Soukaina Bel Hadj - Clipper Race 2019-2020

Hello everyone and welcome to my page!
I decided to create this page a bit late as a mean to update friends & family on my trainings and status. For those of you who wonder why I have been posting sailing pictures on my profile for the last months, here is the story:

The adventure began in September 2017 when I started looking for sailing courses online. I eventually stumbled upon Clipper and signed up 30mn later not really thinking I would do it at first. Then came December 1st 2017 when I showed up early in the morning at the Clipper Office in Gosport, for a presentation on the 2017-2018 race and a brief personal interview. I have no sailing experience apart from sailing on optimists in Brittany as a kid. Being thalassophobic I thought it would be a great way to combat my fear and to achieve something remarkable.

A bit about the Clipper Race:
https://clipperroundtheworld.com
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

Clipper was founded in 1995 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (winner of the 1968-69 Golden Globe Race) and gives the opportunity to inexperienced and experienced sailors to take part in a 11-months round the world race.
The 2019-2020 race will start in the summer 2019 (departure date TBC).

My itinerary:
I signed up to the first leg only: Departure from Liverpool, UK (tbc)- arrival at Monte Video, Uruguay. More info to come in 2019!

Trainings:
In order to participate to the race, each crew member needs to validate 4 levels before the race starts.

Level 1 (completed in March 2018): Introduction to the basics and familiarisation with the “Clipper way”.

This Includes: knowing how to name all parts of the boat, sails, sheets, MOB drills, the safety zones, knowing 10 different knots, working different shifts everyday with a partner (duties include: being a mother (cooking for the team), engineering work, NAV station work, deck hands and helming)
Training on the 68ft boats. Competent crew certificate achieved.

Highest point of the training: Sailing smoothly and proudly in the Solent with a great team and an amazing skipper and 2 mates. Not being sea sick and learning the origins of distress calls such as mayday and pan-pan come from French!

Lowest point: eating soggy sandwiches under the rain and doing 8 services of teas and coffee per day only to realise that it keeps you warm when it’s freezing cold. And forgetting my shower towel since we docked at the marina everyday.

This level in my opinion is the most challenging in the sense where you have so much to learn... and to unlearn what you know from sailing other boats.

Level 2 (completed in May 2018): building up on level 1.

This includes a Survival at sea drill for half a day. We spent 1 week at sea, getting used to a broken sleep pattern of 6h-4h-6h-4h. Learning how to measure the boat drifting relative to a couple of bearings. Sea survival certificate achieved!

Highest point: Sailing at night under the stars and witnessing beautiful sunsets, sunrises and upcoming storms. Having a solid and international team and crew (skipper and 1st mate) full of surprises, solidarity and an amazing sense of humour! Also, realizing that if I ever fall over board, there is a big chance of succumbing to hypothermia and not being eaten alive by a shark 🦈. Halfway cured of my fear of the ocean...

Lowest point: not having enough wind to sail that week... and getting used to not taking a shower. Sleepwalking before my shift while eating in the heads before going on deck and not having any recollection of it (thanks Matt for pointing this out 😂).

The challenge in this level is to keep up with the rhythm. Going to the heads in a rocking boat when you are deep sleeping and knowing that you have an hour left before being on duty is challenging especially when you have a hard time falling asleep no matter how tired you are 😉

Next post: Musto official photoshoot in August 2018. Check out the Musto website, Instagram and the clipper website!

Thank you all for your continuous support and kind messages! ❤️😘❤️

Clipper Round The World Race The Clipper Race is one of the biggest challenges of the natural world and an endurance test like no other.