Segway at work

I had my first experience of a Segway when Clipper Fleet visited the Kolina Marina in Hawaii in February 2003. The Marketing Department had one and I finally wore them down and they let me have a go. For those that don’t know about Segways they are scooters with the wheels abeam rather than in line ahead. They should fall over but this is the clever bit and they remain vertical by a clever system of gyros. To move forward you lean forward and off you go! To slow you lean backwards. Turning is done by a thumb control. Quite quickly you become like the Mecon* on a magic transporter, terrorizing other path users.
*That is the Mecon from Dan Dare in The Eagle for the junior generation

Now Segways are used by police and security guards and even the military. I note from their website you can now even get a 2 x 2 for cross country work or talking the baby to its crèche.

Apart from being fun, and guaranteeing that the owner the centre of attraction, they have the benefit that you can go on a 5 mile ‘walk’ on your Segway and take no exercise at all.

Segways come at a price and the website is careful not to explain just what price. For now I’ll stick to my bike but if anyone does go out and buy one ‘please can I borrow it?’
http://find.segway.com/

Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club

I always enjoy this comparison as it is such a good example of the development in Hong Kong. The picture shows Kellet Island which was the old naval powder magazine before the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club moved there in 1938. It was re-opened in 1945 after the war and the causeway was built in 1951 when the harbour area was reclaimed.

Yacht racing first started in Hong Kong in 1849, some 148 years before the first Clipper race called at the RHKYC at Kellet Island. The Clipper race joined up with the RHKYC’s San Fernando race in April 2001 and we have always had a close connection with this very prestigious and famous club. The Clipper 2002 race had an entry called Hong Kong Clipper and let’s hope that one day in the future we will again have a boat in the race representing Hong Kong.

The club has special memories for me as I was a member while staioned in Hong Kong between 1986 and 1988.

A full history of the Club can be found at http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/default.aspx?c=131

Sister in Whorehouse

I got this T-shirt while flying helicopters on exchange service with the USN.

As in the Royal Navy, the American naval jet jockeys, or stovies, all consider themselves from the Top Gun mould and there is good, and sometimes strong, banter between them and the more naturally talented and charming helicopter pilots.

Fred de-Labilliere, who was an extremely distinguished RN stovie and universally admired, won the day at his leaving dinner by stating that he would rather have VD recorded in his Medical Documents than helicopter hours recorded in his Flying Log Book. This was a remark difficult to top ……

The T-shirt above was a successful campaign by the helicopter pilots in NAS NORFOLK to stick one up the fighter pilots’ jet pipe.

Look what a innocent appearance it has from the front. I believe it would have been life threatening to wear the T-shirt to Happy Hour at NAS OCEANA down the road – the home of the F-14!

I am happy to confirm that neither occupation is relevant to my model Clare's brother or sister!

Sunday's Cartoon

AIRCRAFT OVERBOARD

By Commodore John Peddie, Royal New Zealand Navy

Some thirty years ago I was serving as the second in command of the New Zealand Navy frigate "WAIKATO", exercising off the east Australian coast with a navy task force. We encountered a classic southerly buster and the weather deteriorated to storm force conditions.

Suddenly we received a plain language message that the aircraft carrier MELBOURNE had lost an aircraft overboard. A fixed wing aircraft was being moved around the flight deck by 'tractor' when both began to slide towards the ship' side as the aircraft carrier rolled in the stormy conditions. The tractor drive had orders to release the aircraft in this situation and did so. The aircraft slid over the side, in the cockpit was a very frightened aircraft handler. Fortunately the aircraft floated but all hell was breaking loose in the ships nearby.

My ship, WAIKATO, was the only one to have a helicopter embarked and the Captain ordered "Scramble the Wasp (helicopter)", an order reserved for emergencies. We turned into the wind to prepare to launch in the atrocious conditions and were struck on our port side by a huge wave. It was readily apparent that to launch our little Wasp in these conditions was foolhardy. We focused on damage to the upper deck, including retrieving lifejacket lockers that had been broken free by the force of the wave.

In the meantime, an Australian Navy destroyer was drawing alongside the still floating aircraft and in an incredible feat of bravery, the ships diver leaped into the sea with an axe and smashed the aircraft cockpit open, dragging out the terrified man inside. The diver himself was badly gashed and bruised in the incident but both were saved.

The photo shows the height of the seas, which will be familiar to many Clipper sailors although they are relatively short. You can see the guardrails on the flight deck bent back. A deck higher the torpedo tubes were bent off their mounting by the wave. The two men towards the stern of the ship are my Chief Bosun's Mate and me. We are passing lifesaving kit down a ladder and were about to be pooped by the wave coming over the stern. Half a second later the two of us were in a bundle at the bottom of ladder followed by thousands of pounds of water! The Flight Deck Officer, in white overalls, is uttering an expletive before diving under the part opened hangar door.

Soon after, the Australians cancelled the exercise and we gratefully returned to Sydney for repairs. Luck was with us that day.

People – Simon Rowell

Simon Rowell joined Clipper from the UKSA in 2001 and now returns there as Head of Yachting; maybe he will get his old hook back for his oil skins.

I first met Simon at the Boat Show in Jan 2001 when he applied to be a replacement Clipper Skipper. Sure enough the wheel of fortune turned and three months later he left the UKSA and flew out to Hong Kong to join Leeds Clipper and race the boat back to Portsmouth.

History repeated itself in Clipper 2002 when Simon set off to Cuba to apply his magic touch as the replacement Skipper in Jersey Clipper. His competitive streak came out and, after a hard nine month battle, he sailed Jersey victoriously into Liverpool. On a subsequent visit to Jersey all the islanders feted him and his crew; there was even talk of allowing him to live in Jersey!

Next, as Deputy Race Director for Clipper 05-06, he ended up packing his bags at short notice and heading for Jersey Clipper in Qingdao, China. At 6,000 miles, this was the longest ever leg of any Clipper race and with the beautiful weather, fair winds and breathtaking scenery of the North West Pacific in April, he was keen to add these treasured memories to his experience. On arrival in Victoria he joyously jumped onto the pontoon, thereby wrecking his back and making quite sure that, this time, he would return to UK in an aeroplane.

One record he is not allowed to forget is for the greatest number of litres of fuel in a Clipper 60. This was achieved in Singapore when the fuelling pump was only stopped as the crew member making the tea wondered why she was standing ankle deep in a pool of diesel. (It would be unfair to mention 3,500 litres …. and no one would believe it anyway – or was it gallons!)

Simon is XXL in size, heart and style and his departure will leave a big hole in Clipper. His ebullient character, permanent smile* and endless list of friends and contacts has made him part of the Clipper scenery. Above all, and most importantly, he will be missed for his professional sailing qualities and his talent of running a happy and extremely efficient ship.
* …with possible exception in the NW Pacific

T- Shirt BEANZ

This is the first of several pictures of T-Shirts charmingly displayed by the famous model Lucy Hopkins who kindly popped down to Somerset specially so she could be photographed in my T-Shirt collection.

Every T-shirt tells a story and this, is, indeed a special one. BEANZ is an acronym for Bicycle Expedition Around New Zealand. This was a 3,500 mile expedition which I organised in 1994 as one of my last ‘good ideas’ in the Royal Navy. It came under the guise of Character and Initiative Training. The ‘Initiative’ aspect was persuading our bosses that we should have 7 weeks off so we past that with flying colours. I was not able to be so convincing about the ‘Character Training’. After 32 years in the RN’ I fear some of us were lost causes. ….and was it going to be relevant for my last 3 months in the service anyway?

We managed to bicycle round both islands and reach both Cape Reinga in the north and Bluff in the south. Having recently been back to New Zealand and travelled round in a camper van, I must admit that the thought of doing it on a bicycle was quite daunting and brought back memories of our motto ‘Et Cyclum Adnauseam’. Mind you, we were humbled one night when we met a couple who had bicycled through India, Nepal and all the way down to Indonesia before going round New Zealand.

If anyone is planning on bicycling around NZ they are welcome to borrow the BEANZ report.

Post Operative Media

By Disgruntled of Martock

The pictures show my surgeon tools now safely back in their stowages after another successful outing.

It is now a suitable time to expand on one of the spin offs from my recent operation. By necessity of the situation, I have had a surfeit of listening to the radio and watching TV, especially at strange times of day and night. Here are some of my thoughts and observations on my mindless media studies:

• Some TV is very relaxing as background noise and a definite help to bring sleep on. Snooker was quite relaxing as it was totally undemanding and the story line could be picked up when one felt conscious enough to care. Darts was also quite good except for the sudden disturbance when someone would shout 180!’
• On the whole the terrestrial channels were extremely limited and the Day Time TV was of pretty gormless standard, and also overlapped in so many areas such as Property Improvement programmes and also derivatives of the Antique Road show focused on junk in sale rooms. The number of crass quiz shows is just an embarrassment.
• Quite the worst programme I experienced were the four hour long premium line phone in ‘Cash Prize’ programmes screened between 0100 and 0500. Clever, I admit, as many screwy people are obviously addicted to them and spend considerable money in this disguised form of gambling. Who on earth are the gullible fools who watch them? Is it mothers doing the midnight feed or night security staff?
• In fact there is one programme worse. That is Celebrity Big Brother where at night you get black and white film of the so called ‘celebrities’ asleep. Why anyone should want to see anything so boring is beyond me and it certainly did nothing for either my blood pressure or my attempt to get to sleep. To be positive, at least they weren’t opening their mouths during this time.
• The radio is the winner. Yes, I am a radio 4 listener and even during the small hours when it is switched over to the World Service, this is a great programme to listen to or doze off to. I can, however, never forgive the BBC for taking the Radio 4 Theme Medley off the air at 0525 every morning. What pathetic and totally unconvincing arguments they gave to support this outrageous and ill informed decision. Turkeys!
• I was given a Digital radio for Christmas and I can not speak highly enough of it. I think many of the actual designs are pretty awful but the quality of the sound is just such an advance I thoroughly recommend these sets – what possible reason is there for having second best?
• Maybe I am in the minority, but although we have Freeview, we do not have Sky. The main result is that the amount of decent sports programmes is severely limited. South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and so forth, all have excellent terrestrial sports channels. Make no mistake, in contrast we are definitely the poor relations and held to ransom by Sky. Sad times.

Pete's Sport Bar

This was given to me in September 1999 by none less than Pete himself in his famous Sports Bar in Hotra in the island of Fayal, Azores. Pete’s bar is a sailors’ legend and a mandatory stop for all visiting yachtsman. Pete opened a second, and much bigger, bar in Lisbon but this is the original one. There is a tradition of leaving some bits of boat memorabilia in the bar. The head of Aerial’s spinnaker was donated in 1997 and was still there two years later.

Clipper 96 and Clipper 98 both visited Horta after sailing from Brazil as it was in a direct line to the finish in Plymouth. This logic was slightly flawed as was almost impossible to estimate the week, let alone the day of arrival in Plymouth as the whole area is ruled by the large Azores High Pressure system (I think there’s a clue in the name there). This meant that after leaving the Horta boats could wallow for a week or more and make barely 100 miles. This was not good when loving families are on the breakwater forlornly looking out to sea day after day. Deciding a date for the final Prize giving and crew party was an even harder decision which was quickly passed up the ladder to the most senior management level.

I remember once as the boats left Cape Town one family demanded to know exactly what time the boats would enter Plymouth Breakwater. I fear we must have been a disappointment to them.

Via Air Mail

Today’s bit of memorabilia is a real collector’s item. It is a piece of a shell from the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst that found its way into my father-in-law’s cabin in HMS Norfolk on 26 December 1944 (then, Lt Micahel Pollock RN). As he was HMS Norfolk’s Gunnery officer he was busy on the bridge firing shells into Scharnhorst at the time and therefore (and very luckily), not in his cabin!

The action took place at about 75’N 28’E, off North Cape. Scharnhorst’s 5 destroyer escorts had returned to Norway due to the atrocious weather leaving her to be encircled by a force consisting of the Battleship Duke of York, the cruisers HMS Norfolk, HMS Belfast, HMS Sheffield and HMS Jamaica, plus 8 destroyers.

A short but vivid account of the sinking of the Scharnhorst can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_North_Cape

The Batle Cruiser Scharnhorst

Guest Writer - Simon Rowell

Distinguished Guests

One meets many distinguished visitors on boats, but these two must be right up there:

King Neptune

The god of the sea, who wreaks punishment on the guilty as they cross the Equator for the first time (and quite often for the second, too). He is traditionally helped by his lieutenants, who investigate the charges and bring the guilty for trial. The court system is scrupulously fair, and so far has a 100% success rate.

Neptune is also to be thanked at important moments at sea, for example the moment of crossing the Equator, or when crossing the International Date Line. This is done by giving something of value back to him – a tot of rum, a ginger biscuit, or some such thing. This is done almost religiously by anyone who goes to sea for any length of time – not that sailors are superstitious, you understand.

The picture above shows Neptune (centre) and his 2 lieutenants on the way from Salvador to New York in 2003. They bear an uncanny resemblance to a rather camp Stoker Baird (now lockkeeper at Birdham Pool), Simon Rowell (general layabout) and Frankie Evearart (the Belgian army).

Father Christmas

Not usually associated with the sea, he is however diligent in his duties. This shot shows him arriving to deliver presents to the crew of Gypsy Moth IV in Thailand this Christmas just gone. Father Christmas (frighteningly close in appearance to Tim Magee, skipper of Liverpool 08 in the Clipper 05-06 race, and last Christmas skippering Gipsy Moth IV) is in full tropical rig, and has resorted to 5 o’clock shadow rather than the full beard – more hygienic in the tropics, apparently. As always, Santa’s little helpers were very welcome!

As with all mystical figures, the proper respect must be shown – Gypsy Moth IV had been dressed overall with the correct flags, which is why Father Christmas decided to visit.

Two Dominiques, one major difference

Meeting people is one of the joys of the Clipper race and here we have two very special people.

Dominique Low (Singapore Dominique) became an integral part of the Race in April 2003 when the race was diverted from the schedules visit to Singapore because of the SARs threat. With only five days notice she was one of the main people bringing all the stands together so the Fleet could enjoy a highly successful and fun visit to Nongsa Point Marina in the Indonesia island of Batam, some 8 miles south of Singapore.

Dom, as she is affectionately called, then became ‘Clipper’s man* in Singapore’ for Clipper 05-06 when she was involved in managing all aspects of Uniquely Singapore Clipper.
* Except of course she is a girl.

I am delighted to announce that Singapore Dom is back with us for Clipper 07-08 and is, once again, our main representative in Singapore.

One of her many claims to fame is that she has done some modelling for Dove. It is not often you can say someone looks like any part of a bus but in Dom’s case you can as one of the Dove promotional busses in Singapore has her portrait all over it. Check out the following website and you will not be disappointed (unless you want to see a bus); http://www.imailglobal.com/client-edm/Dove2/Dove2_edm.html

Dominique Le Bras (Salvador Dominique) became an integral part of the Clipper Race in July 1999 when the race visited Salvador for the second time. He was the Point of Contact for all visitors at CENAB which is the regatta centre in the centre of the City.

Dom, as he is affectionately called, became a great supporter of the Clipper race and a good friend. He is French and came to Brazil nearly twenty years ago for a six month stint with Club Med. Like many people that end up in Brazil, the attractions of the Brazilian ladies was an irresistible factor.

He is one of the few people that can call Sir Robin Le Rosbif and get away with it, but that is only because he is a charming Frenchman. His involvement in the sailing scene in Salvador was entirely logical as three or four French ocean races end in the city, including the Mini Transat and the Jacques Varbe. While at CENAB he worked closely with the famous Dayse. Although both have now moved on but we all remain in close touch; such is the nature of good friends.

T-Shirt - USS GROWLER

This sweat shirt was a present to me when the Clipper fleet visited New York in August 2003 and we were based at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on Westside, Manhattan. The USS Intrepid is an old war time aircraft carrier which has been converted into a museum with a wide variety of aircraft on its flight deck. In addition the destroyer USS EDSON (where we had our offices) and the submarine USS GROWLER were also on display.

Just before last Christmas, all three ships were moved 6 miles down stream to Bayonne, New Jersey where they are being refitted while Pier 86, their home, is rebuilt. The whole show will reopen in the fall of 2008.

The USS Growler was constructed in 1958 and was on active duty for only six years. Growler carried and launched the 56 foot long Regulus missile, which looked more like an unmanned jet. After decommissioning, she was placed in the Inactive Reserve Fleet and Navy decided to use her as a torpedo test target for nuclear attack submarines. Fortunately, these tests were never conducted and Growler was assigned to become part of the Intrepid Museum
http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/pages/growler

TOMMY COOPER - COMIC GENIUS

1. Two blondes walk into a building..........you'd think at least one of them would have seen it.
2. Phone answering machine message..........If you want to buy marijuana, press the hash key...
3. A guy walks into the psychiatrist wearing only Clingfilm for shorts. The shrink says, "Well, I can clearly see you're nuts".
4. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.
5. I went to the butchers the other day and I bet him 50 bucks that he couldn't reach the meat off the top shelf. He said, No, the steaks are too high.
6. My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli. A strong currant pulled him in.
7. A man came round in hospital after a serious accident. He shouted "Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!". The doctor replied, "I know you can't, I've cut your arms off".
8. I went to a seafood disco last week...and pulled a muscle.
9. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly. They lit a fire in the craft, it sank. Proving once and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat it.
10. Our ice cream man was found lying on the floor of his van covered with hundreds and thousands. Police say that he topped himself.
11. Man goes to the doctor, with a strawberry growing out of his head. Doc says "I'll give you some cream to put on it".

Craig gets knotted

Forget all the broken hearts around the world! Against all odds Craig Millar, the immensely popular South African Skipper of the most colourful of all the Clipper yachts in the Clipper 05-06 Race (namely Durban Clipper) made it to his wedding as scheduled in Cape St Francis, near Port Elizabeth. His beautiful bride
Taryn, looking like 7.12 Million Rand stole the show.

Amongst the crowd were a strong deputation from Point Yacht Club A Team, including Aubrey Brooks, Terry Flynn, Michael and Squeaky. None of these have yet come round to a state where they are able to give an eye witness account of the wedding.

From all your many friends in Clipper, all the very best for the future to Craig and Taryn.

For information, Craig Millar now works for Quantum sails in South Africa. He has won the contract for all the new Clipper sails for the next race. Anyone wanting to get sail quotes from him should contact him at cmillar@quantumsails.co.za Make sure you also quote Colin’s Place!

What the Butler saw .....

Richard Butler (known affectionately to all as BINKS) was the skipper of Bristol Clipper in Clipper 2002. Understandably he has been desperate to get his picture in Colin’s Place since the blog started. He finally got his chance when last Friday I mentioned that Dayse had visited Liverpool for the finish in 2001. He passed this test with flying colours and immediately spotted my deliberate mistake. He came straight back to correct me with this photo of him, Dayse and Cllr Ron Gould, the (then) Lord Mayor of Liverpool. As can be seen by the backcloth this was at the race finish in 2003.

Congratulations to Binks on spotting this. As a result Dayse now has more photos on the web than anyone else!

The Wreck of the Batavia

The picture shows Philippe Godard’s lovely book on the First and Last Voyage of the Batavia. This generous present was given to me in Fremantle by Hugh Plaistowe when I was visiting to make arrangements for the visit by Clipper 05-06.

There is an extremely interesting display of part of the wreck of the Batavia in the Shipwreck Galleries in Fremantle. Now that it has been announced that Clipper 07-08 will also be visiting Fremantle Clipper crews and families can start planning their Christmas there – and start reading about the Batavia! See: http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/maritime/swg.asp

The Story of the Batavia*

During the 17th century, the easiest way for ships to get to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (Java), now Jakarta in Indonesia, was to head due east from the Cape of Good hope and then up the Western Australian coast. The numerous offshore reefs and island groups made this a risky business and the whole area is littered with wrecks, including the Batavia.

On 4th June 1629 the Batavia, a ship of the Dutch East India Company, ran aground on the inhospitable Houtman Abrolhos islands some 300 mile north of Fremantle, Western Australia. The ship’s commander took most of the officers and passengers to the mainland to search for water, leaving 268 people behind, including a sizeable number of soldiers.

An undermerchant named Jeronimus Cornelisz, who had agitated against the commander during the voyage, saw his chance to act. Tricking the soldiers into relinquishing their arms, he banished them to a nearby island and instituted a reign of terror which resulted in the death of 125 men, women and children before the Captain returned 3 months later, having been forced to travel all the way to Batavia for help. Cornelisz was summarily executed and some of his mutinous men were dumped at Wittecarra Gully, just south of modern-day Kalbarri, making them the first white men on mainland Australia.

* Source: The Lonely Planet – Western Australia

Google Earth and MORE!

Viewing aerial photographs on the internet has become very popular thanks to Google Earth. This amazing programme has been developed in lots of different ways and if you haven’t downloaded the free programme at http://earth.google.com then I thoroughly recommend that you do.

For those involved in any aspect of the Clipper Race this is an ideal way to study the various ports and marinas. When the details of the race route are announced I will make sure information is available so that people can study the various marinas. If you have downloaded Google Earth use the search ‘Fly to’ tool and enter the following position: 29 51’46.56”S 31 01’17.24”E If you have entered this correctly it should take you to the Point Yacht Club in Durban near where the yachts will be berthed. (For interest this is one of my favourite clubs as they have made me an Honorary member!)

There are several other similar programmes to Google Earth. This is important as one of the restrictions you will find is that the aerial photographs tend to be fairly old. If you go to http://www.flashearth.com you will find you get to a site that combines several of these programmes. Rather like comparing lap tops or car insurance, you can click from one programme to another. The collage above shows three different images of the dome. Note that they are all historic, all taken on different dates and also at different times of the day (look at the shadows on the Dome’s towers).

Another good example is Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth Harbours which Microsoft VE shows as a building site whereas Google Earth shows it built and operating. Go across the harbour to the Clipper Offices at Royal Clarence yard and none of the programmes show the marina.

If anyone would like to forward more useful tips on this subject, or other clever web sites, I would love to post them up.

People - Dayse Vieira

I first met Dayse when, as skipper of Chrysolite, we arrived in Salvador, Bahia, in June 1997 in the first Clipper race. Dayse was the ‘Official Welcomer’ and her duties consisted of greeting all sailors with a great big unforgettable kiss. Her team of helpers would produce fresh fruit and Caipirinhas and Dayse would tie the welcoming coloured ribbon on everyone’s wrist. The ribbon was tied with three knots, each one signifying a wish – a slightly dangerous routine in Brazil. Some of the ribbons stayed on for over a year.

Her hallmark was the endless supply of traditional Bahia dresses, each worn with 28 petticoats. As a result Dayse took up quite a lot of space. The day then came when this thin lovely lady came up and smiled at me. I did a bad job at disguising the fact that I had never met her until ………..‘Colleeen, Colleeen, it’s me! It’s me, Dayse! I’ll not really large.’ I never made that mistake again.

Apart from welcoming many of the Clipper races to Brazil Dayse did a surprise visit to meet Clipper 98 on its return to Plymouth and also visited Liverpool in 2001. It has been a great delight to have got to know Dayse so well and we still keep in touch with her regular and very distinctive emails. She now lives in Germany although is visiting Salvador at present.

The left hand picture shows Dayse with me and my daughter Sarah and son Ric in Salvador in 1997.

T-shirts - Uniquely Singapore

This week-end various top models will be coming to a secret location in Somerset to model my selection of T-shirts. Every T-shirt tells a story but it is so much more interesting when they are correctly and interestingly displayed.

Until this new material is ready, here is a great shot of Sharon Chong, one of Uniquely Singapore’s crew members in the Clipper 05-05 race. No mistaking who Sharon is supporting here. The Singapore yacht did best for T-shirts as the Singapore Tourist Board ensured they were strongly branded. Then many of the supporting sponsors also had their own T-shirts made for crew and supporters. The joy of this is that when one visits ports you see people wearing their various shirts etc from races years before. The only problem I have is that many of the shirts seem to shrink with age……..