What am I good for?

It confidently states in the “official” Clipper Training Manual (At the moment I alternate between this, Sailing for Dummies, and Illustrated Rig Tuning…this last one might as well be written in Chinese as far as my understanding is is concerned), that we, as crew, all bring something other than sailing to the team. Well, yes anyone with medical training can become the boats medic, an engineer the boats engineer, anyone with maintenance experience can be a valuable bosun, sewing knowledge will automatically lend that person to the job as sailmaker, repairing the inevitable torn sails…. You get the picture. Having no particularly useful transferable skills I struggle to see quite what role I’m cut out for.

True, this morning I caught and successfully lambed a ewe who was having difficulty, her first lamb was “hanging” as in both front legs back and it’s head jammed in the cervix and rapidly swelling, the second lamb was coming tail first, in breech position. I’m good at that, there’s just not much call for it in the middle of an ocean. I then went on to dismantle most of the lambing pens, washing dirty buckets and storing them away for next year. I gave a tiny lamb a bath as his rear half was covered in blood and absolutely stunk. I thought he’d had his tail chewed off but once he was clean I could see he was passing very tarry and bloody poo. Well I don’t know what’s wrong with him but he’s drinking milk from a bottle quite happily so we’ll see. The other pets, (12 at the moment but it’s a floating population as some find new mums and others get brought in daily) are thriving and doing well, I will worry about them when I set off back down to Gosport for my Level 3 training on Tuesday, though I do know I leave them in good hands with Michael the shepherd.

So what skills do I possess? I’m good with horses – again not much good where I’m going. One crew needs to be in charge of Media, well I’m sure there will be others with experience who can do that job better than I could. Team coordinator? Oh well, admin, yes, compiling paperwork for arrival in ports for the yacht and for immigration, I dare say I could do that. Victualler? That’s shopping and provisioning the boat for each Leg, ensuring the meals are planned to meet the high nutritional and calorific demands of us crew (apparently we need 5,000 calories a day for energy while racing!). That seems a role with lots of responsibility … there’s no where to hide if the food runs out half way…and would everyone else really want fruit pastilles?

I suppose I don’t mind getting dirty, after all this morning I was quite happily working away with my leggings covered in cleansings and smelly and bloody lamb poo, (I’m not always welcome when I pop into the Co op on my way home), I can get my hands into narrow spaces too…so maybe the skipper will decide I’m very well qualified for cleaning the ‘heads’….that’s toilets to you and I!

So Many Questions

Two weeks today to Crew Allocation! That was my very first thought when I woke up this morning (the second was OMG what time is it, the lambs will be starving…but that’s another story)

Crew Allocation Day, all capitals, a VERY important day in the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race. At last burning questions we will find out the answers to.

We now know who the eleven skippers are, some I’ve met, most I haven’t but I know they will all possess the skills and experience necessary not only to sail a 70ft racing machine around the world but also to manage up to 20 crew, from all cultures, all age groups and most with next to zero experience. Surely that’s got to be the real challenge?

Who will be my fellow crew? Will it anyone I’ve already done training with? Which Yacht will be we assigned to, who will be our boats sponsor (hopefully it will have a short and pronounceable name).

The atmosphere when I was doing my Level 2 training week last month was electric. The excitement is building, it’s all getting real. Will we find out which GB port are we starting and finishing from? Well the gossip was either London or Glasgow…but perhaps it’s somewhere else entirely! We know we are sailing to Uruguay on the first Leg, but will we be stopping off somewhere on the way? Are we visiting New York? I think we start Leg 7 from Seattle, but where does it finish?

And more personal questions that only time will answer….am I really up to this? Will I be good enough? Will I stay fit? (We have lost four potential crew in just two weeks of training due to injury). Others have left because they decided it just wasn’t for them. It’s hard, very hard, mentally and physically. Doing “watches” sailing through the night (I must remember not to call them shifts!), climbing into damp sleeping bags with all you clothes on…it’s just too cold to shed any layers, and anyway you’ll be woken in another 3 hours time. No heating and no air conditioning, no washing or laundry facilities. Will I ever get to learn how to manage this blog?

And most importantly, will I be able to pack enough fruit pastilles to last the journey?