By popular request, this is a round up of the acronyms you’ll see in the blog at various places. I’ve gone back to the beginning and I think I’ve found them all. To make it a bit more interesting, some photos of the Clipper fleet arrival last Thursday are interspersed. I’ll tell you more about this later in the week. (The boat as the header came in just before the fleet so I thought it worth a photo). I’ll give some useful websites for those of you new to this blog so you don’t have to trawl through the last 10 months. If you know it all you can skip this post and wait for the next.

Before I start, NO I have not been arrested, the photo in the last post was NOT a mugshot of me at the police station. Ready? Off we go…

AIS: Automatic identification system (on your life jacket). AQP: additional qualified person (like the first mate on the boats). DSC: Digital selective calling (the red button on a ship’s radio to send out a call quickly). GMDSS: Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. IRPCS: International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. JE: Japanese encephalitis.

MBB (OBB, YBB): My (our, your) Brave Boys (AKA George and John). MCA: Maritime and Coastguard Agency (or, in my working life, Medicines Control Agency). MFB: My Foolish Boys (or some such). MHz: Mega Hertz (radio frequency). MIPDANIO: nonsense word used as a mnemonic for Mayday calls. MMSI: Maritime Mobile Service Identity (like a mobile phone number identifying the radio on board). MOB (BOB, HOB): Man (body, hat) over board.

PFD: personal flotation device (life jacket or similar). RIB: rigid inflatable boat (the things you see charging around). RN: Royal Navy. ROTS: Riddle of The Sands (book written by Erskine Childers in 1903). RTW: Round the world. RYA: Royal Yacht Association.

SKD: St Katherine’s Docks (where the fleet are leaving from and coming back to next August). SRC: short range certificate (to allow you to use a ship’s radio). STCW: Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping (see upcoming post!). TB: tuberculosis. TBE: tick-borne encephalitis. TLA: three letter acronyms (we also have four, five and eight letter ones here). TW: training week. VHF: very high frequency (radio term). WTC (Logistics): World Trade Connection (one of the sponsors of Clipper 2019/20).

That’s all the acronyms. Now to websites. The main Clipper one is https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/ and the team diaries can be found at https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/team/qingdao/team-hub and https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/team/unicef/team-hub where you’ll find the crew diary has already started. The race viewer starts on Sunday 1st September but you can see it already https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standings

Clipper sailors (in no particular order) that I have found are Heather Broadbent at https://dreamitnowdoit.com/ Keith Winstanley’s “Pretty Much All At Sea” at https://keithsclipperadventure.com/ Susan Peart’s “Granny Goes Sailing” at https://susansclipperroundtheworldyachtrace.home.blog/ Mark Edmonds https://sailingadventure.home.blog/ Amicia Hopkins https://amisatlanticadventure.home.blog/ Rachael Leader https://ruleader.home.blog/ Ines Soares https://clipperchallenge.wordpress.com/ Dave Bouttell https://mangledneuron.home.blog/ Carl Forsander https://clipperdiary.blog/

Some of these have much more technical and sailing information, specifics on what it’s like being on the Clipper boats and photos from the boats. Try them and let me know if there are others I’ve yet to discover.

There are now FOUR days and 23 hours left till the off! Tomorrow (if nothing interferes), more on the fleet arriving at SKD.