Final week before departure on 31/7/11

Since Level 4 training, the focus has been on carrying out all of the jobs that are necessary before departure. The skipper Rich has written up a list and there is a ‘To Do’ list that must also be done by the Clipper staff.

I have written on the blog before what you have to do for the deep clean but essentially it involves:

·       taking all the covers off the seats and the bunk bedding, washing the covers & the sponges separately

·       taking off any lead clothes that need repair

·       taking off all food and or any containers that are on board from the galley

·       servicing the two heads (loos) and replacing all the pipes (where you may discover some slippery artefacts!?)

·       pumping out the two grey tanks, taking off the inspection covers and using a high pressure gurney to clean out the sludge (from the kitchen/sink waste)

·       pumping out the two black tanks, taking off the inspection covers and using a high pressure gurney to clean out the sludge (yes, from the heads) although surprisingly, they were the cleanest of the tanks

·       using the high pressure gurney to clean out the bilges from the bow to stern

·       taking off all the life jackets, checking they are still in good order with the gas, light & whistle all OK

We also had to take off the pulpit and the stanchions along the port side. From the heeling over at sea, a simple hose test showed that the leaks were coming from around the seals/bolts that hold these items.

The two new spinnakers had to be numbered. Each panel within the sail has to be numbered so that it is easy to identify when there is a repair needed.

All the sails had to be reflaked on the pontoon or nearby park.

We swapped the life raft on the starboard side for a new one that will be within dates for usage around the world

Clipper serviced the wheel at the helm.

The radio and navigation area was serviced with focus on the satellite phone & link to the computer.

The list goes on & on. They always say that most accidents happen on arrival into port, and that’s what happened to us - poor old Tim managed to be walking backwards (doing, of all things, a safety inspection) and managed to fall down an open hatch. Luckily after a visit to the hospital he had not broken anything but was sore and sorry.

With as many crew as possible doing a lot of the work, ownership was taking place because this is now our yacht and everything we do is for us for the next 12 months.

One of the biggest tasks, that involved as many crew as possible but was led by a single crew member, was the victualling. Lucia was the leader for this task - the purchasing of the food for the chosen menus. This was conducted between several shops, with the major supplier being Makro. The aim was to work out the number of estimated days for Leg 1 (Southampton to Rio) plus add an extra 5 days for emergency.

You repeat the meal/menu every 7 days so if the leg is say 28 days, you would repeat the meal/menu 4 times during the voyage.

We laid out on the floor 8 bays so that you could put the food necessary for each day plus the extra bay for emergency. We had heard various stories about allnighters and how complicated it can become.

The team was back from the shops about 3pm and a general roll call got 8 of us up to the sail loft where we had done the layout on the floor. To make things more interesting, also on our roster for the use of the loft was the team from Derry/ Londonderry and then we had an interloper, Qingdao who got mixed up on their day. We worked well as a team and got on with the job. Lucia, Debbie, Hannah, Babs, Eric, Wayne, Patrick, Peter, Taz & myself - we finished about 11.30 and that was after we had trollied the lot down to the yacht.

There are many individual courses that are being done including sewing, still photography, media, engineering, medical, victualling etc etc so we will be busy right up till we depart.

My brother Colin & sister in law Colleen are arriving soon so I will take two days off to greet them & catch up on all the news.

I'm feeling positive about the trip although there is still a lot to be done.

Talk to you soon.BAMO.