24 hours to go before I start the most exciting training of my life! 24 hours before I take on my greatest challenge! 24 hours before I step towards realising a lifelong dream!
I’ve just got off the plane in London, the city where I grew up, a place I know well and which never changes, but this time everything is different. On the long flight ‘home’ I normally just eat, watch movies and drink as many free gin and tonics as the air hostesses will allow me, but this time everything was different. Zero drinks, zero movies, zero wasted minutes.
It’s hard to describe just how exciting it is to be selected to represent Sanya in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, but since becoming a Team Visit Sanya ambassador just one month ago, I feel as though I’ve been completely reborn and instilled with a sense of vigour and excitement like an 8-year-old-year-old boy before his first holiday to Disneyland!
During this flight home instead of drinks and movies, I spent 14 hours revising for the sailing exams, learning in fine detail about our boat and practising sailing knots hundreds and hundreds of times. Even though all the exams are in English, trying to learn “the language of sailing” I feel as if I’ve started learning a whole new alien language more complex than Japanese or Arabic. With so many complicated words and phrases to learn, particularly regarding safety and team commands, I must admit I feel admiration for my Chinese teammates who are taking on this challenge with English as their second language.
During this past month, every waking minute has been focussed around getting ready for the race training and the race itself. I’ve completely changed my gym routine and fitness targets, making cardio exercise and core workouts the primary focus, stopped taking the elevator and switched to running up the stairs, studied the techniques of racing sailing, learned a dozen sailing knots, taken bicycles instead of taxis and stopped using an umbrella when it rains. My wife may think I’m a little crazy, but she loves seeing the childish excitement this competition has inspired as well.
Over the next few weeks we will get to experience what it’s like to live together in such a small space, learn how to work as a team, learn how to save each others lives in an emergency, how to make and execute a racing strategy, how to do a helicopter rescue at sea, how to navigate across huge open oceans and cook, clean, live and enjoy this experience as a team. In the final section, level 4 of training, aboard our actual Team Visit Sanya race boat and under the guidance of our talented Race Skipper Seumas will race against 10 other teams in the black of night and cold windy days around the UK and northern Europe to really experience what it means to be an ocean sailing racer.
Even though I still haven't even stepped into the marina or set eyes upon a Clipper yacht, this has without any doubt been one of the most exciting periods of my whole life, getting closer and closer to fulfilling a life long dream of sailing across an ocean. Thank you is the word on my heart at this point, thank you to everyone at Sanya and the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race for your faith in me, thank you for this opportunity and for all the happiness it’s brought me even in just the idea stage. I hope to make you all proud during training and beyond. Clipper Race…. I’m coming !!
24 hours to go before I start the most exciting training of my life! 24 hours before I take on my greatest challenge! 24 hours before I step towards realising a lifelong dream!
I’ve just got off the plane in London, the city where I grew up, a place I know well and which never changes, but this time everything is different. On the long flight ‘home’ I normally just eat, watch movies and drink as many free gin and tonics as the air hostesses will allow me, but this time everything was different. Zero drinks, zero movies, zero wasted minutes.
It’s hard to describe just how exciting it is to be selected to represent Sanya in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, but since becoming a Team Visit Sanya ambassador just one month ago, I feel as though I’ve been completely reborn and instilled with a sense of vigour and excitement like an 8-year-old-year-old boy before his first holiday to Disneyland!
During this flight home instead of drinks and movies, I spent 14 hours revising for the sailing exams, learning in fine detail about our boat and practising sailing knots hundreds and hundreds of times. Even though all the exams are in English, trying to learn “the language of sailing” I feel as if I’ve started learning a whole new alien language more complex than Japanese or Arabic. With so many complicated words and phrases to learn, particularly regarding safety and team commands, I must admit I feel admiration for my Chinese teammates who are taking on this challenge with English as their second language.
During this past month, every waking minute has been focussed around getting ready for the race training and the race itself. I’ve completely changed my gym routine and fitness targets, making cardio exercise and core workouts the primary focus, stopped taking the elevator and switched to running up the stairs, studied the techniques of racing sailing, learned a dozen sailing knots, taken bicycles instead of taxis and stopped using an umbrella when it rains. My wife may think I’m a little crazy, but she loves seeing the childish excitement this competition has inspired as well.
Over the next few weeks we will get to experience what it’s like to live together in such a small space, learn how to work as a team, learn how to save each others lives in an emergency, how to make and execute a racing strategy, how to do a helicopter rescue at sea, how to navigate across huge open oceans and cook, clean, live and enjoy this experience as a team. In the final section, level 4 of training, aboard our actual Team Visit Sanya race boat and under the guidance of our talented Race Skipper Seumas will race against 10 other teams in the black of night and cold windy days around the UK and northern Europe to really experience what it means to be an ocean sailing racer.
Even though I still haven't even stepped into the marina or set eyes upon a Clipper yacht, this has without any doubt been one of the most exciting periods of my whole life, getting closer and closer to fulfilling a life long dream of sailing across an ocean. Thank you is the word on my heart at this point, thank you to everyone at Sanya and the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race for your faith in me, thank you for this opportunity and for all the happiness it’s brought me even in just the idea stage. I hope to make you all proud during training and beyond. Clipper Race…. I’m coming !!
