Race 7 - Day 4
Crew Diary - Jody is a legend
27 February

Hi all Qingdao supporters.

Today is a special day, It is Jody's birthday. For the occasion, Michelle has made a delicious carrot cake and presented a special birthday card signed by the crew. As usual Franky always comes up with a funny surprise. This time he came up with a chicken foot to eat with the cake ! Ouf! For nearly an hour he tried to convince Jody to taste it , but without success. As a good player, Jody was game to try to taste it in a Chinese restaurant but not from a sealed packaging. Story to follow when we get back on land!

Jody is our chief engineer on board. He takes care of maintenance, repair on route and full working order of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing on board, engine, generator and watermaker. He is also a very good sailor , good on helming and all around duties on board. He is a key person within the Qingdao team and its success.

Jody also takes care of people. He has been a great help to me and I will be grateful to him for the rest of my life. If we say: ‘’the sea is the university of life’’ .I felt I was in kindergarten when I came to the Clipper Race. For me it was a 360 degrees learning experience in all azimuts. First I had never sailed before, English is not my mother language and with all the different accents of the people, humour, began for some,…. I understood 2 words out of 5. I had many challenges to face at the same time.

The first days of the race were very stressful to me as everything was very fast and noisy, many successive tacks and difficulties for me to understand commands.I felt like I had forgotten everything I had learned in my training. As I was struggling with the running back stay, Jody came to help me. He must have had to repeat at least ten times what I had to do and each time I was missing it. I was feeling so stupid you could not imagine. Judy never raised the voice or showed signs of impatience. He simply kept coaching me and repeating calmly the same thing quietly again and again until I got it. I felt exactly what a kid in grade one is feeling when he is struggling to learn something, trying to do his best but missing all the time what he is trying to learn. I also felt what teenagers may feel when they want to quit school. I realize the importance of the support of our peers to keep us going forward.

Thanks Jody for raising me up. You will forever be a legend for me.

Bertrand Hould