Monday 28th Aug – Bank Holiday somewhere. . .
When I agreed to train to be a Clipper Coxswain, I didn't expect I would actually be required as such. Our skipper Dave suffered a serious hand injury on the night before last, which our docs on board decided needed immediate attention. At the time we were flying our small kite (spinnaker) at night in 20-25 knot winds and achieving boat speeds of up to 19 knots in the squalls – exhilarating sailing!
The shout for a medic and me came around midnight, not long after after I'd gone off watch, so a quick dress and back on deck into a maelstrom with spinnaker flying from the head of the mast due to a jammed halyard. I cut it free as I stepped into the cockpit and was now in charge of a 70 foot racing yacht in the middle of the night, 400 miles from the nearest port, with a casualty requiring an urgent medivac; didn't cover that one on the Coxswain course 😳.
36 hours later we're 120 miles from Porto sailing in a good breeze in the sunshine which is giving the guys a chance to recover. We're heading there to pick up a replacement skipper, Dan, who is the current Deputy Race Director and skippered Derry-Londonderry on the last race. Dave was airlifted yesterday in the early afternoon, was successfully operated on last night, and is doing well. We hope he'll rejoin us and be back in charge when we get to Fremantle.
The airlift was impressive as we were so far offshore. Some time on the sat phone to Clipper and the Portuguese coastguards and a plan was agreed. We sailed directly towards Porto and a helicopter would fly out to meet us as soon as we were in range – around 250 miles for their largest one. This was coordinated by a coastguard aircraft. We wanted Dave lifted off the deck, but the pilot refused. When we saw it's size we understood; it was massive and with a huge down draft. As a result we put Dave into the water in a dry suit and with an inflated life jacket, probably the most difficult thing I've had to do as the helicopter wouldn't come in to pick him up until we'd moved away.
The crew are fantastic and pulled together and the experience has brought most of us closer together. However, just now, around 5 are planning to leave Polly (the yacht – I'll explain later) which is a shame and will provide other challenges.

Friday 25th Aug
The things we take for granted! Last night you popped into the bathroom to clean your teeth, address a few other necessities, then hopped into bed. In the morning, after an uninterrupted night's sleep, you swung your feet out of bed, popped into the bathroom for those morning necessities and a shower, quickly dressed, and into the kitchen for breakfast, probably accompanied by the radio.
The only comparison here is that I do clean my teeth at some stage each day, and I do get some sleep. The floor isn't flat and doesn't stay still – riding a rodeo comes to mind. Climbing into bed is like climbing the Eiger during a violent earthquake ad then lying on a small ledge that wants to throw you off! I do get a wake-up shake (a number of times in each 24 hour period) and am then faced with climbing off my pitching ledge to visit a small loo (yes, still think rodeo), and dress in cumbersome oilies that are a challenge to get on when standing on a stable flat floor.
I haven't frequented the galley yet on this trip, but our mothers do us proud. Each day someone spends a day being 'mother' and prepares all meals for a day. Breakfast each day has been freshly-brewed coffee, freshly-baked bread still warm, and granola and/or porridge with honey and freshly-made yoghurt. (Beginning to fantasise about bacon though.) Not all bad, with great company, lots of laughter and a great play list coming out of the speakers. Bed is a (relatively) distant memory.

Thursday 24th Aug.
We had a fantastic welcome into Liverpool. All 12 yachts dressed overall in their flags and Team Partner livery. Greenings looked very smart. We paraded past Albert Dock and then, over a couple of hours, locked first into Canning Dock, and then into Albert Dock; a process we’d reverse on departure.
We still had quite a lot of preparation to complete, and did so pretty much by Friday lunchtime in time for our naming ceremony. That evening was the crew party and Tamsin, Liz and Mel, a friend of Liz’s came too. They came up to see the fleet and make sure I left ok. Nick, Sue and Ben had come up on Thursday (thanks Nick for a fabulous lunch) to see the fleet and taste life in the goldfish bowl Albert Dock had become to us. Quite an excited atmosphere had developed. Supper out on Saturday with Tamsin,Liz and Mel was a prelude to an early arrival on board on Sunday morning. Saturday had had a hazy start with our safety brief, crew briefing and a visit to the Cavern Club. It wasn’t really until Dave’s final skipper’s talk to us on Saturday afternoon that I finally acknowledged the adventure awaiting is quite significant. My sax buddy and very good friend Richard came to see me off with a wonderful gift of a penny whistle to stop my sax fingers from forgetting too much. We’ll see how much I can keep my fellow seadragons entertained :). I final, special departure moment with Tamsin and the Clipper departure carnival began. I have to say they do it quite well; you may have seen it on the live stream Clipper set up.
5 days in and we’ve had a variety of weather, numerous pods of dolphins playing around us, a visit by whales on a couple of occasions, and we’re waiting to see if our strategy will pay off.

So much has happened since I started this blog in May. Most of it with regard to the race.
I was offered the opportunity to be trained to be a Clipper Coxswain, one of 2 or 3 on each boat. This enables each boat to have some backup if the skipper becomes incapacitated in any way. The coxswain' a role is to support the watch leaders get the boat to a safe place. It meant a 10 day course re-doing my yachtmaster theory, some ocean sailing theory and then 5 days out doing practical navigation and dealing with incidents.
I was delighted to be selected for Team David, with David Hartshorn as my skipper. We are now Team Greenings and have a great team partner who are very interested in us and very supportive. I will provide some links when I can get an internet connection.
Handing over my job to Niki Jobson who has a secondment to do it until I get back was straightforward, and Lorraine, who I work with, has been fantastic in taking over some of my responsibilities. Toni organised a lovely evening at Beckett House for a gathering of work friends to say good luck and farewell. Thank you all; see you next August!
Packing the house up to rent it out took a while – so much to do cancelling stuff, putting the car away, selling the motorbike 😩, cleaning and trying to decide what I need for a year on a 20 kg allowance. Thanks Tim and Lorraine for your welcome help and support.
We spend 8 busy days in Gosport working on CV 24, now Greenings, repairing and replacing stuff, maintenance and taking on board for for 20 people for 42 days. I have the coxswain's role as well, which means being responsible for all the running rigging (ropes, halyards and sheets), winches for pulling sails up and adjusting then when we're using them, and other non-engineering maintenance and repairs whilst at sea. Still bits to do in Liverpool, but we'll be ready for race start on Sunday!
I'm writing this at sea on our delivery trip to Liverpool, hope I can post it ok 😳. We had a very windy and wet departure last Wednesday, and there's a short video out there taken by a helicopter to record it. Again, I'll find a link when I can get a connection. Currently moving very slowly on a lovely morning near the Isle of Man, doing more drills before our exciting entry into Liverpool tomorrow (a man overboard drill this morning as breakfast was being prepared woke the other watch somewhat abruptly). We've had a variety of weather and some of it has been the best ever. Night sailing with the moon and stars and sunny sailing with good force 6s and lots of dolphins. Some beautiful sunrises, moon rises and sunsets very much appreciated by most on board.
I'm in a great place with some supportive and wonderful people all equally excited and apprehensive about the months ahead. I'll share some photos wen I can.

I am finally taking a gap year and competing in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race which starts from Liverpool on the 20th August 2017.  You can see the route here.

The weeks of training that began last September are nearly complete, lots of kit acquired and I’m now getting my house ready to rent out. Even the press was interested ??

I blame Tamsin. She’s my daughter and having never sailed before, phoned me one day to tell me she had signed up for he final leg on the 15-16 race to sail back from New York to London!! Totally floored me. In the end, she sailed the last 3 legs beginning in Qingdao and raced to Seattle, through the Panama canal to New York and then back to London via Derry-Londonderry-Doire.

Last Saturday was very exciting as we went to Portsmouth for crew allocation; a day long awaited as we found out who we’d be sailing with. I’m delighted to be sailing with a great team under Dave Hartshorn in Team David (yet to have our sponsor announced).