Team UNICEF - crew team building weekend

The weekend of the 19th to 21st of June saw about 22 of my crew head of to Milton Abbas in Dorset for a team building weekend.  Jim had arranged for us to camp in the field of some friends of his and for us to take part in various team bonding activities.

We were tempted by a picture of a field, with a slope of less than 45 degrees, and a luxurious 'Heads'.

A sloping campsite

Luxurious 'heads'

When the 'bathroom' facilities are compared to those on the boat there is no comparison.  The cistern stayed level and wasn't bouncing around as I tried to sit down.  There was fresh water coming out of the taps and there was a proper door, rather than a flimsy piece of fabric that zipped up on both sides.  I wasn't in danger of being thrown through the door, BUT, there were no shower facilities in the middle of a field in the middle of Dorset.  Something the Clipper 70 can boast about.

I arrived at about 4 pm on Friday afternoon and was able to pitch my tent before lots of the others arrived.  We then ambled down to the pub for dinner before zipping ourselves in for the night.  My tent was pitched with my feet pointing down hill but little did I know that I would continually find myself scrunched up by the door as I gradually slid down the hill while I slept.



I had borrowed Becca's tent, the orange one, but Jim just slept under a blue tarpaulin attached to the fence.  'Stig of the Dump'.   I'm not sure how he slept but he did complain about a rock in the middle of his back.

The 'Festival' tent

One of the team kindly brought along a festival tent that acted as our base, and was somewhere to go when it rained, which it did on and off, during the day on Saturday. 

The campsite after a rain shower.  Photo courtesy of Chloe (RTW)

Breakfast!

Food was good and consisted of BBQd bacon and eggs for breakfast followed by a BBQ on Saturday evening.  Janice, our Chief Victualler, had given me a list of what to buy for the weekend and I spent a couple of hours, or that's what it seemed, buying everything from Sainsbury's on Thursday afternoon.  I couldn't believe how much food I needed to purchase to feed 22 people for a couple of days.  It made me realise what an onerous task victualing for 20 for a period of 4-5 weeks is going to be.  The shopping list has to be precise because other people will be helping with the buying of food.  There is no point in saying '5 packs of bacon' because how big is a pack.  The number of rashers has to be identified, and in this case I had to buy 96.  Enough for 2 pieces of bacon per person, assuming 24 people, for two breakfasts.  How much brie do 24 people eat in their sandwiches for lunch?  And how much does it weigh.  I was asked to buy 6 packs of brie - but there are different sizes of packs.  An incredibly complex task if it is to be done right and this crew weekend was a very good start with lots of lessons learnt.

Dinner preparation

The boys took it in turns to cook the food and did a very good job with not too many burnt sausages or burgers.  There were copious amounts of wine, including bottles from Stormhoek (one of the boat sponsors), and a minipin of TEA (Traditional English Ale) from The Hog's Back Brewery just down the road from me in Aldershot.

The bulk of the 'business' was carried out on Saturday with various communication enhancing tasks and a visit from UNICEF.  Henry has put together a short clip, so have a look:  https://youtu.be/tjLkGB3eppo

Fun and games with tennis balls

Preparing to move a jerry can of water into
the middle of a circle

As well as it's serious moments the weekend was full of fun and laughter as we started to get to know each other.  Some of the people present will never sail together and those on Leg 8, which doesn't start until June 2016, won't necessarily be seeing the rest of us for another year.







The official weekend finished on Sunday with an interesting and informative talk from Nick who was the Watch Leader on Henri Lloyd for the last race in '13 - '14.  Lots of good advice from someone on the winning boat including tips and suggestions on how to make the boat go faster.  None of which, of course, are to be repeated!

We also chose our crew song -  'The Impression That I Get' by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.  Not one that I know but I'm sure I'll get to know it over the next year or so.

After packing up the team started to go their separate ways - some straight home and others to the pub for lunch.  It was a good weekend with the added bonus of having the time to talk to people and to start getting to know each other.

The next thing for me is my Level 4 training which starts this Thursday, 2nd July.  I will be sailing with Jim for the first time and my watch will be made up entirely of Team UNICEF.  Unfortunately not on the UNICEF boat but we'll be going out with Max, one of the other skippers in this race but also one of the trainers on my Level 1.  Can't wait.