The Story Continues...

July 17, 2011
Well it's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened in a very short space of time!   Having finished my big sailing adventure almost exactly a year ago it was apparent to me that I couldn't go back to my life as it was before. But necessity meant that I had to, initially at least, with a mortgage to pay not to mention a still substantial overdraft from having a year without work but I knew that I had fundamentally changed and that my life would need to change to suit it. Without a specific plan - other than I wanted to be on or around boats and the water - I set a goal of having made big changes to my circumstance by Easter 2011. I confided in a fair few friends about this plan (to ensure against me getting cold feet and backing down) and then gradually made moves to seek first redundancy from my job (where I knew there were soon to be large cuts) and then to get my house on the market - at a time when let's face it, the housing market is not at its most buoyant!
The house went up for sail just before Christmas 2010, with a small amount of interest in early January and then nothing. I was offered the chance of voluntary redundancy in early March - which I agreed on, with a leaving date of end of June, which was a gamble with no interest in the house. But they say 'fortune favours the brave' and within 3 weeks I had an offer on the house which I accepted.  It was now all systems go - I just wasn't quite sure in which direction!

Lots of people asked me what I was going to do and to be honest I had no fixed plan.  I wanted to sail and also to race and with that in mind managed to get a place as crew on a J109 - Jambo - entering in the famous Fastnet Race in August of this year.  I also was invited back onto Starcross, the Swan 42 that I had helped sail from Jersey down to Porto, north Portugal last October, this time to sail back across the Atlantic from Bermuda to Azores at Easter. It was another great sailing experience, with all kinds of weather, on solo watches, as there were just 3 of us on board but one that I wouldn't have missed for the world. I made lots of great sailing contacts and also made a very close friend in crew-mate and 'Hot Scot', Simon!

So with nothing more than a rough plan to "do bits of sailing and sail training" across the summer and then " take myself off somewhere hot for the winter, to try and write a book about my last few years of madness', I set about selling the contents of my house and trying to whittle my worldy goods down to a few boxes - whatever would fit in my Mum's loft and garage!   About 6 weeks ago, a month before I was due to finish my job, I was contacted by Carey from North One TV. They had made the TV series on the last Clipper Race, had just won the contract from Clipper to make the next series, and offered me a job, on the strength of the filming I'd done as crew on the last race!  Needless to say I jumped at the chance and said "Yes!" I left my job on 30th June, moved out of my house that weekend and started with North One the following Monday.
My feet haven't really touched the ground since. I've had to get my head around a new company, new people, the concept of making a TV series, a very packed filming schedule before race start on 31st July not to mention getting to grips with filming kit that I've never used before! 
I've just spent 2 days filming on CV2 - one of the Clipper 68s, as the skipper and crew start their final sail training week. It was thrilling to be back on the yachts that I know so well, one of which was home for me for a year of my life.  CV8 - which was Hull & Humber in the last race is now the Dutch Boat - De Lage Landen - which I believe means "The Low Lands".  I was extremely pleased to note that although primarily blue, there is small amount of Orange branding near the stern of the boat.  A little bit of our "Umba" lives on!


So, 2 weeks today I'll be back onboard one of the Clipper 68s, setting off on Leg 1, first down to Madeira and then on to Rio. I remember only too well the huge sense of excitement, mingled with slight apprehension of the unknown that we all felt.  And I feel for the crew that are about to throw themselves into this great adventure.  This time I have the advantage of knowledge.  I know just how hard it's going to be for them to get into the swing of life onboard an ocean racing yacht; coping with going the "heads" when the boat is at a 40 degree angle and bouncing around erratically; hanging on in the galley - hanging on to protect yourself from injury and hanging on to the supper as you cook it, to stop it from flying across the galley before you can get it into bowls to feed the hungry crew; dealing with the new pattern of working and sleeping, every 3 or 4 hours and trying to figure out when you clean your teeth and when you "wet-wipe" - your daily hygiene routine; having the confidence to put your 5 weeks of sailing training into practice, and race this hugely powerful yacht in an actual race across an actual ocean.  Up to now it's all been talk, a dream, a mission. Suddenly now it's very real and this is the point when everyone has to find out if they are actually up to the challenge or not.  
My last few days back on the boats have reminded me of all of this; reminded me of just how basic the boats are; of the mountaineering skills you need just to be able to climb into your bunk; the lack of any kind of personal space there is; the unpleasantness of blocked and leaky heads (loos) and now I wonder if prior knowledge IS an advantage or not.  Am I mad to want to put myself back in this situation again, knowing all the challenges that it can produce? Also how am I going to cope with being on board and not being able to sail?  This time I must be an observer not a member of the crew.  I can't jump on the helm or get stuck in and organise the snake pit when I see it's a mess.  This time my challenge is to conquer the new filming equipment I've been given; to keep it intact and working through all conditions; to successfully capture the events, life and emotions of the new Clipper recruits; to follow them on their journey into the unknown and to end up with a series that shares all aspects of this incredible adventure, the dark times and the joy and to hopefully inspire another wave of individuals to break the shackles of everyday life and reach for the unreachable. 
As I set off on what appears to be Part 2 of my relationship with this crazy Round the World Yacht Race, I wonder where this next adventure will lead.  More highs and lows to follow for sure. and so the Story Continues...

 

 
 
 

Post Race - 7th April 2011

April 7, 2011

Passing the Baton

It's half past midnight and I've just put a cake in the oven. That might seem a little unusual but it wouldn't be if I were on a 68ft yacht taking part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.  Bread baking – along with cake baking (especially if it was a crew members Birthday the next day) was common place on night watch. Well it was on Hull & Humber anyway.

So I've just got back from Hull Marina – Greenbricks Pub to be exact, where a whole gaggle of people gathered to ...


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Race 13 - Day 3, Sun 11th July

July 14, 2010

I rejoined my watch at 3am this morning and once again positions were changing all the time. The rest of the fleet bunched up again. We were back under white sails and still holding onto first by the skin of our teeth. As the dawn rose and we sailed past Portland Bill and then the friendly training waters of the solent and the Isle of Wight, we spotted Qingdao hoist their spinnaker through the dim light of morning. We followed suit quickly, just managing to hold them off but soon as the sun ...


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Race 13 - Day 2, Sat 10th July

July 14, 2010

Our first night watch last night (11pm – 3 am) was pretty cool. We woke up to find we were ahead of the fleet – just. Actually 'woke up' is untrue as no sleep was had whatsoever. The boat was so heeled over it was hard to haul my bunk up high enough to stop me falling out of it. So I was mainly lying on my lee-cloth and the metal frame at the edge of my bunk. Add to that the frequent bouncing bomb effect – with Umba as the member of  the fictional 633 Squadron every time she took off ov...


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Race 13 - Cork to Ijmuiden, Day 1 Friday 9th July

July 14, 2010

It's now just over a week before we'll be sailing home into Hull, having completed this amazing adventure known as the Clipper round the World Yacht Race and there are certainly mixed feelings floating around inside me. Having thought so much over the last month or so about how I want my life to be from here on in nd the changes I want to make I thought I was past the “dreading it all being over” stage and had moved onto the “it's the next exciting chapter of my life stage”. However...


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Race 12 - Day 10, Mon 28th June

July 5, 2010
We took over again at 3am this morning and within an hour we spotted a white masthead light through the gloom off our port beam. This had to be Qingdao. The fact the the light was white meant we were behind them, but as it gradually became green for longer and longer periods, we knew we were catching them,. WE were now approaching the Fastnet Rock off the coast of Ireland. We had to go between this and the mainland – a gap of only 3miles – so it was inevitable the yachts would funnel toge...
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Race 12 - Day 9, Sun 27th June

July 5, 2010
 The 3am – 7am watch was pretty eventful. The winds are easing and initially the sea state still confused but undoubtedly easier to handle than yesterday's evening watch. Even though we have been putting the clocks forward an hour each day for the last 2 days, to bring ourselves in line with BST, it is still light at 3am. The full moon is still up but is soon overshadowed by the sun who warms our spirits as it bathes us in the glow of a beautiful amber morning.

We finally make a move to shak...
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Race 12 - Day 8, Sat 26th June

July 5, 2010
 Last night was the first time I've seen the moon and stars since leaving Cape Breton. It was however only a fleeting view of a few minutes before the clouds rolled over and spoiled my chance to brush up on my constellations. The sea is still pretty wild and the helming fairly challenging – even though the wind has eased considerably, the sea state is still pretty big and confused and we now don't have enough power in the sails to drive through it. After much debate we finally change from t...
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Race 12 - Day 7, Fri June 25th

June 26, 2010
Race 12 - Day 7, Fri June 25th   

3am arrived and I have to admit to being slightly relieved when I heard I wouldn't be needed on deck. We reverted back to our Pacific crewing of just 2 on deck at any one time with a third person on “step-watch” just inside the companionway to act as comms between on-deck and off-deck crew.  I used the time in between to finish the edit of our weekly video and to check our position against the other boats.  It was clear early on that having gained miles, ...
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Race 12 - Day 6, Thurs June 24th

June 26, 2010
Race 12 - Day 6, Thurs June 24th   

This morning we had a little respite. We must have had a total of about an hour and a half of sunshine spread out in sections across our 6 hour watch, It wasn't much but it was enough to remind us why we love this. Just a small amount of sunshine turns a completely miserable watch into the best place on earth to be. It's amazing the difference it makes and it put us all in a better mood. The early scheds also showed that we were the fastest boat in the flee...
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