Race 13 - Day 11
Crew Diary - Crew Diary: Race 13 Day 11
18 July
A gardener becoming an ocean racer? Sailing has been exciting, but there were also moments in this wilderness which present an opportunity to reflect and reprocess our thoughts. Stripped of all modern life's sophisticated distractions, I've experienced sobering revelations during the distillation of the circumstances around me.
As I pondered on how I'm actually here, onboard a racing yacht, nearing the end of the penultimate race of my journey, a mind-numbing thought emerged, i.e.my childhood dream to sail on the oceans around the world has been fulfilled...I am a circumnavigator!*and sailing the homecoming stretch.
Almost 2 years before, and without any sailing experience, it was a near impossible feat, especially in my part of the world. During my youth, sailing wasn't as readily accessible as football/soccer, the most popular national past time then. Although Clipper Race has been established for a quarter of a century, it was odd that I wasn't aware of it until 2021, after I had retired from employment.
I've always known that I couldn't sail alone, and even if I wanted to fulfil my dream, it was probably too late to acquire sufficient sailing competency to accomplish the dream successfully, especially since I'm aging fast into my golden years. Clipper Race was an opportunity for a team of amateurs to accomplish it. This opportunity matched my dream to circumnavigate by sailing, but never in my mind did I expect the intensity of it, in the form of an ocean race. Hence, my dream but under extreme conditions. Me, an ocean racer??! Hard to imagine.
Since retirement from investment banking, I have spent most of my time as a gardener, and I recall a Japanese proverb: "It's better to be a warrior in the garden than a gardener at war."
As the proverb suggested, a gardener may be unprepared to exchange gardening tools for unfamiliar weapons and serve as a warrior. It would be unreasonable to assume that a successful gardener doesn't have other skills but if the same gardener had failed to adapt every skill he has in a new and unfamiliar world at war, it may mean a fatal outcome. Hence, being ready to adapt appropriate skills under pressure, as many as one is able to muster and improvise, may be the intended meaning. Perhaps the analogy may fit my scenario, in the sense that I was a gardener without sailing skills, trying to sail and in an ocean race which I may fail trying, if I'm unable to adapt.
From Race Start, it quickly became obvious that other non-sailing skills like sewing, cooking, cleaning, repairing etc. were also necessary on a racing yacht. There were many duties and jobs that needed doing, and most of them were not directly related to sailing but to daily life, which is not very different from our ordinary daily life, whether during war or at peace. Any value added to keeping daily life on board comfortable for everyone was an essential component of smooth and successful sailing. In the absence of good meals, pristine hygiene, liberal humour etc. conditions would quickly deteriorate and drive morale downwards into a vicious and detrimental spiral across the entire boat. Since the technicalities of sailing itself only comprises 20% of the skills required on-board, the Zhuhai team was a "rojak"** of a crew, complementing each other with a variety of skills and experience.
I was constrained from becoming a sailor to circumnavigate, although the autodidact in me had considered on many occasions to purchase a boat and pursue sailing before this, the probability of a successful circumnavigation is questionable, given the extreme risks for such an endeavour. Perhaps by circumnavigation, I may become a sailor, though it was never my aspiration at all, except only as a means to an end rather than the end itself. Still, I wondered, after what I've been through over the past 10 months, if I may have become a real sailor or merely a veteran to sailing rather than an ocean racer.
The truth is, I didn't join the Clipper Race to add on accolades or gain bragging rights, something that an aging gardener doesn't need. I have always accepted the reality that if I were to return to Portsmouth as the worst sailor of the fleet, I was certain that I wouldn't be disappointed at all because graduating as a sailor was the least of my desires and expectations. Upon concluding this adventure, I would be satisfied without a hint of regret, if my only take away was the overwhelming joy of having fulfilled my childhood dream safe and sound, so that a gardener with some sailing experience may return home to be with his beloved wife and never to leave her side, ever again.
One life and living it.*On 1 July 2024, 2303UTC time, I've crossed every longitude around the globe via sea by sailing eastward.**Delicious Malaysian street dessert made up of a mixture of crunchy fruits and vegetables in a special sweet and spicy dark shrimp sauce, topped with crushed peanuts and sesame seeds.
Chee Wah Lum