Studying today, reading up on a number of things pertaining to sailing and racing, not to mention a new article on this website about helming a boat.
The house has been in an uproar today as we had moved all the stuff out of my normal work room in order to have carpet installed the other day. It's funny. Stuff comes out of a room a lot more quickly than it goes back in, if you want the stuff to be organized to a reasonable degree. While we had finished the office the other day, today was the library cleanup, which required reorganizing all the sailing gear trhat we have stored on the shelves in the library. Don't you keep your sailing stuff in your library too?
This gave me a good opportunity to rethink what I'll be taking on the 3-day crew training in June. I've pared it down somewhat, though it can probably be pared down some more. A lot will depend on what the weather forecast is like. For instance, I will likely be able to forego warm gloves and a heavy coat and, instead, rely on sailing gloves, a heavy sweater (that doubles as my pillow) and a wind breaker. I might even be able to forego the foul weather gear. However, I'll be bringing my rubber boots with me for clean-up duties if nothing more.
I also did some more investigation of gear, notably sailing boots. I don't need them just yet, but I likely will in 2 years as the clipper race does not supply them. What are sailing boots, you ask? Okay, maybe some of you didn't, but I'm going to tell you anyway.
Imagine you're in a storm in the southern ocean. The water is cascading over the bow as it rises and falls on the waves, surfing down the front of a wave, only to crash into the back of the next monster. You are secure in your foul weather jacket and pants. However, a pair of deck shoes just are not going to work. Your feet are going to freeze and that's a recipe for utter misery - cold, wet, feet, for hours, and shoes that never seem to dry out.
That's where sailing boots come in. The ones I'm looking at are waterproof. They come up to the calf (or slightly higher). Your foul weather pants go over the boot and cinch down. Then the gater rolls upwards over your pants and cinches down so that for water to get into the boot, it has to come down inside the cinched boot, then turn 180 degres and go up the cinched trouser leg, then turn 180 degrees again and go down the cinched boot. The boot sole is soft rubber so that it gets a good grip on wet decks, and are spacious enough to put thick socks (maybe more than one layer) inside them to keep you warm.
I'm sure that things will advance over the next year or two, so I'm not going to buy now, but I'm at least doing my homework on them.
2 days to the interview!
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