Well here I go again.  Part B.  Sunday 10th May.  Only two weeks after Part A.  Much more apprehensive as I drove to Gosport.  After a weeks training I must know something and this week is on the 68 footers!  Everything is bigger.

13 of us this time including Jim, our skipper and Peter our 1st mate.  Jim had only just flown in from Oz that Monday.  Both Jim and Peter had applied to be race skippers and were waiting for the announcement on Tuesday 19th to see if they had been successful.

There were two other Australians on board, a couple of guys from Scotland a few from the South and South West, a girl from Norway but living in the UK and a few from and around London.

Sunday evening round the table introductions a bite to eat and funnily enough we finished in the pub!

A windy evening and night with a lot of rattling lines banging various masts so not a great nights sleep.

Monday was a look about the boat – so much more than the 60′ of part A!  More systems, more tanks, just more.

Skipper was not prepared to take the boat out today as there was an on-shore wind making it very difficult to even get off the pontoon – and as Aviva was moored beam onto us just over our boat length away he didn’t want to risk bumping her with our pointy end!!

So after some lunch we did various marina based exercises the biggest of which was the spinnaker pole and someone going out to the end.  I was a bit too slow to volunteer!  Do it next time.  So Eleanor and Tom had a go.

End of the day and a chat about what we had done, mothers made a dinner then up the pub.

Tuesday started with a couple of lectures.  Flares and a brief touch on meteorology.  Then after another cup of tea we got out to do some sailing in the Solent.  Windy day.  Should be good!

Jim and Peter kept it simple so we could get back into it all.

Hoist the mainsail, sweat it up the mast and grind on the ‘coffee grinder’ then raise the stay sail and yankee. They are all so much bigger! – and now we are sailing.

Put some tacks in so we could get used to the running back stays, the winches, the snake pit etc etc. ropes end up everywhere and we are constantly tidying them up only to have to tack again and make another mess.

The boat heels over to an unbelievable angle with water coming over the gunwale.  Designed to do this but to see it for the first time is impressive!

We ended up just going back and forth across the Solent and as a crew it was getting better as the day went on.  Back to Gosport, put the boat to bed and found out the deck fitting had leaked into my lockers and I had a wet sleeping bag.  Not all the way through thankfully but wet enough to dry it off with a towel.  Could be a damp night.  But then we did manage to get up to the pub.  Again!

Wednesday was more of the same, sailing out into the Solent but there was very little wind.  So a few tacks and gybes and headsail changes.  This is training and not a holiday.  No sooner had we done an evolution and sat down then there was “Get ready to tack!” Here we go again!  And we mustn’t forget the “MAN OVER BOARD!” drill.  Once under engine then once with engine failure.  Followed by steerage failure.  There is just so much to learn.  Then after lunch we nearly became becalmed so gave us a chance to drop the yankee and staysail and get the windseeker out.  Plenty of pole work today.

Back to Gosport, put the boat to bed, have dinner and a recap on the day, shower and up the pub.  Again.  But only after our paperwork test (exam?!).

Thursday and we stayed in the marina to do the mast exercise where someone goes up the top.  And thats a long way up!  Two of us on the coffee grinder and a guy on the rope and we grind him up the mast.  That was harder work than we expected!

Then it was Gregs turn, one of our crew from Australia and he is a big guy – about 6’4.  When you grind a sail up it is hard work but the weight changes, when you are grinding somebody the weight is the same all the way up and the higher they go the more tired the grinders get – it certainly makes you puff!

Out into the Solent again and more practice, practice and practice again.  Out past the big ship anchor to the East side of the IoW and these are big merchant and car transport ships.  We also saw one of the Royal Caribbean liners – thats big!

We berthed in East Cowes tonight and the other training boats turned up with the intention we were going to have a couple of races on Friday.  Usual evening of putting the boat to bed, have a recap chat then up for a shower and somehow we ended up in the pub!

Friday and the winds coming back.  We are having a race today with the intention of another one through the night to get back to Gosport for about 14.00 on Saturday.  This is going to be interesting.  Sailing and racing right through the night.

Out into the Solent and its blowing.  Few more practice evolutions going back and forth and eventually it was time to race.  Only one other boat around – Hull and Humber- the other one was nowhere around and turned out to be on the South coast of the IoW and having fun.  Graham a friend of mine  from part A, was on the helm and got upto 13 knots then the skipper took over and they surfed at 17 knots!

Short race round some cans and the evolutions went really well and the tactics from our skipper and mate paid off and we won.  Great fun and to see the boats heeled over and overtaking is tremendous – all that power and just from the wind!  Lunch stop and getting ready for the long race but the other skipper pulled out – never did find out why!  And the weather was getting a serious force 7 gusting 8.  So more evolutions through the afternoon and back to Gosport for the night.  And yet again we managed to end up in the pub!

Saturday and all three boats are going to race today and the forecast is windy!  We were moored alongside one of the other boats so we had to go out first.  We were set with mainsail, staysail and No 3 yankee.  Got out into the Solent and soon found we were over powered without even raising the 2 fore sails.  It was decided to go from yankee 3 to storm jib and no staysail.  Interesting time on the foredeck doing a sail change but this must be realistic to what we are bound to encounter somewhere in our adventure!

Waiting for the other two boats (who were changing sails in the comfort of the marina!) it nearly looked like they were not coming out to play so we went on our way and did some more evolutions and I got on the helm.  Didn’t do a very good job of this in part A.  Managed to make it stop without being asked to!  Peter and Jim guided me and come the end it wasn’t too bad, got a few tacks in and managed to point the boat in the right direction but I wasn’t over confident as it has a lot of responsibility being on the helm.  Get more practice in and things will get better.

The other two did eventually turn up and we had a race on.  We started off last but again Jim and Peter worked out the tactics and we reeled them both in and got in front.  Unfortunately both boats had equipment failure and retired to repair but we had the satisfaction of overtaking them before the kit broke, and we went on to finish the course.  It showed us that in a moment something can go wrong and you can never afford to become complacent.

Second race and there was a mis-understanding of the start procedure by Jim and we were pointing to the East when it should have been South.  Big Ooops!  CV9 got a flyer but we still managed to reel in Hull & Humber by Jim being cunning on a tack when H&H went straight on and we beat them to the last turn.  Exciting stuff and very rewarding.  3 races in all and we had 2 wins and a second – beating H&H in all three!  Brilliant fun.

We made our way back to Gosport for the last time and once moored up we had a serious amount of house work to do.  Big deep clean and against the clock as we had a table booked for the end of Part B training week crew meal out.

All the bilge boards lifted and washed, bilges pumped, sails packed, surfaces cleaned down and a lot more besides.

All three crews were at the dinner in a very good Chinese restaurant and good fun had by all!  Somehow I was on the loudest table again and I think we just had more fun as a crew than the others.

Sunday morning came and it was breakfast in the Pump House with a final clean of the heads and bunks and our one on one assesments with skipper and mate.  I was with Peter and it was as good as I expected.  Come the end of another great week of meeting a bunch of strangers and within a matter of days we were acting as a crew.

All good fun and a big thank you to my fellow Part B crew.

Second entry in my log book: 201 miles. Force 8.

Reference ‘boat fit’.

Drove back to the White Horse but still had to pull over for a breath of fresh air and stretch my legs.

Generally felt much better this time and the tired day was Tuesday!  Stairs were still hard work but recovery was quicker.  And more muscle appeared.  Where does that come from within a week?

I wore gloves more this week than in Part A,  that ended up with the whole of my palms and fingers peeling.  Not nice.  So have to toughen up the digits!!

Down to 13 stone 9lbs now.  All in all that is a stone in 4 weeks!  Wow!

With all the emails coming from Clipper with recommended dates for all the training I thought it a good idea to keep the training programme as close together as possible.  A case of the ‘use it or loose it’ mentality that if I didn’t get the practice in I could forget my new found skills by the time of the next training installment.   So looking at dates and diary it became possible to get a weeks training per month through April to July.

Sunday April 19th came along quickly.  Left home excited and apprehensive!  I knew I was out of my depth with a complete lack of knowledge.  But I was looking forward to it and didn’t really know what to expect.

Got to the car park at 17.30, plenty of time for the 18.00 deadline.  With a bag full of new kit and a sleeping bag I walked down to the marina onto the pontoon and towards one of the three yachts that were doing part A.  20 minutes to go and the last one to arrive!  We must all have been keen to get there!

Twelve strangers as it turned out, as our skipper and first mate hadn’t met until this weekend either.

We got striaght into it.  Well, the skipper was making a cup of tea, so a good start!

A lovely evening so we were sat at the cockpit and had an ‘around the table’ introduction by us all.   As to be expected we were all a packet of Berty Bassetts – all sorts!  With probably about a 30 year age difference between us and sailing skills at various levels.

Skipper Adam and first mate Dirk started with various ‘lectures’ that evening and we had our first on board meal prepared by a couple of mother watch volunteers for this evening as the proper watches were not due to start until tomorrow.

Then of course we had to finish off with a beer at the local.  The other two training crews were there and the rivalry started!

Serica is 60′ long with 15 bunks on board and was one of the original boats that have been around the world 4 times on earlier Clipper races.  That works out at about 150,000 miles under her keel just on those 4 races!  Or about 70,000 miles short of getting to the moon.

There are 12 of us on board which makes things a little cosy on our sailing week so it must have been interesting to say the least when racing through the Oceans.

Not a great nights sleep even with a comfy bunk and an early start.  A beautiful sunny day.  Couldn’t be better.

Up on deck and looking at 11 winches and a load of rope!  What the hell do they all do!!!

All the sails come out onto the pontoon, all the bilge boards get lifted and a general look about at the build of the boat.  Couple of  lectures on how to rig up the boat, lunch and then out onto the Solent and do some sailing!  Adam and Dirk keep it simple but it still confused me!  What’s a halyard?  What’s a sheet?  It’s all well and good reading it in the Clipper Training Manual but this is now for real.  Which one does what?  Then MAN OVER BOARD!!! An exercise we were to do many times through the week.

Back to Gosport and put the boat to bed – that is a lot of housework.  Put the ropes away, and tidy the cockpit, flake the sails and put them away below deck, flake the mainsail and put the cover on.

More lectures in the evening and knots again and again and again.  Bowline, Admiralty stopper, clove hitch and round turn with two half hitches.  Practice, practice and practice again.

Another early start for Tuesday and we had a visitor with us today.  Adam has applied to be a skipper for the race and he was to be assessed today.  More exercises and some new ones too.  Tacking, gybing, change the yankee.  MOB! Drop the yankee and staysail, de-power the main, do the recovery, power the main, raise the staysail and yankee.  Tack, gybe and so it goes on.  And if we were lucky mother would make a cup of tea!

Wednesday was more of the same.  Early rise, chat over yesterday and what we were going to do today.  Out onto the Solent and head west.  This time we did reefing exercises.  Put one in, take one out.  Put two in, take one out.  Take one out, put three in.  Tacking, gybing, reefing, changing the yankee, MOB …….. it is all starting to make a little sense.

Anchored in Studland Bay for the night so we had to have an anchor watch.  I had been mother today with Richard and our watch was to be 4.00 to 6.00.  Nice!

4.00 and fog bound.  No bearings could be taken.  Check this, check that read our manual with a cup of tea.  Do the checks every 30 minutes and before we knew it was time to wake the next watch.  Not so bad.

Cold and damp morning and the fog was stuck.  Stayed at anchor and did some reefing exercises, some spinnaker pole exercises and lastly the dinghy exercise to paddle round the yacht.  Two men in a boat comes to mind! Oh yes, with wet feet.  It had a leak!

The fog did get burnt off so we sailed around a bit and ended up in Yarmouth for the night.  Put the boat to bed in record time as Adam had booked a table in a very good fish restaurant.  A beer was definitely calling tonight! And very good it was too!

Friday saw another early start.  And we had spectators as we had moored by the IOW ferry terminal.  We must have looked like we knew what we were doing as somewhere someone has some photos of us doing our stuff.  I have to say the boat does look good when its ready to go.

Adam and Dirk decided it was either going to be over to Cherbourg or round the IOW.  And they were putting on some serious kit.  ‘Prepare to get wet today’ was all they told us.  Looking like it’s going to get to a Force 6 as well.  Lively!

We went way out to the west.  Must be Cherbourg.  Then turn the boat round and it was to be round the IOW to Cowes.  Three of our ten were down with sea sickness and one or two didn’t feel too good but to sail the boat with a crew of 6 or 7 was just great.  Both skipper and mate left us to get on with it but kept an eye on what was going on.  Some good cock-ups on this trip!  But that’s the way to learn.  (I) Won’t be making the same mistake twice!

What a great days sailing.  Some got a bit wet and we were all tired when we got to Cowes.  Mother did us proud and we ate once we had berthed and tidied up.  Hit our bunks at 2.00.  What a day!

Saturday saw us have a race with Black Adder, one of the other Clipper training yachts which had sailed up from Dartmouth the day before.

We had to sort it all out ourselves.  We had a foredeck crew, a cockpit crew, a trimmer and a watch leader.  The skippers had put in a few routines for us to do at a particular point in the race.

Come the end we lost.  Just stupid mistakes and a lack of communication in the first half.  It all got a bit stressy!  Got our act together in the second half but the damage had already been done.  Let that be a lesson to us all.  Communicate!!

Adam finished it off with a MOB.  Last one.  Lunch as we made our way back to Gosport.  Berthed Serica for the last time then the housework started.  Deep clean and pack the sails and make the boat tidy for the next crew.

We had paperwork (a test or you could even call it an exam) to do as well to be finished for Sunday.  Then the one on one assessment  with Adam.  I went in with a degree of apprehension as I had been so out of my depth to start off with.  But Adam knew that and come the end it was all very good.

All three crews had a table booked at the Jolly Rodger.  Nice meal, nice surrounding and nice company.  I don’t know why but we were definately the loudest table there.  We seemed to be having more banter than the others but that was how the whole week had been.

Adam and Dirk have a great sense of humour and we all got on so well.  Dirk has done Part A’s with other skippers but he told us that Adam had worked us far harder than the other skippers and we had covered more material as well.

Sunday came with breakfast in the coffee shop.  Very nice too.  Back to the boat to finish off stuff and pack.

Hard to believe that only a week earlier we had been 12 strangers and now we were a crew.  (Dirk said we were a great crew! [Wonder if he says that to all of them?] No, he meant it!).  A crew that had sailed around the IOW in a force 6.

Just as a ‘by the way’ as we were having a bit of fun going round the IoW I said to Dirk that this was another ‘nice day in the office’ and his reply was ‘the worst day at sea is still better than the best day in the office!’.  With my limited but groing experience I tend to agree!

My first entry in my new RYA log book: 238 miles. Force 6.

A great week.  Thanks guys and girls!

Standing back row, from the left: Dirk (1st mate), David, myself, John, Noreen, Clarissa, Graham.

Front row from the left: Amedeo, Michelle, Adam (skipper), Niall and Richard.

P.S.  Adam kept on about getting ‘boat fit’.

I drove home the 100 miles on Sunday afternoon and had to have a stop and a little shut eye.  I went straight to the White Horse and after acouple of beers and a catch up with Glen went to bed waking on Monday feeling physically trashed.  Monday didn’t really exist!  I wouldn’t have believed that going up and down stairs could be such hard work!

It took juat a few days to get over this and I did end up with muscles that I hadn’t seen for a few years!  And I had lost 5 lbs – in a week!!