Tomorrow is one of those seminal days - the interview with Clipper Round The World. Right now my to do list for it goes like this:
- Pass the interview
- Get the medical forms signed off by my doctor
- Scan in and send the medical form off to Clipper Round The World
Tonight is writing out some questions to ask them during the interview as one of the basics of such interviews is, "Do you have any questions for me?" Some of the things I'd like to know is scheduling, although I suspect that asking them about scheduling for the 2021 race when they haven't gotten the 2019 boats off the starting line will elicit a response much of the form, "We're unsure about that right now."
Still, there are some things I'd like to know about. For example, they have a particular day that they announce who is assigned to which boat. It's a big, full day, production and sounds like a lot of fun. The bad news is that it occurs in England. What I'd like to know is if there's a way to combine, in a single trip, that day and at least one of my required training sessions. That would reduce the number of trips to England to three: The first to do training sessions 1 & 2, the second to do training sessions 3 & 4 plus the reveal day, then the final trip to England for pre-race setup and then the start of the race.
Other questions I have are for auxiliary training such as medical, weather, mechanical, sail maintenance, and maybe even cooking at sea. I do know that one of the jobs that I don't want to take on is Victualling - the art of procuring all the food needed for the next leg of the race. What is it that Clint Eastwood said in one of the movies, "A man has to know his limits." And though if it gets assigned to me, I'll do my best, I know it's not going to be my strongest point. Heck, I'm a pizza-and-pop kind of person, so thinking about what to feed 20 other people for 30 days at arouind 5,000 to 6,000 calories per day per person... 600 person-meal-days, * 3 meals per day is 1,800 meals, plus snacks... Oy vay! My hat's off to the person who can do that!
Still, I do have a slight medical background and I also enjoy working on mechanical things. Plus, according to the seminar, there's also a need for IT people, which is something I'm eminiently qualified to do. Still, if I wanted to be a computer geek, I don't need to get onto a racing yacht to do that. I could just stay home and work on my computer or electronic projects here. Of course, if I'm in the middle of the ocean and they need someone to do some computer work then of course I'll do it.
The other thing I've been doing siunce yesterday is considering the coming 3-day crew training. I'm going to be responsible for the breakfast one day. That sounds like it should be easy, right? But there are things I want to take into account. For example, I don't want to make a lot of noise early in the morning when others are trying to gewt that last 30 minutes of sleep. That means it has to be relatively quick (or at least not much fuss) to make in the morning. If you factor in various people's preferences and/or dietary restriction, it gets to be a little more complex. Add in that I'd like to do something special for them all.
I'm leaning towards an quiche-like thing that I premake and it only needs warming. We'll see.
Meanwhile I'm madly working on some software that I promised some people in order for them to manage sporting events. At the same time, I'm re-learning a development framework and trying to figure out some thorny problems such as saving state when I can't actually write files - so keeping my mind active. Plus don't forget working out and... blah blah blah...
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