for some time, many of us will no longer be what is traditionally considered young, most of us will not have been scared for some time. Most of us had probably become “comfortable”. Secretly though most of us will have been looking for adventure. Not necessarily looking to completely change our lives, but definitely to add something new, vibrant and fresh. Something that has – potential. Not just for the period of the race you sign up for, but beyond. I have definitely received these benefits, and I am sure many more have too.
Once you sign up the experience begins. You will find yourself caught up in a swell of nervous investigation. How can I prepare myself for this “big” thing? What do I need to buy? How will I struggle? Initially this is a lonely pursuit, just you and the internet. Searching for clues in an ocean of information, none of which quite meets your needs, probably because we do not really know the questions we need to satisfy. Many of them emotional as well as practical.
But then you will be caught in the stream of the Clipper Bubble. You book and attend your first training week or you attend a Clipper Social. All of a sudden you are not alone. There are others! They feel the same as you. You have made contact. You feel less unassured, simply because others feel like you. You have the start of a new community.
The first training week is colossal. Having never sailed before I devoured all the training material sent out and more. In reality it still did not make sense to me. It was all new. New language, new movements, new people, new ways of working. New levels of energy needed. I survived by pulling and moving anything heavy around someone told me to. So tired by the end of the week, yet so satisfied. Out on the water, a cold bitter winter week. But such fun. Great people and so completely absorbing. The following week I managed to process so much about what had happened and so many bricks fell away from the wall of uncertainty I had built from myself.
And so it continues throughout the training. More knowledge, more confidence, more people, bigger community. At some point you cross a bridge. A place where you realise that you cannot know “everything” about sailing before you go. But you know enough. Enough that you will be safe, that you can be trusted and you trust others. That your boat and skipper will get you there. And that you will have a good time doing it.
The training and the period before the race is a huge part of the overall experience and is when you build not just the knowledge you need to get through but also the community who will help you on the way round. Enjoy and treasure it.
The Race? It will be what you want it to be. You will decide how much you watch or how much you participate. How much you receive from others actions and how much you contribute. We all volunteer, no one can be ordered to be what they do not wish to do. For me I wanted everything, full absorption. Learn as much as I could, do every job, be “there” when it mattered. I think I did. My crew mates would probably have a clearer view than I. But crews are made up of many different types of people, each contributing in different ways. None of us could have succeeded on our own.
I won’t go into detail of the experience of being at sea on a racing boat. It’s impossible to describe. Like the best photo is never quite as good as being there, I could give you an impression, but they would just be my poor words. It’s true, that you will be cold and tired, you could be bored and fed-up. But you will probably have wonder, and fear. You will witness the enormity and scale of the world and nature like never before. There will have laughter and arms around shoulders. There will be fruit duff and custard at the end of colds watches, and nothing gets better than that.
So at the end of it all what do you get? For me? Amazing memories you could not make anywhere else or probably in any other way. A new community of great people that is incredibly engaging, joined by a common bond that comes from being in challenging places at the same time and knowing what others did to succeed. Access to new experiences, from more sailing, to being challenged to row across the Mediterranean. You never know what someone will come up with next.
In 2013 I had never sailed before. By 2015? Sailed around the world, watch leader on some legs, raced from Palermo to Monte Carlo, sailed the Islands of Croatia, attempted to row from Barcelona to Sardinia (that’s another story), passed my Off Shore Yacht Master. (I did my yacht master with 3 other ex-Clipper crew, 2 of whom I had never sailed with before, however, the Clipper training ensured we all knew how to work together efficiently and effectively. Great experience). I could throw in many, many social times too, dinners, gigs, weddings. The community lives on.
Have I been rewarded? Oh yes.
Enjoy your sailing – however much you choose to do.
- Peter Brumby
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