RACE UPDATE - 3/27/2020 - I just arrived in Florida. The race has been postponed due COVID-19.

Clipper Around the World

As some of you may know, I will be participating in the Clipper Around the World regatta. Crossing an ocean has always been a dream. I will racing on team Seattle from Australia to England. I will be with 22 other wonderful individuals, one of which is my father. This is going to be a life changing experience and I am so thankful for all those who have supported me throughout this journey. I am racing for my non-profit, Roads to Success - any donations are greatly appreciated.

I will be updating this page with notes and photos from my trip. I am setting sail on January 1st, 2020. You can track the progress of team Seattle in real-time here.

Videos from our race!

Race 6 Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2TYEsPZiJM

Race 7 Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ZXqEYLLcg - go to 2:17 to see our wrap and me climbing up the mast!

Thoughts from the Sea

March 19th - 2020

I thought that I was going to return from this trip having undergone incredible change and the world would have remained the same. However, I am returning to a world that has changed so much – a lot more than I have. I am still trying to catch up with the news and understand the coronavirus situation, especially its impact back home and what it means for this race. It is difficult to judge from so far away how people are feeling about the situation.

My dad and I are headed home on the last bus out of Subic Bay to Manila. The country is shutting down its boarders and has asked that all foreign nationals leave by midnight tonight. The date is March 17th.

We left Subic Bay on March 10th for a quick short, 5-day race with our new crew. The purpose of the short race was to get to know each other and iron out the kinks before the Pacific crossing. We knew the coronavirus was getting worse, but still felt that we could cross the Pacific.

We returned to the Marina on Sunday, March 15th, to a radically different world. We finished in 4th place – the highest we had ever placed - but the world was going into a full shutdown. When we berthed at the marina, the race committee told us we were in a mandatory quarantine for a couple hours and that would be leaving in four days to Seattle because the sea was the safest place for us.

According to the race committee, we were supposed to prepare these boats to cross the most dangerous ocean in the world in just four days! We needed to fix all the maintenance issues we were having and we had to victual the boat with enough food for the crossing – preparation that usually takes 8 days. The crew was already quite on edge. We knew that the world outside us was getting worse, but didn’t know how bad.  All we knew for sure was that Seattle - the race destination - was no longer accepting anyone in. On the news we saw pictures of cruise ships left at sea because of suspected COVID-19 cases.

The race committee assured us that we would find another location, but their priority was to get us back on the water and heading towards Seattle. Upon hearing that, we started to become increasingly nervous.

Matters were only made worse when the hours passed and the health officials never came to release us from our quarantine. We were stuck on the boats and only allowed to get off onto the dock. We were not allowed to pass a gate that provided entry to the marina. 

As the night came, someone found a restaurant that was delivering food and beer. We had great party, but the undercurrent of the night was a feeling of uncomfortableness with Clipper’s reluctances to accept the reality of the situation outside of the dock – our ability to live in this quarantine and how we would be setting sail. Two military officers were brought in to ensure that none of us tried to escape the quarantined dock… that didn’t help ease anyone.

On the second day of quarantine we received word that the supermarkets were rationing food and that only locals could buy food (they needed to show a local ID card). This immediately set off alarms since it not only made it almost impossible to prepare for the Pacific, but it also made everyone increasingly nervous about the supply of food on the boat.

News of the food rationing as well as the lack of a viable destination turned out to be the final nail in the coffin. Each country’s citizens began having little break out groups and called their embassies. Embassies were getting in touch with Philippine health authorities and Clipper to resolve our quarantine situation and get back home. That afternoon, the president of the Philippine had asked all foreign national to leave the country in the next 72 hours (unrelated to our embassies’ inquiries).

After sufficient pressure from embassies and the world at large, Clipper decided to cancel the race. Although they were adamant hours before that the race would continue, they finally realized that doing so would be a huge risk.

My father and I purchased flights back to the United States immediately. Three days later we were released from our quarantine and headed towards the airport. The quarantine that was supposed to last a couple hours lasted several days. As I write this blog, we are on the streets of Manila, making our way to the airport. We are getting pulled over by the army and they are checking our temperature. The streets of Manila, which are usually flushed with cars and are infamous for their bad traffic, now completely deserted.

We should be arriving to the airport 9 hours before our flight. I hope it is enough time – our friends on earlier flights told me that the airport is an absolute mad house since all foreigners are trying to leave the country.

Thoughts from the Sea

March 4th - 2020

I have been thinking about how to best share the events that transpired the other day. A good point of reference would be the skipper and crew blog. Below is a more detailed summary from my point of view. 

My watch had the first night shit. I spend an hour on the helm, scalloping deep down wind. It was pretty rough. I then switch the helm  over to Alec and that is when things started going down hill. We were trying to avoid some fishing nets off the coast of Taiwan, so we had to come up into the wind, but neither the helm or his helm check told the sail trimmers that they were coming up almost 40 degrees. So while the trim team and I were trying to trim for a down wind course, the helm was trying to sail up wind…classic communication breakdown. Absolute chaos broke down as we flogged the sails constantly. So much so that everyone who was below deck woke up.

I finally jumped back on the helm and we resolved the communication break down. We ended our watch and headed down for a debrief.

I had barely gotten my head on my bunk when I heard “go get Gregorio” from above deck. I came up on deck to find the worst spinnaker wrap I have ever seen. I first thought, “oh this is Karma. The other watch was complaining that we were flogging the sails too much.” It was very apt that the kite wrap happened when my friend Tim was on the helm, since he was the one complaining that we weren’t letting him sleep with our flogging.

But quickly after that thought, our ONE TEAM mentality kicked in and whose fault it was didn’t matter. I was enthralled by how we were going to solve this kite wrap. We spent several hours in the middle of the night trying to untangle the bottom part of the wrap and we got so so so close. But we got a bit greedy and overexcited – in the effort to remove our last wrap we ended up twisting the kite a ton more and made the problem way worse.

So then the skipper decided that I was going to go up the mast and try to unwrap it from the top. I was excited but a bit scared to climb the 90ft mast and unwrap the kite while it was blowing 30 knots and there were 2 meter swells rocking the boat back and forth, but someone had to go up. It was by far one of the scariest things I have ever done in my life. Every time I tried to take a wrap of the kite, it would inflate like a parachute and throw me against the forestay. I spent a bit more than two hours up on the mast. I was getting close to the end, but as the kite became more untangled it became more difficult to undo. After two hours on the mast and 12 hours awake, I could solve the problem and I was losing strength.

I came down and chilled on the deck, while my watch took over the final night watch. When the sun came up we tried to solve the problem again. But this time we only had one halyard or line to take my up. We usually send people up the mast with two halyards as a safety precaution if one breaks. Over night, the other halyard had gotten stuck on the top part of the mast, so I had to go up with one to retrieve the second one, so then we could have both to send me up the mast to try to unwrap the kite. I got to the top on one halyard, but we couldn’t fix the line, so I had to come down because it was too dangerous to spend significant amount of time up there on one line. Coming down, the skipper let my downhaul slip and I went flying sideways and started swinging like a pendulum – luckily I didn’t get injured.

I was told to get some rest since I had been up all night and the next watch could try to figure it out. I was yelling at him so loudly and cursing at him – probably the only time that it would be acceptable to do so.

After a couple days the spinnaker finally magically plopped on the deck and everyone jumped on it so it wouldn’t inflate again. This incident easily cost us a couple positions in the race. We were in 4th before the wrap and now we are second to last. Time to practice empathy!

My sides are all bruised from slamming against the mast every time the kite inflated and the boat swung. Also my hip inductors are super sore from hugging the mast with legs for hours on end.

Thoughts from the Sea

February 29th - 2020

Happy leap year… I think… I had to cut my last journal entry short due to some evolutions that need to happen on deck. Now I am trying to write in the pitch dark…it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.

My dad was feeling a bit sea sick these past couple of days. We are all kind of feeling it. I wanted to spend some more time with him on the help because we had such a blast yesterday helming together. I was able to hit 22 knots of speed surfing down a wave, but he got 24 knots. I will try to get him another day because these seasickness tablets make me very sleepy.

As soon as I get off watch, I try to go straight to sleep.

Thoughts from the Sea

February 28th - 2020

Talk about a sprint race! We lost four people for this race so we are manning the entire boat with just 12 crewmembers, which is the absolute minimum number of people we can have. Every day is grueling, but I think since we have less people to depend on we have gotten much stronger as a team.

The sea state is the roughest I have experienced – about 4 meter tall waves. The wind has been creeping up to 30 knots sometimes.

On a lighter note, flying fish keep landing on our deck. I assume we spook them with our boat, so they jump out of the water and unfortunately sometimes land on our boat. When we are close to land, we have some birds follow us, since they know that the fish will jump out and they can eat them.

Thoughts from the Sea

February 26th - 2020

Wrote a crew blog! Check it out here

Thoughts from the Sea

February 14th - 2020

I have been thinking more about what kind of teammate / leader I want to be for my watch.  I decided to put it down in writing.

My Objectives / Principles

1)   Create a structure that maximizing race performance, while minimizing the burden / toll of racing

2)   Teach and learn – we are all students, some are just more experienced students

What My Team Can Expect From Me

1)   Always available to chat

2)   Open to teaching and learning anything

3)   Morning Person!

4)   If it’s not your day, it’s not your day. It happens to all of us. Don’t be afraid to step away from a job, if you aren’t performing well

What I Expect From Teammates

1)   Empathy! We have all made mistakes, don’t blame – turn those moments into teaching moments

2)   Great attitude

3)   Open-minded and willing to try everything

4)   Treat everyone with respect

Pet Peeves

1)   Blame culture (especially downward. More experienced people should be held accountable)

2)   Not using outdoor voices

3)   Sneezing quietly

Rules

1)   Everyone gets paired up (e.g., less experiences with more experienced person)

2)   Everyone knows all the positions and has at least tried it once

3)   Absolute focus while check helming, helming, and trimming (i.e., no distractions)

4)   No phones / books on deck

Thoughts from the Sea

February 13th - 2020

Took a break from journaling because something is wrong with my left wisdom tooth. I have been in incredible pain for days now. I think it must have opened up some of my gum line. I have been taking tons of meds, but refuse to take the more serious opioids. If I do, I won’t be allowed on deck. The pain is so bad that I am having trouble sleeping.

We have just been told we can’t go to China because of the coronavirus. I don’t really make a big deal of the fact that we don’t know where we are racing (aka that we are racing without a destination in mind). I kinda like it. It seems very familiar to life – a race with no known finish line.

I have been hosting my daily lessons and can already see the team getting better (it’s not all because of the lessons). We have covered a multitude of topics. I am focusing on empowering others as much as possible. We have a solid group of helmers and are starting to get a lot better about trimming.

P.S. found out from a team member that whale vomit is used for perfume and sells for about $23k a pound.

Thoughts from the Sea

February 3rd - 2020

I wrote the blog today…check it out…

Thoughts from the Sea

February 2nd - 2020

I had a huge realization last night regarding patience and the little I had. It’s not on those that don’t know, it on those – like myself – that know a lot to teach and empower those individuals to be better (and not to crash tack). I had a phrase in my mind all night – give a person a fish, he/she eats for a day. Teach a person to fish, he/she eats for life.

In that spirit, I have created a curriculum of topics that I will go over with my watch. We will cover a new topic every day. I will teach most of the, but will have others who are very experience teach subjects that they are passionate on.  The topics I have drafted up include: reefing, shaking out a reef, jibing, spinny hoists, spinny drops, spinny trim, main sail trim, head sail trim, racing headsail changes, peels, helming, and check helming / tactics.

Thoughts from the Sea

February 1st - 2020

Patience is a quality I am admiring more and more. Not only finding ways to enjoy the present, but also patience with others. I have and will continue to make mistakes. But if we crash tack one more time, I am going to lose it.

P.S.I need to learn how to read clouds better…

Thoughts from the Sea

January 29th - 2020

I started a game of assassin on the boat to kill the time. Hope this gets people in better spirits. I also started daily trivia. Today’s trivia – How deep is Mariana’s Trench in meters?

Thoughts from the Sea

January 28th - 2020

I have been sick for several days now, but today is the worse. Not sea sick, but sick with a cold. It has been extremely frustrating; my energy levels are low and I get headaches all the time. Others team members are also sick (sea sick and have a cold); it really sucks. People need to learn to wash their hands more…. I just hope that I get well soon.

I listened to music for the first time in 8 days. We have become so accustom to having music / podcasts in our ears at all times of the day. We do it so often that I was surprised when I played my 2019 top hits for the first time today.

I have been using my high energy to lift people up when they are down. The team called me the catalyst of our watch (“you make shit happen”). However, I feel like there is a fine balance between being high energy and annoying.

Thoughts from the Sea

January 27th - 2020

Today was brutal….for the entire crew, but specifically hard on me. We were holding our course and moving along, but not as fast as the other watch. I made several mistakes today that will cost us time in the race.

What does it mean to be a good leader? What is the right balance between intensity, friendliness, coaching, guiding, doing, etc.? Dave (our skipper) is a good leader. So is Alec (my watch leader). They lift people up, empowering them to be better without belittling anyone. They didn’t grow up as racing sailors, and that might have greatly impacted their style on the boat. I often wonder how they define success? For themselves and the boat. Do they beat themselves down about the same mistakes that I make? How have they keep racing spirits high without being mean (something that has been surprisingly difficult on a boat)?

My goal for the next week is try to connect with each crew member, to identify their goals and see how I can help empower them.

Thoughts from the Sea

January 26th - 2020

I thought I would have a lot more time on the boat, specifically more time to spend below deck. More time to write to loved ones, to journal, and to read. But all I do is sleep when I am off deck (and sometimes when I am on deck). Furthermore, this is the easiest and calmest of sea states. The sea is flat and the wind is light. How can I be this tired always? I can’t imagine how I will deal with even less free time while crossing the mighty pacific.

Thoughts from the Sea

January 25th - 2020

Happy Chinese New Year (I think)! The days are starting to blur together. I know it’s one of these days.

I am extremely excited because we are going to cross the Mariana Trench.  We are debating where exactly it is. I love this feeling of not knowing stuff. No Google to look up information in an instant. It is really pushing / exercising our memory.

We swam with a shark!! It was so exciting and scary (still trying to find out what shark it was). There was no wind and it was extremely hot, so we all jumped in for a swim. I was about to jump off the boat for a second time, when Nuno (a fellow crew member) saw a large shape right under us. It was easily 10 or 12ft long. We immediately got out of the water. Spooky stuff.

My watch has seen a ton of birds and dolphins, but really hasn’t seen too many whales.

Traveling Before the Race

January 9th - 2020

I spent sometime traveling around Australia before jumping on my race. I have seen some amazing wildlife and scenery during my time in this beautiful country. I even spent sometime scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, which has always been a dream of mine, and saw some even more amazing sea creatures. As I spend time here, the country is in a moment of crisis. Bushfires in Australia have caused the deaths of thousands of these beautiful creatures. By addressing climate change and making changes in our daily lives, each one of us has the ability to help mitigate disasters like this happening around the world.

Training & Tryouts

June 7th - 2019

I just finished training and tryouts for the Clipper Race. It has been an absolutely amazing experience that pushed me mentally, physically, and emotionally. I am so excited to be part of team Seattle. During the last week of training, I sailed over 600 miles and experienced Force 8 winds. Big shout out to my level 4 watch for getting me through some very difficult times: Suzi, an English ex-pat living in Florida, Nuno aka: Nuni, Nino from Portugal who lives in Washington State, Tim Morgan aka: little Tim, Tim Junior, TJ, Timmy, Timothy, T-Bone, a 19 year old British university student and Tim G.