A week at sea and a trip to A&E

Level 3 training? Check!

After talking to Level 3 veterans and frantically cramming the Crew Manual in Wagamama's the night before training, I was worried that the whole "spinnaker thing" was going to be a confusing, tangled nightmare looming over the whole week, when actually I had a blast and a lot of "eureka" moments! (Gybing finally makes sense to me now, hallelujah) 

The awesome Easter crew of CV23! Thanks to Lars for the photo

Highlights

• Finally "getting" gybing
• Hanging off the bow unhanking the Yankee as fast as Carol was easing the halyard (trickier than it sounds)
• Being called "the tough one" by a watchmate - a good boost when I was knackered and doubting whether I could manage to grind up the Yankee!
• Leading lots of tasks with my watch - talking through the process really helped stick things in my head and asking for everyone's input helped us gel as a team and make sure everyone knew what to do and why
• Having a full crew gave us a good taste of what life will be like on the race - it was strange how little I saw of the other watch once we got into the watch system though - apart from the deck handover, we didn't see them at all

Lowlights

• Only getting 45 minutes sleep on one off-watch because of a spinnaker wrap
• Slipping on a hatch and winding up in A&E
• The pervasive smell of bacon - as the only veggie on board a boat where bacon seemed to feature in every meal I spent a lot of time on deck while meals were being cooked!

Life at an angle - the cooker is actually level!  Thanks Matt N for the photo

With a full crew of 17, plus Skipper Matt Mitchell (ClipperTelemed+ skipper in 15/16) and First Mates Carol Eccles and Alex Laline, CV23 was a pretty busy place! We split into watches right from the beginning with 8 in Port (my watch!) and 9 in Starboard. After spending the day studying ISAF theory in a stuffy little classroom it was a relief to be getting on with the boat walkthrough, checking life jackets on deck and settling into our bunks. Amusingly, before we went into the watch system full time and those in the forward bunks started hot-bunking, we had one person too many for the crew bunks so Lars ended up locked in with the sails for a couple of nights on the spare bunk tucked in there.

After some creative acrobatics (a few of us got a top bunk for the first time and didn't quite get the knack of climbing in straight away) and a fair few bumps to the head, we rounded of the night with a trip to the Castle. 

Tip: grabbing the edge of the cave locker by your head helps give you a lift as you launch yourself up - just remember to make sure your lee-cloth is fully loosened so you don't get your legs tangled in it as you swing them over...

Days 2 and 3 followed the usual routine - safety brief below and on deck, pontoon MOB (I was 'swimmer'), and sailed over to West Cowes where we put the boat to bed and headed off to the pub for a drink, then a long day sailing across to Portland reminding ourselves how to do everything and getting used to the layout of the 70's (plus another MOB, where I was swimmer again!).

Thanks Jonny for capturing some of the action!

Once we left Portland we headed east and fell into the watch system properly on a 4 on, 4 off rolling pattern. Saturday saw us hoist the spinnaker for the first time, which went very well, and then drop it and wool it. To the uninitiated and clueless (as I was until I was handed a ball of wool), "wooling" the spinnaker means rolling it up in a very specifically odd way, and then tying strands of yarn all along it and folding it. Sounds easy? Ha! The sail fills the entire below decks, gets tangled, has coloured tapes you need to "run", and the wool likes to break at annoying moments. We're told we'll learn to love it.

Tip: don't ask an ex-race RTW'r (Alex) how many times a day they did this on the race, it will only drive you to comfort eating brownie bites and chocolate bourbons while sobbing into your tea 

After merrily sending Starboard watch down below, the Port watch decided we wanted to hoist the spinnaker again (undoing all that lovely wooling). Sadly, it did not go as well the second time round. The wool broke free part way up the hoist, filling the sail and wrapping it around the forestay. Oops. After trying to untangle it for about an hour, we decided to head to a sheltered spot out of the wind to sort it out, just in time for Starboard watch to come up on deck. 

I was on mother watch with Felicity and in charge of getting dinner ready, so we headed down below with the instruction to have it ready in 45 minutes while everyone else went to sort out the Port watch mess. We duly cooked the pasta and pesto bacon for the appointed time (8pm), only to hear that the spinnaker situation was taking a lot longer than hoped and we'd need to hold it a while longer. The weary and hungry Port watch finally started stumbling down below around 9.30pm where they scoffed a miraculously still warm dinner and threw themselves into their bunks - we were meant to be off watch at 8pm and had to come back on at 12am. As mothers Felicity and I stayed up with the Starboard watch until around 10.15pm or so to make sure everyone was fed and watered and the galley was cleaned up before trying to snatch what sleep we could in the 90 minutes we had before we had to get up again. Who says Clipper is a holiday?!

Tip: don't plan meals involving cooking pink food under a red light - its blooming hard to know when bacon is cooked if the whole galley is bathed in red! 

Happily the next morning dawned brighter, with the Easter bunny visiting the crew during the 8am watch change on Easter Sunday. I'm very impressed that the little smarties filled eggs I'd brought with me had managed to survive intact despite being in my kit bag shoved and kicked at the end of my bunk with my boots being chucked on top of them every 4 hours. Another good day sailing with some stronger winds driving us home, and everyone falling into the 4 on/4 off pattern a little more easily.

Unfortunately with just 2 hours left on what was expected to be my final watch, disaster struck. We were speeding along nicely at 10-11 knots with 3 reefs in and an angle of around 40 degrees when I went to have a turn helming. As I went to grab the guard by the helm a wave shifted the angle of the boat and I slipped on a hatch landing heavily on my nose and right knee. Luckily I was clipped on, so I didn't slide very far down the deck, but it was clear pretty much instantly that I had done some serious damage, potentially breaking my knee, and I needed to get to hospital.

Within about 30 seconds Matt was on deck and assessing my injuries while Carol did a great job of keeping me calm while checking my head and neck over. Their training really showed, and I had absolutely no doubts about their ability to look after me. Handily, there was also a retired GP and nurse on board to help out and get me splinted up using gaffa tape and a wooden stick they found in the sail locker.

While I can't say I enjoyed being the subject, the accident did offer my crewmates an excellent opportunity to practice dealing with a real emergency, and I think they did marvellously! They rallied round, handing over their sleeping bags to wrap me in and keep me warm on deck, sitting with me and including me in the ongoing game of "would you rather" Port watch had started the day before, and generally keeping my spirits up during the long motor back to Gosport and help. They even wrapped me in a sail bag to keep me dry (or so they say, I think they just wanted to get a picture of me pretending to be a sail!).

After a painful few weeks stuck at home on crutches being sent from hospital to hospital and doctor to doctor, I was told that my some miracle I hadn't broken my kneecap or damaged my cartilage as everyone thought, but "just" impinged my intrapatellar pad which should heal in plenty of time for Level 4 training in July and won't need surgery. 

I'm so lucky it wasn't worse, and for once in my life I'm doing as I'm told and resting up so that I can heal quickly - my eyes are firmly on the prize: crossing the Atlantic in August!

P.S. During all the drama my boots had to get cut off - if anyone has any decent size 7's going spare, let me know!!

The Clipper vs Paid Holiday balancing act

A few people asked me at Crew Briefing recently about how I'm managing my work holiday allowance with all the training I need to do for Clipper as well as the thru-hiking I did earlier this year for British Red Cross.

To answer them and anyone else who is struggling with this, here are my tips for getting the most out of your paid holidays!

Bank holidays are your new best friend

You may have avoided them like the plague before now for fear of being attacked by swarms of hyperactive small children on holiday being trailed by exhausted parents, but they are your new BFF - time to embrace them. I've got my Level 2 booked for this August bank holiday weekend, and that's saved me a whole day of holiday that I can use to relax at Christmas or have a long weekend with a friend. Pretty nifty, eh?

Plan ahead

Back in November 2015 I booked my Level 1 and 2 training for March and August 2016, and recently I booked in my Level 3 for April 2017. While to some this may seem like crazy levels of organisation, actually by doing this I could plan around bank holidays (remember: you're now BFFs) and have worked it so that for three weeks of training, normally 15 work days, I've only had to take 10 holiday days. That's a whole extra week of paid time off hanging around for other Clipper activities or for less exhausting holiday options (long weekend in Paris anyone?).

Planning ahead also means that you're much more likely to get on the course you want when you want - bank holidays are training hot spots!

I hope this helps anyone who has been struggling a bit :) And if anyone else has any great tips for making the most of your holiday time, please let me know!

Level 1 training Part Two: Highlights, Good to Knows, and Learning Curves

This is the second of two blogs talking about my Level 1 Clipper training, and looks at my highlights of the week, learning curves, and list of Things That Are Good To Know. For the super keen, I've also included the syllabus at the bottom as well. Part One covered Top Tips and Kit Chat.

We were pretty lucky with the weather - light airs for most of the week, but much better than Storm Katie which the guys after us had to deal with! Despite the sunburn and Force 0 wind for a few days, at least we managed to get out on the water every day. It did make taking the forecast pretty predictable though  - "force zero, variable, smooth, fair..."



Massive thanks go out to my Skipper Paul Hopkins and First Mate Emily Caruso - these guys were incredible teachers and really made the whole week a fun experience and a great intro to sailing and Clipper. Emily dancing around to Danger Zone to warn of the dangers of the Cockpit Cautionary Zone will stay with me for a long time!

Skipper Paul

First Mate Emily

Highlights of the week

• Shaking out a reef - on my own! Crazy hard (really need to work on my core strength) and I thought I'd fall over at one point while grinding the main up, but a totally amazing experience that helped prove to me that I really can do this sailing malarky
• Cooking tasty porridge for 11 (so tasty in fact, that everyone had seconds, and one person even had thirds!)
• Clambering around the bow hanking on and off the Yankee sails like a monkey - definitely one of my favourite jobs on board
• Being watch leader for putting the boat to bed after our second day out on the water
• Making friends with such an amazing group of crewmates - the Wincanton Over-60s have nothing on us! (crew in-joke - it made sense on the boat!)

Photo of the week!

Blue Steel

Team Porridge

Learning curves

• I'm definitely a fan of bow work - I felt totally at home in the pulpit
• Factor 30 is absolutely useless at sea
• Putting your hand up for everything may end up being hard work, but it is totally worth it as you often get first shot at trying new things (even if you don't realise that that thing is shaking out a reef on your own...)
• Even if you're fun sized and not super strong, you can still do everything on board if you take your time, use the tools around you and work with your crewmates
• I'm even more competitive then I realised!
• Land Sickness is a real thing and can last quite a while after getting back on dry land. Hint - avoid alcohol while recovering. However fun it is at the time, it'll just make it a hundred times worse the next day (especially if you're camping in the middle of Storm Katie)
• Clipper bunks are surprisingly comfortable and are way better than my camping mat
• Lightbulb moments may take a while (the running backstay for me was particularly tricky) but they do come eventually - just keep working at them
• New mainsails are very hard to flake
• I'm actually a competent sailor! Hurrah!

Good to know

• The most useful knots to practice in advance:
• Bowline - used for practically everything. Practice this upside down, back to front, blindfold, and most definitely tie it around things otherwise your brain will get confused when suddenly its perfect bowline routine is muddled by the massive sail attached to it!
• Round turn and two half hitches - useful for keeping your leecloth upright and securing open hatches
• Admiralty - stops lines and sheets running through jammers or through your hands too quickly!
• It's worth buying a RYA logbook to track your sailing time and miles - £5.84 from the Marina shop in Gosport with the Clipper Crew discount, and your Skipper will talk you through filling it out and signing it off for you at the end of your course
• Carry your wet notes with you at all times. They will become your bible. I cannot stress this enough
• You'll have to row a dinghy at some point in order to pass your RYA competent crew certificate. If your Skipper has you do this in pairs, try to pick someone roughly the same height so you're not leaning at strange angles trying to avoid capsizing while doing a handbrake turn with an oar
• Your last day will be the Deep Clean - if your crew is efficient and works hard, you can leave after lunch rather than at 4pm. Hint - blast the radio and provide plenty of sweet treats and you'll get through it faster and in good spirits
• You'll probably go to The Castle pub for a quick drink on your first night to get to know each other. The Castle is basically the Clipper local and you'll spend a lot of time here over the course of your training in Gosport. Likewise for The Anchor in Cowes
• It's traditional on Level 1 for the crew to take their Skipper and Mate out for dinner on the last night. Unless your Skipper/Mate really want to go somewhere else, you'll likely be going to the 'Clipper Clubhouse' that is Hardy's (http://www.hardys-catering.co.uk/) - great food, but a little pricey so if you're not planning on going all out for three courses with wine, maybe have a word with your crewmates before you go so there's no awkwardness at the end of the night about splitting the bill 100% evenly when your portion is a fraction of the cost of everyone elses
• Last but not least, it's an AMAZING experience

Level 1 Syllabus

For the super keen/interested, here's a detailed outline of the Clipper Level 1 syllabus:

Day 1

• Introduction to Clipper and familiarisation to Gosport Marina and facilities
• Comprehensive down below safety brief
• To include detailed explanation of use of bunks and lee cloths
• Moving down below and use of grab rails
• Actions to be taken in event of fire, flooding and gas leak
• Knot practice
• Figure of eight
• Admiralty stopper knot
• Clove hitch
• Round turn and two half hitches
• Single and double sheet bend
• Reef knot
• Rolling hitch
• Bowline

Day 2

• Comprehensive above deck brief
• Action to be taken in the event of abandoning ship
• Set a Clipper Training Yacht for sailing
• On water training
• Hoisting Mainsail
• Hoisting Yankee
• Hoisting Staysail and use of running backstays
• Upwind helming and tacking
• Man overboard under power including recovery and use of harness
• Evening lecture
• Points of sail
• Rules of the road

Day 3

• Reefing Mainsail
• Racing headsail change (changing up to bigger sails only)
• Downwind sailing
• Use of preventers
• Gybing
• MOB downwind including recovery and use of harness
• Evening lectures
• Flares and their use
• SART
• VHF and Mayday call
• Basic meteorology including weather forecast, and how to read a synoptic chart

Day 4

• Refresh
• Reefing
• Headsail change (changin up to bigger sails only)
• Long triangular course
• Sail trim
• A flappy sail is an unhappy sail
• If in doubt let it out
• Use of tell tales by the helm and trimmers
• Introduction of car positioning to create twist/different headsails
• Interaction between traveller/vang/mainsheet/preventer
• MOB under sail with recovery
• Evening lectures
• Proper use of log book
• Plotting GPS position on to a chart
• Manners and customs (as per RYA competent crew syllabus)

Day 5 and 6

• Refresh and strengthen any weak areas of above syllabus
• Offshore challenge
• Overnight passage to include an early morning arrival at anchor
• Introduction to the watch system
• Preparing the anchor to drop
• Dropping and setting the anchor
• Importance of anchor watch
• Safe recovery and stowage of anchor
• Storm sail drill
• Emergency steering drill
• Rig climb (if conditions allow, at anchor or alongside)
• Use of dingy
• Evening meal

Day 7

• Deep clean
• Individual crew debriefs

Thanks to Fran Baker for being resident Pap on board and taking such great photos!

Level 1 Training Part One: Top Tips and Kit Chat

Hurrah! A week, countless bruises and much hilarity later, I am officially a Clipper Race Level 1 qualified sailor with a RYA Competent Crew certificate to boot!

 

This is the first of two blogs looking at the various aspects of training, and will focus on my top tips for future crew about to embark on their training, as well as taking a good look at kit. Part Two covers the (many) skills we mastered and my list of Things That Are Good To Know.

My Top Tips

• Try to learn the vocab before you get to Level 1 - even just knowing the difference between port and starboard will help you focus on the practical skills and not get all tangled up in learning a new language. You can print out my vocab flashcards for free here.
• Practice your bowlines backwards, forwards, blindfold and upside down. They are easily the most commonly used knots on board the Clipper yachts and are often tied in a 'pressure bowline' situation with everyone watching you.
• For those who are thinking about going gloveless - stop moisturising your hands at least three weeks before you set sail. Your hands will be battered and bashed constantly by wind, salt, seawater, heavy ropes, lifting sails, climbing the mast, operating corroded hanks...you name the task, your hands will bear the brunt of it and the softer they are, the harder it'll be on you.
• Take Factor 50 suncream and remember to wear it! Even if you aren't usually susceptible to burning, the combination of sunshine (if you're lucky) and light reflection off the sails and sea will render Factor 30 practically useless. Don't forget to apply to the backs of your hands if you're going gloveless!
• Use a high SPF lip salve religiously. Between the wind, salt and light glare, your lips will feel like you've been grating them. If salve doesn't help, try a little bit of Savlon to encourage healing.
• Knee pads will help save your knees from the worst of the abuse you're going to put them through by learning to sail with Clipper. I didn't take any, but will definitely taking some for Level 2 and I know at least 3 of my training crewmates will be as well. Especially important if you suffer from sore, stiff or generally painful knees.

Kit

Starting to think about packing for Clipper training can be pretty intimidating. Here are some essential things to think about when pulling together your kit:

• How warm is your sleeping bag? Is it 4 season? If not, why not? Getting a good night's sleep, even when you're absolutely physically and mentally exhausted, is really hard if you're cold. If you don't have a good sleeping bag already, it's definitely worth investing in one now. You don't have to go all out and get an Ocean Sleepwear, any good quality 4 season will do (hint: go for synthetic fill as it dries faster in case your bag gets wet (which, let's face it, it probably will)).
• Do you really need to buy new gear for training? Do you hike or camp? If so, you probably already have a lot of the kit you need anyway - most of my gear has been repurposed from my thru-hiking and camping kit and worked just as well as some of the expensive sailing-specific gear my crewmates had on.
• If you like dry feet, it is probably worth getting a pair of sailing boots for training. They don't have to be crazy expensive - as long as they keep the water out your quality of life will be improved by 100%. I bought a £45 pair of Gill Marine Tall Yachting Boots and loved them (full review to follow).
• When choosing a head torch, it's worth making sure you go for one with a separate button for the red light. Having to cycle through the white lights will blind everyone around you which, let's face it, probably isn't going to go down too well when they're coming on watch at 3.30am, can't see where they're going, and they fall over an ankle breaker.

For those who're interested, here's a complete list of the kit that I took, and what brand key items are:

• Large rucksack
• Sleeping bag (5 season down, Field & Trek)
• *Bivvy bag (Quechua)
• Cotton sleeping bag liner (Mountain Warehouse)
• Clothes
• 1 x long sleeve merino base layer (Orvis)
• 2 x legging base layers (M&S)
• 2 x mid layer trousers (Mountain Warehouse) 
• 1 x fleece mid layer (Mountain Warehouse)
• 1 x waterproof shell jacket (Mountain Warehouse)
• Pyjamas x 1 set 
• Underwear
• Thick dual layer hiking socks (Mountain Warehouse) x 3 pairs
• Thin cotton socks x 2 pairs
• Wooly hat
• Neck buff
• Gloves
• *Sailing boots (Gill Marine Tall Yachting Boots - review)
• *Deck shoes (Musto Dynamic Deck Shoes - review)
• *Head torch (Geonaute Onnight 200+ Headlamp)
• Multitool (Mountain Warehouse)
• Laundry bag
• Glasses retainer
• Toiletries
• Personal toiletries & medicine
• Spare glasses
• Quick drying travel towel (Mountain Warehouse)
• Suncream
• Lip salve
• Flashcards of key terms
• Crew treats (Magic Stars, chocolate raisins, Skittles)

Impressively (I think), I only took four items that I didn't use:

• Sleeping bag liner - my sleeping bag is so warm and cosy (especially with a bivvy bag covering it) that the liner was more of a tangled annoyance than a help and was quickly abandoned after the first night
• Gloves - this was a personal choice as I felt I could handle the lines and sheets better without gloves, almost everyone else wore them
• Multitool - I think this was due to chance of circumstance, as I did use a crewmates during the deep clean as it was closer to hand
• Glasses retainer - the weather was very calm so I didn't feel the need to use this

Thinking forward to training for Level 2 and beyond, there isn't much kit that I think I need to add. I'll definitely be getting another merino base layer top as I really appreciated how (relatively) fresh smelling it stayed after a week of some pretty heavy wear, and it kept me toasty warm when everyone else started to pile on their mid-layers and foulies. In a similar vein, I'll be trading in my M&S synthetic leggings for merino leggings for longer lasting freshness and cosiness. I'll also definitely need to take more stuff bags for separating out my kit into easily grabbable piles. Hot tip - I laid out my clothes for the next day each night before bed and wrapped them in my waterproof shell jacket so that I could quickly grab them when I woke up without having to rummage around looking for a missing sock or fighting to find the other end of my leggings. Keeping your toothbrush and toothpaste close to hand is also pretty useful!

I might switch my cotton sleeping bag liner for a silk one for training in the summer months when my sleeping bag is too hot (although England being England, I'll probably only end up using it for one night...). 

And that's all on kit from me for now - specific kit reviews of asterisked items will follow soon. Any questions, just ask in the comments section below!

Part Two on Things That Are Good To Know and what sailing skills we covered to follow soon!