Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone!

I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday and making the most of the dry weather to get out and enjoy yourselves.

Now that I'm enjoying a temporary lull between the mania of hosting Christmas for 6 people and partying the new year in, I'm finally studying for my RYA Essential Navigation certificate (a mere 2 1/2 months after signing up for it...). So far, so good! Thanks to a few on board lessons from First Mate Paul Atwood during my Level 2 training, I was already pretty familiar with buoys which has definitely helped me on my way.

Flipping my hikers brain from plotting map co-ordinates longitude-latitude (along the corridor and up the stairs) to latitude-longitude (up the stairs and along the corridor) is taking some definite mental flexing though! Why oh why does it have to be a different way round for land and sea? Maybe I'll just have a little more cheese to help power the old noggin...

A week in the life of a Level 2 Clipper trainee

At long last, the story of my Level 2 training has been translated into intelligible English from my awful boat scrawl - enjoy a look into the life of a Clipper Race trainee!

Sorry all for the hiatus and thank-you so much for sticking with me - the last couple of months have been insanely busy and I've barely had time to breathe. The next few months are likely to be just as hectic, but I'm determined to make time to chart my Clipper journey more regularly in the new year! Coming up next on my Clipper journey - I'll be completing my RYA Navigation certification over the next month which I'm super excited for, and Crew Briefing/Party in January down at the London Boat Show - watch this space!

P.S. Feeling full of the Christmas spirit? Please support the amazing work of the Red Cross and help push me over the £1500 mark in time for Christmas: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RedShoesCaitlin

Thanks to Emily Woodason for this great snapshot of life on CV8!

Friday 26th August - The journey begins! 

Travelled with a friend to Waterloo after work and grabbed a sandwich before boarding the train to Portsmouth Harbour. I felt rather like a turtle carrying my sailing life on my back across London, and I was definitely as ungainly - a steady stream of apologies punctuated the journey.

Plenty of room on the train south, so I revised my notes and the Crew Manual a bit. The ferry was late so I got a taxi to the AirBnB - good thing too as it was a lot further from the marina then it said it was! The host was nice and we chatted for about 40 minutes before I headed up to my room to repack my clothes in much more logical outfit rolls (underwear, base and mid layer top and bottoms rolled up together) and revise some more vocab.

Saturday 27th August - Sea Survival

What a crazily hot building! I know it’s August but it was like being in a sauna all day. We split the day into theory in the morning and practical in the afternoon - the theory was interesting but quite scary, and we had a great instructor. Worked through a short lunch to do the practice early and finish a bit early.

The practice wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be - I could actually do everything, even climbing into the very slippery life raft from the water. Hurrah! It was nice as well that if anyone struggled they got lots of cheers of support and a round of applause when they managed it - the true Clipper spirit right there. Swimming in a life jacket is very strange, especially when you’re rescuing someone you don’t know as you end up with your legs wrapped around them rather closely and splashing your arms around behind your head trying not to drown them. Fortunately, we all got the hang of it quite quickly and it definitely broke the ice!

Got a lift to the race office with Faith and had an hour break before we got assigned to our boats for the week. Headed into Gosport with Emily and Faith for crew sweets and a snack (Homity Pie and a chai latte at Coffee1 - yum!). When we got back to the race office we got split into two seven man crews and went to our boats - I got assigned to CV8 with Skipper Chris Kobusch and Mate Paul Atwood. 

After picking our bunks (I picked the forward bottom on the other side to last time - my favourite bunk on the 68’s!) we did crew/skipper/mate intros and covered the below decks safety brief. Fajitas for dinner then flare chat and knot practice - who knew there were three ways to tie a bowline?! Feels unnecessarily complicated to me… Headed to the Castle to meet the other L2 crew for a drink. Slept really well despite how hot and quiet it was. Woke up at 6.30 for a 7.30 breakfast and was the last up!

Sunday 28th August - Bunk yoga is totally a thing!

I’ve been assigned to the Odds watch (the larger of the two with four crew) and am a deckhand today. We’re all rotating roles each 24 hours - deckhand, mother watch, engineer, navigator/watch leader - so we get to try everything thoroughly for a whole day which is great.

On deck safety brief, pontoon MOB with Bob (apparently Ruth is called Bob by everyone outside my awesome Level 1 crew, very strange), readied the staysail, yankee and mainsail to hoist. Slipped lines after lunch at around 2.30pm and motored into the Solent and hoisted the main - I helped sweat it up. Unfortunately there was a hole in the main fairly high up so we immediately had to put two reefs in - good job we’d done that before in Level 1 because we hadn’t prepped for it given the very light airs we were sailing in! Hoisted the staysail. Dinner at 6pm - feeling quite queasy and the creamy mushroom pasta definitely didn’t help matters (mushrooms = slimy little devils). 

Started our first night watches and Odds were on 6-10pm and 2am-6am. Did lots of night tacking in the first watch - we didn’t use head torches so had to let our eyes get used to the darkness and learn what to do by touch. It was quite strange not being able to see the colour of the line I was easing or grinding and having to trust that I knew which one was which by touch and position. Nighttime solo sheeting on the staysail was quite fun!

Came off watch at 10pm and went straight to my bunk - did 2 minutes of bunk yoga (happy baby, cobra and child pose all work well in such a confined space and really stretch out the back and joints) then managed to sleep for two hours. Woke up feeling really seasick for the first time in my life and had to rush to the heads and then the saloon where I spent a good part of the rest of my off-watch lying on the floor feeling like hell. 

Monday 29th August - A taste of the English Channel

Back on watch at 2am still not feeling great but the fresh air, conversation and no tacking for the first hour helped quite a bit. Helmed for 10 minutes in the dark - I did not like it at all! I am definitely not a helm junkie. Off watch at 6am for 6 hours but was engineer duty for the day so had to clean and do the engine checks with my Evens counterpart Marek before I could go to sleep (couldn’t face breakfast after sticking my head in the diesel engine and generator).

Anchored while I was asleep - not sure how I managed to sleep through that when the anchor locker was right next to my head! - and woke up to the main sail being repaired. I was still off-watch so managed to force down a jam sandwich made by the wonderful Jenny and brush my teeth before heading back to sleep until the afternoon watch.

Back on watch around 2 to slip anchor (that thing is damn heavy) and hoist the main (I was on the main sheet and coffee grinder). Had a bit of trouble with the mainsail and had to move it up and down a little a few times - exhausting! Hoisted the staysail and yankee one after the other (on the staysail sheets then the coffee grinder). 

MOB drill in the afternoon, and I volunteered to be the rescue swimmer - seasickness be damned! Unfortunately, as it was our first run at a sea rescue, it didn’t go quite to plan…but we did get Bob back in the first pass and manage wrestle him on board.  My harness was loose so it kept pulling me to one side, I didn’t blow up my lifejacket (the automatic release is disabled on the rescue jacket to prevent it going off too soon) so I kept getting mouthfuls of the English Channel (really not good for sea sickness), and the immersion suit leaked down the front so my toasty warm layers were soaked! A quick change and a biscuit before debriefing soon sorted it all out though.

Lots of tacking for the rest of the afternoon with us all rotating position so we really got to grips with what we were doing anywhere on the boat. I was last on helm thanks to my dislike for it, which unfortunately meant that I got stuck there for a while during the debrief...really should have got it over with sooner… Sausage, mash and gravy for dinner then know practice for a watch competition. Dropped the stay and yankee sails (tailing the stay halyard and bowman for the yankee), then the main. I was on the topping lift for the main, and eased too quickly in VMT - fortunately everyone was fine but it really did bring it home what a dangerous place the boat can be if you’re not careful and alert every second. 

Helped flake the main, which was so much easier with an older sail than it was with the brand new one we had in Level 1. Motored to to the mooring lines at Yarmouth where I was manning the searchlight to find the buoy. It took a lot of passes to get it as it was a very small target and it was very dark (around 10.30pm) making it tough for Marek and Emily to hook the line in, but they managed it eventually. Quick cuppa and some pomegranate love sweets from Emily (we found them absolutely hilarious - not sure if it was the exhaustion or the sudden sugar high) then the knot competition. Our watch won all but one round! Need to work on my slip knot and be careful with the double sheet bend but I was one of the quickest on all of them so I’ve got good speed. As we won we got to choose our watch times - I chose the 6am-7am duty as I'm on Mother Watch the next day. Headed straight to bed at 12 and slept right through.

Tuesday 30th August - Gybe, gybe, and gybe again

Up, dressed and on watch by 6am. Marek is staying up after the 5am-6am watch to help prep for Mother Watch with me. Porridge for breakfast - seems to be my staple on board! Despite worrying about making it good enough that everyone liked it, everyone had seconds, and one person (I’ll name no names) even had thirds! 

Hoisted the main and staysail, then put in a reef and shook it out and did a racing headsail change. I was on Bow 1 - YAY - with Marek on Bow 2 to hank on the Yankee 1 below the Yankee 3. Dropped the Yankee 3 and I had to communicate with the Pit using handsigns as well as voice commands to control the yankee halyard speed. The hanks were really tough to get off - salty and stiff.

Jacket potato, beans and cheese for lunch on deck (nice and easy to make while at an angle) followed by rigging a gybe preventer and lots and lots of gybing. I was really confused at the first position in my rotation, the dreaded helm, but it started to make sense after moving around a few positions - it’s like tacking with an extra bit (centring the main). As someone who really likes to understand exactly what I’m doing and why, not understanding at the beginning was pretty hard to deal with. Everyone was really supportive and kept explaining it until I got it which was really great.

In celebration of Julie's birthday, Chris bought her a birthday cake which we had all kept carefully hidden from her all week until our little birthday party on deck. Great fun and a fantastic example of the Clipper family spirit - plus delicious cake!

Another MOB drill in the afternoon while sailing downwind - our best one yet. We were much quicker at our tasks although we were still a little hesitant  to take a task. I was on the mainsheet to start to centre the main before moving forwards to take a halyard back and leading the drop/hoist of the rescue swimmer (Jenny this time) and Bob. Apparently I was very clear and did a good job - hurrah! More gybing then headed below to make chilli for dinner. Ended up serving cake and custard for dessert - so much washing up! 

Back on deck to rig the mooring lines at the buoy at Cowes where I was right up at the bow rigging the lines. I really love it up there! Another knot competition for watch choices on deck in the dark. Sadly us Odds lost (just) so we got second pick and I wound up with 12am-1pm. Really need to practice my rolling hitch! Slept well from 10pm to just before 12am. Early morning ahead with breakfast at 6am for a full day sailing. On Navigator and Watch Leader duty tomorrow - can’t wait!

Wednesday 31st August - Bob makes a break for it - yet again!

Led a racing sail hoist - staysail and yankee right after each other - without my wet notes! Went really well and I remembered all of the steps. MOB upwind this time and I ended up controlling the halyards again, and apparently did very well. As we did the racing headsail change yesterday, today we just practiced a change from Y3 to Y1 - I led on the bow (yay) and led the Y3 flake. Marek and I put in a 2-man reef before a lot of tacking and gybing practice. 

Another downwind MOB - surprise this time - while taking down the yankee. Had to think quickly to secure the part we had unhanked and move it aft so it wasn’t in the way and didn’t unflake itself over the side. Was manning the staysail halyard this time while Julie went over as rescue swimmer. 

Tried a Le Mons start which was great fun although we were a bit slow - it was our first time after all! Was on the mooring lines as we came into moor at the marina in Gosport, then helped Georg lead the Y1 flake once we were secure in port and led on the staysail flake. Went below to help Julie make dinner as she didn’t have a watch partner, then a quick shower and off to the Castle for a drink with the crew.

Thursday 1st September - The end of a great week

Up and ready by 7.10 waiting for the others to pack and eat breakfast to start the deep clean by 8am. Powered through to finish for 12.30pm. Bit of a problem with the Y2 when the sail bag disintegrated at the clew end so we had to flake it inside the sail locker - less than ideal!

My review chat with Chris went well - apparently I know everything, I just need to know that I know it! Calling the halyards in the MOB drills was spot on which is great although I hope I never need that particular skill for real. Amusingly he held me up as an example of how to self-study after I told him about my flashcards (available to download free here) - quite flattering! 

Lunch on deck, followed by a *small* problem overfilling the water tanks leading to 150l sloshing around the crew bilges needing to be bailed out. Manned a halyard with Georg while Chris did the rig check and then popped next door onto Clipper Telemed+ with Julie - absolutely love the 70’s! They have a great deck layout - so clear on the bow and fore deck and great setup below as well. Took our gear to the office then popped to the Boathouse for a final crew drink before getting the ferry to Portsmouth and the train back to London with Marek and Emily. All in all, a great week and I can’t wait until Level 3 in April!

A few of our crew in-jokes...

• The Log joke
• Hair & make-up
• Pervy Bob
• TMI