(Based on about 11,000 nautical miles of ocean racing in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race)
- Ocean racing is a tale of human endurance and adjustment as you learn to cope with things that were a doddle at home. ou are expected to be on deck for your standby and watch. Wet, wet, wet .... in certain conditions (and often for days on end) you can’t help but be constantly wet. Being on deck reminds me of those seal colonies you see on docos, with bodies sprawled out, all huddled together trying to keep warm before the next wave washes over you. Trying to go to the toilet can be an ordeal in itself.
- There are also times when we are on our 68 foot platform sailing along with all the things that usually happen in the suburbs going on in the background - baking bread, washing, reading, listening to music ... the big difference being the effort to do these simple tasks on a shifting 10-45° angle as we heal over.
- I will never again take for granted having a lazy BBQ meal at home or a cup of tea with fresh milk. On board a typical daily menu includes porridge or muesli with powdered milk, powdered scrambled eggs and macaroni cheese. Treats maybe something as simple as opening a pack of biscuits or making some popcorn. It’s not nice to have baked beans three meals in a row – it makes things difficult for whoever is cleaning the heads that day too.
- You've proably heard the saying 'love means never having to say you're sorry', well in a similar vein I've discovered teamwork means being able to work through a sail drop without even speaking.
- It’s not easy to communicate with the outside world on board a racing yacht. Things are not exactly conducive to sending long emails ... even in a 20 knot wind, sending emails is a bit like trying to type in a washing machine.
- Sailing at night can be completely magical or totally hair-raising, depending on the state of the moon and the seas. The concentration required to predict the waves on a dark night is exhausting but add to this weather so cold that you are wearing just about every piece of clothing you own and it's twice as hard - you end up so puffed up that it becomes hard just to move around the deck.
- You'll end up with plenty of bruises if you forget to secure the thin canvas lee cloth to stop you falling out of your bunk. Plenty of us have learnt that lesson the hard way!
- You see some amazing wildlife when you are in the middle of the ocean – dolphins, whales and flying fish to name just a few. The excitement of a whale sighting is often enough to drag the off watch up out of their bunks!
- We have signed up to this adventure with many different views about what this means. Sailing as hard and as fast as you can is what the most competitive crew members have in mind. For others the experience is more about the personal journey or the opportunity to experience the sights and sounds of some amazing places around the world. Identifying the common goal and the best way to embrace everyone’s expectations is perhaps the team's most difficult task.
