(Brian Luster is a fellow nautical blogger and author of the excellent blog A Movable B
ridge. Brian took part in the big Asian leg of the 2005-2006 Clipper Race. The current race is taking place right now and the crews are in Asia as I write this –Adam)
My participation in the Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race began in the summer of 2003, but I didn’t know it at the time. I was sailing in New York Harbor on the South Street Seaport Museum’s schooner Pioneer when a sleek yacht passed by. The boat was Hong Kong Clipper, and her bow was emblazoned with the words “Clipper 2002 The Round the World Yacht Race.” Since it was not 2002, I had no idea I was witnessing Hong Kong’s completion of a leg of the race; I thought the boat was just in the harbor for a photo op.
After checking out th
e Clipper Ventures website, I applied for a berth in the 2005-2006 race, and in December 2003 I learned I’d been accepted to sail on leg 7, the North Pacific, in February 2006—the longest and probably toughest leg of the race.
Before I could join the crew of my as-yet-unnamed boat, I had to complete several weeks of intense training. Since I had been accepted based on a written interview, the first week of training would also be a kind of probation, after which my skipper would recommend to Clipper HQ whether I should continue with training or go home. In November 2004 I joined seven other trainees, plus a skipper and a mate, for a week of training in the Solent and the Channel on an old 60-foot Clipper boat.
Training was provided on all aspects of sailing and racing: We learned the ropes (literally); we learned how to hoist, strike, and reef sails; we learned how to do speedy, racing headsail changes; we learned how to helm; we practiced man-overboard drills; w
e sailed through the night while keeping three-hour watches; we prepared meals; we cleaned the boat; we climbed to the top of the mast; and we got seasick during a gale (well, at least I did). At the end of the week we all made the cut and stayed on for the next week, which was more of the same (minus the vomiting).
In July 2005 I found out that I was to be the only actual New Yorker to sail on New York Clipper, and in August I was back in England for training on a brand-new Clipper 68 with other New York crew. These new boats were bigger, lighter, faster, and wetter than the old ones. Training included a long-distance race against the nine other Clipper boats from Gosport past Plymouth and Penzance (no pirates) and around Land’s End to Cardiff. At the dock in Wales I had the honor of christening the boat and smashing a bottle of champagne across her bow. A month later the race began in Liverpool. Leg 7 was scheduled to start from Qingdao, China, in February 2006.
Tomorrow, Brian’s log from the start and into the East China Sea