Blogs

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Qingdao Training Week 11/07/09

Fog everywhere! This was my first experience of sailing in thick fog at night through the UK shipping lanes. It seemed that every time my watch were to make their way onto deck, the fog came sweeping in. This warm air we have been experiencing this week was to make daytime sailing an absolute pleasure and night watches stressful.

I had the role of navigator and spent most of my nights sat in the navigation room monitoring the radar and matching it with our Sea-pro system. Whilst our boat is just out of re-fit, there are still a number of defects left to be sorted before race start. The radar proved to be a slight difficulty due to our fluxgate compass heading being incorrect. The radar showed any ships heading for us but it tended to double the number of yellow blobs and purple marks. This made radar watch an interesting and slightly stressful experience.

Up on deck, my watch armed with white collision flares and a foghorn were ready to ward of any danger. They had other challenges to face too – headsail changes at night, reefing the mainsail in an electric storm and trying to steer a correct course in the absence of wind and in disorientating thick fog.

In our weeks training we managed a full circuit of The Isle of Wight in 11hours. We practiced man over board situation and gybing the spinnaker. We teamed up with Cape Breton Clipper to practise transferring medical equipment should we be called to do this on the race.

It was a great week, with mixed conditions. We worked very hard to keep the boat moving through light conditions. We persevered until we were struggling so much we had to use an anchor to prevent us sailing backwards with the tide. It taught us all a lot and maybe even more than sailing in rough conditions. The crew were great, our skipper fantastic and I was proud to be part of Team Qingdao.