18 January 2017
The cat is out of the bag
Well I guess my (admittedly weak) attempts at pretending to be a normal member of the workforce have failed - a birthday pirate landed on my desk today from the awesome HE team at Cambridge University Press! Have to say, if this is meant to be me, she looks pretty badass with her sword and hat - totally capable of sailing across the Equator and meeting King Neptune toe-to-toe.
16 January 2017
Family reunion
What better way to start 2017, my Year of Adventure, than by having a massive Clipper crew briefing?
Now we've all done a week or two of training, had a couple of smaller scale briefings and descended en masse onto St Katherine's Dock for the 15-16 Race Finish, we've made lots of friends which turned the briefing into a giant reunion of all the wild and adventurous black sheep in the family.
Inspirational as always, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston gave a fantastic description of why we're doing something as crazy as sailing across an ocean:
Clipper for me is all about adventure, doing the why not's and living now instead of 5, 10 or 40 years in the future, so this really struck a chord - I absolutely want to live in bright colours.
Lots of interesting info was shared about our race, including the introduction of a new Joker card each team can choose to play in one race only for the chance to double their points for that race. Cape Town, Qingdao, New York and the Sydney-Hobart were all confirmed, but the other ports are still in negotiation. Rumour has it though that Hull is out of the running for Race Start/Finish...fingers crossed for London! Great news as well that personal AIS beacons will be provided with each life jacket.
One strange thing about the Clipper world is that while you may know a person's entire life story after standing watch together at 4am and hauling them out of the water after a MOB drill, you rarely know their surnames. If you forget to ask for contact details in all the excitement, that makes it pretty tricky to reconnect on Facebook or arrange to go for a catch-up drink (or three). Lucky for me I bumped into a buddy from my Level 1 last March (can't believe it has been 10 months since then) who I'd lost touch with and so finally manage to exchange info and arrange to catch-up soon.
Can't wait for the next big get together in May - the long awaited Crew Allocation!
Great snapshot of the briefing (plus a glimpse of yours truly at 2:11 - Hi Mum!)
Now we've all done a week or two of training, had a couple of smaller scale briefings and descended en masse onto St Katherine's Dock for the 15-16 Race Finish, we've made lots of friends which turned the briefing into a giant reunion of all the wild and adventurous black sheep in the family.
Inspirational as always, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston gave a fantastic description of why we're doing something as crazy as sailing across an ocean:
Clipper for me is all about adventure, doing the why not's and living now instead of 5, 10 or 40 years in the future, so this really struck a chord - I absolutely want to live in bright colours.
Lots of interesting info was shared about our race, including the introduction of a new Joker card each team can choose to play in one race only for the chance to double their points for that race. Cape Town, Qingdao, New York and the Sydney-Hobart were all confirmed, but the other ports are still in negotiation. Rumour has it though that Hull is out of the running for Race Start/Finish...fingers crossed for London! Great news as well that personal AIS beacons will be provided with each life jacket.
One strange thing about the Clipper world is that while you may know a person's entire life story after standing watch together at 4am and hauling them out of the water after a MOB drill, you rarely know their surnames. If you forget to ask for contact details in all the excitement, that makes it pretty tricky to reconnect on Facebook or arrange to go for a catch-up drink (or three). Lucky for me I bumped into a buddy from my Level 1 last March (can't believe it has been 10 months since then) who I'd lost touch with and so finally manage to exchange info and arrange to catch-up soon.
Can't wait for the next big get together in May - the long awaited Crew Allocation!
Great snapshot of the briefing (plus a glimpse of yours truly at 2:11 - Hi Mum!)
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