Though I had only completed Level 1 just a couple of months previously, it was great to get back on a Clipper 68.
However, first we had to complete the RYA Sea Survival course. This was carried out in a local Community Centre near Clipper HQ. It was nice to catch-up with three of my fellow Level 1 crew mates. This started with lectures in the morning which are basically designed to enforce the message that getting into a lift raft is a last resort and only done when your boat sings beneath you! The afternoon is taken up in a swimming pool playing with a lift raft and trying to swim with an inflated lift vest.
It certainly highlighted the difficulties and general unpleasantness of being in a lift raft. It was bad enough in a swimming pool, so goodness knows what it would be like in angry seas?
After completing the sea survival course it was off to Clipper HQ to board our boat for the next few day, CV7 Singapore and another new set of people to get to know. Day 1 at sea was spent in the Solent reminding ourselves of the processes and procedures before anchoring for the night.
The next day we set off for Beachy Head in our watch system of 4 hours on, 4 hours off. Each day one of the watches would be responsible for cooking for the 10 of us on the boat, whilst the other watch were responsible for cleaning.
So 4 hours on, 4 hours off, what would that be like? Luckily I'm not someone that needs a lot of sleep, so this proved not to be a problem. However, my real Achilles heal raised it's ugly head, sea sickness. Thankfully this only occurred on one occasion and honestly Jeff, it wasn't your cooking! After a calm afternoon when there wasn't even enough wind for the light spinnaker to fly, the wind picked up during the night and so just before midnight when I would have come on watch, a call for all hands to drop the Yankee 1 for the Yankee 2 came. As soon as I got off my bunk it hit me - oh god not in here! Thankfully I managed to keep it in, as throwing up the sleeping quarters was not an option I would care to contemplate! I struggled to get to the heads and let go. Eventually I got on deck, but as soon as I tried to help, I was ill again.
I felt quite miserable.
During the next day I came back to life and all was well with the world again. The tip from Mike (a second time Clipper crew) is to take pills each time you go to sleep - dose up!
All too soon the week as over and we back in Gosport and ready for a shower and a shave. A great week and another great bunch of people. This is something that continues to intrigues me about this whole experience. I've met people from all walks of life and many different nationalities, which would never have happened without this adventure. I'm sure that many of them will be friends for life.
