Tahira - ARC BLOG D-Day 13 [02-Dec-23]

TAHIRA ARC BLOG
D-Day 13 [02-Dec-23]
Location: Mid-Atlantic
Lat: 14.23N Long: 40.01W

Meet the crew: Andy 'the Blog' Bruce

How would you describe yourself in one sentence?
- Andy is an eternal optimist that loves family, sport and adventure.

What is your first favourite piece of music and why?
- Andy loves 'Follow you, follow me' by Genesis - the melody and movement in the song reminds him of riding his Honda 900cc motorcycle at 120mph around the New Forest in his Southampton days. He last saw Genesis live at the O2 in 2022 - perhaps their last tour.

What is your greatest achievement in live to-date?
- For Andy, climbing mountains with friends and his son Jonny, building a floating home and creating his business Softools come to mind, but ultimately passing P-company to receive his red beret and serve with 5th Airborne in his Army days had the greatest long-term impact in terms of developing a can-do attitude to life.

What sailing experience have you had?
- Andy never sailed as a child, but got into sailing with John and Chris (a.k.a. Squirrel and Skipper) in his 20s post University. He has spent the last 40 years sailing in various locations all around the world from Vancouver to Thailand and is a qualified RYA Coastal Skipper.

What is your second favourite piece of music and why?
- 'Hotel California' by the Eagles. Whilst this song is not liked by his wife Nicki :, for Andy it instantly transforms him to the many trips he has spent travelling across Asia and drinking cold beers to a local tribute band - to a parallel world with no responsibilities.

What motivated you do this trip?
- As a confirmed adventurer, whilst he needed to balance his time with work commitments, this was an opportunity too good to miss. To complete an Atlantic crossing is a goal for many sailors, and to do this with two of his oldest friends made it especially poignant.

What is your third favourite piece of music and why?
- Andy's third choice is One by U2. As well as being one of his favourite songs it highlights his 'one life one chance' mantra - needing to make the most of every day and of every opportunity.

What have you learned since starting this adventure?
- Andy, perhaps like us all has re-discovered the feeling of being truly off grid. He acknowledges he spends much of his life connected and the feeling of being totally disconnected from the world outside doing something practical is very liberating. The challenge may be to make meaningful changes to his life when he returns.

What does success look like for you?
- To get to St Lucia as part of a team that has had a great experience and a great time.

What are you running away from?
- Andy is running away from "more of the same". What does he mean by this? Andy would like to see this trip as an inflexion point that will impact the rest of his life in some way. What way? Well this remains to be decided.

What will you do next?
- Andy doesn't have a hard plan but is convinced that the experience of this trip will help him formulate one, allowing him to combine his love of adventure with spending more time with his friends and particularly his wife Nicki, son Jonny and Rocky the dog.

Blog author: Bryan Hammond