Just over 4 years ago, almost to the day (Happy Christmas by the way!), I landed back in the U.K. from Australia having sailed from Cape Town to Fremantle via a medical detour to Durban. I was 11 days late. The fuller account of what went on is in BlogS 100 to 104 written between 26 Nov 2019 and 9 Jan 2020.

Crossing the North Pacific sometime in the spring of last year, I recall one of those Clipper conversations hunkered down sheltering from the elements in the snake-pit, when the conversation turned to the pros and cons of the Clipper 70 design. It was a subject we returned to from time to time. Our “praise” for the design tended to be inversely proportional to the ferocity of the weather and of all the “niggles” we had we tended to be unanimous in our “plea” for a galley sink that could drain on a starboard AND a port tack! Not too much to ask really. Micheil Kool, a Dutchman and an accomplished yachtsman in his own right, summed it up most succinctly. “I’d score the Clipper 70 design 8 out of 10 for ocean racing.” He paused as we ducked for cover as a North Pacific wave slammed into the side of the boat and broke over us. “And I’d score it 2 out of 10 for habitability and creature comforts.” Who am I to argue with Micheil 🙂

A direct scoring comparison between a Clipper 70 and a Hallberg-Rassy 62 is probably a little invidious ……. but I’m going to make it anyway! Using the Micheil Kool scoring system I would rate an HR62 at 9 out of 10 for deep ocean cruising and, significantly, 9 out of 10 for habitability and creature comforts. Regular readers will remember a video tour of a Clipper 70 posted here in Blog 87 way back in October 2019. Here’s the HR62 Stormbird equivalent:

Hallberg-Rassy yachts are synonymous with comfortable, deep water cruising and longer voyages. Harry Hallberg (1914-1997) began his boat building career at the age of 14, constructing boats made of wood. In 1943 he opened his own yard (The Shed) at Kungsviken on the island of Orust in Sweden. By the early 1960s Hallberg was one of the pioneers in serial production of sailboats using glass reinforced plastic hulls with wooden superstructures.

Christoph Rassy (1934-2021 was brought up in Bavaria and became an apprentice in a small boatyard in Southern Germany building wooden boats. In 1960 he moved, empty handed and with a bicycle as his only possession, to Sweden to further his boatbuilding career. In 1965 Rassy founded his own boatyard in The Shed which had recently been vacated by Harry Hallberg. Hallberg-Rassy was formed when Rassy purchased the then Hallberg yard after Harry Hallberg retired in 1972. Since 1989 all Hallberg-Rassy yachts have been designed by the Argentinian engineer and yacht designer German Frers. To date more than 9400 yachts in about 40 different designs have been completed by the yard and the company is still owned by the Rassy family.

Stormbird is a Hallberg Rassy 62. Twenty Five HR62s were built between 1997 and 2011. There will be more to follow about this particular yacht.

I’m pretty much recovered from my spinal fracture and back to taking pain killers as and when my back tells me that would be a sensible move. This is just as well as I fly out to join Stormbird on 28 Dec ahead of the next leg of her circumnavigation; Gran Canaria to Barbados. You can track our progress and read Nick the Skipper’s blog at:

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/sv-Stormbird/

My little black book in which I keep my “to do list” tells me that, by now, I should have updated the home page of this website and written blogs drawing (something of) a line under my own Clipper adventure, a blog introducing the Halberg Rassy 62 Stormbird, another discussing Orca (Killer Whale) attacks on yachts off the south coast of Portugal and Spain (which was the reason 4 of us joined Stormbird in Huelva not Malaga), and a blog about sailing from Huelva to Funchal, Madeira, and on to Isla Graciosa and Puerto Calero in The Canaries. I’d even planned to write one about the latest edition of the Clipper Race which left Portsmouth for the start of their Leg 1 on 3 September.

I got back home from The Canaries very late on 23 August. Work and life got in the way of blog writing and then ……………. I fell off a ladder.

Descending, and about halfway down, I started to turn well before I reached the security of the floor. Don’t ask why. I simply have no idea. The ladder went one way and I, falling backwards, went the other. My legs went from a 6 o’clock position anti-clockwise to about 2 o’clock and my head from 12 o’clock, anti-clockwise to 9 o’clock as I fell backwards. I hit my neck on the edge of a wooden bench seat, landed on top of part of the ladder with my back, and attempted to break my fall with my right arm.

I have already posted too many medically related blogs on these pages (Blogs 112, 113, 114, 117 and 118 for example) so I will spare you all the medical details of the last 14 days. The headlines are: after two days completely immobilised in a head and neck brace while the swelling died down, a CT scan revealed no permanent damage to my neck. My spine and my right wrist are both fractured.

The medium to long range prognosis appears good. The wrist will be in a wrist-splint for 4 weeks and the spinal fracture is stable and unlikely to require surgery. Recovery will be at least 6 weeks. I am now at home and pain control/pain management is ………….. challenging.

I am back into the spinal unit for my first review on 2 Oct. All a bit extreme but with my diary clear now for weeks, I have plenty of time to write. 😜

You can follow us via:

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV-Stormbird/

Actually, OF COURSE I finished. Just a little over a year ago, into London. We WON the final race from Londorry to London and finished 5th overall. But somehow, even after 150 blogs I never quite got around to writing about the finish and wrapping it all up, even after a team UNICEF reunion in London in July 23 and the marking of the first anniversary of race finish.

And what has prompted this over-due reflection?? Well, I’m off again. Tomorrow to be exact. Driving today from Malaga (where I have just said goodbye to Ruth) to Huelva in Southern Spain to join a 62ft yacht called Stormbird at the beginning of what is arguably her second leg in a 3.5 year west-about circumnavigation of the globe. How did I get involved in this? That, and much more, will follow in subsequent blogs. But right now I’m all packed and about to “do quite a bit of it all” again. Huelva to Madeira to the Canaries now with Nick – skipper and owner, Mark, Peter, Angus and another Keith W (small world) and then, for me, across the Atlantic from the Canaries to Barbados in January 2024, Panama to Galapagos in the spring and (fingers crossed) Cook Islands-Fiji-Tonga and New Zealand in the autumn of next year. Hopefully more to follow in 2025/26. On, and we were meant to be sailing from Malaga tomorrow but the sailing programme was altered because of ………. Orca attacks. Now there’s a blog (to follow) that I hadn’t anticipated writing 😀.

Keith has asked me to post 2 blogs from the boat boat written as Unicef travels on its slightly extended route from New York to Derry. As I understand it the trip has been extended as the boats sailed so quickly as the boats sailed so quickly across the Atlantic. Keith’s blog will explain the new route.

The underlining theme of both blogs is time. Time seems such an extraordinaire concept. It goes so fast when you don’t want it to and occasionally drags. However clipper 2019 has taken AGES. It began in 2019 and could be the longest sporting event in history. When the Egyptians or Babylonians started to record time even so battles did not last this long.

First blog is from Danny Lees (July 4th)

‘Yesterday, Ian,Dan,Holly,JD, and I ticked off a fairly impressive milestone having sailed every single line of longitude on the planet. This serves as a stark reminder, not that I really one is needed, that this big old race is nearly run. I’m not going to get too emotional here. I hope. Ill save that for my final blog into London where I’ll likely just be a gibberish wreck, crying into my laptop as I type. I once spilled a glass of water onto my keyboard at work and could thereafter only type the letter P. So please expect three or four paragraphs of the latter P for my final missive. Although I sincerely hope you’ll be able to get the gist of what I’m trying to convey from context. For now, I think I’ll try and be semi-serious for once ( not just in my blogging output but in life in general) and talk about time.

This is of course the longest race in Clipper Race history and its often felt like it would stretch out into eternity. But even without the oh-so-fun- filled two year desolate waste years of death there has always been that element of feeling frozen in time whilst on this adventure. The race, party, race, party winning formula seems to go on ad infinitum – and i mean that in the best possible way. I’ve often seen it as like we’ve stepped through the wardrobe into Narnia, only it’s this side that’s in suspended animation whilst the rest of the world continues to turn without us.

The Louis Armstrong song We Have All The Time in the World comes to mind. An ironic lament, because of course, no matter how much we wish it wasn’t so our time here is finite. All the more reason to suck the marrow out of life when you can and take on challenges like the Clipper Round the World Race. Sailing the globe does open a Pandora’s Box somewhat though. How can you go back to normal life after doing something like this? That’s no a rhetorical question by the way. I’m genuinely after some answers. Seriously, DM me.

The Clipper Bubble is real and i really don’t want it to go pop. The world, at least to me, too often feels like a tragedy playing out its final scene where I’m completely powerless to help. It’s wonderful to be able to step outside os that and exist in aplace where nothing really matters except sailing and passing time with friends. I’ve always been Epicurean at heart and taking part in this race has allowed me to fully indulge in that way of life. The shared experience is incredible, but so too are the moments of peaceful solitude. The chance to be completely mindfu, helming on another glorious starry night without a single worry passing though my mind.

Als, we cannot stay here forever in our joy filled parallel universe. Reality creeps over the horizon, and with it all the trappings I’ve enjoyed escaping from so long, but also, crucially, all the things I absolutely love in life- my friends, my family, London, meals that aren’t cooked in one big pot, football and of course, because I am completely basic, my massive TV. But, I’m not ready to return just yet. For now I’m going to wander on deck and remain in this carefree idyll. Just a little while longer at least. I have all the time in the world.

Keith’s blog written on July 10th

’Seattle is in sight.

Before you think this is something of a deranged, Leg 6 flashback, I should point out that I am not talking about Seattle (city in USA pop 624,535) but the somewhat smaller Seattle (CV22 pop approx18)

In the wee small hours of this morning we rounded this first additional mark of our extended Leg 8 Race14 extension. Since then we have been slowly nibbling away/creeping up upon/reeling in/gnawing at (insert your own metaphor here) Seattle’s relative lead as we hope to overtake them this watch. Ahead of us liesRockall. That’s a 19m granite rock not a statement of fact and the Sailing Directions state that Rockall light is often extinguished for long periods due to the weather. You don’t say! After that we round St Kilda (4 isles & 3 stacks pop from 0 to small) and from there its a straight dash to Derry -Londonderry (pop -welcoming!). The weather forecast for rounding thes two rocky outcrops between us and the finish line is going to be suitably spicy.

Today is the last full Sunday at sea on Clipper 2019-2022 Race. This race and The Race are in t(e closing stages and we are pushing for a podium finish in 3days or so. This blog will be my final one from CV31 and tomorrow will be my penultimate Mother Watch since first joining in Punta del Este for leg 2. I know this with some certainly. As Team Coordinator I get to draw up the jobs rota. i am leaving the ‘last words’ in blogs between Derry -Londonderry and London to our three remaining round the worlders. Holly, Danny and JD. For my own part I will save my overall refections for my personal blog, in the event I am not ready to put the last four years or so into perspective and I may yet surprise myself when I try and put it all into words. For example, I am already reflecting that once the Race Finish party is complete and a small group of us complete the delivery voyage to return CV31 to Gosport, I will not have a Clipper Race Leg somewhere in my not too distant future to plan and prepare for. That already seems a little strange.

Has the experience been life changing? Almost certainly, yes. I now drink lemon and ginger tea with a dash of honey (thanks to Dan Bodley) and put marmalade in my porridge (many thanks Michiel Kool); how much more life changing do you want? I am fond of the cliched saying ’do not look for me in my past, I do not live there anymore’ but its going to take me some time to ‘pack away’ the last 4years. And its much to early to get emotional.

we still have this race to complete and race 15 to London ahead of us and more points and pennants to win. But as I sign off this blog a huge shout out to all UNICEF crew it has been my privilege to sail with on Legs 2, 3, 6 and now 8. it has been, and continues to be a blast . A massive ’Thank You’ to all the supporters and friends who have followed our trials and tribulations via Race Viewer (its not over yet!) and in person at our various stop overs. Finally my heartfelt thanks to close friends and family for your love and support and in particular Ruth for her love, humour, belief, support, understanding, forbearance, resilience and patience (not always in that order)

2 great blogs.
My thoughts

It will be interesting to meet/hear from other clipper supporters and the family members and hear their experiences of the Round the World Race. For me too its been life changing – I,ve had a tango lesson in Uruguay/ enjoyed the ultimate bbq in Argentina /made new friends and now have my own tool box (an old Lancome make up case) and I have used the tools.

Ruth

ps apologies for the lack of pictures

Here is what some of the official Clipper website has to say about what’s coming next.

“While this might be the homeward bound leg there is plenty of racing still to be done. With an Atlantic crossing and an emotional homecoming, this is one of the most sought-after legs of the Race.And, with almost 40,000 miles of racing already behind you, there are still valuable racing points to be won. The podium places on the overall Race have been decided on the last race of Leg 8 on the last three Clipper Race editions.

The weather might be mixed but the competition is hot, with teams battling it out for the final race points. The New York to Londonderry race takes you north and a check on sea water temperatures will tell whether yachts are getting a helping push from the Gulf Stream. A further check will tell you when it gives way to the cooler Labrador Current and the mixture in seawater temperatures often produces unpredictable fog banks. It may feel like familiar ground but don’t take this mighty ocean for granted. You need to stay focussed, race hard and race safe. The route will have waypoints to avoid any risk of ice, even at this time of the year, and will take the Fleet close to the Flemish Cap, a fishing ground made famous by the book and film, The Perfect Storm. Then its a 2000 mile blast back towards Europe and one if the warmest welcomes of the race in Ireland.”

For my part I’m certainly not about to underestimate the North Atlantic, even in the summer. Two of the biggest waves I have ever encountered were in the North Atlantic; in the South west approaches in HMS FALMOUTH and the North West approaches in HMS NEWCASTLE, and both were big enough to damage the ship. Two days ago we learnt that Colin Golder, skipper and owner of Morgan of Marietta, competing in the Newport to Bermuda race, went overboard 325 miles from Bermuda in heavy seas. He did not survive but his body was recovered.

We spent most of yesterday on final sail repair/maintenance and packing/storing our 21 days of provisions plus checking and repacking lifejackets and filling our fresh water tanks. We also completed our Race 14 crew brief. For my own part as Team Coordinator I had already published the bunk allocations for this race and the jobs rota from sailing (this morning) through to the arrival window {and a little beyond just in case).

and last night we all had a relatively quiet night ahead of an early start – it is currently 0540 in the morning here.

We sail this morning shortly after 0900, straight into a Parade of Sail between Jersey City and Manhattan, which we will lead, and then we have a 110 mike motor/sail transit to the start line out in the North Atlantic clear of shipping lanes.

The Fleet will r/v at 0600 tomorrow morning for an 0800 Le Mans start for which we will be the leeward boat. 3 teams have played their Jokers on this race, potentially doubling their race points, it remains tight at the top and we continue to lead the fundraising table (thanks to those who have already donated). The sun is just up and it looks like a nice day.

For fundraising for Diabetes UK and the National Autistic Society see:

http://justgiving.com/teams/keithsclipperadventure

for fundraising for UNICEF UK see

https://justgiving.com/KeithWinstanley-TeamUNICEF

If you have no interest in Naval/military history and would prefer to skip over a rather tragic story then this is not the blog post for you and I recommend you give this one a miss. I started writing this in Subic but never got around to publishing it before we left for Seattle.

Some years ago, for reasons I wont bore you with now, I wrote an MA thesis for King’s College London about the qualities and characteristics required by senior military commanders in peacetime, in “total” war and “limited” wars. Leaving aside, for the purposes of this blog, my belief that the academic characterisation of “limited” war is of no practical relevance when YOU are the one being shot at, the only thing you need to know about that work is that I chose General Douglas MacArthur as my illustrative case study. Deliberately non Naval. Deliberately non British. A man who saw active service on the Western Front during WW1; rose to be peacetime head of the US Army in the early 1930s; retired in 1937 and who was recalled at the beginning of the war in the Pacific. For various reasons he served in the Philippines from 1935 to May 1942 and famously kept his “I will return” promise 2 years later. He went on to be the de-facto ruler of Japan during the Allied occupation 1945-1951 and commanded UN forces during the Korean War. A character as flawed as he was brilliant, it is no surprise that the title of William Manchester’s biography of MacArtur is entitled “American Caesar.”

But I digress. The net result is that I know quite a bit about what was going on in these ‘ere parts in 1942. This, however, is a story I am saddened to say I knew nothing about until Clipper brought me to Subic Bay.

The Montevideo Maru was a 7766 ton twin screw diesel motor vessel built in Nagasaki in 1926. She was operated by the Osaka Shose Kaisho shipping company for service between Japan and South America – hence the name. During the early moths of the war in the Pacific she was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy as an auxiliary transporting troops and provisions throughout SE Asia. After taking part in landings in the Dutch East Indies and operations around Java, the Montevideo Maru was ordered to New Britain.

Early on the morning of 22 June 1942, members of the Australian 2/22nd Battalion No1 Independent Company and civilian prisoners of war, including women, captured in New Britain were ordered to board the vessel in Rabul. The Montevideo Maru then sailed, unescorted for the Hainan Islands routing via the Philippine Islands in an effort to avoid Allied submarines. She was displaying no markings (Red cross for example) indicating she was carrying prisoners of war.

Eight days into the voyage she was intercepted by the USS Sturgeon. For 4 hours the Sturgeon manouvred into a firing position to fire from her stern torpedo tubes. Sturgeon’s log records a torpedo hit at 2.29am on 1st July. Japanese survivors reported two torpedo hits followed by a fuel tank explosion. The Montevideo Maru sank by the stern in as little as 11 minutes. According to the official Australian version of events, it does not appear that the Japanese crew made any attempt to release the prisoners although as recently as 2003 a Japanese survivor claimed that there were Australians in the water singing ”auld lang syne” as the ship sank. Of the 88 Japanese guards and crew only 17 survived the sinking and the subsequent march through the Philippine jungle.

Although the exact number and identity of the more than 1000 men and women onboard the Montevideo Maru has never been confirmed, Japanese and Australian sources suggest an estimated 845 military personnel and up to 208 civilians lost their lives in the tragedy. There were no Australian survivirs.

I came across the Subic Bay memorial during one of my ”fitness walks” prior to the start of Leg 6 and the clipper fleet sailed close to the position of the sinking during our week long refresher/level 4 training.

It remains the worst maritime disaster in Australian history.

An Affair to Remember is a 1957 film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. What’s that got to do with racing from Bermuda to New York? Well, when you’re stuck in a wind hole going nowhere and you’ve exhausted your attempts to remember songs about New York, you turn to film. An Affair to Remember was set, very largely, in New York. As was Gangs of New York, West Side Story, Rear Window, Taxi Driver, Ghostbusters, Manhattan, Saturday Night Fever, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Funny Girl, Wall Street and The Odd Couple – just to name a few more. It was a BIG wind hole!

Race 13 will probably not be my favourite of Clipper so far, it is certainly NOT my favourite result. It started badly with the tragic news of the unexpected death of my brother-in-law (from my first marriage) just as I was leaving to join the boat. It included my wedding anniversary during which Ruth informed me she was not going to be able to make it out to New York after all, and concluded with us being the last boat across the finishing line. I wont dwell on the first two aspects but I will write about the race, and the result. With everything that occurred I needed no reminding that this was Race THIRTEEN starting from one corner of the BERMUDA TRIANGLE!

We were the 9th yacht to slip lines and there was a stiff and lively breeze blowing us on to the jetty and we had ”holding-off” lines rigged to mooring buoys in the harbour. With the assistance of a Rhib to pull our bow off the jetty we got away in a timely manner but within a minute of clearing the berth we suffered a serious overheating problem and had to shut down the engine. Less than 150 feet off the jetty and in danger of being set down by the wind across Hamilton harbour and hitting at least one multi million £ racing yacht and drifting amongst the Clipper Fleet executing the Parade of Sail, we ended up with our kedge anchor dropped from the stern and, assisted by another Rhib, our bow attached to a mooring buoy. And there we waited. The Parade of Sail came …… and went …… and the other Clipper yachts left the Harbour for the Great Sound. Clipper engineers came out to us, rectified the problem, and we waited for the engine to cool down so we could play catch up. Catch up would be the theme to our race.

We eventually caught up with the other yachts as they completed their demonstration sail and their man overboard exercises in the Great Sound ……….. only for our engine to overheat again. At least by now we also had sails up and we were able to tack across the Sound and await the return of the engine experts (and in this case a jubilee clip of a size we were not carrying) and the engine to cool again. Meanwhile the other yachts proceeded to the start line. Time was now against us. It was going to be touch and go whether we would get to the start line in time. Worse, if we couldn’t clear the channel out of Bermuda by 1900, we would have to return alongside and sail 24 hours late. As it turned out we did clear the channel, did complete our compulsory man overboard exercises and almost (almost) made it to race start. But not quite.

Time to play catch up. And with the benefit of the clarity of 20:20 vision that hindsight always gives you, I cant help but wonder whether a catch-up mentality convinced us all that we had to ”do something different” when it came to routing, rather than trust our sailing and our speed to ”reel the other boats in.” We were also aware that there were periods of light winds and wind hole conditions (next to no wind) in the forecast, very likely to affect all boats at some time or another. We did overtake Punta del Este on the first night, and did the same to Imagine Your Korea the following morning. But ….. when the other boats tacked north that day, we chose not to, seeking stronger winds (and less punishing light wind conditions) to the west. To cut a long story short this was (hindsight time again) a mistake. And remember our ”troublesome” engine? Throughout the race we had a salt-water cooling leak into the engine bilge. Easy to pump out (manually and automatically) when on an even keel, but requiring buckets, scoops and sponges when not. We were emptying the engine bilges every 2 hours and removing 4 to 5 buckets a time.

When we did eventually hit light winds and a wind hole we managed to find the Mother of all wind holes! In one 6 hour period between position updates we managed an average speed of just 0.5 knots. 3 miles in 6 hours. And not even 3 miles in the right direction. To make matters worse, those boats who had tacked north (basically everybody but us!) made better progress and when the wind “filled-in”, it filled in for them first. In very short order we were 150 miles behind the lead boats and 50-60 miles behind GoToBermuda and Dare to Lead at the back of the pack. In a long ocean crossing that’s not necessarily as bad as it sounds, but in a relativel short hop like Bermuda to New York it meant 11th place became a nailed-on certainty and the only real race left to us was crossing the finish before midnight on the 24th in order to get alongside on the 25th in time for a prize giving party the following evening. This would require a 52 mile motor – you remember our ENGINE at the start of this piece!!!

Ironically, some of the sailing, when we were actually sailing, was fabulous. It was warm, humid and at times the wind was strong enough to tip us over at an angle and put the low-side rail in the water. It was pretty much shorts and t shirt sailing throughout but occasionally chilly over night. We flew all three Spinnaker sails, all three Yankee headsails, the Staysail and the Wind-seeker, the latter sail for much longer than any of us wanted. The new joiners to the team (Ricky, Tom, Daniel and Greg) were all new to the Clipper 70 but settled in well. We enjoyed some spectacular star-lit and moon-lit nights and some glorious sunrises.

And the entry into New York on the morning of 25th June under a cloudless sky was stunning. Despite the result I consider myself extremely fortunate to have sailed into 3 iconic harbour/skylines during Clipper so far – Cape Town, Seattle and now New York.

Derry-Londonderry up next and we are very very keen to put this result behind us.

For Diabetes UK and the National Autistic Society see:

https://justgiving.com/teams/keithsclipperadventure

For UNICEF UK see:

https://justgiving.com/KeithWinstanley-TeamUNICEF

We’re back at sea first thing on Wednesday.

The Countdown clock to Race start now shows just a little over 24 hours of nervous anticipation until we are off once more. The weather forecast looks a little ”sporty” and we are all onboard for the Bermuda to New York race briefing at 1430 this afternoon. Thereafter its one more night of relative peace, quiet and comfort.

My kit is now either all packed (and goes onboard this afternoon) or laid out in my digs ready for Sunday morning.

We are all onboard the UNICEF yacht by 10am tomorrow. Team photos will be from 1015 and we slip lines from 1100. After that we have a Parade of Sail around Hamilton harbour before a practice start out in The Great Sound. We will then do some compulsory man overboard training, practicing rescuing a man overboard who has gone overboard still attached to the boat by his tether, and a recovery of an untethered man overboard who is no longer attached to the boat. From about 1445 we will sail out of the relatively sheltered waters of Bermuda into the North Atlantic for a Le Mans start at 1800. Thereafter its a relatively short race (depending on the wind speed and direction!) to New York. The Fleet is due into Liberty Landing on the Jersey City side of New York on the 23rd or 24th of June and will remain alongside until Sunday 29th June when we start the North Atlantic crossing to Londonderry.

This has been the first time Bermuda has hosted the Clipper Fleet and it has clearly been a great success. Here are a few images:.

For Diabetes UK and the National Autistic Society see:

https://justgiving.com/teams/keithsclipperadventure

for UNICEF UK please see:

https://justgiving.com/KeithWinstanley-TeamUNICEF

Only about 4500 nautical miles to go!

My late father volunteered for service in the British Army immediately after the Second World War and shortly after his own father was de-mobbed from the RAF following wartime service. The fact that Dad would have been called up anyway is not the point. He was proud of the fact he volunteered. He was offered a Commission in the Pay Corps and service in Scotland which he turned down, expressing a strong desire for service in the Far East. In a move all too familiar to anyone who has served in the British military, the powers-that-be promptly shipped him off to northern Germany for 3 years in the Royal Signals!

He only ever gave me one piece of military advice. Shortly before I left home he told me to be, “careful what you volunteer for.” In his opinion, a volunteer was often someone who, ”didn’t understand the question in the first place.” I followed this advice if you are prepared to overlook the fact that I did once volunteer for UN service in Cambodia only to end up doing a UN tour with the British Army during the fighting in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia in the early/mid 1990s!!! So let’s overlook that one. Wind forward to late January/early February 2022 and the first of three Zoom calls with the UNICEF team preparing for the restart of the Clipper race. Ian and Dan were already in the Philippines and the rest of us were getting ready to join them. We “met” some of the new crew members joining the team for the first time and discussed plans and tactics. It was during this video call that we first discussed the possibility of playing our “Joker” on arguably the toughest Leg of the circumnavigation. I’ll come back to that in a future blog. During this first call the subject of ”additional duties” came up, and in particular (as far as this blog is concerned) the role of Team Coordinator, a role normally/previously undertaken by a round-the-worlder but now ”vacant” as a result of the impact of a 2 year delay to the Race.

“We need to appoint a new TC,” said Ian. There then followed something of a deafening silence. Ian held his nerve. Eventually I broke cover and offered the suggestion that, ideally, because of the role, the new TC should be someone completing all of the remaining Legs – 6, 7 and 8. Unfortunately I didn’t stop there………. Warning!….. school-boy error coming up accompanied by mental picture of Dad rolling his eyes to the sky ………. I went on to say that as I was doing two of the three remaining Legs I would be, “happy to assist.” And with that we moved on. Wind forward again about a week to our second Zoom call and fairly soon after we started proceedings Ian announces that ”Commo,” …….. ”Yes?” I remember thinking ……. ”Commo is going to be the new TC.” Thankfully my microphone was on mute and somewhere I could imagine my Dad roaring with laughter.

According to the official blurb the role of the TC is as follows.

“The Team Coordinator Role, more commonly known as TC, is there to support the communication between the whole team, crew onboard, crew leaving, crew joining, the skipper and the Race officials/office. The TC helps the skipper with yacht administration and organisation.” The instructions go on to say that this is a “varied role requiring good planning and time-management skills, integrity and tact!” The exclamation mark is mine. The full instructions run to about 3 pages and I wont bore you with all the detail, but one of the most important roles (at least as far as everyone else onboard is concerned) is deciding who gets which bunk and who they will be sharing with as bunk buddies and designing the onboard jobs rota for each race of each Leg. And all this has to await Watch allocation which generally follows refresher training and crew assessment. There is the additional complication of not knowing exactly how long each race/leg is going to take, further complicated on Leg 6 by the international date line and on Leg 7 by 5 separate finish line options and a Panama canal transit the date of which was not confirmed at the time of me completing this work for that Leg. And that, in a nutshell, is why I didn’t get away in Seattle until a few days after the formal end of my Leg 6 contract, why I have already been gently lobbied by some crew here in Bermuda and why I will be juggling with excell spreadsheets on Friday and Saturday. Oh and I have a meeting with the Staff and all boat TCs later. Obviously I have to be focussed on this next race to New York but I do now have to give some thought to (and be able to answer questions about) race 14 and race 15 plus Londonderry, London and, shortly thereafter, the return of the boat to Portsmouth. All good fun.

For Diabetes UK and the National Autistic Society please see:

https://justgiving.com/teams/keithsclipperadventure

For UNICEF UK please see:

https://justgiving.com/KeithWinstanley-TeamUNICEF

Please take a look. Thank you.