Race 7 - Day 11
Crew Diary - Whitsundays to Da Nang, Vietnam
30 January

How to REALLY prepare for the Clipper Race in five easy steps:

1. First off, clothing. Spend more time getting your underwear right, as this really is where comfort is key. Simply, merino and bamboo good; anything all cotton or polyester bad. Too snug - also bad; too baggy - not good for those sleepy trips to the heads.

To test your chosen items, and particularly if you have signed up for Leg 1 or Leg 5, I suggest the following: Don you chosen underwear, and deck clothing of polo shirt and shorts, and your chosen medium size travel towel.

Now head to you nearest hot yoga or bikram yoga studio one morning - do a two hour hot yoga class at 40C. Then head home without showering. If people move away from you on public transport, you probably have the wrong type of t-shirt on - it's only going to get worse after several week at sea, not better, so anything which vaguely smells after one session has not passed the test.

So, once home, check for rubs and rashes from the underwear - and if all good, put it back on. Now get on with the rest of your day, in the same clothes. Four hours later, head to hot yoga again, and repeat. This time, you are allowed two wet wipes to wash with when you get home, before putting the same clothes back on. And four hours later, head back to the studio, this time however not to work out, but to sleep.

Yes, call it pose of a corpse or sleeping lions, but lie prone on your towel for the duration of the class and attempt to sleep.

This will give you some idea of the living conditions for Leg 1 and 5, though the clothes test applies to all legs!

2. Next up, find your local climbing wall. Aside from the fact that climbing would be one of the best exercises to do to prepare for the exertions of pulling sails around on a boat, a simple warm up would be to find the traverse wall, ideally one which has a few overhangs too, and traverse round and round it for six hours. You can take breaks, but you have to stay on the wall. This is the simplest equivalent to moving around the boat that there is.

3. If you work in an open plan or communal office, get your colleagues support to help with the next challenge: Take coffee / tea orders from at least ten colleagues. You cannot write them down. Now head off to make them all yourself. Once you have ten drinks lined up, you can start. You can only use one hand to carry drinks - the other hand is for the boat. So, to simulate boat conditions, utilise a colleague to spin you round for at least two mins on an office chair. Now get up, grab the chosen drink and head off to the desk of the recipient. As you weave your way across the floor and perhaps have the odd lurch from side to side to start with, this will give you an idea of the difficulty of delivering hot drinks on board.

Once your first drink is safely deposited, you can return to collect your next one - though again you can only set of after the obligatory two min spin.

Time how long it takes for you to deliver all the drinks - and then see if you can get faster.

4. A note on hot drinks. Once you've done this a few times, you probably have some idea as to what drinks are easiest to make.. Does your heart slightly sink at the order of 'milky tea with two sugars'? And slightly rise when someone says 'black coffee', or 'peppermint tea, no sugar'? Well, the same applies on the boat, and in fact to an even greater extent as we only have access to powdered milk (try making one cup of tea with this!) Why do you think our Skipper only drinks black tea..or black coffee?? Simplest is best, and will ensure a) you actually get your drink & b) you'll probably get it first. So, probably a point to ponder if you currently indulge in more 'complex' drinks...and save the chai lattes for shore.

5. You will have your palate expanded in all sorts of ways, trying new foods and things you wouldn't eat at home.. People surprise themselves getting to grips with bulgar wheat and TVP- textured vegetable protein, but one of the hardest dietary additions is also the one that it is virtually impossible to avoid, which is a large dose of sea water. In fact, it happened, just last night.

There we were, at 0330, in the rain which has been raining nonstop for the last ten hours or so - but thought we would still endeavour to make hot drinks. A while later, Nick Clayton duly appeared with the roasting tray (makes a good carrying device). Carefully shuffling this along the deck, one hand for the tray, one hand for the boat, I got to Raff and Trudy, to proffer eagerly awaited hot chocolate

(Raff) and peppermint tea (Trudie). At the precise moment I offered the tray forward, away from the protection of my body a huge wave crashed right over us, adding a liberal dose of salt water to all. Undeterred, of course we drank them..but it is an unusual flavour. Do feel free to try adding a couple of shots of salt water to your dinner, breakfast or favourite beverage for that realistic ocean racing experience!

Love IchorCoal

By Sarah Young