So what has a Polar bear got to do with Clipper? Answer at the bottom.
11th January saw 100+ Clipperites attend a meeting at the Little Ships Club in London. It was good to meet up with some old friends. Unfortunately, didn't have to mingle afterwards and make any new friends as I was taking Rosemary to the top of the Shard as her birthday treat!
The aim of the meeting was to provides us with some useful in sites into participation of the Clipper experience. First to speak was Rob Lewis, sponsor of Mission Performance who gave some very useful information about extreme team building.
Next was Ben Bowley, senior training skipper. Plenty of useful information about choosing the right ethos and goals for your boat, conflict resolution (which will happen when you get a group of sleep deprived people in a confined space!), things to do to help the skipper and plenty more.
Finally we asked questions to 6 people who have just finished (though still had other Legs to do) Legs on the 13-14 race. This provided useful gems about personal hygiene, clothes, kit as well as low and high points about the experience.
And the Polar bear? As you will see from Rob's CV he has been to the North Pole and shared his own experience of confronting a Polar bear, which is to run at it making as much noise as possible!
Luckily the odds of meeting a Polar bear between the UK and Brazil are slim.
