Joe Sails

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Yesterday morning at 10:30 on the birthday of Sir Robin the race committee has taken the very difficult decision to postpone the Clipper Race 19/20 and evacuate all crew from the Philippines. I cannot imagine what this meant for Sir Robin who’s biggest desire is to see us at sea sailing. This means that CV23 „Black Betty“ as all other boats ran through an evacuation plan.

But one step after the other because there is still a lot to talk about. The last two days Stephen and I were very, very busy to write the meal plan for 16 people on board for 35 days and 5 days emergency food. The emergency food is very simple. We stock for only very basic food. I decided for three meals that we would rotate through for lunch and dinner should we have been forced to be out there more than 35 days. The three dishes were noodle with green and red pesto. That would give a bit of variety in terms of color, soy sauce fried rice with tomato sauce was the second and the third was mash with onion gravy (which will obviously come from Mr. Kraft and elf have been purely artificial) This emergency food would go only in three day bags, noodles, rice and mash. Simple to grab, easiest to make and basic nutrition granted.

This left us to plan for 35 days or 7 weeks. Based on our crew of 14 we would have 7 mother pairs. This meant that with 7 meals mothers would always cook the same. Sound a bit boring. Therefore Stephen and I decided to go to a cycle of 8 meals. What was to consider? Total calories per day required about 5000 once North of Taiwan. And as Dean jumped ship we did not have to worry about Gluten free and we also had not vegetarians or vegans on board. So it looked simple. But besides calories we had to had very easy to cook meal combinations (lunch and dinner) for very heavy weather. We also needed to take into consideration the very limited space in the fridge. So our supplies of frozen stuff had to be minimal. The challenge clearly is that meal number 3 with fresh ingredients has to be cooked also in week number 6 or 7 when you just do not have any fresh stuff left. Pretty difficult. But we found 8 combinations. Super simple, simple and medium challenge. I also planned for a mid course food festival. That would be out of the ordinary meal plan. The 8 meal combination would get allocated day bag signs. In our case it was bag A-H. In this case we had 5 bags of A,B and C and 4 bags of D to H. These bags have exactly the same content. I wrote 16 recipes for the 8 combinations. They would be provided by WhatsApp to all crew and we also would have had a folder with them in printed form. The next hurdle was skip. He had to approve. And although his menu throughout the day is „Pringles“ mainly he had to approve the meal plan. Guess what. He did not. I had three cold lunches. And he said that this is not on. „This boat will go to places that will be much colder than the boat has seen so far. Crew can only sustain on hot meals“. OK fine. I created three new not lunches and wrote the recipes. In the second attempt I was lucky and got the OK. I also showed the plan to Kaz who became very surprised on stuff like Labskaus and Lentil Stew. I also had Sauerkraut on the menu. Sure, we are German.

Out of that meal plan and the recipes we created the list of supplies needed to do all lunches and dinners. We added breakfast to it, all the treats necessary for the moral, some fruit (in case somebody wants to stay healthy), bred baking and the birthdays. I also added our mod course food festival. It should have been Californian Shrimp cocktail with avocado dip, kimchi and Mango. And for the main course we planned rump steck with fired mushroom, melted onions and fried mash.

Just for completion we also were responsible for all cleaning product like toilet paper, wet wipes, disinfection liquids for the kitchen, the heads and the floors (all different), paper towels, puke bags, compostable bags for our compostable toilet paper (which goes over the side), wash brushed, brooms, trash canisters, lubrication old for the heads and so on. Any way after finishing the demand list with 168 positions Stephen and I mapped it against our inventory. We spent a lot of time making sure we know everything that was on board down to the marches and gas for the lighters in order to ensure that we will be able to run a seamless routine in the galley. Nothing is more annoying when a guys pukes onto the galley floor and you have no kitchen roll or do not have matches to ignite the oven. So we taped existing stock and held it against the needs. This ended in the shopping list.

But as you know from my last blog we were confined. It was the 16th and Sir Robin wanted to get us out at sea. Only thing missing were the supplies. We were basically out of everything except toilet paper (which might have lasted till London, man we had tons of them), bread mix, coconut milk mix and milk powder. But we ran out of bread, rice, noodles, mash and stuff. yes I could have fed the crew for another 4 days sailing on very basic food. We could not get out of the gates. There was no public taxi available to drive us to the store. Buses and taxis were not allowed to operate. We were told that supermarkets got stormed by locals looking for toilet paper, noodles, rices and basics to prepare for the nation wide shutdown. In an attempt to still get us out Sir Robin asked to provide the shopping lists and Sarah from the Clipper head office took an attempt to send these shopping list from 11 boats out to stores. Next morning it became obvious that the replenishment would become a mountainous undertaking. On March 17th 10:30 we were informed. Philippines gave tourist a 72 hour window to leave the county. Someone who will not be out will be locked down till April 19th. Replenishment us impossible. Therefore Clipper had to admit that the race at the time was over.

I need to be more precise. The race was not over. It was suspended and postponed. The yachts due to the weather patterns cannot sail East after April. This meant that they will stay in Subic for 11 month. The Clipper 19/20 race will become a Clipper 19/20/21 race and the next new race will be Clipper 22/23. This means whoever is up for it will come to Subic in 11 month, sail to China first followed by the crossing of the Pacific and this is supposed to happen in Feb 2021. All crews for leg 7 and 8 will be postponed. No Clipper parties this year any more, no price givings.

You might imagine what happened afterwards. Everybody pulled smarts phones out to find a flight back home. 220 people to go out in only 2 days. Welcome business for Emirates and Quartar. Air France, KLM and Ehitad cancelled already all flights. Another option that was open was to go to Singapore and fly back from there.

No flight to Hamburg available. Swoodoo showed flight but whenever you wanted to book it came back with route not available, no availability or partial legs of this offer had been cancelled. Not sure why they even show the options. It took me half an hour to plow through it before I switched to booking direct with airlines. Lufthansa no availability on coach and as expected horribly expensive in business. I changed destinations, London, Frankfurt, Vienna, Munich. Food a nice flight to London with Emirates. Booked it, tried to pay it. But a verification was needed and I cannot do TAN verification when being on the phone and need to verify on the phone. God gracious. New attempt on the laptop. Flight was still there. Verification went through but a gently advice that my CC company would not clear the payment. My heart rate went up. 220 people hunting for a bloody ticket and I was in the midst of it not being successful. OK got to my online account, loaded my card, went back to the laptop, same routine and guess what the London flight was booked out and gone. Frankfurt was booked out and Vienna not available. OK Munich than. Finally I was bale to get a flight. Not convenient because j23:30 out of Manila, arrival 4:45 in Dubai, Departure 15:35 from Dubai and touching at 19:35 in Munich. But I would make it out of the country. Booked paid and sorted. But I needed to go to the Waterkant. I pulled up Lufthansa and booked the last flight 21:20. I should be able to make that even with the change of the terminal building form T1 to T2 – hopefully. The flight was in sane expensive. But it will bring me home. All sorted. The winner is…..

Late at night my phone binged. Here is you friend ad partner Deutsche Lufthanse. It dawned on my and guess what. The 21:20 got cancelled. We are happy to offer you and we already rebooked you on the 20:15 flight. No no happiness. It is impossible to make that flight. Honestly, I did not do anything that night. I had a couple of beers and went to bed. No way to get to Hamburg on the 19th. Next morning my plan came together. I cancelled Lufthansa, thank you very much. I booked a train ticket at 04:13 on the 20th from Munich main station. Only question was how to bridge the time from 19:35 till 04:13. I looked at the weather report. Plus 6 degrees in Munich. The Bayrischer Hof has a nice lawn in fron of their entrance and I have this magical Volvo Ocean sleeping bag that I still have not slept in. That was a clear option. But somebody might have gotten upset see a bright shining orange sleeping bag in front of one of the finest hotels in Munich. Maybe not. So I called Horst, my friend in Munich. He offered availability, a Bavarian Weißbeer !!!!!!!! (which believe me will go down like gold after drinking this Phllippinian San Migual Pilsener for days, and see dinner. All is sorted as long as the flight will operate on time and we will arrive where planned.

And this all was followed by packing and the good byes, hope to see you again, keep in touch and so on. Honestly somewhat this was a sad sad moment. The job was not done, dreams not fulfilled, expectations missed. 762 nm round Robin was all that was in it for me. Nothing special.

We arrived at the airport at 12:30. Everything except one McDonals and one 7Eleven is closed. Social distancing is paramount. This airport will shut down the day after tomorrow and will be locked up until April 19th minimum.

You might expect that this will be my last post. But I am thinking to continue. I am eager to accept the postponement and step in in 11 month. A few things need to work for that to be possible including a crew topic on board. But I think it can be sorted. I thought to continue because there is so much more to talk about. I like to explain the boat in much more detail and so far I had not tome. I like to explain the route of Leg 6 and its challenges including wether patters. So if you like stay and follow this blog until it goes back to daily postings when I will be back to cross the Pacific.

Here we are. Arrived yesterday after 5 days of racing. And I mentioned it so many times. It was hot. We were not where we could have been in the race. We at least were aiming for a much better result. But a chain of self enforced errors did not allow us to be in a better spot than 7th. We still contained good spirits. We loitered in front of the Marina in Subic Bay waiting for the clearance to move in.

We berthed at the pontoon and were told that immigration would take our temperatures and clear us off same day. Good part was that the Clipper crew threw some cold drinks on deck, beer, coke, Fanta and sprite. And guess what, it was hot, very hot. So beers went down like no tomorrow. Cool down program. That was yesterday 11 am local.

Sir Robin spoke to us what might or will happen. We will be cleared during the day. We will depart Mach 19th instead of a race start on March 21st. We will motor sail for 4 days North. Plan is that this will get us rest, let us do repairs at sea and get us as a crew settled. After 4 days we would Le Mans start in proper wind and head off East. Destination? Unknown….. Yes, we were told that the fleet will be informed mid way. Options? Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Mexico. „One port has to accept you. It is a very old mariner law. You are on refugee status“. Hhhhmmmmm. Really? The situation is very, very difficult and honestly the hysteria is beyond belief. Even on our small pontoon behind solid bars at the gate rumors are spreading like nothing. No question and no rumor is being left out. Wildest theories circle the community. But it is also obvious that crew members on all boats are considering to jump ship and end this disaster. The uncertainty creates a big uneasiness.

Nothing happened afterwards. We went into camp fire party mode. Gates to the pontoon were locked. Subic Bay Yacht Club is closed. Hotels rejected to take any of us but we were not able to to get off the bat anyway. No shower. Bigger questions to us was how to keep the party going. I mean how could we establish a supply chain. And as always money rules the world and the quarantine and thirsty sailors. The yacht club had its bar open. And as no person from the outside was allowed to go in. So 11 teams, like 250 folks were the right customers. And behind the „iron curtain“ a table was opened to take orders, manage money transaction and credit card payments. Business is welcome. Business rules the world all the time and whenever a situation exists like this. Reminds me of a meeting with the office of inner affairs in London where we discussed the topic how contraband gets flown into prisons by drones. There ore no fences and walls high enough, no security measures strict enough, no location isolated enough that there is not a way to get stuff into a locked down space.

It was sort of a party but honestly I was dead tired. I am not sure but I think I moved to the sail locker at 19:41. I decided to sleep there because bunks were limited and I want Laurance to stay in our hot bunk. Bad call. It was a bad night. sails are not cushions. The air was humid, salty, bad smelling and out of comfort. I had a bad night. But it does not help. Cannot moan about it. My decision. But will not sleep in the sail locker again.

In the morning we got going slowly. New news?! Yes, get into the line and there was the option for a shower. The shower block opened. There were guards all around. Procedure was to line up in front of the gate, wait, wait, wait. Three chaps were allowed to the shower at the same time. I do not like cues. I waited. At around 09:30 was my chance. But first of all I had to borrow shampoo. Yes I dont have shampoo on me. Weight saving contribution to our boat. There was a crew Head and Shoulders bottle that jumped at me. Only 2 people in the cue. And it took me 10 minutes to go to the block guided by guards, no escape. But you take what you can get and for sure shower. Cold water. My family knows wat that means to me. I hate cold showers. Yes I am heading to the North Pacific where I will not have a shower for 35 days. But guys, come on!!!! When I care for a shower it must be warm. No chance. So took my salty, stinking, worn out and filthy underpants off and jumped into the „iceberg“ shower. Awful. I hate, hate, hate it.

Loads of discussion went on. Crew want to leave. We already lost one and a second one will jump ship I am sure. Over the day nothing happened except me working on a menu, shopping list, boat inventory. It is a great job. It is a bit like discovery hunt. Stephen who is on the job with me (and leaves it to me taking decisions) and I still are finding places with food, not on the inventor and not handed over by previous victualers. We approached the job with a no mercy policy. Today we found more „treasures“. Three bags of „emergency food“. Three day bags. And in our open approach we just opened bags. We were surprised about a swarm of fruit flies getting at us and about this disgusting smell. I got each can out of the bags as rusty as they were. They clearly came in on our boat from London. Unknowns, mushrooms, spaghetti in sauce, fruit salad. Several cans had exploded. The disgust was beyond belief. No victualler in charge before had cared. Unbelievable. What to do? Rubber gloves. closed nose and eyes and just sort it. It is a bit like an abdominal surgery. All cans went into the bin. “ Emergency“ food? A joke. Not sure if you can understand this. But in case you really need food, persons responsible for emergency supplies were not taking care. It is critical to any boat to rely an good emergency supplies. This requires to open the bags at every stopover in order to find out at what state the emergency food is. It will be needed just in case something happens. In such an unlikely case you want to keep 17 people on the boat alive.

Ok we got this sorted now. Double bagged bin bags and off we went. Get all this stuff out of here. And we now sorted the new emergency food, No rusty cans, no uncontrolled storage. Being ready when needed.

Anyway, we are still confined. No new news. Guys start to freak out. Food supplies to the dock has not been organized. It all happens randomly. And as discovered here it is on an individual basis. We order ourselves. We ignore the regiment of 4 GBP a day. No we have not been able to replenish the boat supplies itself. Tomorrow no bread on the boat for breakfast. Cannot order it. What the hack. We have milk powder, bread mix and jam. Where is the problem?

So here we are. On the boat. Committees form. Emails get written. Lawyers are being considered. Provided the food list to the race office for food we need to cross the Pacific. Got conformation by Clipper that the food will be provided from tonight on. Hard to believe. But if it will happen then we will have a chance to get out of here in a couple of days.

The dynamic in this boot camp though is hilarious. But it is not what I was looking for. I want to sail!!!!! This does not feel right. Cant say more. But I would appreciate if the organization could at least cater for basic need, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Anyway we will wait. All is possible. Rumors believe that we will get cleared tomorrow.

We are back from sea. And yes we have all we need, our boat. Due to immigration procedures we are stuck at the dock. the bar delivered drinks. please look at a review of sailing memories from leg 6 RACE 9.

There was a password problem. Therefore here the news from the boat in one go. Pictures will come later.

Dad Day 1 Racing:
Position outside of Subic Bay. Went out for sail practice getting us prepared for a 17:00 race start. But for organizational reasons this has been postponed to 29:00 local or noon in Europe. My watch, Birdwatcher is currently off watch taking a rest and prepping meals. Guys I love sailing. But this today was almost a torture. Light breeze like 8 to 12 now, brutal sun and 35 degrees. Grinding a main up brings you almost to dehydration. And we need sun cream, sun cream, sun cream. That’s for now.

Dad heute um 16 Uhr: Quick update. Took the watch from 6pm to 10pm and will have the watch 2am till 6 am. What a brilliant watch. Gorgeous so meet. 15knots of Wind from NNE and low seastate. Still on a fine reach with Yankee, Stay and main. We now have 56 Neto the gate of he finish line. Pushing the boat hard. Every 10 minutes trim check. It is still 27 gehrend out there and we are sailing, no, storming through a pitch black night at the horizon and stars above. I helmed for an hour. Let’s de is good. Sleep now!

Dad:
In the Second Sprint
We are currently 200 nm West of Lucon island. At is night and the sky is currently moonless and full of stars. Amazing sky. We had a „great“ start of the day with 12 knots of wind and a battle for first, second and third place. You might have seen on the tracker how that ended. Was a bit nerve wrecking. Later the day the wind died on us and we were bouncing around in a dead and plain see. The sun was glowing. The crew is in a good mood although I saw it this morning. The little green monster came jumping over several 3 meter waves. It sneaked down the companion way, grabbed two guys by the throat and shook them around until they turned green. Everybody can imagine what followed. These poor guys turned green and gave it to the fishes. One recovered already but the other one still makes the boat lighter. We have 53 minutes to our watch. And at 2 am we will back. The boat is bouncing around, still shaking in a Dead Sea. Hopefully the day tomorrow will bring some wind.

10.03. um 20 Uhr
I just came on watch at 2 am local time this morning. The weather is really nice. The air is warm like 25 degrees. We are on a closed haul to our first Mark after we commenced the first ever Le Mans Start at night in the Clipper history during my last watch. The wind is light. We are flying main, stay and Yankee 1. Windward is Qingdao that we are battling it. Leeward is Halong Bay and Punta. The boat is going well. Downstairs it is hot, hot, hot. Had an hour of sleep. My next duty is mother.

11.03. um 09.30 Uhr
I was on watch from 2am this n but as I could not sleep I went up half an hour early. It was so hot out n my bunk. I slept for an hour. We sailed the whole night under white sails course 270 when Punta pushed from below. I was helming at that time but we dug and gave up windward position for the sake of the shortest course. 04:30 I went down to start breakfast, boiled eggs, pancakes, serials. Once the the galley was clean at 7 am I wrote the crew blog for the boat. But I am not sure if that will be broadcasted. I took a little break below deck and dozed away in the saloon for half hour. After that i prepared lunch – burger bar with Angus beef burger patties and a selection of toppings. Obviously cheese, fresh onions, cucumber salted and spiced as also Sauerkraut for the Lederhosenburger. Galley was pretty messy and from my watch I had no clew if the dish was OK. There is a bit of the weird atmosphere. Anyway. After they went upstairs the other watch was fed. And since they were worked up it seem to be appreciated. Not for long and I will be back at the stove for veggi rice with curry. We will see. We will go back to our second night and I will have a day without special duties.
The sailing itself is amazing. We would say Kaiserwetter in Kiel, 16 knots of wind, puffy clouds und bright blue water But it is hot. 28.4C water temperature and like 32c air temp. In the sun it is brutal. We are flying Code 2 kite and all boats in the fleet are visible. Qingdao and Sanya had a very nice battle fighting for windward position as I came on deck. Punta leads. Nice job sneaking away from us. Currently we hold course 272 direct to the mark for us.
Could become a fairly short race if the wind stays like that. Hope you at home are all good.

13.03. um 13.30 Uhr
The last 24 hours were difficult. Yesterday Ordnung great sailing and as reported the wind died. The first night shift logged 2 nm in 4 hours. No wind. We started our watch and there was no wind either. Close to midnight we felt a touch of wind on our sweaty faces. Yes. Windseeker went up. It took us less than 5 minutes. We started to move again. 4.6 knots wind 2.3 knots of speed. Yes. after 8 hours dead locked we were moving away from Halong and Dare to Lead. They pulled their Seekers but we were faster. Wind increased to 7 knots. Decision was taken to pull Code 1. And as you must drop the Seeker first we lost speed giving Dare to Lead and Halong the chance to pass by. Jesus! We continued due North and Halong went way East. We passed what we got to the next watch. Four hours later no wind. Halong stayed with the Seeker and used the apparent wind to its advantage. Next morning was payday for them. East was best. Wind veered to the Northeast and easterly boats had a great angle to the gate. We were West. Not the best. But we are fighting. Today great sailing under white sails. Perfect trim, very good speed and good pointing angle. I was allowed to helm from 16:00 local till 17:10 and took the opportunity to wrestle Zhuhai down. I love helming upwind boat to boat. It is not about technique l. It is a mind game. We entered this evening the third Ocean sprint. We battle on here and now. On our last 260 miles to Subic. We are all wet sweat everywhere. And I look like Rasterman with sticky hair in all direction. But I can tell you baby wipes are not too bad as shower replacement. Need to go to sleep. 1 hour 44 minutes left. Slept a total of four hours since we departed. Joerg from CV23 Black Betty in the South China Sea.

Heute Morgen um 07.00 Uhr
we passed the gate for our last 262 nm Ocean sprint last night under white sails close hauled. It was actually fun sailing. But when we came to watch and 10pm local
The wind died to about 4 knots true. First thing was to drop the Stay. Not enough. When the Yankee became the shape of a wet towel we decided for the negligee, the Windseeker, semi transparent and living up in the slightest touch of wind. We crawled along and did not want to believe it hat we again tried sailing on a mirrored sea. But we first awarded by an amazing night sky. Around midnight the red half moon glared over the horizon turning the sea into a bronze silk liner. We peacefully glided across the waters. And although this was a great view we were all desperately hoping for wind, not a breeze. We had enough of the banging noise of the rigg. Where is the action. After a restless night I went for breakfast. I noticed that my dark blue shorts started to turn white. No not sea water, I am priced by salt myself. Dried sweat turned inside out. Hey but what can you do when you sweat like a pig for four days 24 hours. I only have one pair of shorts and only one long sleeve UV protection shirt (which I decided not to wear in bed any more. I use a T-shirt in case I go to bed). Anyway in the galley I got two slices of toast with Marmelade (Orange!) and a mug of horrible coffee. But this shook me up since I had a net to f 4 hours sleep since we left. I was watch leader today. I stepped into the dark cockpit “morning guys” was repeated by grumbling “mornin”. Yes these guys sat there since 2 am. But hurray, the kite was up, we were heeling 45 degrees. Amazing. Kaz transferred the watch and I took the helm. Instruction was easy. Do 60 true wind angle until you passed the crossing LOG tanker. Than bring it up to 50degrees. So I did. The bottom of the kite touched the water at 50degress by about 10%. The helming instruction could have been much more simple. Drive the boat with a skimming kite and you will be alright. Tellyho. 10.6 knots and a race de on a razor blade. This was sailing. The sun came up and welcomed our effort. A glittering sea, fairly calm sea state, true wind 5.8 knots, apparent wind 7.8 knots and we were doing 10.6 knots with 220nm In front of us. Blooded hell. I love sailing. I love this type of sailing pushing a 46 ton battle tank through the water. Joy and happiness and big smiles. I called Steve onto the helm. A newbie. Let him dance on the razor blade. It took some coaching but after a while he did well. Apparently our wind angle was not sufficient for the gate. We hoisted the Yankee, dropped the kite, hoisted the stay and puffed up by 30 degrees. Hard work but spoiled down like clockwork. Rock n Roll. I love good maneuvers when sailing. Wow, this day is my day. But I asked myself why it was already so hot at 08:30 until I realized that I still had my BR1 jacket on. Free sauna, no charge. This is what I needed. I was soaking wet, I mean sweat dripped out of my arms. I needed a dry up. So downstairs (remember no change cause I only have 1 shirt), off the life jacket, off the jacket on the life jacket and out to the cockpit. I crawled up to the fence and did the Titanic Kate Winslet dryness Nbg Action into the wind. Spreader arms and 5 minutes later the shirt was “sweat dry”, good for another few day I’d say. We continued with 10.6 knots on a fine reach. We continued to enjoy ourselves. Sailing almost at its best. Why almost? Because we had almost everything for good sailing. Good company, motivated crew, professional skipper and AQP, sunny sky, warm, warm water, 200nm run ahead with good forecast. But….there is no beer. That fine ice could beer is still 230nm miles out. We will get there, I am sure. Today is one of these days where I feel that I two lives. Birgit is one and I am missing her already. Sailing is the other one. After such a day the world could not be better. Skimming kite at 10.6 knots. I love sailing. Joerg, South China Sea.

And now it is happening – Race day. You might not see an update for the next four to five days as I am racing off the West of the Philippines. But for sure I will come back once we will get through the finish line back to Subic Bay Thanks for your attention.

It was a busy day. Stephen and I came in in the morning to make final touches to food storage and location. We found more stuff. And at 11 am we had the crew brief of all crews about the details on the course, the weather the overruling safety instructions and some very good media footage from the legs and race before. We head out west and will run a triangular course. We will be out there until the 15th. So about 200 miles West, afterward we will turn NothNorthEast for a bit more than 200 NM followed by a SouthSouthEast course back to Subic bay. It will all start with a Le Mans start. Yes guys at home, you might not be familiar. Here is how it works. There is lead boat in the middle and half of the fleet to the windward ward side, the other half to the leeward side. This time Rich is the race start director and WTC Logistics will be the leading boat. All boats will line up under motor. Main is hoisted and Staysail as also a Yankee handed up. There will be a 10, 4 and 1 minute start sequence. At 1 minute all engines are supposed to go off. At the start signal the Stay and Yankee can be hoisted. After the start the fleet will maintain course for 10 minutes and than we start fighting.

But before all that Jazz we will need to do some sailing practice. Some of us have not been on a boat for a long long time. Line slipping for us 10:03 local. We head out to the training area. See picture above. We will do hoisting sails, changing sails, reefing, tacking, gybing, MOB weathered and MOB untethered. Once that is all under our belt and it will take a few hours in the heat, we will prepare for the start. This will be 17:00 local or 10:00 European time. You can track us http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standings. The position report will be updated every hour.

Here is the Le Mans Area and the race course again.

Obviously nothing happens without weather in sailing. So we had a wether brief. And as it looks the winds West of Lucon should be OK and not as unstable as in the last two passages of the Lucon straight. But as I can see there will be lots and lots of sail changes as the wind will vary from 1Bft to 6Bft and will shift from N to SE multiple times. We will have to work a lot and sleep very little.

And here is the wind model I am looking at all the time from start into the first two days.

Last person to speak in the brief was Sir Robin. He reminded us of safety. And he made another remarkable comment. He said when we will be out there we might be intercepted by a Chinese warship. Dont mess around. The believe they own al of the South China Sea. Other dont. But when intercepted find a person who speaks Mandarine and let them talk to the warship. Last time it eased the whole situation. Amazing! We will do Sir. He wished us well, lots of fun and encouraged us to bond to strong teams because we will for sure need it in the next race, the most difficult one in the whole circumnavigation.

After that we had a crew brief. Rich rolled out his idea and how we would play the two out of the three Ocean sprints. Cannot talk about it here it is all top secret. We spoke about safety. Showed our ability to throw a bowline, one of the most important thing in Clipper. We had to put life vests on and do the mobility test showing that we could move around the boat. Kaz as a watch leader held a watch brief, which I think was a splendid idea. After that Stephen and I went to the other supermarket, finished our purchases and went to the boat.

The final touches were done to the boat. We checked what we needed and got off what was not needed.

Stephen and I finished cooking instructions for 10 meals and sorted out the gluten free nutrition for Dean. We are almost ready to go. Very exciting. The next morning will show where we are.

The review of today will be short and simple because I actually was very busy with Stephen to master a mountainous task today. We scheduled to meet at 08:30 in the boat house to review our strategy for victualing the boat for the short sprint race that is up ahead and will start the day after tomorrow. We both volunteered a couple of weeks ago on the WhatsApp group when Rich asked whether there would be somebody to help victualing. Honestly help is something that I am willing to provide whenever it will help the team to progress. After we arrived here in Subic Bay Stephen and I learned that help meant to take over the whole job. All of a sudden we were responsible for the supplies on the boat, the menu and the cooking instructing for this leg, two races, five days plus thirty-three day. And this involves not only food and drinks but also thinks like wet wipes, toilet paper, bin bags, cleaning stuff and whatever is needed to run the boat below deck and keeping the crew of 17th well fed and strong.

Obviously the boat contains already a lot of stuff and in the handover from Rachel and Ben we received an inventory list of everything that was inventoried. Based on this inventory Stephen and I developed a meal plan for the 5 day race and created a shopping list what we would need to complete the recipes. Alog with that we received advice from Rich and also some of the round the worlders pointed at the risks and wishes in terms of these supplies. „Never run out of toilet paper“. „Make sure there are enough wet wipes“ „We need more protein in our food“ „Dont take the risk that we will be hungry, leg one was awful“ „make sure meal are canned food only, the only way to cook is throwing cans into a pot and ….“ „You have no idea what it means to cook at 45 degree angle, make sure it will be not a challenge to us“ „chopping? I am not doing it“ „make the stock transparent, it does make sense not to know where stuff is“ „snacks, snacks ist the most important things“ „Pringle Bells, Pringle Bells, Pringles all the way…“. Jiwizz all this good advice, we both got scared even for this short haul race. And than we do have the mighty Pacific in front of us. So for us it is not only the sailing challenge but also the challenge to create disappointments and grief. We for sure could make sure that 2 out of 17 sailors will be happy, thats ourselves. But for the other 15 it is a big challenge keeping them motivated and well fed across the pond in the cold.

Now we decided on a menu with fresh stuff to consumer a lot of what is on board already. But the challenge with the fresh stuff clearly is the heat. 33°C outside and below deck even more. We have a little fridge At home that would be good for two people and a week of supplies. Here it is 17 of us and lot of days. Veggies and fruit need to be stowed outside from any cooling which limits the choices. We decided to go for apples, honey melon and mandarines. We will see how long they will last. The supply of apples was very, very expensive. I would say the kilo was more expensive than the meat we bought. They are imports fro the US.

Anyway 9 am Rich showed up and off we went to the harbor mall in order to buy supplies. Rich had to go with us because the cashier requires personal identification with the credit card. This was a challenge t skip because he has lot more to do than going shopping. But this is what it was. We had our list. I took my computer with me to tick off what we needed and we stormed the super market.

Now it is a bit different than at home. You have obviously a lot of food that is very specific to the Korean cuisine. So we had to realize that we were not able to buy mash potatoes powder. Not available. So here our dinner day 3 went unless we find a work around . Mash from rice was not an option. So we diverted for this leg to fresh potato. But this meant peeling and chopping, cocking and mashing and not just tossing a bag of powder into the pot filling it with hot water and done. On the fly in the super market we had to take a number of these decision to divert. Only thing that was dead easy was Pringle Bells because there was a whole isle of prongs available to us.

Supplies were packed in boxes and a taxi took us home to the marina.

After arrival at the club we took everything to the boat unpacked the boxes and laid everything out in the cockpit. We searched for the stuff on board and brought that up to. Everything was packed in daybeds according to the recipe except the meat in the fridge and the fresh stock. Bags were numbered and later in the day lined up bag 1-5 on the font lower bunk on starboard opposite of the mast. In front of the mast we stored all bread and burger buns.

After the Stephen and I decided to look at all stock on board. And it was quite some journey with interesting surprises. We have a lot of stuff on board. I mean tons of toilet paper. I would say there is enough for a shit flew of 15 of us for 30 days, sorry. We found oregano, 9 restaurant jars that will allow us to spice up pizza in a pizza delivery restaurant for a year. we found tons and tons of stuff not only in bags but in lockers and in the galley itself. For sure WTC is safe to stay out there for a long time without running out of tea or honey or oregano or sweets at any time.

We rearranged the supplies in the galley and repacked all other stuff. Under one coffin bunk we found 10 blocks of „cheese“ smelly like socks that had been worn for a month. Obviously we thought except for the odor that this had no value. It was fun to look at PG tips supplies. 6000 bags on board. For us 17 this is a supply for 137 days. Hopefully we will not be out there for so long. Anyway the supplies were all put on board for a good reason and the number one risk for a victualler is to get killed because the boat runs out of Pringles, Nutella, coffee or tea. It became late but we got the job done. At least we believe where stuff is and have an idea of supplies. Tomorrow we have to run for four more items and than we will see how this works out. I am sure the crew is preparing already the plank for us two. Just joking. The day ended peaceful with a nice sunset. One day of prep to go and we will be in business – finally sailing.

After we checked in yesterday and we got our crew brief about the new route and arrangement we became so to speak official member of the team and crew. Our passports were taken away at registration. Now there is no hiding and running away. Skippers meeting at 09:00 am sharp. And as I cam late the day before I made damn sure that I would be on time. And so it was, quick breakfast and an early walk to the club brought me onto the boat a quarter to nine. Big hello of those who were already there. At nine we were all complete and Rich took over. First of all we discussed the allocation to watches. Rachel, Ben, Susie (all three round the worlders), Mark, David, Sophie and Steven would on my watch called Birdwatch. Also all the bunks got allocated. I am in Bunk number 8 on the Portside. It is a low bunk and it is fairly far aft. That means it will be OK in heavy weather, OK to get in and out and most importantly to stay in. I am hot bunking with Laurance, our French round the worlders from Sharkwatch.

The plan also points out what we will be responsible when and when we will be mothers cooking for the whole crew. If I am not wrong my first mother duty is on March 23rd. And as I am hot bunking with Laurance we will share that responsibility.

After these announcements we went into refresher training alongside after the rest of the crew was send back to continue the repair of our Code 3. We checked first our life vest. Interestingly enough I got the life vest number 9. Why is that interesting? When I had my Opti „Spatz“, the boat that I learned sailing with it was marked with the number 9. I take this as a very good omen. We went through all the checks on this vest, a Spinlock, which became my absolut favorite after the L4 training. We inflated it and left it at that for a few hours before we packed the vest together again. We were instructed by Rich to perform this test every Wednesday. This is very important and actually essential. The bladder of the vest could have been pinched. And you like to find out before you go overboard.

After that we walked the deck, went through all safety equipment incising the three life rafts, the Danboy and the 4 horseshoes on board. We talked about the use of jackstays, the does and do not, the safety teacher and the strong points on board. It was a serious but casual training and briefing. We really started to melt on deck because it was hot, hot, hot. In the morning the air almost did not move.

We went below deck and started at the Nav station to go through the equipment, log book handling, generator start and engine start. We reviewed the display and located where we will find the information for the logbook entry. Rich made very clear that we should keep the logbook tidy and correct. No assumptions, no guesswork. ir needs to be clean, readable and accurate.

And he points at an instrument that I was not aware of. There is a repeater in his bunk that allows him to see how accurate we follow the course. Big Captain is watching you.

After Lunch our training was completed Stephen and I had a meting with Ben and Rachel together with skipper. The topic was victualing. So in case my non sailor readers do not know what this is ( and I admit I never had heard that were before Clipper)I like to explain. It means to plan the supplies, stock the food, develop the menu plan and write the recipes. Yes a job that I have a lot of respect for. You know you try your best to get such a complex topic done but the only thing you harvest is complaints. In the old days the victuallers and the cooks had to walk the plank first when morale on battle ships turned bad. All their fault to not keep the crew happy. And I am sure the first ones are already lined up for the complaint.

The good part about Sephens and my situation is that we have a sprint race of 4-5 days in front of us before we do the very long haul. Means we have time to understand the consumption model on board and adjust the supplies and menus accordingly. The briefing was OK, Ben spoke too fast, Rachel was pretty clear about what she thinks has to happen and Rich offered some helpful advice. Stephen and I decided to attack the problem of victualling tomorrow 08:30 am.

I could not sleep that night and was searching for easy to Koop one pot meals. I put a shopping list together considering existing supplies. And we did it as team, Stephen and I.

Good night guys and tomorrow we will talk about the craze of food.

Second day in Subic Bay everybody was excited and had big expectations. Today would be the day where the decision of Clipper will be shared where we will be going. A crew brief had been scheduled at 05:30pm after the registration of the newbies, the leggers for leg 6. Speculations had been flying around for days and it was about time to understand what we have to prepare for mentally and physically.

But before we start it was time to do some work. Boats always tend to ask for a lot of work to stay in shape and offer a safe and sound experience to its crew. Theoretically the newbies were not yet on duty but no doubt we joined in for the work because there was enough to do. Finishing deep clean, starting important repairs on board and in the rigg and repairing sails so that we would get the best out of them as we go along. It was a 9am call and I managed to be late on board. What an embarrassment. The briefing what should be done was almost finished when I joined. The first of my task I stepped in was helping Kaz to empty the lazarette which basically means to get the trash out of the boat. It is not the best of the jobs because it is „fruity“ down there as the boaties tend to say. the proper translation for sure is – it stinks. Anyway it had to be done and at the end loads of double bagged black bags are piled up on the pontoon, some of them partially ripped. Gareth became our trash transport officer (TTO) and carried out he logistics to the trash pit.

Next was to bring the Code 2 to the lawn in front of the club. Susie and Laurance are our qualified sail makers responsible to keep the sails in good shape. And this time there was loads of work for them because especially the code three was not in a good shape. There was an incident out at sea where the halyard snapped on the Code 3 while sailing, the sail came down and the boat ran over it. According to Susie the sail was literally wrapped around the kiel and nothing could be done to get it out. Therefore Rich and Dan decided cutting the sail to recover it. But you will see later. At this time it was Code 2 and Code 1 that we inspected thoroughly, The Sails were in good shape and only minor repairs were required.

Code 1 and Code 2 were done fairly quickly as there was not so much repair needed. Once a while Rich came by to see what progress we were making. It was good support. He seems to be all over the place ensuring that he knows what was going on and in case to offer his help and advice. But the big challenge as mentioned before was our Code 3. I mean when we pulled it out of the bag and laid it our it became obvious that this would require major work.

The hole was big, basically the horizontal cut from the leach to the center and a vertical tear from the head down two thirds of the sail. We laid the sail out and consulted the sail maker from Hyde how bad this is in his opinion on a scale of 0-10 and he replied it would make barely a three. But for us it was huge. We were given a strategy ho to repair it most efficiently. Rinse the edges to get the salt off, tape the vertical but first, transfer the sail fro the grass to the concrete sidewalk and take it there from top to bottom. But after rinsing it it was time for lunch. Susie took us to a Deli around the corner. It was a big surprise because the food was exceptionally good.

We had to drink a lot because it was hot. The sun was high up in the sky, temperature was around 33 degrees and we were exposed. Sometimes my head felt like a shower head with sweat dripping down from all ends. I have to admit that I had to go to the bar in the boat house twice to cool down and not to pass out on the sail. It was hot, hot, hot.

But at the end of the day we wee able with the help of Martin, the sail maker fro Hyde to put the sail together. Now it was all about reinforcing it and sewing it together. But as it was 5pm already we packed the sail away in our open skied sail shop. This was for tomorrow for sure.

In the meantime we registered in. Registration was between 3 and 5pm. Our passports were taken away, Yes, now we cannot escape anymore. Impossible to book a flight this night the sneak out and hide away from the challenge. We were locked in.

And 05:30 we all gathered on the first floor of the boat house for the crew tried everybody waited for so desperately. The room was packed and for sure there was a bit of tension in there.

Mark Light and Sir Robin took the stage and after the icebreaker of the day, provided by Dare to Lead to Mark, a wet icebreaker underpants , Sir Robin explained the situation. Basically it was difficult to make a good decision which would cater for all eventualities considering quarantines, visas and so on. Qingdao, still a preferred place was out because of the risk of two weeks quarantine. South Korea, the preferred option was out because of the violent outbreak there. And finally Yokohama offered endless complications due to visa requirements for a number of crew which could not be solved easily. Therefore the decision was taken to go Subic Bay direct to Seattle. Race start would be March 21st. We would be 4 days longer at sea which means 29-33 days at best. Silence in the room. There was more to come.

In order to form the crews making sure that they will function as crew with the new guys on board another race would precede the long haul to Seattle. We would do a sprint race to the West. It would be a total of 750 miles, bit more than a Fastnet race and it would consist of three Ocean sprint. The course was set in a way that we should see fair winds but in case the wind dies on us the course could be shorten any time. This means a prep race in the warm, shorts and T-Shirt sailing but a very good exercise to get up to speed before we hit the Northern Pacific. This is with no doubt the purpose and I have to admit that this was a good call.

Obviously for the round the worlders this offered a certain challenge as the would race Phillipine waters for the three time. And considering that the last experience was nerve wracking with the unstable winds it looks like a challenge. But Sir Robin and Mark made it very clear. No opt out possible. We will be facing huge challenges and we must be well trained before we experience those. I would say overall was happy to know now and to be able to step up and adjust to the known. We know where we will be going. Lets hit it.

One more positive out of it is for sure that Stephen and I as the new victualers would have a pre stage 5 days victualing to learn what is good and works before we prepare the vistualing of the boat for the 33 day passage plus 5 extra days as reserve. This will be our big job for the week after March 15th when we will return from our sprint race.

Good night. Tomorrow 9am crew briefing on the boat, refresher training alongside and more repairs. It will be hot, hot, hot….