Level 2 training

The summary version of Level 2 training is that it's about learning to live on a boat, as well as consolidating what we learned on Level 1. We got all that. We also got a really social boat and had a lot of fun.

Things were crowded for the week. They originally planned to run two boats, but they didn't quite have enough people, so instead they put us all together on one, fourteen in training plus four skippers. The boat couldn't even sleep everyone, but, as they explained, it wasn't like we'd all be able to sleep at the same time anyway!

It was an interesting group of people. Banno used to be a credit trader and just quit, with no apparent plan yet for what to do next except for this trip, more sailing, and time with his family.  Carla was a PhD aerospace engineer from Andorra. Marine was from Monaco and Karri fro Estonia, adding to the tiny country thing. Christian was a buy-to-let landlord, leading me to get briefly into work mode and try sell him on our offering. Sam had a business designing and manufacturing various gift items. Ian imports medical devices, ultimately leading to more sales mode, as I figured I had to put him in touch with Seth and Dan, two friends with a medical device startup. Patsy had the best story, about to start up an oil and gas consulting business with a friend after doing one leg of the race, she had done her first week of training and immediately decided to go round the world! She hadn’t yet told her business partner, and we were all looking forwrad hearing how that went when she did.

We also had four instructors. Matt and Simon had both skippered in previous races. They had both also come in last. I asked Matt at one point what he thought made the difference, how much was decisions he would have made differently in retrospect, how much was decisions that he’d still stand by but just didn’t work out, how much was the focus or quality of the crew, etc. He put a lot of it down to bad luck that then snowballed. For example, there were some injuries that were just bad luck, which left the crew short-handed, which things went more slowly and people were tired, which led to some more errors and required some conservative decisions like steering a course well around heavy weather.

The sailing was pretty straightforward, without a lot that was really new, but with a lot of focus on doing everything better. Matt was particularly good about this, getting us to think in advance through everything we had to do in e.g. a sail change, then agreeing what calls would be made at what point, and so what the next person would do when he heard that call. We went through this a lot and got better with the repetition. We were starting to feel like a racing team. Not a GREAT racing team or anything, but the beginnings were there.

We did my first night sailing, which was really cool. I was on the helm for a while, not exactly navigating by the stars, but steering toward a few particular stars on the horizon. The stars were amazing, not completely free from light pollution but still pretty isolated. The Milky Way was visible, and I could pick out a few constellations and planets… or at least guess at them in a semi-authoritative voice. Keeping a watch for other boats got more important and a bit more tricky, as you had to watch for and understand their lights. We worked a bit on sail trim as well. I fairly consistently managed to call for the wrong trim, which I’d like to blame on trying to read things in the dark, but really just came down to not having figured out yet what I was doing.

We had a few minor injuries as part of training. One person was a bit casual unloading a winch. The halard whipped off, she held on, and her had got pulled into a jammer. Just a bang and a small cut, but enough to get your attention. At another point, a Yankee sheet came free. Matt jumped to control it but got a minor clip in the head and was a bit dazed afterward. We headed back into the marina, so he could get checked out, and he was ruled OK in the end.

Heading back in, as we were on a long, bumpy sail back toward Gosport, some clouds rolled in and the temperature started to drop. I was a bit underdressed, so I went below to put on an extra layer. This took a long time, with the boat heeled over and bouncing around. By the time I got back on deck, I was feeling pretty queasy. For about an hour of uneventful sailing, I didn’t feel any worse, but I didn’t feel any better either. Then lunch came up from the galley, and after two bites of cheese and pickle wrap, lunch came up again. I dove for the low side of the boat, but I was clipped in, so I didn’t quite make it. Ugly. First time seasick (or any kind of motion-sick), in as long as I could remember and not great considering it wasn’t actually that rough, but I felt a lot better afterward. A few more people had trouble along the way, but they were generally more subtle about it than I was.

Our last night was Banno’s birthday, so we all went out to dinner and then to Gosport’s finest bar (which was not very fine). We managed a birthday toast with all the bubbly they had without, I think, having to break a twenty. There was some karaoke, including my go-to song. (If you don’t know my go-to song, we just need to go out to karaoke sometime!) There was dancing. Overall, a great social finish to a fun week of sailing.

Sea survival course

We had a full-day sea survival course before starting Level 2 training. It was in a local middle school, so we got the experience of sitting in uncomfortable and slightly-too-small chairs with all the walls covered by middle school geography material, at least for the first half of the day. There was a vast amount of material to cover, and I can't claim to have absorbed a lot of it. I'm not even sure we were expected to though. Well, yes, we were expected to come away with a lot of knowledge about how to handle ourselves if our boat should sink. But more than that, I think the idea was to build confidence than to really know every last detail. As long as individuals don't panic, and everyone knows the basic bits, then you can survive. At least that was my main takeaway.

Also, in my defence, the instructor was extremely Northern, and while I've spent a lot of time with a lot of Northern people, I just couldn't even understand about a third of what he said.

At one point early on, he asked how many people didn't know how to swim. I thought it was a joke until a few hands went up. His follow up, "Don't worry. It doesn't matter. If you go in, the sea doesn't care if you think you can swim. You're relying on the survival gear no matter what."

The second half of the day, we were in the pool, actually applying some of the techniques we had discussed. We got comfortable with the life jackets, including how they would automatically get you floating the right way up. We practiced the recommended backstroke technique for moving around, how to latch onto other people and two them around, and how to huddle together as a group to keep warm and keep track of each other. Then we deployed the raft, which was pretty cool, and practiced getting in (tougher that you'd think), helping others in, and securing the raft, all while having water thrown at us.

In the end, I was a lot more confident about the situation. But even with the extra confidence, it also rammed home the lesson that you just really don't want to have to abandon ship in the first place.