Level 1

At last, the 28th March came and it was time to head to Clipper HQ in Gosport for my Level 1 training. Had I really been waiting years? Yes, I had! As I got closer to Portsmouth the tension in me started to rise, oh the anticipation of it.

The forecast for the week was good and I had already met the Skipper, Emily, as she was the one who looked after us on our "Wet Wipes" weekend last April, so I knew it was going to be a good week. Home for the week was going to be CV3 - "Welcome to Yorkshire" aka the big pink boat.

At 1700 we all met at the Training Office and found out who we were going to be sharing the week with. There were 8 of us on CV3 for the week and what a mixture we were. Really this should have been no surprise as Clipper attracts a very wide ranging demographic, with perhaps the exception of age. The average age is fairly high, probably due to the cost.

However, we still would have made an interesting Venn diagram; 3 x first time on a yacht,  2 x women, 2 x Swiss, 1 x Dutch, 1 x Australian etc. But the dynamics of the crew were fantastic and by the end of the week emails were swapped and we were all great friends.

Level 1 is a fairly conservative week as even if you have sailing experience (and three of our crew happen't set foot on a yacht before) a Clipper 68 is very different to your average leisure cruiser. Big difference being the weight of sails and the loads under which all the sheets and lines are placed under.

Because of this one of the key parts of the training is safety and safe methods of working. How ironic that the day we practice our first Man Overboard (MOB), that Andrew Taylor on Derry~Londonderry~Doire should spend 1.5 hours in the Pacific having fallen overboard.

Emily (Skipper) and Paul (Mate) provided a really fun, safe and good learning environment, which made the week a great experience.

Roll on Level 2 in June!