Prelude:After joining in Leg 3 from Cape Town, South Africa to Albany, Australia, Clipper Round the World 2015-16, the writer wrote series of column articles for a Chinese magazine,Global Children Sailingto introduce stories about Clipper sailors. With the awarding of Clipper 2019-20 Race Winner by Qingdao team in 2022, all the Chinese Clipper crew are proud that more people are getting increasingly curious about the sport and the crew.Thus, Season Two ofStories of OrdinaryPeople Sailing Around the Worldis launching with both Chinese and English to help more people understand the stories behind.Why the ocean is so attractive?What is the difference between you and them?Will you be one of them to challenge yourself and embrace the ocean as well?You are welcome to get to know them, to know sailing and to love the ocean.
The hero of this article is Jack Xiaowen SONG, and "Song of the Wind" is his online alias.Born in Guang’an county of Sichuan Province, he currently lives in Yantai, a city that is famous for its beautiful coastline.Working in the wind energy industry, he is also one of the Ambassador Crew of Qingdao Team, Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2023-24. Hejust finished his Leg 4 of Clipper race in Januaryand returned to Yantai last month. Leg 4 includes tworacesfrom Fremantle, West Australia to Newcastle, East Australia and then from Newcastle to Arlie Beach.
图1:筱文在第四赛段澳大利亚南大洋比赛中留影Photo1: Jack in Leg 4, Southern Ocean, Australia
Jack began his lifelong affair with the wind in 2003 when he left his hometown, Sichuan, for Shenyang, a province located in the opposite direction for his tertiary education. He then continued his research on wind power with his tutor before leaving his second hometown, Shenyang, in 2018 to join a French company as their representativein Beijing. Soon after, he set up his own business to continue providing technical service in the wind energy sector.Always packed withwork and business entertainment, he almost had no time for sports, something he had indulged in his younger days.
He learned Chinese martial arts when he was young and was selected for theUniversity's mixed martial arts team (Chinese Kickboxing).He ran almost daily, practicing Taiji and other Chinese martial arts weapons. However, when the pandemic started in 2020, Jack changed his business to online mode. He also moved his home to Yantai, less than 2 kilometers from the sea, allowing him to enjoy the sea view right by his window. Now that he has free time, hissporty gene was rekindled.He started to try and love the various water sports he could access, like Stand-up Board, Windsurfing, Kitesurfing and sailing.
His daily routine has drastically changed, giving him time to engage in water sports during the pandemic. He would focuson work in the morning, goto the sea for sports in the afternoon, and sometimes haveonline meetings with overseas partners in the evenings. Jack fell in love with water sports in these three years, especially windsurfing. He is the adventurer who continues his windsurfing despite the stormy weather or the snow in the winter, when others dare not. Afriend is always staying on the beach to watch over him.
Jack's love for all things related to wind could be traced to his professional work in mechanical engineering, engineering mechanics, aerodynamics, Computation Fluid Mechanics (CFD), Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP), etc.He is fascinated by wind-driving sports and loves spending time and energy with them.One reason might be that it is not difficult for him to understand the mechanics ofthe equipments and the skills needed with his own expertise;the other might be that he prefers sports, which would allows him to enjoy nature.
Becoming somewhat an expert in this area, he ventured into yacht sailing.He got his sailinglicense and joined in some races like Shangdong Peninsula City Regatta 2021, hoping to sail cross the ocean someday.
克利伯的意外挑战——“让我一次瘦个够”
Unexpected Challenge in Clipper: Let me Get Slim Quickly
With the accumulated sailing experience, his friends enthusiastically suggested that hetry for the selection to be part of Ambassador Crew forQingdao Team, Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2023-24.He did and completed the sailor training for four levels in the UK in July 2023. Following that,in December 2023, he went to Australia for his Leg 4 race and returned to China after finishing the race in January 2024.
图3:2023年7月,英国Gosport,与克利伯环球帆船赛创始人罗宾爵士, Photo 3: With Sir Robin Knox Johnston, Founder of Clipper Round the World Yacht Race
There were adventures, risks and difficult challenges during the race.It was his very first time to sail in the ocean,seeing the wild marineanimals like dolphins, sharks, albatross,experiencingthe ‘giant’ waves and encountering harsh tortures and, still kepthis persistence.After the 4015 nautical miles of this race, he intimately understood what itmeant byfood being the first necessity of man.
The meals onboard arehis unexpected challenge.All the meals onboard Clipper races are coordinated by the Victualler appointed by each team, who is normally a circumnavigator of each team.The victualler would normally work out the daily menu and the quantities of each individual typeof ingredientneeded for every meal based on the number of crew onboard, days of the planned race and the balance of nutrition ahead of each race, made all the shoppings during the short break of each stopover and then packed them into bags for the boat storage.Mothers on duty would cook each meal during the race according to a specific menu for all the crew.
图4: 比赛期间放在食材包里典型的船餐食谱,Photo 4: A Typical Boat Menu in a Day Bag of Race Boat
Most of the ingredients of the boat meals are canned food as they are easy to carry and can bestored for a long time at sea.However, such cans are normally not tasty, like the corn, peas, mixtures of tomato, butter, cheese and curry.They are, of course, not as good as fresh food.With a Sichuanese stomach, which means Jack is used to good food, he simply could't stomach the western style of surviving on canned food. Added to his anguish was the frequent rocking onboard, Jack couldn't adjust to the marine fare. As a result, his first trip around the world was a torture as he couldn't generate an appetite.
In the past, he could handle going without food for the short sailing trips as the team would dock, and off he went to the Chinese restaurants to reward himself. However,with the mid-range ones in the Level 4 training to cross the British Channel, where they had to stay onboard for several days, he would console himself that reward was just around the corner.
However, in a real race where they had to keep sailing for over 10 day in the famous Roaring Forties, he has difficulty maintaining his strength without food. He has to come up with a solution. Thinking about this:most of the time, the boat were tilting to its extreme, and youhave to helm and trim, keep your position wellon deck when it was fully covered by the waves. Think about that: you mustkeep boiling water and cook in the sliding galley (kitchen on the boat) with the constant rocking motion;it'slike exercisingin the space. You don't get tosleep fully because you mustkeep your arms and legs either straight or holdthe edges of the bunk for balance to keep alignedwith the sail changes on deck.Such life on boat demands high energy and better nutrition and food.When he saw those boat meals mixed with the various cans, he clearly knew he DID need them but he just could NOT eat at all.
Fortunately, he managed to pack some Chinese spicy seasonings and fast noddles, which could help him with some supply.As there also wereginger cookies, butter cookies and fruits to eat on boat when he was hungry,he kepthis energy and did not give up any work.
Finally, when he finished the two races of Leg 4 and arrived at Arlie Beach, Jack found his weight had dropped from 75kg to around 65kg.He lost almost 10kg in this nearly one month and understood why he had kept tightening the belt from time to time onboard.This wasnot just to participatein a sailing racebut to get a “Buy One Get One Free” to join in the Clipper Weight Loss Camp efficientlyand quickly.
After the race, Jack felt that he must firstarrangethe boat meals nicely to look after everyone well if he gets achance to sail long distancein the future.Only when everyone eats wellwill they haveenough mind and energy to enjoy the race.
Jack enjoys making friends when he travels.Even though he suffered like the famous Chinese saying, "It's worth while growing languid for my coquette",he still enjoyed the time he could chat freely with other crew coming from different parts of the world.
Crossing-ocean race is no easy feat. It waslong and arduous, with crew members having to man their respective stations.The 24-hour routine was divided into the 6-6 and 4-4-4 modes. This means the crew has to change watch every 6 hours in the day and every four in the night. Crew on the same watch had more time to chat and crew on the other watch could only talk over th meal time, watch-changing time or sometimes in the day watches.However, there would always havethings crew could share, like the famous Chinese ancient poem, "Are you not battle-dressed? Let’s share the plate for breast!"
On and under the deck, there were always time to chat to kill time and share encouragement.In this way, people’s dates of birth, love and career, family members and life experiences were all open to each other. The team worked together closely to overcomeevery difficulties on the boat, it is very easy to make friends after each long-distance race.
图5:2023年12月,澳大利亚佛里曼特尔,Race 5 启航, Photo 5: Starting Race 5 in Fremantle, Australia, December 2023
Jack always makes an effortat work, asks for help if he does not know, and never stops working even when he is too hungry to rely only on eating cookies, so he is recognized by the crew team.Soon after they departed from Fremantle, West Australia, he got hurt.While acting asthe yankee trimmer on the deck, his ankle was trapped by the sheets, running quickly into the jammer to drop the yankee;it was like smoking to burn the skin corium around the ankle. Spanish skipper Jeronimo kept cleaning and wrapping the wound for him every other day and carefully reminded him what he needed to pay attention.Other crew members routinely cared for him. His appreciation and friendship developed withall crew members because of this incident.
Even when Jack hurt his left leg and was wrapped for it, it did not affect the work he could do just by his hands.He never asked for leave or rest but transformed the suffering on the leg into the power on the hands.He became awell-known expert on the quickness of coffee grinders. After its recovery, the mark left on his ankle looks likea tattoo designedby Clipper race, which becomes a moniker for all the crew members.
During the race, Jack got to know a new sports named glider from Rob, a New Zealand sailor.Rob told him you could fly and make bird-eye view of places like a bird.He was inspired by it and flew to Sydney after the race finishing and experienced it in a local glider club.He was enrolled for an experience course there, but did not expect that he caught all the attention of the club members when he chatted with them during the break.After they knew this Chinese young man keeps practicing windsurfing, kitesurfing in the coast of China and came to Australia for his round the world yacht race, made his time to try windsurfing and kitesurfing in Australia before and after his sailing race and now specially came here to experience the glider, they felt so amazed. Now in the ancient and mystery Eastern country in the north atmosphere, there are people like them to have the same love with these types of sports, adventures and challenges.
One of them is a 76-year-old man named Cohine who is a retired pilot ofThe British Royal Air.He was meant to get back home early, but specially stayed to wait for Jack to finish is course and invited him to fly in his own powered glider to enjoy a bird eye view of Sydney.When they were in the air, the old man explained to him carefully how to control the gliderand let hime try.He was a pilot for the British fighter; then he worked in Australia for commercial flights after his retirement from the army; and then he kept flying with the gliders after full retirement.He talked a lot with Jack about his stories with the wind in the past and had a very good time together.After a very quick 2-hour fly, they landed happily. Cohineinvited this Eastern man to his home for drinks and even extend a reciprocal invitationto his Australia home.Birds of the same feather flock together despite the huge age gap.
图6: 2024年1月,悉尼,筱文与Cohine驾驶动力滑翔机翱翔天空, Photo 6: Jack & Cohine Flying Over Sydney by glider, January 2024
People who love sailing also love the life, and those who love life would always be lucky.They are not afraid of difficulties and willing to try and share, which could enable them to make more friends easily.
Maybe it's the nature of his work or his love for sailing which seems to connect to the ideology of wind, where it is renewable, green and healthy, Jack firmly believe in life, we should learn to work with the wind, understand it and follow its nature, so as to enjoy it safely.
This time to join in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, it was a nearly one month journey in the ocean with over 20 people from different countries and with different living habits closely in a 70-feet boat all day and evening.People share their bunks for sleeping in turn, people have to work closely as a team in the challenging times with strong wind and waves.It is impossible that there arenot conflicts between each other, but the bond with others would be strengthened in such close contact being on the same boat both literally and figuratively.If you could cope everything with what you got from the wind, nature and harmony with them, and even could use them in future life, you would gain far more.
图7: 2024年1月,澳大利亚纽卡斯尔,克利伯环球帆船赛23-24青岛号Race 6启航, Photo 7: Starting of Race 6, Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2023-24, Qingdao Team, Newcastle, Australia, January 2024
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is the only cross-ocean race in whichordinary people could participate.It develops a group of amateur sailors and even non-sailors to qualified sailors to cross-ocean races with a professional skipper and AQP (Assistant Qualified Person) only by four levels of training in one month time altogether.Clipper got high comments on its race operation, management, training and the word-of-mouth by its sailors.Jack’s business is about wind energy and he used to work in universities.His business also includes the wind energy in the ocean.When he looked at the ocean safety training he got, he thought Clipper did a very professional job.He hopes that there would be opportunities in the future that he could make use of such Clipper training into the area of ocean wind energy trainings to improve the safety of workers there.Ocean has no limits and the wind could make a good connection for those two industries.
Jack often mentioned to his friends about the 5 dimensions of life-length, breadth, depth, height and intensity; a culmination of his reflections from his work and personal life. "Length" refers to life span one has - are you living a life of personal choosing and healthily? "Breadth" refers to the activities you engage with, while "Depth" refers to the level of expertise in order to earn a good living. "Height" focuses on living an ethical and reflective life. Lastly, "Intensity" is how to be more effective in the short time life has given to each and every one of us.
Following this principal, he made choices with the criteria from these five dimensions to keep a good balance between life and work, time and energy.He puts health first and then gradually developed a healthy body and proactive mindset for a self renewable development freely as the wind.Clipper was also a choice under this principal and he believes there would be more choices in the future with wind.
The wind has existed since the beginning of time. Ithas blown across the snowy face ofMount Everest and even on your chinin the Spring. It evenaccompanied ZHENG He as he bravely sailed across theAtlantic Ocean thousands of moons ago. The wind travelsmany miles across the oceanic surface, which covers a whopping 71% of the Earth's surface, taking Clipper sailors like Jack on adventures unlike any sport can provide.
风中学,风中悟,风中收获,这风,会吹到你的心里,伴着你一起去航行吗?
Learn in the wind, get inspired by the wind and gain from the wind.Will you allow this wind to takeyou to sail and experience great adventures asJack did?
*关于克利伯环球帆船赛:克利伯环球帆船赛(Clipper Round The World Yacht Race,https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com)是全球最有影响力的环球航海赛事之一,首届赛事于1996年举办,每两年举办一次,比赛线路途经六大洲,全程共40000多海里,完成整个赛程需要近一年时间,每届参赛人数近700余名。赛事欢迎航海爱好者及无航海经验的人士报名参加,通过四周严格的赛前培训后,在专业船长和大副的带领下完成环球比赛。截止目前,全球已有6000余人、中国已有近130人通过参加克利伯环球帆船赛,完成了他们环球航海的人生梦想。
* About ClipperRound The World Yacht Race(https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com):The Clipper Race is one of the biggest challenges of the natural world and an endurance test like no other. It was started in 1996 as abiannual event. It's a40,000 nautical mile race around the world acrossingsix continents in nearly one year. There are around700 people to join in each edition. The race is open to sailing lovers and non-experienced ones. Every candidate will have to pass a four-week strict training and then join in each team with a fully qualified skipper and first mate to safely guide the crew. By now, nearly 6000 people all over the world and around 130 Chinese people have enjoyed the Clipper race and their dreams of crossing the ocean and circumnavigation.
* Note:The article is based on the interviews with the hero, and the photos and videos in this article are coming from Clipper Website & Jack,Vii C helps witheditingtheEnglish version.Thanks. If you would like to use or quote the article, please make reference, or contact the author for authorization.