The final countdown: Delivery and final prep

What a crazy week! Straight from work to the boat and then straight out sailing the next morning - busy busy.

The delivery was a lot more relaxed than training, as we were in watches the whole time and not doing lots of drills just for the sake of it. Having said that, we sailed so quickly in the first St few days we would've been about 2 days early so we spent a lot of time pootling around Dublin bay and the Isle of Man running a couple of drills and working on our lines and improving our seamanship (I am now a queen of whipping (lines)!)

Some highlights:

- Dolphins playing on the bow and Roy trying to train them with a banana in his pj's

- Having Sunday pancakes with nutella (thanks David L!)

- Getting more confident in my knowledge and instincts, especially at night

Some low points:

- Getting seasick for two days and feeling so miserable I was thinking about quitting the whole thing and not sailing to Uruguay. Luckily when the seasickness faded my spirits lifted, which was definitely helped by some of my crewmates saying they'd had similar feelings themselves

- Trying to cook fish and chips in the terrible Clipper ovens - there just isn't enough room (or heat) for 19 portions!

Final prep in Liverpool has been pretty full on but a great experience. I think it'll pay off too - our seamanship is definitely up there, with our bilges being complemented as the best in the fleet by the maintenance guys, and our new Kemp Method for milking lines (patent pending ;-)) has given way more effective results than any of the other boats. Our dedication as a team is really high as well - we started the deep clean before 8am after partying late on arrival when the other boats didn't start for quite a while after us, and we've started earlier every day all week. The team is really gelling too which is great, and we had an awesome mass crew dinner last night with 40 of us and our friends and family.

A calm-ish day today and tomorrow with family before setting sail on Sunday - watch this space, as my next update will be from the boat!!

Diary of a Level 4 Clipper trainee

Thursday 13th -

Train down to Portsmouth straight from work. Revised like mad on the train (as usual) and a quick chat with Nigel S on the way to the Gosport ferry as it turns out he was on the same train!

Headed over to the marina to get my berth (Roy very kindly let me stay on the boat even though I hadn't been able to help with prep day) and bumped into some Team Roy crew camped outside the Castle! Went down to the boat to claim a bunk (engine topside again) and say hi to Roy before heading back to the Castle for a few drinks. Fish and chips on board the boat for dinner - yum!

Friday 14th -

An early start to make the most of having a shower, then a quick trip into town with Holly for a breakfast croissant and orange juice before collecting my shiny new foulies from New Stores (I definitely did not get my smock stuck on my glasses, and certainly did not need Peter's help getting free). More crew started to arrive, and we set the boat up ready to sail - me and Ben got the staysail hanked and rigged, the foredeck dream team! Remembered to get the sheets under the jackstays but forgot stopper knots, luckily Roy spotted that before we left. Doh! 1st day brain blip.

On deck brief for the week and safety overview before lunch (Trevor and Stian made sandwiches and pea soup). A quick final trip back into town for a hairbrush having left mine at home before slipping lines in formation with the rest of the fleet. We were last out so no-one was watching - a few crew's had trouble getting out of their tight berths.

Chilled afternoon tacking around and sailing to get a feel for the boat again. Anchored at Swanage Bay with Team Sanya ready for paired emergency drills tomorrow.

A rotten cold and a bashed knee (knelt on a butterfly screw on the coffee grinder on the exact spot of my L3 injury) meant I was excused from anchor watch and drugged myself up for the night. Spinach and potato curry for dinner - delicious.

Saturday 15th -

Good night's sleep but still feeling rotten with a very sore knee. I'm on Mother Watch with David G and made boiled eggs and toast for breakfast - tasty but very messy for the crew to eat!

Started the day with emergency steering practice. Weighed anchor and pootled around the bay around a series of buoys. I may be biased (!) but my steering team was definitely the best - we picked it up very quickly. Ship-to-ship transfers next and Andre sent over the heaving line for our first transfer (a bag of kitkats) and got it there spot on first time. They sent us some chocolate digestives back :-) Poor Bob/Ruth was sent over on the dinghy next, and I was the lucky volunteer who had to go the side over to get him back on board after his adventure. Typically the calm sea suddenly turned into a large wave just as I got into the dinghy with Bob, but managed to get him back okay. Towing drills next, then we headed our separate ways.

Fish finger sandwiches and soup for lunch (which I cooked while fishing Bob out of the dinghy!) but I didn't find all of them in the cool box so slightly short rations all round (oops). I had leftover egg from breakfast with some mayo - tasty.

MOB and more emergency drills in the afternoon before heading back to Swanage Bay to anchor for the night around 6. Chicken and chorizo jambalaya for dinner which was very well received by the crew and made up for the short lunch rations (phew). Must get the recipe for myself because the quorn version was tasty! Added leftover spinach which was delicious.

Still feeling rotten despite a drive of energy throughout the day (probably biscuit-fueled) so I got the 10pm anchor watch. Uneventful, although we drifted a little on our kedge so I woke Roy to check he was okay with the wind shift, which he was.

Sunday 16th -

Really good night's sleep and feeling a bit better in the morning - knee wasn't *quite * as sore either.

Disgusting salty porridge for breakfast which I didn't realise until after adding nutella and banana and taking a bite - blergh! Managed to eat the lot but not happy.

Our skipper-free navigation challenge (12 hours without his navigational input) so we split into watches to plan the passage (Starboard - my watch) and check tides and weather (Port). Weighed anchor and fell into watches at 10am. Starboard was off until 2pm so I headed to my bunk for a nap. Cheese toasties for lunch.

Spinnaker hoist as I came on watch, then spinnaker MOB a little after - our best one yet, Roy said it was textbook! Only about 4 minutes from alarm to recovery.

Pretty straightforward watch, we made great speed so ended a little time pacing the Isle of Wight. I volunteered to help for a little while to get some practice in, and somehow ended up helming the spinnaker hoist! Very nervous (I really hate helming) but apparently I'm actually pretty decent - who knew! Left the drop to Port watch just as we went off (hehe).

Monday 17th -

Nice night watch 12am to 4am - just a few tacks, nothing very eventful. Good entertainment on the VHF radio in the form of a PanPan from a stuck Dutch vessel. Warm night - no foulies needed.

Out of the watch system from 10am for the day all on together.

- Went up the mast at last - such an amazing view! I spotted a couple of others going up as well
- Practice abandon ship
- Fire hose / flooding drills
- Practice le mons starts - lots of repetitions to get us super slick. I manned the staysail active sheet
- Crazy hot day
- Halloumi wraps for lunch - so good! Speedy bol for dinner
- Anchored off Cowes ready for the practice race tomorrow - almost the whole fleet assembled! We were definitely the fastest time pick up the mooring buoy though, we sent Nigel S over straight away to stand on it and pass the line through
- Bowl overboard... Washing up on deck I may not have checked the bucket before sending it over the side...it floated past Team Rob next to us before sinking
- Volunteered for a 3am anchor watch as I've got off lightly the last two nights

Tuesday 18th -

Race day! Early morning start to motor to the start line off Pembridge for 9.30 - we were the first to slip the mooring lines. The boats all did a practice le mons start (it took forever to get everyone in line, it was like herding cats!) which we did pretty well on - I think we were first over the line. Then lined up for a practice parade of sail and a practice line start. It was pretty amazing watching all the boats sailing together, it really made it all seem very real. We struggled a bit on the practice line start - I think the excitement went to our heads a bit! Did pretty well on the real thing though.

On watch 2pm to 8pm running down to France. Came through a thunderstorm with lighting all around and force 7 winds - my first proper weather! Great learning opportunity and reassuring that I am skilled enough to hop to any task sharpish and what needs doing quite instinctively. Took the helm towards the end of the watch to have a go helming in rough seas (it had calmed to force 5/6) but absolutely hated it. I was good at it and got to grips with it quite quickly but I really did not enjoy it - my first teary moment on board when I got into my bunk.

Leftover bol for dinner with much awaited garlic bread (holly had gotten our hopes up yesterday) theb straight to my bunk for some sleep before coming back on watch at midnight.

Wednesday 19th -

No-one from Port watch got us up for our watch at 12am and then got annoyed we were late - their fault! Holly defended us to her watchmates well though which was nice. Trailing the fleet now sadly, but hoping to catch more wind round the next mark to catch up.

Thankfully quite a quiet watch after the excitement of the thunderstorm. Great stars but not much wind as we headed parallel to France to the second race mark. Dozed a little on deck during my watch stretched out in the cockpit.

Finally shaken the sniffly cold and my knee is very sore anymore - hurrah!

Back on watch at 8am for a proper porridge breakfast by Ally and Martyna with a fresh fruit salad. Got the Code 3 up and I trimmed for a while - once I got the knack of looking for the curl of the luff it was quite instinctive knowing when to grind and ease. Nigel S took over for a while while I manned the grinder and we had a good bit of banter about all my pleases and thank-yous - looking forward to racing with him!

We managed to pick up a lot of speed and we got into 5th of 9 and 1st of the white boats (we haven't had the bottom cleaned like the branded boats have so we're a fraction slower). The wind picked up a bit and we got the Code 2 out. Tried to be really quiet wooding while the other watch were all asleep (except for Daren who gallantly offered to help as the 6th Wooler).

We had about 15 minutes left on watch before we were due to come off at 2pm, and lunch was late, and we thought Port would drop the kite and hoist the Yankee 2 but we ended up being drafted in to help. The wind got up even more around 2.30pm so we had to stay on even longer to help (still without lunch) and I got drenched by a big wave while riding the rails trying to help speed us to the finish line. Got sent below around 3.30pm to warm up as I was shivering and damp and ended up staying down to help wool the spinnaker so we could finally have lunch(/dinner!). Finally rounded the ever-elusive mark at 4.30pm-ish, coming 5th overall and 1st of the white boats. Great time cheering on deck as we finished in thw sunshine.

Finally had some lunch and motored back to Gosport as fast as we could - we had a table booked at the Castle for 8pm! Got into harbour to drop the main while Roy radioed in for our berth only to find we weren't meant to be in until 10pm (it was 6.30pm at this point)! Luckily since we were right there thy let us in meaning we were first to showers!

After flaking the main Roy sent Starboard off to shower while Port put the boat to bed for the night (only fair since we'd ended up doing more on-watch hours) - best shower ever! Starting to smell myself was not at all pleasant.

In the pub by 8pm for a lovely crew meal and then some drinks as the other crews started to file in. Saw Jenny, Helen and Malcom which was great. Back to bed around 10.30/11pm

Thursday 20th -

All up and breakfasted by 7.45am so we just cracked on with the deep clean. Roy put me in charge so I did lots of running around with a list answering questions about what to do next. I scrubbed in with cleaning down the Port saloon and sail locker - the sail locker is now a sparkling thing of beauty! Annoyingly fell into a deep bilge by not checking where the soul boards had been taken up and twisted my ankles a bit and badly bruised my hip and side - typical clumsy me!

All done by 12.30pm after some faffing around checking everything was done and sorting final bits so headed to the Castle for a debrief and a drink. Train to London with Ally.

A great final week of training!




Stats -

- On-watch hours x 85.5 / Off-watch hours x 45
- 453nm sailed, including crossing the English Channel twice in 24 hours
- 12 hours night sailing
- 66,361 steps / 28.13 miles walked
- 82 bruises

Highs -

- Climbing the mast
- Helming a spinnaker hoist
- Helming a F5/6 at the tail end of a thunderstorm
- Leading a staysail hoist
- Leading two Y2 flakes and a main flake (I like flaking)
- Leading the deep clean

Lows -

- Helming a F5/6 at the tail end of a thunderstorm - although in reflection I am pleased I managed to do it well!
- Salty porridge
- Falling into a bilge

Team Building

It's been a whirlwind since Crew Allocation - the Team Weekend, Level 4 training and prepping to sail off into the sunset for two months has kept me pretty busy!

With only 3 and a bit weeks notice, pulling together a residential team building event was always going to be a challenge, but thankfully it all came together and worked out perfectly in the end. I have to say though, I have a whole new respect for the skippers having to herd so many people - corralling 30 of them into one place at the same time and getting their payment, dietary requirements and suggestions for activities was much like what I imagine herding cats to be like!

We spent the weekend at a wonderful 4* hostel by Stonehenge that had everything we could possibly want and then some (think licensed bar, tree-top walkway, zip-wire, two large garden areas, a classroom for race planning, large conservatory/dining room...) Self-catering was the perfect choice for us as everyone pitched in without being nudged, even to the extent of having too many helpers (an excel sign for the Race), and it gave our Leg 1&2 victualler Julie a great opportunity to practice menu planning and shopping for 30 people on the Clipper budget.

On the Saturday we went on a gorgeous 11-12 mile hike around Amesbury, past Stonehenge and across to Woodhenge in the blistering heat (we only lost our skipper the once), before we settled down to an afternoon of race planning and discussions. We managed to get a Q&A session with 13-14 RTWer Sophie Hetherton as well which was handy for crew fund questions.

Thanks to Quizmaster Nigel A (one of THREE Nigel's in TeamRoy!) we spent a great evening in the garden doing a pub quiz. While my team didn't win, we did at least ace the Clipper round! Our "I'm only as competitive as you all want to be" skipper was in the winning team...

Sunday morning started off with a trip through the forest as we explored the on-site tree-top walkway (including a run-by from a wild ferret), zip-wire (hilariously Roy couldn't undo his own knot for a couple of minutes) and playground. A few big kids had great fun on the swings (Andre, Stian, I'm looking at you!) which got us in the perfect silly mood for the event of the weekend - Sports Day!

When I asked the team what they wanted to do, I have to admit I was surprised by how many of then came back with suggestions that all came together to mean we were having a sports day. Just goes to show, we're all just great big kids wanting to play! Activities included an egg and spoon race, relay race, bucket toss, and sack race. After a very competitive battle for points, the Green Team emerged victorious to claim their medals and chocolate orange prizes - interestingly, the skipper's team! The Grand Finale tug-of-war (Yankee sheets are good for more than just trimming sails you know) was hotly fought over three rounds and much discussion of the angle of the slope in the orchard we were playing in.

All in all an excellent weekend of team bonding, race planning and generally getting to know each other that bodes well for the real thing - I can't wait to sail with these guys!

Level 4 run-down to follow soon.